What’sOn
■ Books ■ Clubs ■ Comedy 32 35 42
■ Film ■ Kids ■ LGBT 44 57 59
AroundTown
www.list.co.uk/aroundtown
■ Music ■ Theatre ■ Visual Art 60 83 89
✽✽ HITLIST
UNDEAD, UNDRESSED AND UNMISSABLE
Ripping yarns
Niki Boyle examines the Scottish International Storytelling Festival programme with festival director Donald Smith
F ollowing on from 2009’s ‘Homeland’ theme, which explored the tales of the Scottish diaspora, the ‘Eastern Routes’ strand of this year’s Scottish International Storytelling Festival surveys storytelling from India and beyond, including the effects produced by Scots travellers.
‘The Japanese strand is particularly interesting,’ says Donald Smith (pictured), director of both the festival and its spiritual home, the Scottish Storytelling Centre. ‘We’ve got the senior storyteller of the Ainu coming, who are the indigenous Japanese people. They believe that that they were saved from extinction, as a culture, by a Scot called Dr Munro. He became a champion of their culture, even married into it, and now they’re coming over and doing events in Moray, where he came from.’ The Ainu event is also a good example of the type of mixed-media activity the festival wishes to promote: the storytellers are accompanied by log- beaters, who provide a rhythm for the narrative, as well as creating a sort of ‘forest ambience’ (the Ainu, who nowadays are predominantly rice farmers, have a historical link with forestry), while the Filmhouse will be screening two new manga animations about the Ainu. Other events at the festival combine storytelling with music, dance, song and food, resulting in a more immersive experience for the audience and the storyteller.
‘It all goes back to the Scottish tradition of “ceilidh”, which was not just dancing, as we understand it now,’ explains Smith. ‘It was an event where people would gather together, and there would be hospitality, singing, storytelling, music, and OK,
maybe some dance. One of the big artistic objectives that we have over the next couple of years is doing more events that cross over between music, song, story and dance – what’s sometimes called the “traditional arts”. That synergy between story, music and dance is going to be a big part of where we’re going in the next two to three years. That’s the theme, if you like, that underlies all the programming at this year’s festival, regardless of whether it’s coming from Scottish or visiting artists.’ The final theme underlying the festival’s programming is the Festival on Tour strand. ‘There’s a lot of diversification within Scotland and Scottish storytelling tradition, and that’s the whole idea behind Festival on Tour,’ says Smith. ‘It’s a two-way thing: firstly, we’ve got the Scottish artists that we work with all year round, from all around the country. The main event there is Tell-a-Story Day, when we’ll have various places around the country hosting their own local storytelling events. Then we’ve also got these visiting storytellers, who get to go out, meet people, see different parts of Scotland, which in our experience they love. That’s something we’ve really developed, that’s become part of the package for visiting storytellers over the past few years: wherever they’re coming from, they’ll have the opportunity to go to another part of Scotland, to spread these oral traditions, which is very culturally important.’
The Scottish International Storytelling Festival, Fri 22–Sun 31 Oct. See www.scottishstorytellingcentre.co.uk for full listings.
✽✽ Death Weekend Life is so passé – long live death! A celebration of all things morbid, including music from Nalle (pictured) and the climax of the Edinburgh Zombie Walk. See caption, page 31. Roxy Art House, Edinburgh, Fri 29–Sun 31 Oct. ✽✽ The Edinburgh World Justice Festival A week- long programme of events and discussions engineered to get us thinking about the world we live in. See www.ewjf.org.uk for full event listings. St Augustine’s, Edinburgh, until Sat 23 Oct. ✽✽ Supermercado Weekly indie marketplace from Glasgow craft collective Made in the Shade. Barras Market, Glasgow, Sat 23 Oct & Sat 30 Oct. ✽✽ Glasgow PicKnitters Hallowe’en Special Eat a sandwich, knit a scarf, tell ghost stories. There’s nothing not to enjoy there. Glasgow Botanic Gardens, Sun 24 Oct. ✽✽ Glasgow Zombie Walk The great undead wander the streets, and have a jolly good time at it. See Hallowe’en feature, page 21. Starts at 3pm in Kelvingrove Park, Glasgow, Sun 31 Oct. ✽✽ Dr Sketchy’s Anti-Art Class The burlesque life- drawing sessions – complete with music, food, drinks and a relaxed atmosphere – are enjoyable at all times of the year, but we suspect the Hallowe’en edition will have an extra special something. Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 31 Oct. ✽✽ Samhuinn The Beltane Fire Society perform the pagan ritual that keeps the seasons progressing as they should. See caption, page 30. Royal Mile, Edinburgh, Sun 31 Oct. 21 Oct–4 Nov 2010 THE LIST 29