Tale worth telling
It's a rite of passage for most arts organisations to be the subject of a "waste of public money" news item in the Daily Mail.
So Iron-Oxide shouldn't be too worried, especially given first reactions to their spectacular new show Cargo, which premiered on Leith Links on Friday night.
It's true the show did receive £250,000 of public money - but from the government's Expo Fund, set up specifically for the festivals to try out new and ambitious works.
And Cargo fulfils both in spades.
It's a simple enough tale about the universal need to call somewhere home but it touches on some complex issues about language, borders and warfare.
It also contains some striking images - a giant insect on stilts dragging a pirate ship along, a giant periscope peeking over an iron fortress and a burning paper house - which remain in the mind long after the show is over.
And the designs - not least the freight containers which spray water over the audience (waterproofs are provided) are hugely inventive.
It is ostensibly a children's show - director Dougie Irvine normally plies his trade with Scottish kids company Visible Fictions - but that doesn't mean adults can't still enjoy the magic of the piece.
Its simplicity - and tendency towards images rather than language - also makes it an accessible show for audiences at the multicultural Mela.
And far from claiming the show suggests every Scot is an immigrant, as the disenchanted Mail reporter claims, it simply shows the diversity of this part of Edinburgh. Cast and crew can trace their origins to 29 different countries.
And as someone whose father-in-law arrived as a Welsh sailor in Scotland more than 50 years ago, I believe it's a story worth telling.
Not London’s South Bank, but the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow - every bit as lively in cultural terms as its namesake. I’m Pauline McLean, ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ Scotland’s arts correspondent, and I’ll be blogging here about arts events and issues happening across the country.
Comment number 1.
At 10th Aug 2010, Ken Johnson wrote:Sorry, Ms McLean, but just because the Daily Mail says that a huge sum of the public's money (including my own) given to an "arts organisation" that you and I have never heard of before is a waste of money doesn't mean it isn't one. I live in Edinburgh. There I pay the highest council tax in Scotland, wholly because of the Festival. In my opinion, and I suspect in the opinion of a majority of Edinburgh ratepayers, the Festival served a purpose of some sort in 1953 when it started, but that purpose ceased to exist years ago. It is time now to abolish the rubbish that the Edinburgh Festival has deteriorated into. I am no longer willing to bear the cost of it nor to suffer the enormous inconvenience that it causes. Please support me. Tell the truth and let's get rid of it.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)