YIANNI: TRANSGRESSING THE 'LINE'
ThreeWeeks Editors' Award winner Yianni returns to the Fringe this year to explore the big fat line. As in the line jokes sometimes cross. Supposedly. But what is that line? Where is that line? Why does it seem to constantly shift? Inspired by an email he received from a comedy booker explaining the no go areas for his upcoming gig, Yianni's show 'Why Did The Chicken Cross The Line?' gets to the bottom of it all.
ThreeWeeks' Chris Cooke chats to Yianni about his 2015 show here |
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THREEWEEKS RETURNS TO HELP YOU NAVIGATE EDINBURGH'S BIG THREE WEEKS
The biggest ever Edinburgh Festival kicks off next week, with 3314 shows listed in the official Fringe programme alone, and that's before you consider the other six festivals that the Scottish capital will host during the month of August.
Which means once again Edinburgh will witness a tidal wave of cultural talent of all kinds - musical, comedic, physical, theatrical, literary, poetic, artistic and those that are harder to define - taking over every stage, concert hall, cabaret bar, vault, lecture room, back room and corridor to present the greatest cultural spectacle that history has ever seen.
Which is all rather exciting; hence the hyperbole we splashed out on just there. Though it does, of course, make the challenge of navigating what is on offer all the bigger, which is where ThreeWeeks steps in as it prepares to cover its twentieth Edinburgh Festival season. And editors Caro Moses and Chris Cooke once again bring their two decades of experience to the table.
Caro has worked her way through all of the festivals' programmes and a flood of press releases, chatted to those in the know, and revisited both the ThreeWeeks online archive and the separate archive in her mind, to select 81 shows and events that deserve each festival-goer's time. They will appear in 27 sets of Three To See recommendations, both online and in the big ThreeWeeks preview edition that is delivered to thousands of Edinburgh homes just ahead of the Festival, and which will also be available from all the key venues as they open next week.
On top of all that, Caro has invited some of our favourite performers to contribute exclusive columns, and both she and Chris will be chatting to a stack more people about their shows, with regular interviews appearing online and in the four ThreeWeeks magazines that will be published this August. Chris is also getting ready to talk to an assortment of other Festival people on the TW Podcast, which returns later this week.
And that's all before you get to the reviews. For much of its 20 years covering the Fringe, ThreeWeeks was known for the acclaimed media-skills education programme that ran alongside the magazine, participants in which formed the publication's review team. This education programme is currently in this midst of a revamp, meaning that this year - as in 2014 - ThreeWeeks will field a smaller team of culture-hungry freelance critics to track the highs and the lows of the Fringe. Several of these reviewers are alumni of the aforementioned education programme, and it's great to welcome them back.
All of this coverage is - as always - available in print and online, and via email and podcast. So, as the biggest ever Edinburgh Festival gets underway, you need never get lost in that three weeks of cultural madness, because ThreeWeeks is never far away, to help you digest everything that's going on.
Tell friends to sign up for the ThreeWeeks daily email at threeweeks.co.uk/signup |
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MÁRIE CLERKIN: CONFESSIONS OF A DODGY IRISH DANCER
Nearly three decades on since last performing at the Edinburgh Fringe with The Hairy Marys Irish dance troupe, Máire Clerkin returns to the Festival with plenty of confessions to share. Think you know everything there is to know about the Irish who dance? Well, assuming you've now got 'Riverdance' in your mind, read on, because Clerkin would like to retune your brain.
Check out Máire's ThreeWeeks column here |
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THREE TO SEE: EXHIBITIONS
With the Edinburgh Art Festival being the first of the city's summer festivals to get up and running (this coming Friday in fact), the first set of Three To See tips of the year from ThreeWeeks Co-Editor Caro Moses are focused on exhibitions, something a little arty and some science for good measure.
Bernat Klein: A Life In Colour
I am completely in love with textiles at the moment, and because I am entirely assured of my own great taste in everything, I think everyone else in the world should be in love with textiles too. But, even if you are not completely in love with textiles, you should take a look at this exhibition, not least because it's a retrospective of the work of Bernat Klein, a renowned and award winning designer who supplied fabrics to haute couture houses. The show features tapestries and paintings by the Serbian born artist, who settled in Scotland in the 1950s, and died last year at the age of 91.
Dovecot Gallery, from 31 Jul until 26 Sep
The Capercaillie's Song (pictured)
This exhibition of the work of acclaimed Scottish painter John Bellany has been curated by the late artist's wife and muse, Helen Bellany, and must therefore offer an interesting insight into both her perceptions of his work, and their tempestuous life together. Some of the works on display are drawn from the Bellanys' private collection and have not been seen before, so definitely one for the to-see list.
Open Eye Gallery, from 3 Aug until 2 Sep
Towards Dolly: A Century Of Animal Genetics In Edinburgh
Dolly is very possibly one of the world's most famous Edinburgh residents, very probably one of the world's most famous animals, and pretty much definitely the best known sheep on the the planet (sorry Shaun). The first animal to be cloned from an adult somatic cell, she spent her days in the city's Roslin Institute before her death in 2003. Her creation was the result of many years of research, and this exhibition tells the story with a wide variety of material, including sound, film, images, and books.
University of Edinburgh Main Library, from 3 until 31 Aug
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THREE TO SEE: YOUTH EVENTS
Getting her Three To See Edinburgh tips underway for 2015, ThreeWeeks Co-Editor Caro Moses recommends three events for younger festival goers from this year's programme.
Drama Workshops for 5-12
Spotlites are brilliant at doing stuff for small people; their interactive shows, in which all the young ones are encouraged to get involved, are a fantastic introduction to theatre, so I would highly recommend em all. But there's also this great next step, a workshop where the children get to create their own stories, brilliant for your theatrically inclined kids, and brilliant for you, because you get to drop them off and go have a coffee. Win win.
Spotlites, from 4 until 30 Aug
Festival Youth Cafe Workshops
The Festival Of Politics has a whole load of short youth workshops going on throughout the afternoon of Saturday 15 Aug, led by the likes of leading caricaturist Terry Anderson, and covering such useful topics as film-making, performance poetry, vlogging and cartooning. Sounds like a good one for some of those hard-to-entertain growing up children of a certain age...
Festival Youth Cafe, 15 Aug
Be An Art Gallery Creator
One of the really brilliant things about the Edinburgh International Book Festival is its fat series of events aimed at young people. There are loads of great, great, great author events and workshops, so make sure you have a big look at what's on, because this is just one of many things that leapt out of me when I was perusing the programme. Here, your smaller ones (age 7-10) get to experience art in a whole new way, courtesy of Susie Hodge (pictured) and her new book and card game 'My Big Art Show'.
Baillie Gifford Imagination Lab, 20, 21 Aug |
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