Scotland
Macbeth, Almeida Theatre review – vivid, but much too longFriday, 15 October 2021
Remembering the months of lockdown, I can’t be the only person to thrill to this play’s opening lines, “When shall we three meet again?”, a phrase evocative enough to be borrowed as the first line of this year’s Wolf Alice album, Blue Weekend.... Read more... |
Maximo Park, Saint Luke's and the Winged Ox, Glasgow - indie veterans still have fire in their belliesWednesday, 13 October 2021
Time waits for no band, as Maximo Park’s lively singer Paul Smith opined early into his band’s set. “I am young and I am lost” he declared during "The Coast Is Always Changing"’s jangly guitar-pop, before drily admitting afterwards that he might... Read more... |
Nicola Benedetti, Barbican Hall review – from Bach to the Highlands via New OrleansFriday, 24 September 2021
If a standard-sized recital hall can be a lonely place for a solo violinist, playing an auditorium of Barbican dimensions must feel like crossing a desert under pitiless spotlight sun. Happily, Nicola Benedetti’s prowess as a communicator means that... Read more... |
The Story of Looking review – bedside musings on how and what we seeSaturday, 18 September 2021
Mark Cousins, the multi-award winning director of this strange film, is lying in bed watching Ray Charles speaking on the Dick Cavett Show in 1972. The singer went blind in childhood; how would he respond if offered the chance to see again? “I might... Read more... |
Vigil, BBC One review - murder most wateryMonday, 30 August 2021
Submarines have delivered some memorable on-screen performances, from Run Silent, Run Deep to The Hunt for Red October. On the other hand, we must not overlook the treasurably idiotic BBC series The Deep, which featured a submarine with a “moon pool... Read more... |
Our Ladies review - five go wild in EdinburghFriday, 27 August 2021
It’s often the company one keeps that makes a journey worthwhile, not the destination. That’s as true for the five ebullient Fort William schoolgirls making their first trip to Edinburgh in Our Ladies as it is for the film’s audience. These Highland... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Screen 9Monday, 23 August 2021
The popcorn on offer as you enter the Pleasance’s performing space at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre quickly fills the air with its rich, sugary scent. It’s a smell that sets the scene nicely for a show set in a cinema, but also an... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: StillSaturday, 21 August 2021
Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end all benders in order to work out what or who they’re for. Young Gilly has a poorly pug named Mr Immanuel Kant, but can’t face having it put... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Fear of Roses / Myra's StoryThursday, 19 August 2021
Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★One of the more disconcerting aspects to this year’s Fringe is different venues’ contrasting reactions to the easing of Covid restrictions. Some – like Army @ The Fringe and the Traverse Theatre – maintain... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: DopplerTuesday, 17 August 2021
There’s always a tricky balance to be struck with site-specific theatre. What’s more important: the show itself, or its unusual setting? And to what extent does its location enrich or even impact on the essence of the text? Edinburgh-based site-... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: Tunnels / DandelionSaturday, 14 August 2021
Tunnels Army @ The Fringe ★★★ As has already been noted, it’s a funny old Fringe this year: only a fraction of its normal size; with audiences that seem either Covid-wary or disconcertingly enthusiastic; with some venues taking... Read more... |
Limbo review - quiet but volubleSaturday, 31 July 2021
Displacement looms large over every quietly impressive frame of Limbo, writer-director Ben Sharrock's magnetic film about a young Syrian man called Omar (Amir El-Masry) who finds himself biding his time in the remotest reaches of Scotland on the way... Read more... |
