AROUND TOWN list.co.uk/aroundtown
HITLIST THE BEST TALKS, SUPPERS AND SHOWS
✽ Classrooms for Malawi Burns Supper The Southside’s Glad Café
celebrates the Bard’s birthday with a blend of food, music, poetry and whisky for a very reasonable £25, with all proceeds going to charity. The Glad Café, Glasgow, Thu 23 Jan.
✽ Neu! Reekie! Alternative Burns Bash One of our favourite regular multi-platform
spoken word events celebrates Rabbie’s life and legacy in a less traditional manner, with poetry, music and ‘a multimedia interpretation of “Tam O’Shanter”’. See preview, left. Pilrig St Paul’s Church, Edinburgh, Sat 25 Jan.
✽ Zombie Science: Worst Case
Scenario Theoretical zombiologist Doctor Smith takes his post-apocalypse survival lecture on the road. Govanhill Baths, Glasgow, Fri 24 Jan.
✽ Meet the Mammoths Nellie the Elephant’s woollier cousins invade the
museum, with plenty of prehistoric activities to welcome them. National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh, Sat 25 & Sun 26 Jan.
✽ TNA Wrestling: Maximum Impact Tour Is it theatre-with-fighting, or just plain
old spandex tomfoolery? Judge for yourself at this big-budget arena event, featuring pro wrestling stars Kurt Angle, Bobby Roode and Jeff Hardy. SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Thu 30 Jan.
✽ Electric Glen A feast of sound, light and nature for the whole family, helping brighten up those miserable dark winter nights. See preview, page 38. Rouken Glen Park, Giffnock, Thu 6–Sun 9, Thu 13–Sun 16 Feb.
BURNS NIGHT EVENTS We round up the best Rabbie Burns knees-ups
I n this year of all years, the annual celebration of Robert Burns’ life takes on a different tone, surely impressing a sense of national cultural pride upon both sides of the independence debate. If you’re celebrating somewhere other than at home with whisky and poetry, where better than in Burns’ home town? The Big Burns Supper (various venues, Dumfries, Fri 24–Sun 26 Jan, pictured above) is a multi-genre mini-festival featuring music from Big Country and Dick Gaughan, plus comedy from Fred MacAulay and much more. Those attending Celtic Connections will be pleased to know that the festival is hosting International Burns Concert (SSE an Hydro, Glasgow) alongside Homecoming Scotland, featuring South Africa’s Mahotella Queens, India’s Raghu Dixit and Scotland’s own Dougie MacLean and Karine Polwart, while the Centre for Robert Burns Studies Conference (Mitchell Library, Glasgow) takes place earlier the same day. The other major event happening is Burnsfest (Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh, until Sat 1 Feb), a fortnight and more of storytelling, theatre, art and a ceilidh.
36 THE LIST 23 Jan–20 Feb 2014
For those with more under-the-radar tastes, meanwhile, the Neu! Reekie! Alternative Burns Bash (Pilrig St Paul’s Church, Edinburgh) features poetry from Ciaran Carson, music from Belle & Sebastian’s Stevie Jackson and the Vaselines’ Eugene Kelly, and a multimedia interpretation of ‘Tam O’Shanter’ by Rebel Inc founder Kevin Williamson and the Burns Troupe.
There are also more esoteric choices in Glasgow with a winning blend of food and music from offKILTR’s Keep the Fire Burning (SWG3, Glasgow, Fri 24 & Sat 25 Jan) and alternative community centre ceilidh A Fling for Rabbie (Kinning Park Complex, Glasgow). But our prize for most eccentric Burns event in the country has to be the Anybody But Burns Wikipedia Edit-A-Thon (National Library of Scotland, Edinburgh), which involves adding and amending details of Scotland’s poets with free lunch and poetry provided. (David Pollock)
A ll events are on Sat 25 Jan unless otherwise stated.
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