of 90s illegal rave culture, which won him the CATS award for Best New Play. Proving the gong was no l uke he went on to portray last year’s riots in England in powerful new work Chalk Farm. (AR)
22 THE ARCHES THE MULTI-ARTS VENUE
TURNS 21
The Arches hosted a hot bed of creative theatre talent such as Beats (see no 23) and Arches Live!,
but was also home to the terrifying resurrection of Alien Wars and host to a selection of top gigs (from Damon Albarn’s Africa Express to M83) and club nights (including Death Disco’s i nal swansong starring Jacques Lu Cont). (HN)
21 GRANT MORRISON OTHERWORLDLY
COMICS GURU
Still peppering the world of mainstream comics with surreal metaphysics, Morrison wrote more Action Comics and penned the Dinosaurs And Aliens graphic novel, going on to pick up an MBE for ‘services to i lm and literature’. He’s also the only person on our list to have his own convention, MorrisonCon, in Vegas. (HN)
20 KATRINA BROWN STATE OF THE ART CURATOR
Brown signed off as director of the Glasgow International Festival of Visual Art with the bi-annual
event’s i nest programme to date, including new work from Karla Black, a celebration of Black Panther Culture Minister Emory Douglas and Jeremy Deller’s marvellous interactive inl atable Stonehenge sculpture, Sacrilege. (AR)
19 CALVIN HARRIS POP PRINCESSES’
GO-TO GUY
R E L S S E R W E R D
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Love or hate his music, even more success has come the Dumfries-raised producer’s way this year, such as the
star-packed album 18 Months hitting number one, three successful singles (including the number one ‘Sweet Nothing’ with Florence Welch) and producing Scissor Sisters and Cheryl Cole. We could go on . . . (DP)
18 DAVID GREIG (SEE PANEL, RIGHT)
THE HOT 100
DAVID GREIG DRAMA KING
It seems strange to be hailing David Greig as one of Scotland’s most exciting cultural i gures of 2012 when the Edinburgh-born playwright has had a reputation as a prolii c and versatile artist for nearly two decades. Even so, the scope of Greig’s work over the past 12 months has been extraordinary, from shaping the multi-arts performance project Whatever Gets You Through the Night to collaborating on the political musical Glasgow Girls and working on the book for
the forthcoming stage adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
So is it this diversity that sustains his passion for live theatre? ‘I think the source of the passion
is the freedom that comes from i nally trusting that if my intention as a storyteller is clear then the audience will come with me on whatever journey.’ Greig is well known for his political engagement, and one of his most ambitious projects this year was curating the One Day in Spring season of Middle Eastern theatre at Òran Mór. It turned out to be a much bigger project than he anticipated. ‘In the end, with David MacLennan and NTS getting involved, it turned into a festival. I loved hearing the unfamiliar stories from places we normally only get to experience via the news.’ Greig’s political interests aren’t coni ned to global issues. As anyone who has followed the dispute between artists and Creative Scotland will know, the playwright has been vocal in his criticism of the national arts agency. Interestingly, he seems optimistic about the future. ‘I hope that there will be change at the top,’ he says in the days just before the resignation of Andrew Dixon is announced. ‘Relationships aren’t working and I think they need to change. We all need to take responsibility: makers, companies, government, Creative Scotland staff, everyone. I feel sure we could end up looking back on this crisis as a positive turning point for the arts in Scotland.’
His optimism extends to the wider health of the arts north of the border. ‘There really is a lot to be celebrated in Scotland, particularly the extraordinary degree of political support for the arts in this country. I think the build-up to the Independence referendum means we’re living through times where everything is legitimately up for debate. Where better to have that debate than in the theatre, or in a novel, or on i lm. Big choices make for big art, I think.’ (Allan Radcliffe) ■ See more of this interview at list.co.uk
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13 Dec 2012–24 Jan 2013 THE LIST 25