International
| 01 September 2011
In the dance village of Nrityagram, students live solely to dance. It is therefore a great privilege to be able to see this community, who practice from dawn to dusk to achieve perfection, in the flesh, and in our fair city.| 01 September 2011
Difficult, unsparing, almost deliberately oblique, Drought and Rain delivers an hour and some of music and dance theatre that feels at least double that. As an exploration of the Vietnam War through the eyes of people that lived through it, it is undoubtedly flawed, failing to find much tension or even emotional connection to the conflict. However, it is not without its shining moments.
| 25 August 2011
| 24 August 2011
| 21 August 2011
Where to start? This production by the Shanghai Peking Opera Troupe, performing what is essentially Hamlet in traditional Jingju style, initially intrigues then becomes breathtaking, deeply moving and well deserving of its audience’s standing ovation.
| 17 August 2011
Mark Fisher takes a look at the opera programme at this year's International Festival
| 16 August 2011
Purists, be warned: This ain’t your mama’s Shakespeare. Presented in three acts, of which only the second loosely follows the traditional text, Wu Hsing-kuo’s presents a radical rendition of the beloved King Lear.
| 15 August 2011
The Peony Pavilion is one of the most iconic love stories in Chinese literature, a deeply romantic tale of the power of love to conquer death. Featuring Fei Bo’s sensuous choreography, this production from the National Ballet of China brings to the Festival Theatre not only a ballet corps of over 50 dancers and its resident symphony orchestra, but an evening of exquisite storytelling and symbolically laden drama.
| 14 August 2011
There is a surfeit of Shakespeare in translation at this year’s International Festival, with Chinese productions of King Lear and The Revenge of Prince Zi Dan, an adapted version of Hamlet. However, one of the most visually arresting, and surely the most fun, is Korean company Mokwha Repertory’s The Tempest.
| 13 August 2011
The Qatsi trilogy is a series of wordless films about the destruction of landscape by Godfrey Reggio. Here, the films are accompanied by their musical scores performed live by the Phillip Glass Ensemble, and conducted by Michael Reisman on keyboards throughout. I sat overwhelmed, the imagery and acoustic reverberating to create a palpable tingle.| 06 September 2010
Flamenco guitarist Paco Peña unites Spanish and African music and dance in Quimeras, a celebration of immigration and shared cultures. A group of Ghanaians moving to Spain suffer exclusion and persecution on arrival, but cling to their national dances for identity. Initially each nationality performs independently, but the show gradually blends the two until everyone dances together to the rhythm of African drums and Spanish guitar.
| 02 September 2010
Mixing theatre and cinema, Sin Sangre is an impressive combination of the two art forms, but not one that helps tell the story. Adapted from a novella by Alessandro Baricco, it begins during the Chilean civil war and looks at the violence and vengeance that occurred under Pinochet. Three men kill a doctor for war crimes at his forest hide-out, but they leave his young daughter alive. Years later, one of the men meets the girl and, as they tell their life stories, a break in the cycle of violence becomes a possibility.
| 25 August 2010
In a colourful production featuring a cast of dozens, the age of multimedia together with the Opera de Lyon adapt themselves to Gershwin’s classic folk opera portraying the lives of the inhabitants of Catfish Row. | 17 August 2010
Hemingway – boring, dry and overly obsessed with masculine pursuits? If this sums up your opinion on the works of the man they called ‘Papa’, this new production of The Sun Also Rises by the Elevator Repair Service will do little to dispel that conclusion.| 26 July 2010
Step it up at one of the dazzling dance performances around the city this month. Kelly Apter leads you through the options.
ALONZO KING LINES BALLET
Festival Theatre
26-29 August, 8pm
Blending classical ballet training with contemporary dance moves, San Franciscan choreographer Alonzo King brings two works to the International Festival. Dust & Light is set to Baroque music, while Rasa features live tabla playing from Grammy Award-winner Zakir Hussain.
BLOOD, SWEAT AND TEARS
Zoo Roxy
13-21 August (not 17), 1pm
One of the most interesting dance companies in Britain, balletLORENT presents this
well-observed dance piece about a young couple adjusting to life with a young baby.
| 19 July 2010
If you think that the Royal Bank of Scotland caused the country’s greatest economic disaster, you’d be forgetting your history, says Alistair Beaton.For politicians, Alistair Beaton is a man to be wary of. The Glasgow-born writer has a dangerous reputation for producing satirical send-ups of the great and the good. He was the man behind The Trial of Tony Blair, the Channel 4 film in which Robert Lindsay played a prime minister struggling to face up to the legacy of war in Iraq. One commentator called the BAFTA-nominated drama a “vindictive fantasy”.
| 19 July 2010
Working together as a family is just as important as the sheer joy of movement for the passionate Grupo Corpo, Brazil’s original contemporary dance troupe.
When you’re hard at work every day, fitting in family visits can be a challenge. Unless you’re a member of the Pederneiras clan, that is, in which case it’s all rather handily under one roof. Based in Brazil’s Belo Horizonte district, Grupo Corpo is one of South America’s most exciting dance companies – and a real family affair.
Formed in 1975 by brothers Paulo and Rodrigo Pederneiras, they’ve since been joined by sister Miriam who runs their education project and assists with choreography, and brothers Pedro and José as technical director and company photographer respectively. More recently, a younger generation has swelled the Grupo Corpo pack, with Rodrigo’s son Gabriel taking on the role of technical co-ordinator.
| 19 July 2010
What inspired the Artistic Director of the Southbank Centre to drop everything and work on a flamenco show? One man: Paco Peña.
When your reputation for excellence is as strong as Paco Peña’s, you don’t work with just anybody. So it comes as no surprise that the flamenco star’s choice of director is just as accomplished. Awarded an OBE in 1997 for services to theatre, Jude Kelly is one impressive woman. Currently Artistic Director of London’s Southbank Centre and a senior figure in the 2012 Olympics’ cultural programme, it’s remarkable she finds time to do anything else.
| 16 July 2010
George Gershwin’s classic Porgy and Bess is finding new life with a French opera company introducing film and dance to create a visual feast.
It has been called the first American folk opera, and it’s as rooted in the Deep South as soul food and Mardi Gras. So for George and Ira Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess to be staged by – whisper it – a French opera company is a challenge to convention.
Even more of a challenge is that the creative team behind it – directors José Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu – have built their reputation not with musicals or operas, but as choreographers who routinely set their dancers in front of exuberant large-scale video projections. It was their production of On Danse that provided the Edinburgh International Festival with its much-used image of an elephant on a flying carpet in 2007.
| 16 July 2010
JOYCE DiDONATOWhat’s your best memory from a previous festival?
Well, the memory most vivid in my mind was performing with Sir Richard Norrington and the amazing Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in the newly refurbished Usher Hall, and not more than a minute into our dramatic opening the lights went completely out! What I remember most was the good natured response of the wonderful public, and when the problem was finally corrected, they held their attention divinely and we gave, I hope, a really memorable performance.
