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famespotting Tomorrow's stars today
Stuart Sinclair Blyth
Actor Stuart Sinclair Blyth was born, bred and trained in Edinburgh (and still lives in Leith). In his first interView, beSide a hotel rooftop sWimming pool during the Cannes Film Festival, he seems very at home talking about his feature film debut, Hold Back The Night. ’I’m obViously over the moon To be honest, I’m a bit shell-shocked I haven’t seen myself on the big screen for any length of time before,’
In the film Blyth plays an eco-warrior named Declan who makes a pilgrimage from the Midlands to the Highlands wrth Christine Tremarco and Sheila Hancock. Along the way, the trio work through their personal demons. ’lt was difficult to put the characters into that striking landscape,’ says Blyth. ’The performances were changed by where we were The key was preparing the character. Everything is falling apart in Declan’s life and yet he’s surrounded by this beautiful landscape. I think Declan’s lovely — I forgot how nice he was.’ (Miles Fielder) Hold Back The Night (Film Festival) Cameo 7, 77 Aug, 8pm," Cameo 2, 78 Aug, 6pm, [7([4501
Angelika Kirchschlager
’She possesses a v0ice that seems to have light streaming through it,’ raved The Globe And Mail when Angelika Kirchschlager made her recital debut in Toronto in 1997. There’s hope, then, that something might break through the Edinburgh clouds when the Austrian mezzo-sOprano makes her first Festival appearance, opening this year's Bank of Scotland Queen’s Hall Series With a selection of songs by Schubert, Mahler, Korngold, Berg and Dvorak. ’For me, the most important thing when singing lieder is the text,’ says the 33-year-old. ’Even if the music is more beautiful, like Schubert’s, you must first read the words and try to find out what the composer meant by his setting of them. After that, you must find what these words mean to you and then you must transport your feelings to the audience. The more you can surprise the audience in the delivery of a song, the easier it is to reach them.’ (Alan Morrison) Angelika Kirchschlager (International Festival) Queen’s Hall, 473 2000, 76 Aug, 77am, £5—£79.
Emily Perkins
There’s more than one Antipodean former soap star making their Edinburgh debut this year. New Zealander Emily Perkins deCIded at the age of eight that she simply had to be an actress. By age fifteen she was in the country’s primetime weekly melo-fest Open House, huffing around as a sulkily spotty teenager. Seven years later she vowed never to act again and buckled down to write a batch of acclaimed short stories, picking up a Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize on the way, and eventually published her debut novel last year, Leave Before You Go.
The book is a grimly funny study of one man, Daniel, and his weaknesses related to love, drugs and, well, just getting on with anybody at all. ’l’ve always been more interested in failure than success,’ she has stated. ’Coming from New Zealand, you’re almost bound to be interested in isolation, identity and failure of communication.’ (Brian Donaldson)
The Best Of New Writing (Book Festival) Emily Perkins, Gap Studio Theatre, Charlotte Square Gardens, 624 5050, 79 Aug, noon, £5 (£3).
16 mausr i2—i9 Aug i999