Reviews & features: Issue 663
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Allan Brown will discuss Inside the Wickerman
12 Aug 2010
His batty book analyses the cult classic
Inside the Wicker Man is a cinema lover’s dream. The book is packed with fascinating trivia from the horror classic it explores, along with in-depth analysis and humour; and it’s a pleasure to find its author Allan Brown just as funny in everyday…
Step inside a payphone booth for a spot of storytelling
12 Aug 2010
The Invisible Dot provides audiences with a new form of entertainment
What with the Fringe being the Fringe, it’s only right and proper that some of this year’s shows should crop up in the most unlikely of places. And so it is that The Invisible Dot have brought four old British Telecom payphone booths to this year’s…
John Harris at the Book Festival
12 Aug 2010
Hail Hail Rock'N'Roll: expect full audio-visual support
‘I will talk about rock moustaches, Elvis’ jumpsuits and James Blunt’s lyrics,’ proclaims John Harris, author of Hail Hail Rock’N’Roll, his vintage rock, pop and counter-cultural almanac. ‘The aim is to navigate through 50-odd years of rock history…
Lee Kern opens with Filthy Raucous Soul Bitch
12 Aug 2010
Promising debut from cheeky Londoner
Inviting critics to the very first performance of his Fringe debut run, as opposed to giving himself time to ease in, could have gone either way for Lee Kern. On the one hand, he’s got a better chance of receiving a write-up, which becomes more…
Wau Wau Sisters' Last Supper bribe The List
12 Aug 2010
With a magnet, thong, tea towel, fridge magnet and hip flask
We received this bribe bounty at the very last minute, so unfortunately didn’t have time to track down a spokesperson from the show, but we think the bribe speaks for itself. The Wau Wau Sisters sent us a bundle including: a pair of pants, a thong, a…
Greek Myths For Kids by the new Backhand Theatre
12 Aug 2010
A bit too few tales of Kings, Heroes and Monsters
This is the debut show from the newly-formed Backhand Theatre company, and to a certain extent, it shows. There’s nothing new or overly exciting here, and the performances are solid rather than outstanding. That said, the company shows promise, and…
Atsuo Okomoto: Faraway Mountain
12 Aug 2010
Japanese stone sculptor presents 12 pieces sculpted from same block
The first UK solo exhibition by Japanese stone sculptor Okomoto showcases the technique of ‘war modoshi’, or splitting and returning, and features 12 pieces sculpted from the same block which can then be pushed together to reform the original piece. The…
Courtyard Readings
12 Aug 2010
Read and listen to poetry at these outdoor readings
One of the loveliest annual events of the Festival season, these outdoor readings (don’t worry, they go indoors if/when it rains) hosted by the School of Poets are open to all poetry lovers. Come and read your own work, or a personal favourite poem, in…
Moira's five ways to ensure you survive the festival
10 Aug 2010
'Falkirk's hardest woman' hands out tips on surviving the Fringe
Being on tour can be a stressful business, what with staying away from home, forgetting your lines onstage and, erm, setting off the fire alarm in the venue. Scotland’s newest stage superstar, Moira, shares her tips on how to survive a fortnight at the…
Jonno Katz - Cactus: The Seduction
8 Aug 2010
A manic one-man love story
After an unnecessarily lengthy preamble that includes a lesson in cultural and linguistic differences and enforced sexual fantasising for the audience, Australian Jonno Katz weaves a love story of a man, another version of himself, an enigma wrapped in…
LuckyMe decamps to Cabaret Voltaire for the Festival
6 Aug 2010
David Pollock talks to the Glasgow-based record label/art collective
This has been the most important year yet in the evolution of Scottish electronic label LuckyMe, and this third annual Edinburgh Festival event featuring their friends, collaborators and signees should be the perfect showcase for local supporters and…
David Strassman: Ventriloquism taken to a whole new level
6 Aug 2010
Duality brilliantly wrong-foots audience and may blow minds
American entertainer David Strassman continues to single-handedly revive and redefine the ancient art of ventriloquism for the 21st century with this hilarious mind-bending psychodrama which might have been written by Charlie Being John Malkovich…
Lars Husum and his novel My Friend Jesus Christ
6 Aug 2010
A wild and bizarre slapstick farce
Given that My Friend Jesus Christ reads like a Dogme movie, you can’t help but feel Lars Husum’s time working as a dramaturge at Lars von Trier’s Copenhagen film production company Zentropa fed into his debut novel. ‘It’s not conscious, but I see your…
Emily Woof at the Writer's Retreat
6 Aug 2010
The ex-actress conducts a deep involvement with language
Emily Woof first graced Edinburgh nude and on a trapeze for a trilogy of one-woman Fringe plays, under the Sex umbrella. And throughout The Whole Wide Beauty (the debut novel by The Full Monty and Wondrous Oblivion star), the loss of physical expression…
Garth Nix kicks off this year's Book Festival
6 Aug 2010
What he has in store and why fantasy is making a comeback
Garth Nix, the bestselling Australian author of young people’s fantasy fiction, is both honoured and alarmed that he’ll be kicking off this year’s Book Festival with its very first session. ‘I’m not entirely sure what I’ll be talking about yet!’ Nix…
Natasha Walter's fight for women's equality
6 Aug 2010
She presents her new book Living Dolls: The Return of Sexism
Following sold out events at Brighton, Dublin, the South Bank and Latitude, writer and campaigner Natasha Walter is hitting the Edinburgh International Book Festival to stress that the struggle for women’s equality is as important as ever. To some…
Philip Pullman - The Good Man Jesus and The Scoundrel Christ
6 Aug 2010
'The Most Dangerous Author in Britain' comes to the Book Festival
You will know him by the horns, of course, and the casual air of unholy sin. For Philip Pullman is the anti-God and ‘The Most Dangerous Author in Britain’, according to the modern gospel of The Mail on Sunday. To most of us, however, he is the avuncular…
Laura Barton talks about Twenty-One Locks
6 Aug 2010
The author describes why and how she wanted to write her novel
Born and raised in Lancashire, Laura Barton migrated south a decade ago, and found gainful employment with The Guardian. ‘I started writing a music column [Hail, Hail, Rock ‘n’ Roll] in a style that was quite different to most journalism at the time,…
Gary Younge visits the Edinburgh Book Festival
6 Aug 2010
Exploring issues of identity across this mad world
Returning to Edinburgh holds bittersweet memories for Gary Younge. He was in the city as a student in the late 80s, studying Russian and French at Heriot-Watt and was awestruck by the geography of his new surroundings. ‘Having grown up in Stevenage…
Alberto Manguel will discuss All Men Are Liars
6 Aug 2010
And why we should step back from the over-reliable narrator
Alberto Manguel’s latest book, All Men Are Liars, is ‘a tribute to falsehood’ in which no one is a reliable source; not the enigmatic figure whose death is being investigated, not those who knew him, nor Manguel himself. It’s a concept that challenges…
Candia McWilliam will discuss her memoir at the EIBF
6 Aug 2010
The festival veteran considers her own difficult story
‘I have loved the Edinburgh International Book Festival all its 22 years,’ says Charlotte Square Gardens veteran Candia McWilliam. ‘It makes an annual conversation about books and about thinking, about what it is to share in the examined life. It is…
Tinchy Stryder to take over the HMV Picture House
6 Aug 2010
The East London grime boy done good, and Third Strike is on its way
If Tinchy Stryder’s second long-player, Catch 22, saw him vault the grime underground and snare the pop mainstream (number one hits, collaborations with N-Dubz and a Sugababe, the best-selling UK solo artist of 2009), you wonder what level of stardom…
Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw set challenge with Fringe comedy show
6 Aug 2010
Champion of new music finds comedy feet
Radio 1 returns to the Fringe following last year’s Scott Mills The Musical. DJ Nick Grimshaw was set the challenge of writing a one-man show, with five weeks to prepare. Here, he explains the show he’ll perform this week. ‘Don’t get me wrong – I…
Top five Scottish crime writers to catch at the EIBF
6 Aug 2010
The city that embodies vice and virtue welcomes the authors
With its Jekyll and Hyde nature, Edinburgh is the perfect spot for the portraiturists of good and evil to congregate. Here’s a quintet of Scottish scribes to catch this week Tony Black. Gus Drury is Black’s flawed bobby and in Long Time Dead, he’s…
Flesh and Blood and Fish and Fowl
6 Aug 2010
Look busy, it’s the end of the world
When the human race has all but died out, when the Earth has erased almost all evidence of our existence, the last redoubt of our once great civilisation will be … the back office of a microwave meal manufacturer. As a premise, it sounds half-baked…
