Th e B r
e i
f
i n g
AROUND TOWN Congratulations to the team at the National Museum of Scotland; the space has attracted an impressive two million visitors since its £47m revamp 10 months ago. A short train ride away, another attraction is hoping to show its mettle, with news that the Forth rail bridge will be put forward to UNESCO as a potential World Heritage Site. A decision isn’t expected until 2015. Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs Fiona Hyslop referred to the bridge as a ‘Scottish icon that is recognised the world over’. She added: ‘To have the bridge inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site would be a tremendous accolade for the bridge itself, for the local communities and for Scotland.’
FESTIVALS We love a festival; and, and, has would you believe it, another has eet. turned up that’s right up our street. nal Edinburgh will host an international st. festival of magazines this August. nal Organised by the Professional ng Publishers Association and being 5 held at Dynamic Earth (Sat 25 m, & Sun 26 Aug), MagFest’s aim, t say organisers, is ‘to reach out to writers, editors and designers by sharing expert knowledge and magazine publishing successes from Scotland, the UK and around the world’.
THEATRE Philip Howard and Jemima Levick have been appointed joint artistic directors of Dundee Rep Theatre, effective spring 2013. Howard has also been appointed chief executive of Dundee Rep Theatre Ltd. We wish them luck in their new posts. Meanwhile, Oran Mor has revealed a Channel 4/ Oran Mor Comedy Drama Award. The award carries a prize of £5000 and is open to all writers resident in the UK. The winning entry will be given its stage premiere in March 2013 at A Play, a Pie and a Pint during the Glasgow International Comedy Festival. The closing date for entries is
Mo Mon 1 Oct. Scripts, in one act and no m no more than 50 minutes in length and and using no more than three actors, shou should be submitted by email to: April April Chamberlain, aprilcha@gmail. com. Get writing, people. And back in the capital, look out for the Devoted and Disgruntled Roadshow at the Royal Lyceum, on Thu 28 & Fri 29 Jul. This ‘open, collaborative conference’ is for anyone who loves the arts. VISUAL ART And finally, the CCA continues to showcase its creative muscle, this month (until Thu 28 Jul), presenting the work of Indian graphic novelist, artist, and filmmaker, Sarnath Banerjee. The exhibition is Banerjee’s first in Scotland, and includes drawings and films, as well as a reading room dedicated to the graphic novel.
TRIBUTES PAID TO DUNDEE REP STALWART ROBERT PATERSON
Tributes have been paid to Robert Paterson, a long-serving member of the Dundee Rep Ensemble, who has died suddenly at the age of 55. Paterson performed in more than 50 productions as part of the highly acclaimed ensemble, taking on numerous eclectic roles. He portrayed George, one half of the world’s most obnoxious drinks party hosting couple, memorably sparring with Irene MacDougall’s Martha in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in 2009, and gave a fi ne performance as Dysart the psychiatrist in Jemima Levick’s production of Equus a year later. At the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe he gave a standout turn as the colossally fat and cantankerous Tiny, a member of a travelling human freak show, in Lynda Radley’s Futureproof. Most recently Paterson starred in the
CATS award-winning Further Than the Furthest Thing as South African factory owner Hansen, and he was also a popular fi xture in the Rep’s annual panto.
A statement from Dundee Rep described Paterson as an ‘institution’ and said: ‘We are shocked and devastated with the news. Our thoughts and sympathy are with his family at this desperately sad time.’
At the time of his death Paterson was appearing in a run of The Tempest at the Rep. Some performances have been cancelled, however the production will recommence from Thursday 21 June at 7:30pm. We at The List would like to express our deep sadness at Robert’s passing and add our condolences to his family and friends.
L L E R R A F W E R D © O T O H P
Visit list.co.uk for daily arts & entertainment news
ARTS AND CULTURE NEWS A COVERED IN TWO MINUTES C Channel HOPPER
DISPATCHES FROM THE SOFA, WITH BRIAN DONALDSON
■ When ‘the best detective in this city’ is on the spot to save a young mother from being mugged at knifepoint in the street, you might expect his hero status to go through the roof. Instead, he is slapped with a ‘yellow notice’ for not declaring the unpaid frothy cappuccino he left behind to apprehend the blade- happy reprobate. It wouldn’t have happened to Gene Hunt in Life on Mars. But it does happen to Tony Gates (Lennie James) in Line of Duty (BBC Two, Tue 26 Jun, 9pm). There is a hidden agenda to this move by the anti-corruption unit whose leaders just can’t believe that the wildly impressive crimestopping figures of Gates and his team have been achieved without some underhand methods. The fact that the seemingly squeaky-clean Gates is protecting an old flame who killed a pedestrian in a drunk-driving hit-and-run merely opens up a can of worms stuffed full of moral dilemmas. And worms.
Jed Mercurio is more used to
stalking the corridors of hospitals on the likes of Bodies, Cardiac Arrest and Casualty, but here is taking a scalpel to the grimy political world of backstabbing coppers and the rabid zealots handpicked to police the police. Asides from a rather limp homage to The Wire and Martin Compston, as the possible moral centre of the story, giving us a pitch-perfect Dick Van Dyke cockney brogue (you’ll be doing well if you can place the accent The Thick of It’s Paul Higgins is attempting though), this looks like a of compelling if not especially complex drama series.
Real police? 21 Jun–19 Jul 2012 THE LIST 11