PREVIEW OF 2000
Desbiuuls
Music Festivals For information on Big B'g Country, Glasgow International Jazz Festival, T in the Park, Edinburgh International Jazz and Blues Festival, Flux, Planet Pop, Mainline, Blues 2000, BBC Music Live and Big Big World, see i’.lusic. Prewew of 2000 on pages
96 97
Puppet And Animation Festival (Central Scotland, 27 Mar—29 Apr) From its humble beginnings, the festival has greatly expanded and now pulls strings across Central Scotland. Highlights this year include: Catherine Wheels's Martha, Storybox Theatre’s The Lift/e i’i/lcV‘rna/d, The Little Angel Puppet Theatre's Caribbean ver5ion of Noah’s Ark called 60 Noah Gol, Reppe's Tom Thumb and the ever popular Richard Medrington wrth Poo Arrcl Piglet Near/y Meet The Heffa/ump, Info 01467 622054
Edinburgh International Science Festival (Edinburgh, 8-18 Apr) SCience is more amazing than fiction, something the SCience Festival proves without dumbing down its diSCipline. This year's big themes include time, life on other planets, health, nature, art and science, and ethics. Seems appropriate that ZOOOAD — a SCI-fr date if ever there was one — should be the year to separate the soence from the fictiOn Info 0131 530 2001.
Scottish International Children's Festival (Edinburgh, 24 May—4 Jun) Kids jUSl want to have fun, don’t they? Here's a festival that speCialises in just that The city’s theatre venues play host to drama, music and puppetry. Elsewhere, kids \‘Vlll find interactive exhibitions, films, storytelling sessions and workshops to amuse themselves with Info 0131 225 8050.
Highland Festival (Various venues, 26 May-10 Jun) With the Widest geographical spread of any arts festival in Northern Europe, the Highland Festival takes the arts out of the City: drumming in caves, stiltwalking performances on mountaintops, Shakespeare in trees. This year’s highlights include a major theatre production about cheese, Hard Pressed, and Outdoors At Dores, where traditional rnuSiCians wrll gather en iiiasse on the shores of Loch Ness for a historic gioup photograph Info: 01463 71 1 1 12
West End Festival (Glasgow, 10—25 Jun) It's Summer in the City and there’s dancing in the streets when this arts festival transforms Glasgow’s West End Last year the Festival flew in perfOIrner‘s from as far afield as Cuba and Spain, but this is a real community festival and so everyone gets in on the act, from local museums and churches to cinemas and theatres. Info: 0141 341 0844
Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Edinburgh, 6—28 Aug) The Fringe’s astonishingly diverse mix of comedy, theatre, mu5ic and street performance engulfs Edinburgh each August. Programme details are sketchy at present, but with iiiaJOr venues such as the Assembly Rooms and Cafe Graffiti under threat,
98 THE lIST 7~201an ZCCO
Snapshot of modern life: Some Explicit Polaroids
2000 cou c: see {319 changes ‘o'11‘e world famous extent Info 0131 226 5257
Edinburgh International Book Festival (Edinburgh, 12-28 Aug) Reading books isn't abOut sitting on your behind for hOurs on end With readings, workshops and music events, the Book Festival encOurages y0u to stand up for your literature lay Mclnerney, Ruth Rendell, Vikram Seth, Annie PrOulx and Sean Hughes were among the plethora of literary guest stars on hand last year Info 0131 228 5444
Edinburgh International Film Festival (Edinburgh, 13-27 Aug) From star-studded blockbusters to cult and arthouse gems, the ElFF -- the longest continually running film festival in the world —- premieres the best of international cinema It's here you'll catch the next B/a/r Witch PrO/ect before anyone else, or spy glamOrous film stars, or pOSSIbly find yourself sitting next to one while watching a film Info 01312284051
Edinburgh International Festival (Edinburgh, 13 Aug—2 Sep) The world's grand arts festival will include a major theatre production from director Calixto Bieito, a new Ring Cycle (beginning with Wagner's Oas Rheingo/d by the Scottish Opera) and performances by Nederlands Dans Theater 1,2 and 3 Other highlights include Ian Bostridge, Pierre 80ulez, Thomas Zehetmair and the Culmination of the 'Music For The Millennium’ protect — a series of ten concerts, each celebrating a century of the millennium, Info 0131 473 2001 Aberdeen Alternative Festival (Aberdeen, 15—24 Oct) Take in the Northern Lights at the fastest growrng arts festival outwrth the Central Belt Gomez, Joan Baez and Malcolm McLaren topped the bill last year, so it’s likely that the Granite City wrll draw some big name talent in 2000 Expect an eclectic mix of theatre, dance, music and comedy Info 01224 635822.
Edinburgh's Hogmanay (Edinburgh, 29 Dec—1 Jan) Each year the celebrations grow as more revellers flood the City for the world's biggest New Year bash. The focus \Nlll remain on the City centre party, With its street artists, live music (Texas headlined 1999/2000) and fireworks display mounted on the castle ramparts. The real millennium starts here. Info: 0131 557 3990.
bheubre
The Pleasure Man (Glasgow Clll.'t‘.’l\ Theatre, from 4 Feb) l\1ae\\ests play written by and for herself, got he' arrested fOr obscenity at its premie' in the mid-1920s Fraught with saucy innuendo and extratagantlv wicked one-liners, this is its first production Since :t proxided a spicy tonic for gin- drenched prohibition America Telling the story of the rise and fall of a backstage Don Juan at a proxinc'ial theatre, some of the play's farcical behind-the-flats action resembles Micheal Frayn's NOIses‘ Off
Quartz (Edinburgh Traverse Theatre, from 8 Feb) Catherine Czerkawska's intriguing second play at the Traverse (after Wormwood) is abOut a beachcornber, living a due: and contented life on the Scottish West Coast, and the two women who read what they wish into his character An ObjeCI is washed up on the beach, which galvanises their lives A drama of shift-ng perspectives, the play looks like kick- starting a good season for the Traverse Three Sisters (Edinburgh Royal Lyceum, from 1 1 Feb) Liz Lochhead's adaptation of Chekov's elegiac masterpiece sees her team up again With director Tony Cownie follovwng their conspicuous Success wrth Ru/e Britannia last year The two have been working on a proiect which transfers the longing of the siblings of the title for metropolitan Moscow to something more local Also at the Lyceum in April Will be Edwrn Morgan’s adaptation of Phaedre, which has already won a national award for its production design
Some Explicit Polaroids (Edinburgh Traverse Theatre, from 7 Mar) Mark Ravenhill's work, most notably Shopping And Fucking, has created both controversy and acclaim in recent years. In this, the Scottish premier of his most recent work, he focuses on an 80s actiVist, who returns to streetlife after a fifteen year prison sentence to find the counterculture’s alteration into drug-taking, clubbing and hedonism something of a shock You can expect some vrtriolic social commentary here
Candide 2000 (Glasgow. Fruitmarket, from 9 Mar) Suspect Culture received great critical acclaim for Timeless and Mainstream, but this production sets a precedent by its very scale Here, the familiar story of the title character is presented in a shopping mall, complete With escalators. Groups of local children wrll JOln the cast of five in the production, which wrll tOur
Myths Of The Near Future (Glasgow venue tbc, mid Mar) Stewart Laing's trilogy of pieces adapted from J G Ballard's prose work, has, bit by bit, been presented as a kind of work in progress thr0ughout the latter half of 1999 This represents the Culmination of an arduous process of bringing the piece to the stage in a finished form, and tells stories of urban isolation, paranioa and delusion during the 'space age’.
The Reel Of The Hanged Man (Touring, from late Mar) This adaptation of