Today sees the start of the , which showcases animated features and shorts. The focus of this year's festival is , but there seems to be plenty of variety, including individual programmes of animation from , , and . It's not often that one sees Swiss culture represented - that's one in the eye for . I'm going to be out of London for the whole week of the festival so unfortunately I'm going to miss it, but if anyone sees a film that's particularly good then let us know. The British programme includes several of the shorts that we've shown in our animation slot on The Culture Show: The Control Master, Magnetic Movie and Cat Man Do, so if you missed them or would like to see them on the big screen then head over to the Curzon Soho.
Matthew Bourne, Joan Rivers and Ruby Wax all make an appearance in this week's third and final show from Edinburgh. Let us know what you thought of the programme and, if you were at Edinburgh yourself, how you enjoyed the festival.
Did anyone hear Front Row's documentary special on Radio 4 last night? It was put together as a mockumentary, complete with narrator and audio diary from Mark Lawson as he explored some of the issues surrounding the form on TV and at the cinema. The hook was the critical success of , but the recent discussions about trust in factual programmes also loomed large, and the tone seemed to be downbeat. To what extent should filmmakers flag up reconstruction? What are the ethics of making a factual programme where people are clearly courting the camera? and both spoke about the responsibility of representing subjects honestly and of retaining distance, but they seemed frustrated at the extent to which the media has conflated the recent scandals in entertainment TV with documentary television. was resistant to Mark Lawson's probing about his choices in making the documentary and appeared to interpret it as an attack on his integrity. This sensitivity seemed to me to be understandable, but a couple of key factors seemed to be missing.
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has given this year's to Metallica, and I thought it might be a good moment to mention a couple of Metallica-related events coming up in addition to the coverage of the titans of metal at Reading and Leeds. On Sunday 31 August at 11pm we are showing a special 30-minute programme about Metallica, following on from the item we showed on The Culture Show earlier in the month. It's on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two but Scotland Wales and Northern Ireland will see the programme at a later date - I don't have details as yet of when that will be. [the programme will now be shown around the UK in the same slot - ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two 11pm.] Check out our item on the band if you haven't already.
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is on familiar ground with his latest film, the story of a friendship that develops between two teenagers when they meet in North London's . In several of his previous films, including A Room for Romeo Brass, 24/7 and This Is England, the director has explored the connection between friends (or people who pass for friends) during adolescence. The main differences between the earlier films and are to do with texture rather than theme - this being Meadows' first feature to be shot in London and his first in black & white since Small Time in 1996.
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The most fun I've had at this year's festival has been at two group comedy shows: Aeneas Faversham Forever by and Funergy by . The Penny Dreadfuls describe themselves as 'a Victorian sketch comedy troupe' and their latest show is a tale of murder, the occult and children's authors. I've not been a great fan of Radio 4's Dickens parody Bleak Expectations and wondered if I might have a similar reaction to this show, but Aeneas Faversham Forever is witty and silly and features excellent performances from its three gentleman humorists. They apparently have a second series of The Brothers Faversham coming up on ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ 7 at some point but they are also very physical performers - somebody should put them on television.
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Tonight we preview 's new play, , which opens on Friday. Written by , whose previous work includes Blackbird and Knives in Hens, it follows a group of young people living in what is known as a 'practice flat' as they prepare to emerge from the care system. Also in the show, looks at political art including Richard Hamilton's show and Sherman Cymru's documentary drama while Tim Samuels provides some light relief with audience participation shows and . Let us know what you think of the show and whether you've seen anything good yourself this week in Edinburgh or beyond.
It's impossible to talk about British playwright without mentioning its context - that she committed suicide shortly after its completion. Watching the play count down to the death of the main character it is irresistible to draw parallels with Kane's own mental illness and experience of psychiatric hospital, but voyeurism isn't the only reason that this performance is compelling.
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All of the stand up shows that I've seen in Edinburgh have had one thing in common. Actually, as I seem to have confined myself to shows by men they've technically had two things in common. No matter how entertaining the performer or where in the UK or Ireland they hail from (I seem to also have discriminated against international comedians), they have all included something in their sets about the experience of flying with a budget airline.
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We've now had our first week of programmes from the festival and I wondered what you thought about the first two shows. Are we getting the mix right? Did you enjoy the pieces on Tracey Emin and Steven Berkoff? Were Tim Minchin and Simon Callow interesting guests? What did you think of the performances from Nouvelle Vague and The Tiger Lillies? Let us know.
When I first heard about the new piece, based on accounts of what happened at , I felt some apprehension. The idea of a theatrical experience aspiring to recreate the sensation of being led to the gas chambers verges on the insulting; how could a group of well-fed theatre goers get anywhere close to the horror of what took place in the concentration camps? Would the result be absurd rather than involving?
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There's a slight smugness about Irish comedian Andrew Maxwell that might prove an obstacle to laughs if he weren't so witty. As it is, Maxwell's tales of performing in front of Loyalist and Republican crowds in Belfast, of doing a gig in a prison and of being Irish in America are very, very funny. He has a great turn of phrase and a mastery of accents that makes his stories very involving. It's not entirely clear where the title of his show comes from - the story in which he wanders around a spooky derelict theatre with a cockney security guard is one of the few that doesn't seem to go anywhere - but the underlying message of the show seems to be that we should all be nice to one another.
The evening starts with a meditation on young men having to be "fierce" and the perception that violence is everywhere. In one of the funniest moments of the show he suggests that restrictions on knives are pointless because if people really want to do violence to someone they could use a fork or a spoon. In a perfect impersonation of street bravado he says, "You carry the spoon you have to use the spoon".
It's when Maxwell himself enters the frame that the smugness creeps in. He makes a great play of not being self-important about what he is doing, while stressing just how terrifying it is to be hanging out with a group of Loyalists: in other words he is incredibly brave and daring. It doesn't quite ring true, and while the hint of piety doesn't detract from the skill of his delivery or the intelligence of some of his observations, it has a distancing effect. The show ends with the suggestion that we should make each other laugh rather than resorting to violence - a fine sentiment; but for it to work we would all have to be as funny as Andrew Maxwell.
Our guests in the courtyard this week are comedian and musician and writer, actor and embodiment of the spirit of Charles Dickens, . In his interview - to be broadcast on Thursday's Uncut edition - Callow talks about the new musical Mathilde which he is directing at the festival in addition to performing his own show A Festival Dickens. Mathilde, written by , was commissioned by London Academy of Music and Drama, but when LAMDA cancelled the Edinburgh production and has cast performers including Frances Ruffelle and Sarah Lark. There are still parts on offer, however, with auditions taking place this Thursday at between 2pm and 6pm. If you would like more details email info@surefiretheatrical.com.
This morning I awoke from uneasy dreams. I'd had a nightmare that I was at the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh, at a The lights had dimmed in the theatre and the audience was sat there, waiting for the play to begin. After a significant wait, a figure could just be discerned in the darkness. There was some giggling, but it was swiftly hushed. Suddenly a face was illuminated and hung in the air - like the illuminated mouth of , and yet without any of its power or menace. The face continued hanging there for a rather a long while, calling to mind Queen's video for Bohemian Rhapsody. It is commonplace to speak of comic timing, but within tragedy there is an equal danger of timing being wrong and tipping what is intended to be serious into the hilarious. This is exactly what happened in this bewilderingly bad production.
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For the next three weeks the Culture Show comes from Edinburgh and goes under the alias of The Edinburgh Festival Show. The programmes are made by the same team (the half based in Glasgow rather than London) and Lauren Laverne fronts the shows. The slot is different this week - Wednesday at 10pm - with a longer version the following day) but should return to Tuesday at 10pm next week. I've come to Edinburgh for a flavour of what's on and to look ahead at what the team up here have planned. This week Miranda Sawyer talks to Tracey Emin about a at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art and Tim Samuels samples some of the Fringe shows.
In the wake of our item about Metallica last night we've had an interesting email from viewer Biren Shah, querying the way metal is reported on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ. Biren takes us to task for describing Metallica as a 'rock' band and draws a parallel between this and the absence of metal as a genre on the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Music website, saying, "The listed genres are "classical, classic pop/rock, country, dance, desi, folk, hip hop and RnB, jazz, rock/indie, soul & Reggae and World." Where is Heavy Metal music? Why is it not there?" Biren is correct to say that metal is missing from the list but is this indicative of a slight? Do you think heavy metal sits comfortably within rock or does it need a category of its own? What did you think of our item on Metallica? Did it do the band justice? We have a 30-minute special on the band coming up on Sunday 31 August, so we definitely think they are worth covering.
Last Wednesday I was hanging around the South Bank, eating a sandwich ahead of going into the National Theatre. A busker was making a beautiful noise with something that looked not dissimilar to a handle-less wok and after listening to this for about 10 minutes I asked him if this was one of those special Swiss instruments used by the . The , as it is known, looks like a traditional instrument - a cousin of the steeldrum perhaps - but sounds more ethereal and is generally played with the hands and fingers rather than being struck. It's surprising to find that it was invented in 2000 and that the instrument enjoys what can only be described as .
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This is the last week of the current run before we shift focus to coverage of the , and to round off the series we are going really global. Tomorrow night we look at a special musical project in Jerusalem, go behind the scenes with Metallica in Norway and get rare access to Florence's Vasari Corridor. Tonight, however, we travel to Shanghai and Beijing in the company of Miranda Sawyer and Tom Dyckhoff, to look at the latest developments in the arts. What do you think of the programme? Has it introduced you to artists and writers you weren't familiar with? We've packed a lot into an hour, but do send us your thoughts on what else you think is worth watching out for.
The Culture Show chopper has been a feature of the show since 2007, its last appearance being on our land art items a couple of weeks ago. Andrew Graham-Dixon has swooped over the Uffington White Horse, soared above the Liverpool skyline and circled the Angel of the North. But what's this? Andrew Marr seems to have hi-jacked the Culture Show chopper for a massive new pan-³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ series, Britain From Above. Even closer to home is the suggestion from Prom blogger Jon Jacob that Radio 3 commission a group of musicians to perform above the Albert Hall. Perhaps a ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Two / Radio 3 collaboration - with Verity rather than Andrew appearing in the chopper - would make for a startling event at next year's Prom. I would suggest it, but gives me a headache. Perhaps what I need is to immerse myself in the composer's music, to spend the day devoted to his work in the RAH. It might result in the musical equivalent of ...
