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Inside Look | Venue Focus: The Old Leith Theatre - We Explore the Venue Behind Hidden Door 2017

30/5/2017

All photos by Robbie Ambrose, for JFC

You may struggle to believe it in light of recent announcements in the city, but not every arts venue in Edinburgh is closing. Some are actually coming back from the dead.

After heavily indulging in the antics at Hidden Door 2016 at King’s Stables last summer we were sad to hear that the festival was changing venues for Hidden Door 2017 – until that is, we heard where the move was going to be taking the festival.

The Old Leith Theatre on Ferry Road might not be as central as King’s Stables but that’s about where the issues start and end. The place feels completely magical. Here are some snaps from JFC's photographer Robbie Ambrose.

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Inside Look: Hidden Door Arts Festival, 26 May - 4 June, The Old Leith Theatre, Edinburgh

30/5/2017

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Photo by Chris Scott, Literary Paparazzo

Hidden Door festival is the perfect demonstration of just how much depth there is to the Edinburgh art scene – even outside of August.

The festival brings together an absurd array of talent over its huge 10 day run, and it does so in a way that perfectly showcases local resources and talent – both emerging and established – to an audience who might have otherwise missed what was right on their doorstep.

The fourth edition of Hidden Door kicked off last week. We got along to days three and four (May 28 & 29) and they didn’t disappoint.

The venue for Hidden Door 2016 at King’s Stables played a big part in making the festival so special last year - and though it's a little out of the city centre, the Old Leith Theatre on Ferry Road is doing exactly the same this year. The theatre - bombed heavily in World War Two - had lain dormant since the 80s until the Hidden Door team put together an impressive renovation project.

The result is a venue that takes your breath away as soon as you enter. After having a look around the endless winding corridors and stripped-back rooms of the theatre, all of which are densely packed with innovative and thought-provoking artwork (there’s even exhibitions in side-rooms on the roof of the building), we settled in to catch ‘Flint and Pitch Presents’ in the main theatre.

Ellen Renton performs with Flint and Pitch. Photo by JFC

Flint and Pitch is a “spoken word project” which also incorporates music. Jenny Lindsay was the host for the two-hours of entertainment and proved a very talented poet herself.

She introduced the likes of Neu! Reekie! organiser Michael Pederson who performed engaging, intricate, Scottish poetry. Ellen Renton delivered beautifully-written, perfectly-timed lines with the backing of guitarist Ross Patrizio. Glaswegian musician Heir of the Cursed provided some spiritual and eclectic music and A New International brought a carnival to the stage with their troop of musicians.

Flint and Pitch put on regular shows; both variety-style ‘Presents' shows monthly in Edinburgh and bigger ‘Review’ shows at the Lyceum Theatre. It’s a great example of how Hidden Door takes its cues from the already vibrant communities in Edinburgh. As well as Flint and Pitch, nearly every spoken word night in Edinburgh (and some beyond) have a feature slot at some point at Hidden Door – the fantastic Loud Poets, Interrobang? and Inky Fingers to name but a few. You could arrive having never seen poetry before and leave with a new passion and a working knowledge of the whole scene.

It’s similar across the board too. We watched a variety act from Shoreline of Infinity in the Speakeasy – an eclectic room tailor-made for cabaret. Shoreline of Infinity, we learned, are the go-to in Scotland for science fiction poetry, prose and performance. Their acts comprised theatre, song, poetry and even an improvised performance from a BAFTA-winning cellist interpreting the artwork commissioned for Shoreline of Infinity’s magazine.

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Theatre Review: The Graduate - West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 10/05/17-27/05/17

25/5/2017

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Jack Monaghan plays Benjamin and Catherine McCormack Mrs Robinson. Photo by Manuel Harlan

This Review Contains Spoilers

The Graduate has got to be one of the iconic coming-of-age stories of the 20th century. And let's be honest, any excuse to mouth along with the famous line: 'Mrs Robinson, you're trying to seduce me aren't you?' works for us. This production describes itself as based on the Charles Webb novel, and the 1967 film starring Dustin Hoffman.

Don't get me wrong though, it was not just enjoyable for some nostalgia of the 60s (which I have to admit I missed by a few decades...). The staging is beautiful, with minimal furniture and a clever use of space. The actors stand alone in the midst of a stage far too vast for them to fill, with few or no objects for them to hold on to. It's the same for the characters, who each go through a summer of confusion, depression, and isolation.

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Theatre Review: Charlie Sonata - The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 2 May 2017

4/5/2017

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'Charlie Sonata' is a dark comedy; a tragic tale of the eponymous Charlie trying to save Audrey, the daughter of his best friends Gary and Kate, while battling ferocious demons of his own.

At its core the play is a cutting exploration of the passage of time and of self-demonisation.

The narrative is built from flashbacks and is always on the edge of selective memory and surreal reality. We open in a waiting room in the present day, but the majority of the play is set in disjointed memories from the past, with Charlie – or “Chick” as he’s known to his friends – jumping back through different decades from start to finish. He only occasionally returns to the present day.

The common trend is uncertainty and struggle. Chick is an unreliable narrator. Each time we jump time frame we are met by narrative from Robbie Gordon, listed in the program as the ‘narrator’. This is Chick’s story though, and it becomes quickly clear that the narrator is Chick’s self-conscious, documenting in unrelenting tones the questions he has over his own memory.

“Can this be right?” is the question often used by Gordon to open the scene when we jump time passage, or even when we jump back to present day. Chick does not know what is real anymore. His memories have been tainted by time and by alcohol and twisted and romanticised – often for the worse rather than the better.

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Inside Look | Venue Focus: The Old Leith Theatre - We Explore the Venue Behind Hidden Door 2017

Inside Look: Hidden Door Arts Festival, 26 May - 4 June, The Old Leith Theatre, Edinburgh

Theatre Review: The Graduate - West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 10/05/17-27/05/17

This Review Contains Spoilers

Theatre Review: Charlie Sonata - The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 2 May 2017

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Inside Look | Venue Focus: The Old Leith Theatre - We Explore the Venue Behind Hidden Door 2017

Inside Look: Hidden Door Arts Festival, 26 May - 4 June, The Old Leith Theatre, Edinburgh

Theatre Review: The Graduate - West Yorkshire Playhouse, Leeds, 10/05/17-27/05/17

​This Review Contains Spoilers

Theatre Review: Charlie Sonata - The Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, 2 May 2017

Art & Lit

Archives

Categories

This Review Contains Spoilers