Exhibition
Edinburgh Printmakers open their new studio at Castle Mills to the public on Saturday with a double exhibition of prints by Scottish artist Callum Innes and new work by German printmaker/activist Thomas Kilpper.
Titled the Politics of Heritage vs the Heritage of Politics, Kilpper’s first exhibition in Scotland will comprise a large-scale site-specific floor carving commissioned by the Printmakers in celebration of their new home at the former rubber factory. Inspired by a research residency in Fountainbridge last year, Kilpper’s installation will depict political and heritage themes arising from his research into the archives of Castle Mills.
With the move to the larger £11million studio, Edinburgh Printmakers aim to create “an exciting hub for production, presentation and debate, while offering a range of opportunities with audiences for them to engage with the work of artists and practitioners in the creative industries”.
Chief executive Shan Edwards said: “Opening Castle Mills with a European artist, signifies our vision for Edinburgh
Printmakers in the future. By 2023, our spaces will be creative communities that
lead with our knowledge and heritage, innovate through our practice and ambitions and welcome the wider world to art.
From April 27, Castle Mills, Edinburgh, 10am to 6pm, (closed Mondays). www.edinburghprintmakers.co.uk
Festival
Paisley Food and Drink Festival showcases some of the best street food offerings in the country this Friday and Saturday with eateries taking part including Jim Fairlie’s Kitchen Farmer, Scozzese Woodfired Pizza, Babu Bombay Street Kitchen, Burger and Keg, Truckle and Loaf and Glasgow southside’s Rum Shack, who will also provide their popular Caribbean beer – just one of more than 70 cask-conditioned ales and bottled beers from around the world available.
New for this year is a dedicated vegan zone and Matt Pritchard of BBC’s Dirty Vegan cookery show will be at the demo kitchen, as will Gary Maclean, winner of Masterchef – The Professionals 2016. There will also be free kids cooking workshops, games, face painting and gigs specially for the under 5s by Sprog Rock.
April 26, 4pm to 10pm; April 27, noon to 9pm, Paisley Abbey, free. www.paisley.is
Concert
Hollywood conductor Richard Kaufman leads cellist Johannes Moser and the full RSNO in concerts featuring works by the world’s best known film composer John Williams, including themes from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Schindler’s List, Memoirs Of A Geisha, Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Jurassic Park and Superman.
April 25, Caird Hall, Dundee, 7.30pm, £7.50 to £25. Tel: 01382 434 940; April 26, Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 7.30pm, £29.50, £49. Tel: 0131 228 1155; April 27, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 7.30pm, £14.75 to £49. Tel: 0141 353 8000. www.rsno.org.uk
Books
Bestselling author Mhairi McFarlane launches her novel at a special live event hosted by Rare Birds Book Club.
The Falkirk-born writer will talk about her fifth Don’t You Forget About Me with Rachel Wood, founder of Rare Birds Book Club. The event will be a chance for subscribers and others interested to discuss the book in person with McFarlane, Wood and other readers.
Wood says: “Our book club really is about having a bit of fun. We’re all about just enjoying reading for the sake of reading and doing it in your own way.”
April 25, Custom Lane, Edinburgh, 6.30pm, £6.88. See bit.ly/RareBirdsMhairi www.rarebirdsbookclub.com
Theatre
Aberdeenshire-born writer and poet Lorna Moon was the highest paid female scriptwriter of the early Hollywood era, writing screenplays for movies starring the biggest film stars of the time such as Gloria Swanson, Lon Chaney, Douglas Fairbanks and Greta Garbo.
Yet Moon’s Doorways In Drumorty, a collection of short stories, was banned from her local library in Strichen for 50 years, apparently as the town’s inhabitants were terrified of recognising themselves.
First staged in 2010, writer Mike Gibb’s witty satire based on the book tours to venues across Scotland until mid-May with a new production directed by Andy Corelli.
April 24, Acorn Centre, Inverurie; Apr 25, Glenlivet, Public Hall; Apr 26, New Deer Public Hall; Apr 27, Alvah Parish Hall, Banff; Apr 28, Little Theatre, Nairn; May 1, Biggar, Corn Exchange; May 2, Bowhill Theatre, Selkirk; May 3, East Kilbride Arts Centre; May 4, Harbour Arts Centre, Irvine; May 8, Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock; May 11, Aros, Portree, Skye; May 15, Victory Hall, Benderloch; May 16, Riddle’s Court, Edinburgh; May 17, Old Kirk, Kirkcaldy; May 18, Dundee Rep Theatre.
Festival
Showcasing “the past, present and future of traditional music”, Edinburgh Tradfest kicks off on Friday with a concert at the Queen’s Hall by acclaimed Irish folk band Lankum before continuing over the next 11 days with more live music from the likes of award-winning quartet Gnoss, a celebration of Gaelic spiritual music in memory of John Macleod, Canadian supergroup The Fretless and What A Voice, a celebration of female tradition-bearers with Kathleen MacInnes, Fiona Hunter and Kaela Rowan.
As well as the concerts, Tradfest also includes events with Scots publisher Luath Press, including Brian Johnstone and Andy Jackson in discussion about Scotia Extremis, a collection of work from Scotland’s best-known contemporary poetic voices. The festival is also partnering with the Folk Film Gathering to present a selection of films with new scores by musician-composers such as award-winning duo Rona Wilkie and Marit Falt, who will perform live to screenings of 1947’s The Silver Darlings and Norwegian silent classic Laila from 1929.
April 26 to May 6, various locations, Edinburgh. www.edinburghtradfest.com
Film
Music documentary festival Doc’n Roll comes to Scotland for the first time this week with a programme featuring Pure Love: The Voice of Ella Fitzgerald, It Must Schwing: The Blue Note Story, and How They Got Over: Gospel Quartets And The Road To Rock’n’Roll, which explores rock’s roots in Gospel.
Other featured documentaries include Shut Up And Play The Piano, director Phillipp Jedicke’s unorthodox look at the “outrageous genius” of Canadian Chilly Gonzales and The Library Music Film which explores the secret history of music composed for film and TV from the late 1960s to the mid-1980s.
Musicians-turned-directors Gina Birch (The Raincoats) and Helen Reddington (The Chefs) will be on hand for a Q&A after a screening of their film Stories From The She Punks which features new interviews with punk musicians such as Au Pairs’ frontwoman Lesley Wood and Palmolive from The Slits.
April 25 to 28, Cameo, Edinburgh, various times and prices. www.docnrollfestival.com/scotland www.picturehouses.com
Books
In separate events on Tuesday evening, book festival Aye Right! presents two giants of contemporary fiction launching their new books at Glasgow’s Mitchell Library.
Ian McEwan will talk about his eighteenth novel Machines Like Me, which is set in an alternative 1980s, and Chris Brookmyre will launch his new book, Fallen Angel, in which dark secrets resurface at a family reunion.
April 23, McEwan: 6.30pm; Brookmyre: 8pm, £10 each, Mitchell Library, Glasgow. Tel: 0141 353 8000. www.ayewrite.com
Theatre
Premiering this week at Perth Theatre before touring across the country is Lost At Sea, playwright Morna Young’s tribute to Scotland’s fishing communities.
Inspired by the loss of Young’s fisherman father, Lost At Sea sees Outlander actor Tam Dean Burn heads the cast as a skipper in a small fishing village all too aware of the “war o’man versus the elements”.
The epic features the words of real fishermen and their families and spans the decades from the 1970s to the present day using music, songs and the Scots language.
As well as interviews with people involved in the industry from around Scotland’s north east, Young’s research also included taking on a voluntary 15-hour shift on a small fishing boat out from her home village of Burghead to learn more.
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of Young’s father being lost. While the play was completed in 2013, its roots are older.
“When I was a teenager, it was always in the back of my head to write something to pay tribute to him,” Young says. “But I didn’t feel ready for years. I didn’t remember it happening, I was so young. People say I’m like my dad but I personally will never know him. Writing this play feels like an opportunity for me to grieve.”
April 25 to May 4, Perth Theatre; May 6 and 7, Dundee Rep; May 9 to 11, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen; May 14, Beacon Arts Centre, Greenock; May 16 to 18, Eden Court, Inverness; May 20 to 22, Kings Theatre, Edinburgh; May 24, Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries. www.mornayoung.com
Concert
The Glasgow Phoenix Choir, one of the longest established choral groups in Scotland, performs its annual spring concert on Friday with special guests Inverclyde Voices and Inverclyde Schools’ Senior and Junior Choirs. Also featuring will be Whitburn Band, Scottish Open Brass Band Champions of 2018.
The concert will be the final appearance of the choir at the Royal Concert Hall under conductor Marilyn J Smith after 28 years. With picks including Pietro Mascagni’s Easter Hymn, Scots Wha Hae and Always Look on the Bright Side of Life, the packed, highly diverse programme reflects Smith’s three-decade career with the choir, several recordings of which have achieved silver and gold disc status.
April 26, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, 7.30pm, £11 to £20. Tel: 0141 353 8000. www.phoenixchoir.org
BOOK NOW:
Gladys Knight
Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, July 1
Scottish Opera & Opera Ventures: Breaking The Waves
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh, August 21, 23 and 24
Glasgow Summer Sessions: The 1975, Twin Atlantic, You And Me At Six, Pale Waves, Ten Tonnes, No Rome
Bellahouston Park, August 25
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