Edinburgh Festival

Henry Northmore

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Ravi Shankar - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 22 Aug

Ravi Shankar - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 22 Aug

A mesmerising show of classical Indian music as part of 2011 EIF

(4 stars)24 Aug 2011

Ravi Shankar crossed over into popular culture with his associations with various 60s musicians, working with and/or influencing the likes of The Beatles, The Kinks and The Byrds. Going on to play at iconic festivals such as Woodstock and The Monterey…

Beckett & Smith

Beckett & Smith

A genuinely funny 60 minutes

(4 stars)24 Aug 2011

There are some real gems on the free festival circuit, but picking the wheat from the chaff can be a daunting prospect. Split into two halves, Ian Smith launches this hour of stand up with some freewheeling rambling that at times cuts close to the bone…

Terry Alderton

Terry Alderton

Hour of clever nonsense with surreal twist

(4 stars)16 Aug 2011

Taking many of the conventions of old-school stand-up – observational comedy, sound effects, impressions – Alderton gives them a surreal twist before cramming them all together. Some punchlines get lost in the chaos of songs, dancing and vocal mimicry…

Isy Suttie

Isy Suttie

Cute, clever music-based comedy from the Peep Show comedian

(3 stars)15 Aug 2011

Best known as geek love interest Dobby from Peep Show, Suttie’s an incredibly likeable comedian. Mixing stand-up and music, her humour has a real warmth and the stuttering love story of Pearl and Dave that runs through the show is instantly engaging and…

Mike Slott, Eclair Fifi and Machinedrum of Glasgow DIY label LuckyMe - Interview

Interview - Mike Slott, Eclair Fifi and Machinedrum of LuckyMe

Glasgow DIY label set for Edinburgh Festival clubnight

8 Aug 2011

Mike Slott (producer) I met Dom [Flannigan] who runs LuckyMe in Borders Books. He was sneaking flyers into hip hop magazines. We got chatting, we liked similar music and in Glasgow if you’re into a certain kind of music, you bump into the same people…

Sink or Spin

Sink or Spin

It’s gym life, but not as we know it

(4 stars)8 Aug 2011

A site-specific comedy set in the working environs of Bannatyne’s Health Club (you even need to fill in a fitness form as you enter), you’ll spend most of Sink or Spin on an exercise bike in a distinctly unusual class taught by Clement (Donal Coonan).

Slavery to Star Trek

Slavery to Star Trek

Autobiographical show taking in Martin Luther King and Malcolm X

(3 stars)8 Aug 2011

Andreea Kindryd has lived a fascinating life. She knew Martin Luther King, was friends with Malcolm X and worked on the original Star Trek series. She’s an engaging storyteller whose tale starts in the days of her great grandparents and slavery…

The Last Circus

The Last Circus

Spanish black comedy/horror takes in clowns, circus life, love and madness

(4 stars)20 Jun 2011

The latest film from writer/director Alex de la Iglesia is almost unclassifiable, a love story, a black comedy and horror all apply and as fans of his Accion Mutante (1992) will know it’s this glorious mess of ideas and themes that makes for such a…

Rabies (Kalevat)

Rabies (Kalevat)

An interesting twist on slasher movie conventions from Israel

(3 stars)17 Jun 2011

The problem with slasher films is that they perhaps have the most rigid rules in cinema. It’s so easy to fall into the standard clichés as set out by Halloween and Friday the 13th. Not that it means you can’t make a fun, entertaining film within these…

Phase 7 (Fase 7)

Phase 7 (Fase 7)

Dark pandemic tale from Argentina

(3 stars)16 Jun 2011

There’s a vague ‘pandemic’ theme in this year’s EIFF programme (with talks and screenings of the likes of 28 Days Later, The Divide and Panic in the Streets) and Phase 7 is the first to raise its diseased head above the parapet. As a global epidemic…

Edinburgh Interactive gives games a festival platform

Edinburgh Interactive gives games a festival platform

Henry Northmore looks at how videogames are making their mark on Edinburgh’s festival landscape

16 Aug 2010

With theatre, comedy, books, music, art and dance at various festivals across Edinburgh it’s only fitting that one of the newest artforms is represented by the Edinburgh Interactive festival. And while some may scoff at the idea of videogames being art…

Eric Burdon & The Animals

Eric Burdon & The Animals

Queens Hall, Edinburgh, Sat 7 Aug 2010

(3 stars)16 Aug 2010

Contemporaries of The Rolling Stones and Rock’n’Roll Hall of Famers (they were inducted in 1994), The Animals have had a complex history marked by multiple line-up changes and trademark disputes. But it was always vocalist Eric Burdon who gave The…

Bare

Bare

Hard hitting drama

(4 stars)15 Aug 2010

Gritty, violent theatre set in the world of bare-knuckle boxing from BareBack Theatre. The sharp writing and fantastically choreographed fight scenes wouldn’t have half the impact without the strong central performances, from writer/director Renny…

The Call of Cthulhu

The Call of Cthulhu

Perfectly captures this descent into insanity

(3 stars)14 Aug 2010

HP Lovecraft’s most famous work is brought to the stage in this one-man show from Michael Sabbaton. Lovecraft’s tales of horror were always about unknown evils lurking in the shadows, tendrils of madness creeping into the consciousness of his…

Touching the Blue

Touching the Blue

A wonderfully constructed character story leaves you hanging

(3 stars)9 Aug 2010

Clive Russell is instantly engaging, capturing the highs and lows of one-time snooker champion Derek Hodges as he stands on the brink of a comeback in a blackly comic monologue that gets progressively darker as the story unfolds until a shock ending…

Club Noir and Scottish Opera work together on A Night At The Opera

Club Noir and Scottish Opera collaborate on A Night At The Opera

Burlesque night prepare for unlikely pairing

5 Aug 2010

Henry Northmore talks to the burlesque night as they prepare for one of this festival’s most unlikely collaborations

Faith No More

Faith No More

Massive shots of musical adrenaline that have the crowd and band pumping

(4 stars)27 Aug 2009

Surely the crowning glory in this year’s Edge Festival - the reunited Faith No More returning to Scotland after a long, long absence. Firstly, Manchester youngsters Oceansize kick things off in suitably fuzzy prog metal style, reminiscent of oor ain…

Forever Young

Forever Young

WWI through letters, diaries, poems and song

(3 stars)25 Aug 2009

Remembering WWI through letters, diaries, poems and song there are some wonderful performances here from the Yvonne Arnaud Youth Theatre’s young cast. While the ‘war is hell’ message may be clichéd, in these troubled times it’s truer than ever, while…

The Rap Guide to Evolution

The Rap Guide to Evolution

Combining Chuck D and Charles Darwin

(4 stars)21 Aug 2009

Part gig, part stand up, part lecture, Baba Brinkman, the man who brought you The Rap Canterbury Tales, tackles Darwin’s theory of evolution. Instantly accessible, destroying creationism through the music of The Notorious BIG, Dead Prez, Mobb Deep and…

No Parole: Family is a Life Sentence

A true story of rocky relationships and career criminal mums

(4 stars)21 Aug 2009

One man show from Carlo D’Amore concerning his life and rocky relationship with his career criminal mother and her one woman crime wave from Peru to America. This true story is touching, funny, poignant, outrageous and very personal but is ultimately…

Faust

Faust

Dark, thrilling and unsettling adaptation of Goethe’s classic

(4 stars)20 Aug 2009

Surely one of the Edinburgh International Festival’s most ambitious projects, Silviu Purcarete’s grand adaptation of Faust takes over, and fills, the huge warehouse space at Ingleston’s Royal Highland Centre. Based on Goethe’s treatment of the German…

Mark Millar

Mark Millar

Helping comics go widescreen

20 Aug 2009

Mark Millar is surely the Steven Spielberg of the comics world. It’s a tricky task to be hugely popular while retaining massive critical acclaim, but he’s managed to successfully straddle the world of art and commerce with his love of mainstream heroes…

Axis of Awesome

Axis of Awesome

Spoof songs and inter-band bickering aplenty

(3 stars)18 Aug 2009

Rock comedy, spoof songs and inter-band bickering aplenty here from this Aussie trio. Some of it is dumb fun and some is pretty sharp, particularly their destruction of the ‘four chords’ that make up so many pop songs. Unfortunately, the music itself…

Facebook Fables

A play with a status to 'like'? It may even make it in your 'interests'.

(3 stars)12 Aug 2009

Comedy about the dangers of internet revenge and social networking in which a woman scorned sets up a fake Facebook page for her ex-boyfriend hoping to trap his (imagined) new girlfriend. The personable performances from Andreya Lynham, Amber Nobel and…

The Stranglers, HMV Picture House, Edinburgh, Fri 7 Aug

The Stranglers

HMV Picture House, Edinburgh, Fri 7 Aug

(4 stars)10 Aug 2009

The opening night of this year’s Edge Festival, and while young folksters Mumford & Sons are playing the other side of town, it couldn’t be more different at the Picture House as old school punks The Stranglers keep things ‘Nice’n’Sleazy’. Formed in…

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Sorted by date / most viewed / title / star rating. Showing 25, 50, 100 per page.