P H O T O © S E A M U S M C G A R V E Y
S E L B E E P N A L A © O T O H P
NEWS
For more news go to LIST.CO.UK /NEWS
ANNOUNCEMENTS, LINE-UPS AND OPINION
SCOTTISH CHILDREN’S BOOK AWARDS ANNOUNCED Chae Strathie, Janis Mackay and Claire McFall have been announced as winners of the 2013 Scottish Children’s Book Awards (above), voted for exclusively by children. Strathie’s Jumblebum is about a mess-loving monster; Mackay writes about an accidental time-traveller; and McFall’s Ferryman is a love story set in the afterlife.
EIF BRINGS WAR TO THE CITY
Conl ict and conciliation are the themes of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival, whose programme just been announced. has Highlights the theatrical Delusion of the Fury by radical US composer Harry Partch (left), a new project on the First World War from the Kronos Quartet, and a confrontational installation on slavery and racism. See interview (right), and eif.co.uk for full details. include
GET INVOLVED IN T IN THE PARK Biffy Clyro, Calvin Harris, Chvrches, Tinie Tempah, Arctic Monkeys and Ed Sheeran are among the acts announced for T in the Park (11–13 July). Unsigned Scottish-based bands can submit a demo for a chance to play on the T Break Stage with entries closing on 31 March. More info on T Break at tennents.com/tbreak.
EDINBURGH ART FESTIVAL 2014 REVEALED Five curators and 20 artists from across the Commonwealth will come together for a major strand in this year’s Edinburgh Art Festival,
whose programme has just been announced. Where do I end and you begin takes over the City Art Centre with i lms, installations, sculptures and other work, and elsewhere on the packed bill, there’s new work from John Byrne, Isa Genzken and Tris Vonna-Michell, plus a travelling gallery and a bakery installation. More info at edinburghartfestival.com.
NEW ARTS DOC FEST FOR GLASGOW The BBC hosts a new festival of international arts documentary i lms from 10–13 April at the Glasgow Film Theatre and CCA. Art Screen features documentaries on music, photography, visual art and architecture, as well as rarely seen footage from the BBC archive. More info at bbc.co.uk/artscreen.
LOOPY LORNA’S OWNER DIES Gaynor Salisbury, owner of much-loved Loopy Lorna’s Tea Houses in Morningside, has died at the age of 52. She was forced to close her Church Hill Theatre café in November following treatment for secondary breast cancer.
YOUNG COMMONWEALTH DANCERS FLOCK TO GLASGOW
More than 400 dancers from as far ai eld as India, Canada, Malta, Australia, New Zealand and the UK descend on Glasgow’s Tramway for the Commonwealth Youth Dance Festival from 10 July. Organised by YDance, Scotland’s national dance organisation for young people, event ranges from Aboriginal and African dance to Scottish fusion. More info can be found at ydance.org. the
JONATHAN MILLS
The outgoing Edinburgh International Festival director discusses his just-announced i nal programme
What are this year’s EIF themes? It’s put together partly to coincide with the Commonwealth Games, and partly to coincide with the centenary of the outbreak of the First World War. But there is a much broader dimension: the way in which artists have allowed us to transcend, to even be optimistic at the darkest moments in human history. What are your own highlights? In terms of theatre, two pieces that beautifully match each other are The War and Front. The i rst anticipates war, with a group of students spending Christmas together just before the outbreak of the First World War. Then there’s the aftermath of the war in those very poignant books written from the trenches, particularly All Quiet on the Western Front, which is performed in English, Flemish, French and German.
How are your addressing the independence referendum? I think The James Plays are very relevant, because they give us a sense of history and of thematic recurrence. How are your marking your i nal year as director? I was asked on a lot of occasions when I was going to programme something that I’d written. I said OK, for my last festival we’ll think about it. The last Usher Hall concert includes my piece Sandakan Threnody, which is themed around the death marches in northern Borneo in 1945, and the personal connections that my father had to that.
What advice do you have for your successor, Fergus Linehan? Be yourself, and enjoy it. It’s a festival: be as exuberant and as authentic as you need to be. ■ Edinburgh International Festival, Fri 8–Sun 31 Aug, eif.co.uk
20 Mar–17 Apr 2014 THE LIST 7