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The Herald Scotland
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Herald Scotland
I've seen dozens of shows at the Fringe... these are the best
On the Fringe, Karine Polwart's Windblown, an exquisite meditation on a dying palm tree in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, has also finished its run at the Queen's Hall, With any luck, Raw Material's meticulously put-together evocation of Polwart's song cycle will return. In the meantime, there is still plenty of life on the Fringe, with the following some of the best on show. She's Behind You Traverse Theatre, various times until August 24 Johnny McKnight has been a pantomime legend over two decades now, both as a writer and the grandest of dames. This solo show by McKnight began as a lecture at the University of Glasgow, and is both a history of the original people's theatre and a deeply personal memoir of McKnight's life-long love affair with panto and the changing mores within it. This fleshed-out production is overseen by director John Tiffany, and makes for an essential primer into what McKnight highlights as a subversive art form that speaks to mass audiences in a way that more highbrow forms rarely take on. Consumed Traverse Theatre, various times until August 24 The Irish Troubles hangs heavy over this remarkable new play by Karis Kelly, which sees four generations of women convene in Northern Ireland for the ninetieth birthday of family matriarch, Eileen. What initially resembles an episode of Mrs Brown's Boys – or girls – takes a more fantastical turn in a staggering study of how violence and division can linger. Lost Lear Traverse Theatre, various times until August 24 Shakespeare's King Lear is the starting point for Dan Colley's play, set in a care home in which a woman holds court, acting out scenes of the play with the help of those who work there. Even her son is co-opted into the everyday drama in a moving look at how the debilitating effects of dementia can be offset by tapping into memories that create alternative realities in a show that uses puppetry and video to moving effect. Red Like Fruit Traverse Theatre, various times until August 24 A journalist working on a large-scale domestic abuse story finds herself confronting her own past in Hannah Moscovitch's play for Canada's 2B company. Out of this she asks a man to read out her written account of her experience in an attempt to understand them better. This is told quietly in this fascinating and troubling dissection of the long-term effects of sexual abuse in which the woman listens as rapt as the audience. The Beautiful Future is Coming Traverse Theatre, various times until August 24 Flora Wilson Brown's plays moves across time in its meditation on the climate crisis that humanises things through the experiences of three couples, with the women in particular at the helm. From nineteenth century scientific research to biblical floods to the uncertainties of fifty years from now, Wilson Brown's play is shot through with hope. Eat the Rich (but maybe not me mates x) Pleasance Courtyard, 2.15pm until August 24 Jade Franks is a wonder in her new semi autobiographical solo play, in which she charts the journey of a Liverpool call centre worker who ends up going to Cambridge University. The class-based prejudice Jade overcomes there while working as a cleaner makes Franks' play the natural successor to Willy Russell's 1980s tales of working class women, Educating Rita and Shirley Valentine. The entire Edinburgh run of may be sold out, but if there's any justice Franks' funny and incisive performance should tour the nation. Tom at the Farm Pleasance at EICC, 3.3pm until August 24 Given the scale of Armando Babaioff's Brazilian version of Quebecois writer Michel Marc Bouchard's psychosexual thriller, it should probably be on at Edinburgh International Festival rather than the Fringe. The play sees a man visit his dead boyfriend's family farm, where he becomes embroiled in a mud spattered tug of love and hate with his boyfriend's bullying brother, their mother and a woman who claims to have been his girlfriend. Don't sit too close to the front, or you might get wet. Trouble, Struggle, Bubble and Squeak Pleasance Courtyard, 2.15pm until August 24 There is something deeply moving about Victoria Melody's latest work, which sees her relate how she joined a historical re-enactment society after becoming fascinated with the English Civil War. With seventeenth century agricultural activists the Digger becoming a particular focus, Melody ends up leading the charge against developers in her local community. Directed by Mark Thomas, Melody's work is a grassroots drama full of heart. When Billy Met Alasdair Scottish Storytelling Centre, 8.30pm until August 23 Novelist Alan Bissett's new solo play sees Bissett pay homage to Billy Connolly and novelist Alasdair Gray by imagining what might have been said by the two pop cultural giants when they met at the 1981 launch of Gray's mighty novel, Lanark. Bissett's impressions of his subjects as he recounts potted histories of their brilliant careers are well enough, but it's when he steps out of character that things move beyond a fine tuned piece of fan fiction to become a meditation on the perils of the working class artist. Pussy Riot: Riot Days Summerhall, Dissection Room, 10pm until August 23 The Russian art provocateurs returned this week with a new version of their incendiary stage show that draws from key member Maria Alyokhini's memoir of the group's assorted actions and her subsequent imprisonment in a show that has lost none of its sound and fury in a ferocious call to arms. Read more: Philosophy of the World Summerhall, Red Lecture Theatre, 10.45pm until August 25 The starting point for this wild new show by the In Bed with My Brother company is The Shaggs, the 1960s band made up of three sisters who were once described as the best worst band ever, and who became something of a cult. The three women performers take the band's brief lifespan as their cue for a ferocious meditation on power and control in a man's world which, in Summerhall's tiny Red Lecture Theatre, you fear might explode in a show that looks like something Pussy Riot's kid sisters might have dreamt up.
The Age
19-06-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Diplomacy, de-escalation the only way out of danger
To submit a letter to The Age, email letters@ Please include your home address and telephone number below your letter. No attachments. See here for our rules and tips on getting your letter published. WAR Any nation deploying a nuclear bomb is guaranteed complete destruction of its own people. In this day and age, the ownership of such destructive weapons seems to be the big stick the bullies of this world wave and threaten. Trump's ever-changing story and threats to Iran seem to respond to the immediate (for example, the complete evacuation of Tehran's 10 million citizens) with little thought to the future. Where are the voices of thinking leaders and their governments? Surely, they are not all short-sighted. The solution rests with the citizens of these nations to rise up, take to the streets in their millions and remove these blinkered madmen and bring some order to humankind. De-escalation and diplomacy are the only way out of these dangerous days, and governments must lead and bring peaceful solutions to the world. Unfortunately, the UN seems powerless. Ron Reynolds, Templestowe None of our business We are best reminded that in 2003 America waged war on Iraq based on it having ″weapons of mass destruction″. This was false information and many an Australian lost their life or received horrific injuries including their mental health through John Howard sending troops. In late March this year, the American security agencies stated Iran was not building nuclear weapons. A week or so ago it was revealed Iran wasn't fully complying with its obligations to open its files up. Despite the US intelligence service's advice, Israel 'knows' Iraq is preparing nuclear weapons. No evidence presented, just us relying on their version of truth. Sound familiar? Now the blundering President Trump has announced he might even go to war with Iran over Israel's claim. Undoubtedly, if he does, he will call on other nations to join him – even after he spreads doom and gloom through his never-quite-finalised tariffs. Let's hope our government and the Coalition see though this madness and not join in what really isn't our business. John Rome, Mt Lawley, WA Learn from Good Friday Agreement Thank you to your correspondent (Letters, 18/6) for referencing the current events in the Middle East to both Greek tragedy and the Irish Troubles. These themes are also linked by the Northern Ireland poet Michael Longley in his poem Ceasefire, which was coincidentally published on the eve of the Good Friday Agreement in 1994 also uses the imagery of The Trojan Wars. When tired of the carnage due to the conflict, the Trojan King, Priam, meets Achilles, who had killed Priam's son Hector in retaliation for Hector killing Patroclus, who was Achilles lifelong friend. King Priam sighs: 'I get down on my knees and do what must be done, and kiss Achilles' hand, the killer of my son'. Unlike Northern Ireland, as yet it appears no one in the current conflict is capable of the insight or courage to do the same. Jill Grogan, Albert Park Chilling replay of 2003 Gulf War The latest dismissal by Trump of the advice from various independent sources and his own spy chief that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon seems to be a chilling replay of the events preceding the Gulf war in 2003. The power vacuum in Iraq after the fall of Saddam Hussein led, despite the fall of the despot, to a boom in extremism by Al-Qaeda and the rise of ISIS. We can expect again the destruction of a country, the misery of its people and the probable subsequent ominous rise of a new regime that could be even more dangerous to peace in the region. We require an immediate ceasefire, followed by a comprehensive political solution to a festering issue plaguing the Middle East. If Trump can bring this off, instead of escalating the violence, hats off to him. Trichur Vidyasagar, Doncaster THE FORUM Practical, not ideological Re ″If it acts like a public utility, why the outsourcing?″ (Letters, 19/6). The metro rail transport system and its physical assets remain in public ownership. The system is operated under franchise by a privately-owned company heavily-conditioned by the contracts it entered into with the government. Your correspondents have not complained about the service, which is generally good. The issue seems to be ″ownership″ with your correspondents, favouring public operation of the system for reasons which are not especially clear, although I detect disaffection with profit-making. For me, the tests are practical, not ideological. If the test is service, which is good; and price, which is set by the government at a reasonable rate with an increasing range of free journeys; then the case for continuing private operation seems quite strong. Those favouring public operation of the system will have to demonstrate that a public service department could operate the system better and more cheaply than the private operator. Michael Angwin, Hawthorn Lower the fares If we hadn't privatised public transport it would have been an easy step to implement a low flat fare, or even make some travel free, as the Queensland government has done. This would negate the need for ticket inspectors and be a win for commuters, traffic flow and the environment as more commuters use the service. Vikki O'Neill, Ashburton
