Theatre
A strong-willed vicar’s daughter is thrown into a new life of strikes and unrest when her family relocates from rural southern England to a factory town where an industrialist rules his cotton mill with an iron hand in this premiere adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskell’s classic 19th-century novel North and South.
Adapted for the stage by BAFTA-nominated writer and actress Janys Chambers, North and South is the final of six productions to open at Pitlochry Festival Theatre this summer.
Already running are productions of Noel Coward’s Blithe Spirit, Alan Plater’s Blitz spirit musical Blonde Bombshells Of 1943, 1960s goodtime sing-along Summer Holiday, a revival of Heritage by Scotttish playwright Nicola McCartney and a production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible set in Pitlochry directed by Elizabeth Newman, the PFT’s new artistic director.
All productions run in parallel until the end of September, meaning theatre lovers can see six plays in less than a week.
Newman commissioned Chambers to adapt North and South upon her arrival at PFT last year, and will direct a large cast which sees members of the local community joining the theatre’s professional ensemble.
Newman came to know the Victorian writer and educationalist’s work through her biography of Charlotte Bronte.
Like The Crucible and Heritage, North and South’s exploration of class in 1850s Manchester feels sharply relevant today, says Newman.
“North and South explores factory workers trying to gain adequate rights while also looking very carefully at the plight of the manufacturers,” she says.
“I think what’s really important about it is again having that conversation which again is entirely relevant to questions today about what it means to be a worker in economic decline in industry, which is obviously where we are at just now.”
August 29 to September 25, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, various times and days, £14 to £25. Tel: 01796 484 626.
Tour
The team at the Real Mary King’s Close have teamed up with the Old Curiosity Distillery to offer gin-tasting tours in homage to the illicit gin trade of 18th century Edinburgh and plague doctors such as Joannes Paulitius who used the botanicals used in gin to ward off disease.
Visitors will learn about why the Dutch traded genever (gin’s precursor), local smugglers, and the distilling innovations that led to the city’s love affair with the spirit.
August 28 and selected dates until September 30, The Real Mary King’s Close, Edinburgh, 9.45pm, £35. www.realmarykingsclose.com
Poetry
A trio of writers described as “three of the most dynamic, challenging voices in poetry today” perform live at a free event at Waterstones Byres Road this week.
Buoyed by an acclaimed Fringe run with new stage show This Script, Edinburgh performance poet Jenny Lindsay is joined by Magi Gibson, author of Washing Hugh MacDiarmid’s Socks and Ali Whitelock, whose most recent collection is And My Heart Crumples Like A Coke Can.
August 29, Waterstones Byres Road, Glasgow, 7.30pm, free
Art
In the last week of The Prince Of Homburg exhibition at DCA, multimedia artist Patrick Staff joins writer Isabel Waidner and DCA’s head of exhibitions Eoin Dara on August 29 for an evening of readings and conversation on the contemporary relevance of Heinrich von Kleist’s original play of the same name.
The major exhibition saw Staff debuting a new video installation and a series of works in sculpture and print influenced by von Kleist’s play, first performed in 1821 ten years after the author’s death.
“When I was asked to do this show at the DCA about a year ago, I was thinking a lot about the political situation that we’re in,” says Staff. “The prince is exhausted as his unnamed country has been at war for three years. Living between the UK and US, I sometimes feel in an endless war, of living in times which are relentlessly exhausting. There is a strange kind of process that is happening where it wears you down and it wears you down to this point of exhaustion.”
The LA-based English artist adds: “I began to realise that, at that point where you think you’re beyond exhaustion, is also maybe a generative point from where you can start to dream differently. Though it comes from this place of desperation, you can start to think of living differently.”
Talk: August 29, Dundee Contemporary Arts, 6pm, free, booking essential. The Prince Of Homburg: Until September 1, 10am to 6pm, Thursdays 10am to 8pm, free. Tel: 01382 432 444. www.dca.org.uk
Event
Hear tales about performers down the decades and take a look behind the scenes at Glasgow’s King’s Theatre in a backstage tour of the Bath Street venue.
Designed by Frank Matcham in a mixed styles influenced by baroque and art nouveau, it was opened in 1904 as a sister venue to the Theatre Royal.
Unlike the class segregation of other venues, sightlines for all Kings patrons were excellent, thanks to Matcham’s innovative construction techniques.
Learn about the design, history and hauntings of the venue Billy Connolly said was like “performing inside a wedding cake”.
August 31, Kings Theatre, Glasgow, 10.30am, £12.50. www.atgtickets.com
Exhibition
The Aberdeen Art Fair returns to the refurbished Music Hall after an absence of four years for three days of showing work from exhibitors and artists from across Scotland and the UK, from household names such as Tracey Emin, Peter Blake and Peter Howson to celebrated local creatives and emerging artists.
August 30 to September 1, Music Hall, Aberdeen, times vary, free. www.aberdeenartfair.co.uk
Festival
The Creative Peebles Festival enters its second week, with more events highlighting the work of artists, musicians, filmmakers and craftspeople who call the town home.
Due to the temporary closure of Eastgate Theatre for a refit of the auditorium, many events will be staged elsewhere, such tonight’s Take To The Floor, a Strictly-style mix of dance and music held at Peebles Hydro Hotel to raise funds for the refit.
Further highlights include the festival’s traditional lecture on August 27 at McFarlane Hall given this year by composer, musician and humanitarian Nigel Osborne and a closing performance of Mozart’s Requiem.
All interested are invited to form a scratch choir working with Peebles Orchestra to learn the magnificent mass during the day and perform it in Peebles Burgh Hall that evening.
August 23 to September 1, various venues in Peebles. Tel: 01721 725777. www.eastgatearts.com
Exhibition
This afternoon there’s a free event to celebrate the opening of From East To West, a new exhibition exploring Scotland’s relationship with East Asia.
Starting at noon and finishing at 4pm, today’s event offers a chance to meet the curators, find out more about the objects on show, learn skills in origami, calligraphy and lantern-making and take part in a traditional Japanese tea ceremony.
More than 400 objects feature, including samurai armour and swords, opium pipes and pillows, tiny ivory netsuke, jade bowls and hand-painted porcelain pieces.
Many were made for export to Europe in response to the fashion for “orientalism” in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Lesley Lettice, curator with ONFife Cultural Trust said: “Working with National Museums Scotland was a fantastic opportunity for us to delve deeper into our East Asian collections.
Photograph: Elly White
“It helped us find out more about some of the wonderful objects we have from that part of the world and it’s great to be able to share both the objects and the knowledge with our visitors.”
Until November 17, Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries, open daily, free. Tel: 01383 6092 365. www.onfife.com
Theatre
Dogstar Theatre present the premiere of The Stornoway Way, a play adapted from the novel of the same name by Kevin MacNeil, at An Lanntair on Lewis before touring Scotland throughout October.
Naomi Stirrat and Rachel Kennedy star in the romantic tragicomedy as disaffected underachievers who use alcohol to fuel their dreams of escape.
Written in English and Gaelic, the play is directed by Matthew Zajac, who recently toured his play The Tailor of Inverness for the sixth time.
MacNeil sees the play as a more mature development on his 2005 novel, a former Herald book of the year described by Ali Smith as a novel “whose honest bleakness is outdone by its sheer good humour and energy”.
August 30 and 31, An Lanntair, Lewis, 8pm, £10 to £12. Tel: 01851 708480
www.lanntair.com www.dogstartheatre.co.uk www.lanntair.com
Exhibition
Work by six young people from Dumfries and Galloway who have been tutored by three of the region’s leading original printmakers is newly on show at the Ottersburn Gallery.
Modern Makers 2019: The Craft of Printmaking features self-portraits, environmental studies and pieces inspired by nature by the young people, who were mentored by Pamela Grace, Colin Blanchard and Hugh Bryden.
Until September 11 (not Sun to Tue), Ottersburn Gallery, Dumfries, 10am to 5pm, free. www.ottersburngallery.com
Concert
Celebrate the end of the Fringe with Symphonic Ibiza, a night of anthems from three decades of clubbing performed by the Scottish Pops Orchestra, beats from DJ (and Brainiac presenter) Andy Joyce and composer Steve Etherington, whose credentials include residencies at Ibiza super-clubs Pacha and Cafe Mambo.
Tonight, Central Hall, Underbelly, Edinburgh, 9pm, from £25.80. www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk
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