Previews

Theatre production Jasmine Gwangju celebrates South Korean democracy

The Gwangju uprising in 1980 explored in Edinburgh Fringe show

10 Aug 2011

‘Pfweee! Pfweeeeeeeeeee!’ Jun-tae Kim is recreating the noise of fighter jets swooping over the South Korean city of Gwangju. It was 18 May 1980 and he was a young geography teacher, on the streets with thousands of other students and citizens…

The personal connection I feel to the character of Medea

Nadira Janikova presents Edinburgh Fringe production of classic work

10 Aug 2011

Medea represents a huge challenge for any actress: trying to convey on stage the power of somebody who is a demigod; and finding the human side of somebody who commits the most unnatural and terrible of all crimes – the murder of their own…

Edinburgh arts institution the Forest Cafe gears up for its final Fringe

Edinburgh's rough and ready creative hub closing down

10 Aug 2011

Many Edinburgh-dwellers agree that it will be a sad day when the Forest Café finally closes its doors at the end of this summer. The rough and ready creative hub will be badly missed, but at least it’s staying open long enough for the Forest Fringe to…

Interview: Jeremy Millar on exhibition Mystics or Rationalists?

Artist discusses his contribution to Ingleby Edinburgh Art Festival show

10 Aug 2011

How far do you agree with Sol LeWitt’s comment that ‘conceptual artists are mystics rather than rationalists’? I think I’d tend to agree: they’re certainly rather more mystics than rationalists. Art isn’t rational, but it can be mystical. What is…

Interview: Oneohtrix Point Never

Psychedelic synths and drones from experimental electronica-lord, Daniel Lopatin

2 Aug 2011

Name Daniel Lopatin Job title Musician, label owner Where are you just now? Brooklyn, NY. What are you doing/ going to do today? Finish the track arrangement for the upcoming OPN record. Do you enjoy touring? I do, I didn't always. It…

Alma Mater - One-person experience blending film and promenade theatre

Sneak preview of what might well be the future of the Fringe show

26 Jul 2011

In the vast sun-drenched glass-ceilinged foyer of Glasgow’s Briggait, there’s a room within a room -- a rudimentary windowless wooden box of about 18 cubic metres. It might resemble a wonkily-constructed homemade garden shed, but it’s the collapsible…

Doris Day Can Fuck Off - Greg McLaren interview

2011 Edinburgh Festival show based on singing to strangers

26 Jul 2011

It’s a sunny Saturday in Stoke Newington, North London, and I’m competing in my very first ‘allotment Olympics’. Specifically, a shot putt event that swaps the usual metal balls for hefty, organic potatoes. The games have been organised by Stoke…

Andrew Maxwell - The Lights Are On

The King of Comedy returns to his ancestral pile

26 Jul 2011

To Andrew Maxwell, there are few sounds better than a roomful of people laughing. All the better if they’re laughing at something the tiny Dubliner with the massive talent has just said. ‘Laughter speeds shit up,’ insists the man crowned King of Comedy…

Theatre picks for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

20 Jul 2011

A Celebration of Harold Pinter A starry triumvirate of elements conspires to make this one of the hottest tickets on the Fringe. Hollywood star John Malkovich directs British actor Julian Sands in a loving tribute to the late Nobel winner, drawing on…

Four site-specific shows to catch at Edinburgh 2011

What Remains and You Once Said Yes among highlights

20 Jul 2011

What Remains. Theatre company Grid Iron celebrates ten years on the Fringe with this eerie piece set in the bowels of Edinburgh University. Music comes courtesy of composer David Paul Jones. Even in Edinburgh/Glasgow Poet Ishbel McFarlane takes the…

Mirazozo coloured inflatable structure a 2011 Edinburgh Fringe highlight

Architects of Air bring their latest inflatable structure to Edinburgh

8 Jul 2011

Picture the scene – you walk inside a Fringe venue, and find no actors, no musicians, no dancers, in fact no performers at all. You'd be forgiven for wanting your money back. Unless, that is, your ticket is for an Architects of Air creation – because…

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2011 - Fact file

The display of massed military viewed by 100 million people annually

8 Jul 2011

1 The Edinburgh Tattoo first took place in 1950. It was first shown on colour television in 1968. 2The word 'tattoo' comes from the old Dutch phrase 'doe den tap toe', meaning 'turn off the taps', which was a call used at closing time in 17th century…

Edinburgh Festival of Politics 2011 - Highlights

Richard Holloway, Sarah Boyack and David Greig among highlights

8 Jul 2011

The Festival of Politics may be one of the junior members of the August fraternity, but it just keeps coming of age. An array of events, speakers and themes are on the agenda this year with technology and the upheavals across north Africa and the Middle…

Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival 2011 - highlights

Tommy Smith, Courtney Pine, Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and more

8 Jul 2011

Hypnotic Brass Ensemble A high energy blend of New Orleans horns and live hip hop beats, this Chicago nine-piece return to raise the Spiegeltent from its moorings. Barack Obama, Jay-Z and David Byrne are among the fans of this exciting block party…

Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo 2011 - Highlights

Brass bands on bikes among highlights of music extravaganza

8 Jul 2011

Have you ever wondered if you are a 'Bad Scot'? If soor plooms, Mel Gibson's take on William Wallace, dodgy recitals of Burns' poems and other things associated with stereotypical Jock culture make you recoil like a moggie from a festering puddle, you…

Trombone Shorty profile - Edinburgh Jazz Festival 2011

Youthful jazz pioneer and composer set for Edinburgh date

8 Jul 2011

'Oooooh! Trombone Shorty! My man!' This is how the 25-year-old jazz musician from New Orleans is greeted by fellow (and fictitious) horn player Antoine Batiste in David Simon's new HBO television show, Treme. Simon's follow-up to his hard-hitting cop…

Amjad Ali Khan to perform set of morning ragas on sarod at EIF 2011

Edinburgh 11am concert accompanied by Ravi Shankar's evening ragas

7 Jul 2011

The sarod may not be as familiar an instrument to western audiences as the sitar made famous by Ravi Shankar, but virtuoso player Amjad Ali Khan is happy to establish its proper context. 'Ravi Shankar's teacher was a sarod player,' says Khan on the line…

Theatre, music and dance highlights from the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Semiramide and King Lear among picks

7 Jul 2011

The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has been a benchmark for quality and innovation in the performing arts since its inauguration nearly 65 years ago. This year artistic director Jonathan Mills builds his programme around the multi-faceted…

Precious Light - David Mach interview

Artist's first major Scottish exhibition in years at Edinburgh Art Festival 2011

6 Jul 2011

It’s just after 9am in Forest Hill in South London. The denizens of this leafy area have walked their children to school and boarded their commuter trains. In David Mach’s messy but unfussy two-floored studio, two handfuls of assistants and technicians…

Bikini Machine compose a 'cinéconcert' score for Desperado

24 Jun 2011

Each year, the French Institute for Scotland takes part in the Edinburgh International Film Festival and strives to bring the media of music and film together to form one piece of intercontinental art. This year, the Institute have invited five…

The theatre shows to look out for at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011

Dance Marathon, Ten Plagues and Tuesdays at Tescos among highlights

9 Jun 2011

As ever the theatre programme of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe is overflowing with keen ideas, exciting stories and risk-taking. The Traverse Theatre maintains its position as the beating heart of the Fringe, with Dominic Hill’s final programme…

Domino Records host Edinburgh International Film Festival event

Event aims to showcase effective combination of music and film

27 May 2011

A good advert can, sometimes, sell more than jeans, or alcohol, or cars. Think of the 1999 number one song, 'Flat Beat', which gained enormous popularity after a puppet called Flat Eric danced to it in a Levi’s advert. Levi’s shifted their jeans, the…

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2011 - sneak preview

Liberace, Finnish a capella groups and iPad fairy tales just some of the coming attractions

23 May 2011

Whether it’s origami genitalia, homosexual deities or political commentary on the Lockerbie bombing, Edinburgh’s Fringe seldom arrives with a whimper but rather a ruddy great roar. June sees the official launch of 2011’s line-up, but we thought we…

The Low Anthem, Mountain Man and Avi Buffalo set for Edinburgh date

Americana, borrowing from jazz, gospel and folk

24 Aug 2010

With a relaxed, mellow sound steeped in the traditions of American folk and blues, the Low Anthem are a group of Ivy League music graduates from Providence, Rhode Island, currently touring Europe with their unique fusion of instruments, ranging from…

Amnesty International Urban Art Exhibition

Syrkus, Rekor, Derm, Conzo, Mark Lyken and Elph

20 Aug 2010

Urban art created onsite at a live event at the start of the festival by Syrkus, Rekor, Derm, Conzo, Mark Lyken and Elph as part of Amnesty’s festival-wide campaign to highlight the need for freedom of expression all around the world. C soco Urban…