lookafikes
Separated at birth? lilhile Bob Beldol’s saintly image as the saviour of Africa is increasingly overshadowed by his somewhat complicated domestic arrangements, his long-lost twin George Dillon will be treading The Pleaeence boards in
The Remembrance of Edgar Allan Poe. ' ;__
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performer’s choice
Best known as Rab C. Nesbitt’s long-suffering wife Mary, Elainec.Smith has escaped Govan to check out some posh folk’s culture at the Festival. Here she chooses five shows on her must-see list.
I Double llougat This short film by Clyde Unity’s Aileen Ritchie is set in a seaside town on the west of Scotland. i loved the script and if I wasn‘t doing EWA i would have been in it. [9 Scottish Shorts, I9 Aug, 1.30pm; 24 Aug, lpnr. F iltnhouse.
I Shelagh Atkinson This painter’s work sounds powerful and interesting. We all need to make time to visit an art gallery this year as well as a show. The Landscape Mix. Dunedin Gallery, until 23 Aug.
I Ed Byrne This young lrish stand-up
introduced me at The Gilded Balloon
launch party and was really funny. He deserves a break — go and see him. The Gilded Balloon, until 3/ Aug (not 29) 9.15pm.
I .iools llolland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra Because he’s just fab. Playhouse. 24 and 25 Aug. 7.30pm.
I Street performances Particularly a girl performing near the Mound. Sounds weird, but it‘s all free so why not fill their hats with coins. A street corner near you.
Elaine With Attitude is at The Gilded Balloon. until 22 Aug (not I9) [0.30pntf
bunch of five
As the bottles look for life on Mars, we list live Festival-connected actors from classic sci-ti rv series:
1. Coim Meaney in The Van. aka chief engineer O’Brien in Star Trek: The Next Generation.
2. Jerry Hardin in Mark Twain 0:: Man And His World, aka Deep Throat in The X Files.
3. Sylvester McCoy in A Satire Of The Four Estates. aka Dr Who.
4. Craig Charles, aka Dave Lister in Red Dwarf.
5. Martin Landau in The Adventures of Pinochio, aka Commander John Koenig in Space I999.
festival scanneria
After the first cameraiess movie Toy Story became a worldwide smash, computer special effects have increasingly threatened to sideline fiesh-and-blood actors. Edinburgh-bom sfx wizard Euan Macdonald, who worked on Sean Connery‘s Dragonheart. retumed home to talk about his work on the computer animation in the movie.
Macdonald is digital effects supervisor with industrial Light and Magic (lLM). George Lucas's company. which was responsible for effects in Star Wars, Jurassic Park. and Terminator 2. ‘On Dragonheart, one scene took us three months, combining real footage of Dennis Quaid with the dragon in the rain,’ said Macdonald. The problem was making the rain in the real shot look as if it was bouncing off the body of the animated dragon.
However, Macdonald says the real breakthrough with the film is giving Draco the dragon a character based on Connery himself. Computer retouching made the facial expressions synchronise with Connery's voice and
‘ . .' a g , Dragonheart: breathing lite into Connety’s facial mannerisms. (At no point does the dragon order a martini. however.)
A former student at Portobelio High School. Macdonald was bitten by the sfx bug after seeing James Cameron's underwater thriller The Abyss. His show reel from film school was enough to secure him ajob at iLM and he now lives in California. He worked on Jim Carrey‘s The Mask and will now tackle Jurassic Park 2, which sets lLM the task of bettering their own monster special effects. (Stephen Naysmith)
camped on Leith Links perfomting unspeakable acts. if the idea of a one- man duel wasn’t bizarre enough. Lepage — playing both the Dane and Ophelia’s brother Laertes — brandishes a foil with a miniaturised camera attached to the end, which in turn is linked to giant TV screens. Don’t ask why — it’s art, darling — but surely Circus of Horrors sword-swallowing expert John Kamikaze might find an interesting use for such an implement.
DEAF EARS
When radical composer Arnold Shoenberg’s first Chamber Symphony was performed in Berlin in l907 it provoked a riot. as music aficionados forcefully expressed their opinion of his abandonment of tonality - ie, tunes you can hum. Some 90 years on Shoenberg. whose work was performed at the opening concert of the international Festival, was co-opted by Heritage secretary Virginia Bottomley as an example of the glorious collision
of culture and Conservatism. While the
great and the good of Edinburgh’s establishment munched on croissants at the annual arts breakfast on Monday, Ginnie — now dubbed Mrs Bolmondeiy (think about it) by our colleagues on The Guardian diary — outlined her conviction that publicly funded arts organisations have nothing to fear from political interference under the Tories. ‘My job is to maintain confidence that money is being spent wisely,‘ she added. A deceptively tn'cky portfolio, that Heritage department.
BOB AND BENN
First-time director Jevon O‘Neill was in town this week to promote his heart- warming taie of redemption Bob’s Weekend, but like any good movie man on the Festival circuit he has a new project to pitch. How does a live-action version of kids’ lunchtime classic Mr Benn sound? O'Neill has secured an option on the story and is currently trying to raise the finance. So who will be making a date with the mysterious shopkeeper? Nothing‘s certain, but Hugh Grant is interested apparently.
hardy perennial
. . . a regular Festival visitor contemplates yet another August in Edinburgh. This week it is. . .
Lucky Eric the Bouncer
By ’eclt, I love Edinburgh. chuilin’ marvellous ln’t it? llever miss the Festival, me. Streets packed with action, air thiclr with hormones - you can almost smell the sex. Mind you, hall of them these days don’t look old enough . . . seemto getyounger every year, in tact.
When i were llrst ’ere in 1984 things were ditlerent. You didn’t have all this rave nruslc for starters. It were proper tunes, wi’ mudlc and lyrics. Shalamar, Sister Sledge, ABC - where are they now, eh? As for this lieu thing they have - it's all conwuter bleeps and tourteen-year-olds gerrin’ out their laces on drugs. E by gum! I mean, what’s wrong wl’ good, old-lashloned Yorkshire lager?
ys, I’ve teldren a break from woritln’ at It Binders like I do every
Well suited: Eric (Bob Cryer) lo Brave llew World's Bouncers
August to come up and help‘wi' crowd control. And as usual, I’m puttin’ on me own show with a low mates. I’ve noticed sunanat dead funny this year, though. There’s some birds putting on my show! What’s that all about then? Lassles on the door of a dlscotheque - don’t melt me laugh! Still, I’ll ’ave to go and telt a Ioolr, won’t it Because youneverlmow-Imlghtgetapull . . . This year‘s tour versions oi Bouncers are listed on page 137 o! the Fringe Pregame -
The List l6-22 Aug l99611