Past Events

2016

Tcha Limberger’s Kalotaszeg trio

Musiques des villages de la Transylvanie

Laments, Czardas’ and Szaporas from the Transylvanian region of Kalotaszeg with the beautiful voice and violin playing of Tcha Limberger.

Tcha Limberger has become recognised as one of the most prominent and important figures in folk music of the Carpathian Basin. His trio concentrates on the style considered to be the most beautiful of all Hungarian music and accompanying him the two highest regarded musicians of modern times, Berki Viktor on bass, and Toni Rudi on Brac.

Limberger, who studied under the great Neti Sandor, came to love the most so much he went to live there giving international workshops with his most recent CD recorded in the village hall.

This music is little known and I will play it as it is meant to be played. It follows the lives of many from baptism to the grave. It celebrates their communal existence and brings people together in the community of Kalotaszeg.
Tcha Limberger

2015

A Paines Plough & Pentabus Production in association with the Jersey Arts Trust and Nabakov

Every Brilliant Thing - by Duncan Macmillan and Jonny Donahoe

You’re six years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s ‘done something stupid’. She finds it hard to be happy.

You start to make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world.

Everything that’s worth living for.

1. Ice Cream

2. Kung Fu Movies

3. Burning Things

4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose

5. Construction cranes

6. Me

You leave it on her pillow. You know she’s read it because she’s corrected your spelling.

Soon, the list will take on a life of its own.

A new play about depression and the lengths we will go to for those we love.

Each performance of Every Brilliant Thing involves members of the audience, making every night unique.

Tortoise in a Nutshell:

Feral

An innovative performance combining puppetry, object manipulation, immersive soundscapes and multimedia technology, Feral holds a community under the microscope and dissects it in front of its audience’s eyes. Joe looks back at the home of his childhood and traces its journey from idyllic seaside town to community gripped by anarchy.

A cross art form piece, Feral seamlessly blends film and live performance. Puppeteers manipulate and bring to life a tiny world, whilst simultaneously creating a live animation, as they follow it’s every breath via digital camera.

Debuting at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival Feral was a runaway success, winning huge audience praise, a Scotsman Fringe First and a nomination for a Total Theatre award. Since then the production has toured throughout Scotland, the UK and internationally, as well as returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014 as part of the Made in Scotland showcase.

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company:

Crazy Jane

"She dances. She dances alone. Always alone. Always twisting away just out of reach – ever beyond your touch, beyond your embrace, beyond your gaze"...

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company present the world premier of Crazy Jane - the story of Jane Avril, star of the Moulin Rouge and immortalised in Toulouse Lautrec's iconic posters.

Jane invites you in to her life where she will tell you of her extraordinary journey from the back streets and brothels of Paris via the asylum wards of the Salpêtrière Asylum and on to the palace of women, the Moulin Rouge. Join her, Professor Charcot and his junior staff Drs Freud, Tourette, Jung and Alzheimer in the waltz of modern psychiatry, popularly known as The Fools Dance.

Crazy Jane is a spectacular theatre, dance event with an original razor sharp score by Scottish hip hop artists Hector Bizerk.

Right Lines Productions:

Rapid Departure

Rapid Departure – the brand new immersive comedy from Right Lines!
The surrounding area has been hit by a freak flood and the locals (the audience) are guided to the safety of the Village Hall, the designated Emergency Rest Censtre. Environmental calamities are on the increase and extreme weather conditions can arise at any moment. The question is, how would we all cope? Plunged into the fraught world of the rural Rest Centre, the evacuees and officials grapple with the ever-deepening crisis both outside the Hall – and in!
Right Lines can always be relied upon to make a drama out of a crisis. In this evening of immersive comedy, our five characters are desperately trying to keep their heads above water as the Emergency Plan is swept away before their very eyes!

Piatti Quartet

The Piatti String Quartet are amongst the UK’s foremost young string quartets, with a host of awards and a critically-acclaimed recording to their name. They have performed in all the major venues around the country including a live BBC Radio 3 broadcast from the Wigmore Hall; the Quartet has also appeared in Australia, Spain, Austria, Ireland, France, Switzerland and Holland.

The Piatti are winners of the St Martin in the Fields Competition, a Martin Musical Fund/Philharmonia Scholarship, multiple Hattori Foundation awards, and the St.Peter’s Prize. The Quartet spent two years as Leverhulme Fellows at the Royal Academy of Music and have received both Tunnel Trust and Countess of Munster awards. Park Lane Group have also supported the group extensively, with a concert tour and a recording on their Classical Label. Other recordings have been released on the Linn Records and Champs Hill labels including a CD of three Mozart piano concerti in their rarely heard chamber versions with Austrian pianist Gottlieb Wallisch.

The Piatti Quartet has been actively engaged in expanding the repertoire with newly-commissioned works from British composers such as Joseph Phibbs, Richard Birchall and Jacques Cohen to be premiered next season. Other forthcoming plans include a residency at the Rye Festival, tours of Scotland and Ireland and new recording projects. They have been fortunate to study at the Reina Sofia Institute in Madrid with Günter Pichler and have also worked with members of the Chilingirian, Doric and Hagen Quartets.

The Quartet takes its name from the great 19th-century cellist Alfredo Piatti, who was a leading professor at the the Royal Academy of Music.

The Quartet played works by Mozart, Ravel and Beethoven at this Lochan event.

The Kaleidoscope Saxophone Quartet

The Kaleidoscope Saxophone Quartet is an innovative collaboration between four versatile young artists. The group's approach makes use of the diverse talents of its members, creatively combining musical performance, composition and film. Trained at top UK conservatoires including the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Northern College of Music, the quartet is steeped in the British saxophone tradition, with a broad, resonant, vocal sound and an energetic, communicative performing ethos.

The group encapsulates a vast array of artistic skills: Award-winning saxophonist and composer John Moore; multifaceted musician and photographer/film-maker Ian Dingle; folk and jazz-influenced contemporary saxophonist Guy Passey; and multiple-award-winning chamber musician and concert soloist Sally MacTaggart. Collectively the group have performed with the European Union Youth Orchestra, Park Lane Group, the World Saxophone Congress and prestigious venues including Wigmore Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St.John Smith Square and Royal Albert Hall.

As well as their work in music and film, the quartet is committed to the creation and performance of new music, and has commissioned and premiered works from an array of composers, whilst also possessing an extensive repertoire of the best of traditional saxophone music.

Recent successes for the group include being named as Tunnell Trust Artists for the 2014/15 season, winning the Guildhall School's June Emerson Launchpad Prize in 2013, and the premiering of new quartets by Samuel-Quartermaine Smith,  Michael Cryne and John Moore at the Forge in October.

The quartet performed works by Rameau, Grieg, Piazzolla, Barbara Thompson, Debussy, Michael Nyman and Gershwin.

2014

Paul Mckenna & Outside Track:

Paul McKenna

Since being warded the title of “Best Up and Coming Artist of 2009″ at the MG Alba Scots Trad Music Awards, The Paul McKenna Band have gone from strength to strength touring extensively throughout USA, Canada and Europe.

Combining their love for Folk and Traditional music, as well as original songs and tunes; The Paul McKenna Band from Scotland has been captivating audiences with live performances of their new album, titled ‘Stem the Tide’, out now on Greentrax Records.

With a contemporary approach to songs, although not straying too far from their roots, their arrangements are both fresh and innovative. The exciting sound of The Paul McKenna Band is created through outstanding Vocals, driving Guitar and Bouzouki, intense fiddle playing, a warm pairing of flute and whistles and dynamic bodhrán and percussion.

"The best folk band to have come out of Scotland in the last twenty years” - New York Times

“The best band of their generation” - The Living Tradition

“A band with the potential to dominate the Scottish/Irish traditional scene for the next twenty years” - Fatea Magazine

Outside Track

Winner of Best Group in both the Live Ireland awards and the TIR awards, The Outside Track are one of the top Celtic acts in the world. A stunning synthesis of virtuosity and energy, their marriage of Celtic music, song, dance has been rapturously received around the world. Hailing from Scotland, Ireland, and Cape Breton, its five members are united by a love of traditional music and a commitment to creating new music on this as a foundation. They effortlessly fuse traditional and contemporary with winning joie de vivre. Recently joined by acclaimed singer Aoife Scott, the next generation of the legendary Black Family from Ireland, they blend fiddle, accordion, harp, guitar, whistle, step-dance and vocals with breathtaking vitality.

Cat's Club with Cathie Rae

Cat’s Club is led by critically acclaimed singer Cathie Rae and features some of Scotland’s finest jazz musicians including award winners; Graeme Stephen on guitar, Paul Harrison on piano / organ, technically gifted Brazilian bassist Mario Caribe and Young Scottish Jazz Musician finalist 2014 John Lowrie on drums. 

Angus Lyon & Duncan Lyall - New Voices Tour:

'3G' and 'Infinite Reflections'

'3G' - Angus Lyon

This new instrumental triptych 3G evokes the overlapping experiences of three generations, from grandfather to grandson, exploring the cyclical interplay of tradition and modernity. “The idea behind this music was to explore the notion that a lot of who you are comes from those who went before you. Like each generation of a family, these three parts of music have their own individual voices and ideas but are ultimately influenced by what’s happened before. So much has changed in the space of only a few generations and I wanted the music to represent that transition in the style and attitude of the different parts” 

'Infinite Reflections' - Duncan Lyall

The work is a soundtrack to an infinite number of stories. While writing the music Duncan drew inspiration from memories, and cultural references that resonated with him. He explored experiences of friendship, adventure, surrealism, love, loss, determination, grit and happiness. Narrative is omitted in the hope that the audience will create a story of their own.

The Ceilidh House & Heritage Centre, Corran, 8pm (concert - free)

Sotho Sounds present:

Junk Funk

'Our songs are the heartbeat of our land. We have made music from nothing. We are proud. We are strong. We are on our journey in life. We want to share our music with you.'

Sotho Sounds ('the funky shepherds') are musicians from the Kingdom of Lesotho in South Africa. They are known to make pure, raw organic roots music with instruments made from throwaway junk (wood, wire, tin cans, metal). They are coming to Scotland as part of Glasgow 2014′s cultural programme with the Commonwealth Games.

COMAR  presents a Mull Theatre production:

Whisky Galore

A night of riotous comedy as four hapless but frightfully nice actors in evening dress gather in a 1940s BBC drama studio, where they use their skills, wit, ingenuity and 100 unlikely sound effects and props to recreate the hilarious story of the valiant people of the Island of Todday. It’s WW2 and due to rationing, there is not a drop of whisky to be had. Then the SS Cabinet Minister runs aground and the crew has to abandon the cargo ­- 50,000 cases of the best quality export whisky!  (Part of Homecoming Scotland 2014 Whisky Month).

Cuillin Sound: Sarah Watts (clarinets) & Laurence Perkins (bassoon) 

Two members of the woodwind trio Cuillin Sound present a programme of live music and Poetry.

Sarah Watts (clarinets) and Laurence Perkins (bassoon) bring together an hour-long performance of some of the most iconic poetry of the British Isles, alongside music specially chosen or written to complement the words. The concert features ‘Screapadal’ by Sorley MacLean in a new musical setting composed by Sarah Watts. Other poems include ‘The Seafarer’ – one of the earliest examples of English Literature – and classic poems by Oscar Wilde – with the music of Poulenc – and William Wordsworth (alongside a traditional folk-style musical setting by Lancashire-based composer Robin Walker).

Birds of Paradise Theatre

Wendy Hoose by Johnny McKnight, directed by Robert Softley Gale

Wendy Hoose is the love story of Jake and Laura. Of course in 2014, love means a drunken booty call late on a Friday night.
"I thought you were round for a shag. That we were both getting a shag.  And that was it.  No complications.  No pish."

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company and Random Accomplice present Wendy Hoose, a frank and riotous comedy about two twenty-somethings searching for love in all the wrong places. When nothing is ever as you'd expect it to be and no one is as honest as you'd like them to be, getting your leg over is actually impossible.

Touring Network event: Ipdip Theatre

Head Inside the Clouds

 - a tale of woolly dreamers. The sheep look down, the sheep look round. One sheep looks up and sees the clouds…Enter Cirrus the collie!  A delightful, interactive play for babies, toddlers and their families. 

Touring Network event: Lucy E Boyes and Robbie Synge Dance Production

The Past inside the Present

 - based on experiences of investigating the nature of memory. Featuring outstanding performers in their 60’s and 70’s in a performance of gathering and assembly; departure and absence; holding on and letting go.

Touring Network event: Gramophones Theatre Co.

Playful Acts of Rebellion

Inspired by Courageous Protesters who risk everything for what they believe in, three women resolve to stop their ineffectual moaning and to find layful ways ot stand up fro what they believe in. But how does trying to save the world end up changing us? 12+

(Previous and future venues include Nottingham Playhouse, Derby Theatre, MacPhail Ctr, Durness, Resolis, Harrogate Theatre, Curve Theatre, Bike-Shed Theatre)

Remembered/Imagined

- featuring Mr McFall’s String Quintet plus the fabulous Gaelic singer Maeve Mackinnon.  New works of music and words by Amble Skuse, Ailie Robertson, Mike Vass, Sophie Cooke, Angus Peter Campbell, Charlotte Murray and Rebecca Sharp. 

Robertson/Sharp - For the bees 

Vass/Murray - After Niall Sgrob 

Skuse/Campbell/Cooke - Clachan Beò 

Produced by Remembered/Imagined 
Creative Producer Amble Skuse 

Presenting seven of Scotland’s creative artists as you’ve never seen them before…

Four new works are interwoven with beautiful traditional repertoire and poetry, creating a performance that captures the riches of our cultural history through music and words with live instrumental, vocal and electronic sound.

Scottish traditional musicians and composers Amble Skuse, Ailie Robertson and Mike Vass have teamed up with writers Angus Peter Campbell, Sophie Cooke, Rebecca Sharp and Charlotte Murray to create new works of music and words inspired by the archive at The School of Scottish Studies, housed in the University of Edinburgh. The archive is a treasure trove of recordings of songs, music, tales, verse, customs, beliefs and oral history.

Performed by singer Maeve Mackinnon, actor Angus Peter Campbell, electronic artist Amble Skuse and the strings of Mr McFall’s Chamber.

Remembered/Imagined is produced by Amble Skuse in partnership with Mr McFall’s Chamber, The University of Edinburgh School of Scottish Studies and Hands Up For Trad’s Distil. It is supported by Creative Scotland, The Robertson Trust, PRSF Women Make Music, Highland Council, National Centre of Excellence in Traditional Music, An Lochan and Summerhall.

Mull Theatre / Theatre Gu Leòr / Òran Mór co-production

Doras Dùinte by Catriona Lexy Campbell
Rough Island by Nicola McCartney

A touring double-bill of suspense-filled contemporary drama in Gàidhlig and English.

Doras Dùinte
by Catriona Lexy Campbell
Alone on a stormy night in an isolated house in the West Highlands, Lydia Ross awaits her new lodger, Guthrie … but he is maybe not quite what she had in mind.  A contemporary thriller with animation and a haunting soundscape. In Gàidhlig with English surtitles. Directed by Muireann Kelly and starring the author herself, Catriona Lexy Campbell on her home turf.

Rough Island
by Nicola McCartney
On the last night of the summer holidays on a beach on a tidal island, four young friends had a party. Only three of them came back. Thirty years later, the three survivors stand on that same beach and search for the answer to what happened that night. In English with Gàidhlig surtitles. Directed by Alasdair McCrone.

Allan Neave & Robert Irvine Duo: Guitar & Cello

These two musicians of remarkable sensitivity and authority delight audiences with a diverse repertoire ranging from the stately baroque to the fiery passion of Spain, the Americas and beyond.

Allan Neave (Guitar) has worked with many influential musicians including Nikita Koshkin, Edward McGuire, Hans Werner Henze, Gordon McPherson and Stephen Dodgson. He has been Artistic Director of the Dundee International Guitar Festival since its inception. In 2000 he received the Scotland on Sunday Glenfiddich ® Spirit of Scotland Award for Music. These awards were set up to recognise individuals who lead the way in Scottish culture. Allan was recently appointed Senior Lecturer in Strings and Head of Guitar Studies at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly RSAMD) in Glasgow.

Robert Irvine  (Cello) was born in Glasgow, and has played with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Britten Pears Orchestra, the Brindisi Quartet, the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and Scottish Opera Orchestra.
After returning to Scotland in 1990, he formed the Chamber Group of Scotland with Sally Beamish and James MacMillan, performing and broadcasting a wide range of music both chamber and solo. He has performed in concerts and recitals throughout the UK, including the Cheltenham Festival, St Magnus Festival, Gloucester, Norwich, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Inverness, as well as several European festivals.
He has recorded several CDs, including the complete cello works of Sally Beamish for the Swedish label BIS, which received high critical acclaim, including being rated CD of the month in the Gramophone magazine in December 2001. He is senior professor of Cello and Chamber Music, and Head of Cello Studies at the Royal Scottish Conservatoire (formerly RSAMD) in Glasgow.

Eduardo Niebla – Flamenco guitarist

In a career spanning four decades, guitar virtuoso and composerEduardo Niebla has been acclaimed as one of the most potent forces in flamenco jazz fusion today. And his highly lyrical style, with explorations into Indian, Arabic and classical music, has resulted in the most electrifying, brilliant and poignantly poetic guitar playing on the world circuit.

His concert appearances have included the Cairo & Tbilisi International Jazz Festivals, the Jaipur Festival India, the Queen Elizabeth Hall London, the Odessa Jazz Carnival, the Olympic Games Greece, the San Isidro Fiesta Madrid, Glastonbury and the Brecon International Jazz Festivals, as well as extensive concert tours to Europe, the Baltic States, the Middle East and South Africa. 

It’s a journey which has led to many collaborations with artists across the globe including jazz saxophonist Lol Coxhill, Indian maestros Nishat & Wajahat Khan, Deepak Ram (bamboo flute) Kala Ramnath (Indian violin) & Purbayan Chatterjee (sitar), as well as flamenco bass pioneer Carles Benavent, his brother Salvador Niebla (drums), the spiritual gypsy singer and percussionist Paban Das Baul, Palestinian oud player Adel Salameh, electronic global phenomenon Juno Reactor, the Dante String Quartet and pop musicians George Michael and Craig David.

“A display of supernatural talent…and a spellbinding mixture of flamenco and modern jazz, bursting with obvious passion and verve.” (The Spectator)

“The versatility with which he imbues his guitar is truly breathtaking, whether performing his poignantly poetic melodies or accompanying a truly fabulous transcontinental performance. “ (The Scotsman)

2013

Eden Court & Dundee Rep Ensemble
Promises Promises – by Douglas Maxwell

Retired teacher Maggie Brodie knows she was a last minute choice for supply cover – given her past. Being spoken down to by the young idiotic headmaster is an indignity she can just about cope with. But her frustrations increase when a silent Somalian child in her class, whom Maggie is curiously drawn to, is believed by her family and ‘head of the community’ to be possessed. Maggie seems to be the only one who is outraged and protective of the girl. And if they don’t listen to her, she will be forced to take action. Drastic action.

Originally from Brora, Ann Louise Ross has been a member of Dundee Rep Ensemble for the past 12 years. She won a CATS Award for Best Female Performance her role in Further Than The Furthest Thing, also with Dundee Rep Ensemble. Her TV and film credits include; Trainspotting, Acid House Trilogy, The Key, The Bill, Rebus, Hamish MacBeth plus numerous radio broadcasts. Ann Louise has recently completed work on the new TV series based on the Katie Morag books by Mairi Hedderwick.

Douglas Maxwell was born in 1974 in Girvan, a small town on the Ayrshire coast. For a decade he has been one of the most popular and produced playwrights in Scotland.

'Stunning' - The Scotsman ****

Mull Theatre

The Drawer Boy – by Michael Healey

Part comedy, part mystery, part tragedy, The Drawer Boy tells of Miles, a young actor armed with a notebook who turns up on the doorstep of farmers Morgan and Angus in rural Ontario, offering to work in exchange for inspiration for his play.

Miles soon finds himself embroiled in their complex and intricate personal histories, as he uncovers a tragic past, riddled with guilt, secrecy, heartbreak and loss.
A complex, warm-hearted, multi-layered play, which won huge acclaim when it first opened in Canada. This is the first time it has toured Scotland.

Tamsin Waley-Cohen (violin) & Bartholomew LaFollette (cello)

Johann Sebastian Bach: Inventions 1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 13

Maurice Ravel: Sonata for Violin and Cello

Zoltan Kodaly: Duo for Violin and Cello

"Vaughan Williams' The Lark Ascending thinned out the concert platform to which was added the soloist Tamsin Waley-Cohen who gave the finest Lark I have ever heard whether in concert, on radio or on recording... one of those moments in time" - Rob Barnett: Seen and Heard International (George Lloyd anniversary, St John's Square), June 2013

"Bartholomew LaFollette was spellbinding in Sibelius's impressive and rarely heard Malincolia Opus 20 and fully captivating in Stravinsky's Suite Italienne, before Dinicu's Hora Staccato ended the evening brilliantly" - Musical Opinion, Purcell Room, London

"As free in touching the heartstrings as he was in dashing off dazzling runs" - The Irish Times

A Fire Exit Production
Long Live the Little Knife

Long Live the Little Knife is a dynamic, absurd and uplifting theatre piece about forgery, castration and blind drunkenness.  Liz and Jim are small-time con-artists who need £250 grand to buy their way out of a turf war.  Their mission is to be the greatest art forgers in the world.  There's only one problem.  They can't paint.

Written and directed by 'theatrical maverick' (Sunday Times) and 'site-specific genius' (Scotsman) David Leddy.

Originally developed with support from the Royal Shakespeare Company and performed at the British Museum, in this fast-paced, provocative and boisterous caper Leddy finds the incongruous connections between verbatim theatre, free-market economics, the psychology of 'truth' and a castrated labradoodle in a classic Chanel clutch bag.

MsFits
I Spy Mrs Peery

The MsFits present their Edinburgh Fringe award-winning show 'I Spy Mrs Peery'. written by multi award-winning BAFTA-nominated playwright Rona Munro and presented by award-winning comedy actress Fiona Knowles.

Evening News  Edinburgh Fringe Capital Award-winning show ‘I Spy Mrs Peery’, a story of mystery, intrigue and suspense -  more violent than a crash diet, more spine-chilling than ice cubes down the back of yer nightie!   Mrs Peery sees it all from behind her net curtains – she never crosses her own doorstep but she has plenty of say about the state of her neighbours.  What would she do if the big bad world got in through her nets?!  A thought-provoking slice of life focussing on three female neighbours, ‘I Spy Mrs Peery’ is a hilarious yet at times extremely moving show from the MsFits Theatre Co.

Moon Fool
Titania’s Dream

Titania’s Dream re-imagines Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night’sDream as a modern day musical cabaret turned bacchanal.  Performed and created by renowned international theatre practitioner Anna-Helena McLean (formerly of Gardzienice’s Centre for Theatre Practices), this intoxicating performance promises an engaging, funny, sensual and participatory experience in which Titania plays out events from her past.  In an attempt to woo audiences off the path and back into the woods, she combines vocal acrobatics with looping and live cello to animate the power of true love.  Titania’s Dream is the Queen of the Fairies’ tale with an amplified twist.

Pepperdine University (Malibu)
Why Do You Stand There In The Rain? – by Peter Arnott

When I marched off to war in 1917, I remember a Civil War veteran, over 70 years old, telling me, ‘Son, you are all heroes now. But some day they’ll treat you like dogs.’ Benjamin B Shepherd of the BEF. Based on the Bonus Army March of 1932 on Washington DC, Arnott’s play tells the story of 20,000 ragged and desperate First World War veterans and their families from all over the U.S. who set up ‘Hoovervilles’ around the nation’s capital, to lobby Congress for the early release of a promised compensation package for services in the First World War. Congress voted ‘No’ and Hoover called upon MacArthur and Patton to drive the veterans out of the capital. Armed with bullets and tear gas, 1,000 infantry and cavalrymen pushed the veterans out of Washington DC burning everything they owned.

Under the musical direction of Scottish composer and actor John Kielty, this documentary-style play with music continues the Pepperdine tradition of live music performed by a talented ensemble. From the iconic anthem Over There to the songs of Woody Guthrie, Bessie Smith, Leadbelly and other contemporaries, this rich tapestry of tunes underscores the story of the veterans whose march on Washington D.C. led to the formation of the GI Bill. Peter Arnott’s work has been produced in Scotland, Moscow and New York. He received the prestigious Creative Scotland Award in 2007.

‘A superb, captivating, unpretentious and exceptional show, easily my Fringe 08 Highlight’ ***** British Theatre Guide, The Kentucky Cycle

Mike Maran Productions and Marjanishvili Theatre
Platero – Travels with a Donkey

Based on the writings of Juan Ramon Jimenez told byMike Maran, with music by Mario Castelnuovo Tedesco performed by Craig Ogden, with puppetry by Nino Namitcheishvili and directed by Levan Tsuladze.

Once upon a time, a hundred years ago in Moguer - a small whitewashed town near Seville overlooking fields of vines, olives, pomegranates and the Rio Tinto - there lived a little silver donkey called Platero and the Nobel Prize-winning poet  Juan Ramon Jimenez, who was born and grew up in the town.  His best loved collection Platero Y Yo (Platero & Me) paints an affectionate picture of Moguer and the timeless Andalusian landscape which influenced a whole generation of Spanish writers including Garcia Lorca.
In this delightful new stage adaptation Mike Maran once again teams up with Georgian director Levan Tsuladze and puppeteer Nino Namitcheishvili, following their record breaking collaboration with Captain Corelli's Mandolin.  Top-selling classical guitarist Craig Ogden will perform the musical score especially composed for the stories.

LOCHAN in association with SEALL present:
LaNua
Enso

Site-specific installation dance performance inspired by haiku, Zen calligraphy and gardens.
Weaving poems, movement and objects enso attempts to touch the subtle inner experience of reality while creating an eerie atmosphere of suspension in time.

Townsend Productions
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists

This hilarious, fast-paced adaptation of Robert Tressell’s classic book shares with its audience a year in the life of a group of painters and decorators as they renovate ‘The Cave’, a three-storey town house, for Mayor Sweater.  It traces their hardships and struggles for survival in a complacent and stagnating Edwardian England.  These workers are the ‘philanthropists’ who throw themselves into back-breaking work for poverty wages in order to generate profit for their masters.  An enduring and absorbing classic story is brought to life by Neil Gore and Fine Time Fontayne, two hugely talented and experienced performers, using comedy routines and entertaining songs of the Music Hall, with a few surprises along the way!

Birds of Paradise Theatre Company in association with
The Beacon Arts Centre
In An Alien Landscape

Albie is an ordinary man who experiences a scuffle with death resulting in the unleashing of his creative genie.  The play visits the world of brain injury, consciousness, memory and creativity.  A world where up is down, the past is here and now, and even the words of those Albie loves have become gibberish and a continuous rushing white noise.  Who has he become?  Who was he?  When his past still haunts him and there’s no escaping who he was, is something incredible waiting to be discovered?

The poetic language of the script will be complimented by this visually stunning production, which navigates the confusion of Albie's life in a stylistic structure of images, paintings and sound. By Danny Start, directed by Julie Ellen.

2012

Wildbird Theatre in collaboration with Node Graphics:
Dreich House - Adventure Activity Holidays For Children That Nobody Loves

Dreich House – Adventure Activity Holidays for Children that Nobody Loves is the story of fifteen year old Ruby Love, the unloved daughter of Hollywood royalty who is bundled off for the Christmas holidays to Dreich House, a sinister gothic mansion in the remote Gloomgorm Mountains of Scotland,  the ancestral home of megalomaniac latin mangler and all round evil genius, Baron Boltfast.

To its clients, Dreich House is a young persons adventure activity centre with a single dark purpose, the discreet disposal of children that nobody loves, satisfaction guaranteed. But for Boltfast this is an elaborate cover as he gathers together the most talented and unlikely gang of crooks in the history of crime. His master plan – to commit the crime of the century and hold the world to ransom on Christmas day, and only this select band of unloved children can pull it off…

Strangeface Theatre Company:
The Amazing Adventures of Pinocchio

Based on the original story by Carlo Collodi, award winning Strangeface bring an extraordinary mix of masks, puppets and live music to this tale of wild mischief and temptation. In a style closer to Roald Dahl than Walt Disney, the Amazing Adventures of Pinocchio takes us on a fantastical journey from his first moments as a talking log through a madcap series of scrapes with fairies, nefarious rascals Fox and Cat, a sinister puppet-master, and a trip to the Land of Cockayne.

In turns thrilling and heart-warming, moving and comical, Strangeface brings an inimitable magic to a masterpiece of surreal fantasy and features our ever popular “back stage tour”.

Tim Kliphuis Trio

Tim Kliphuis first made his name playing with the fiery European gypsies but soon developed a crossover style that has taken him to classical, jazz and folk venues across the world. The Dutch violinist and his trio bring Plockton Village Hall to life with their high-energy brand of gypsy swing and jazzed-up classical tunes: a “deliciously effervescent mix” (The Herald) featuring Scotland’s outstanding musicians, Nigel Clark (guitar) and Roy Percy (double bass), as heard on BBC’s Radio 3. Scotsman Tim’s trio take Django’s Gypsy Swing several masterful leaps forward by blending it with strands of Vivaldi, Jobim and the Chieftains, and to top it off, a few Stéphane Grappelli gems. “Fearsomely fast and fun”– Time Out.

Evan Christopher & Django à la Créole

Clarinettist, Evan Christopher combines virtuosity, immaculate taste, and enthusiasm with a deep commitment to exploring the full range of possibilities in the New Orleans Jazz tradition. Fusing Gypsy Swing with New Orleans grooves and rhythms of le monde Créole, his band released their debut CD, "Django à la Créole" in 2008. Their second outing, "Finesse " was chosen for best jazz CD of 2010 in the Sunday Times, UK.

Andy Cannon & Mull Theatre in association with Imaginate:
Scota-Land

Scota-Land presented a unique opportunity for promoters and communities to work together with local primary schools to help deliver a fantastic interactive storytelling experience.

A week or so before the performance, workshops took place in Loch Duich Primary School. With the help of a highly qualified workshop leader, children created displays and artefacts which appeared in the show as part of the Scota-Land Visitor Centre.

The performance took place in Dornie Hall which was transformed for the day into the Scota-Land Visitor Centre on the mythical Isle of Mickle, where the famous Crown of Destiny had been on display for over a century.

Horse + Bamboo Theatre present:
Angus – Weaver of Grass

1946: withdrawn and solitary, South Uist native and WW2 veteran Angus was placed in Craig Dunain Psychiatric Hospital.  From lengths of plaited grass rope, straw, leaves and twigs gathered from the hospital grounds, Angus wove the most extraordinary garments; his careful placement of them in the undergrowth suggests they had from him a greater significance – a secret world where he really lived.

OneTouch Theatre with Fiona Knowles
Stick Granny on the Roof Rack

Fiona Knowles returns with a performance to rival past triumphs such as Sex and Chocolate.  The good news… ‘Holiday of a Lifetime’, Marie won it on a scratch card.  The bad news… ‘for all the family’!  The family: Katy, a teenager with attitude, Graham, once the love of Marie’s life, now 15 years past his sell-by date, and… his Mum!

National Theatre of Scotland 
Love Letters to the Public Transport System by Molly Taylor

With down to earth realism and soaring lyricism, Taylor offers a memorable portrait of Britain today in her three interwoven stories of lives subtly changed by journeys on our often underrated public transport system.  Join Taylor in her quest to thank the bus and train drivers who have transported her to some of the key meetings in her life.

'Molly Taylor's Love Letters To The Public Transport System... is a traditional monologue of extraordinary exuberance and power: three interwoven stories of lives subtly changed by journeys on buses and trains, and of Taylor's quest for a way to thank the bus and train drivers who have delivered her to some of the key meetings of her life.

The mood is intensely romantic, the language a fabulous mixture of realism and soaring lyricism, all delivered in a Glasgow-Scouse idiom that pays full respect both to Taylor's current city, and to her Liverpool roots. And in telling her sweet and ravishing stories Taylor also offers a memorable portrait of Britain, rich in diversity, strewn with remarkable cities, and still underpinned by public services without which the fabric of our lives would simply collapse' - The Scotsman.

The New Budapest Café Orchestra

Back by popular demand after their wonderful performance last June; enjoy a Hungarian Goulash Night with the NBCO.  Inspired by the music of the Balkan gypsies, the NBCO plays an impassioned, but often tender mix of Hungarian Czardas, Russian and Ukranian folk songs and dances from Romania and Moldavia, as well as their own electrifying compositions.

Four Corners comprising of McFall’s Chamber & Special Guests

For their latest musical mystery tour McFall’s Chamber, the renowned maverick ensemble are joined by four of Scotland’s finest folk musicians, each of whom has written a new piece that captures their very own ‘corner’ of the country. Founder member of Blazin’ Fiddles Aidan O’Rourke comes from Oban. Aberdeenshire piper and whistle player Fraser Fifield has collaborated with McFall’s before. Corrina Hewat has been described as ‘a prodigiously talented harpist’ is originally from the Black Isle. Wick-born pianist James Ross  distils folk,classical and jazz influences to magnificent effect.

Liz Lochhead - Poetry and Conversation

“National poet (Scottish Makar)  and playwright Liz Lochhead is already on her way to becoming as much a part of Scottish folklore as porridge and salt.” Brian Beacom

Splinters Productions present The Matchmaker by John B Keane

Keane gathers up a delightful gallery of glorious eccentrics in this potent mix of humour and poignancy in this tale of Dicky Mick Dicky O’Connor a small farmer from Kerry who follows the great Irish tradition of matchmaking. He pairs off local lonely hearts so that ‘every old shoe would find an old stocking’.

Mike Maran and Philip Contini - Italia ‘n’ Caledonia by Thom Dibdin

Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad – a tale of nocturnal horror on the Suffolk coast – is considered by many to be the author’s masterpiece. It is beautifully complemented by The Ash Tree, a story of witchcraft and vengeance down the generations.