SHERLOCK HOLMES — THE LAST ACT
Cumbernauld Theatre, Cumbernauld, Fri (01236 732 887)
Roger Llewellyn stars in David Stuart Davies’s one-man play which delves into the psyche of the world’s most famous fictional detective. After retiring to Sussex, Holmes returns to London for the funeral of his friend and colleague Dr Watson and is drawn back to Baker Street. The play examines the relationship between Holmes and Watson, and sees Llewellyn move seamlessly through a gallery of Conan Doyle’s most famous characters.
MACBETH
Dundee Rep, Dundee, previews Sat & Tues (01382 223 530)
Shakespeare’s tale of madness, malevolence and bloody murder is staged by the Dundee Rep Ensemble. The company has several acclaimed productions of Shakespeare behind it, including Twelfth Night and A Winter’s Tale.
PRIVATE LIVES
Byre Theatre, St Andrews, until Sep 11 (01334 475 000)
Noël Coward’s timeless and witty love story was an immediate hit when first staged in 1930, with its celebrated cocktail-fuelled repartee between the central characters being pillaged for amusing dinner party quotes. Set in France in the late 1920s, the plot centres around Amanda and Elyot, a divorced couple who are honeymooning in the same hotel with their new spouses. This chance meeting rekindles some old feelings and reminds them why they fell in and out of love. Performed by the Byre Theatre company.
PRIVATE AGENDA
Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley, Thu-Sat (0141 887 1010)
7:84 Theatre Company presents a new play based on interviews conducted earlier this year with frontline public service workers such as teachers, nurses and senior managers. Private Agenda gets to the heart of life in the bureaucracy-riddled world of health and education.
MUSIC
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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mon (0131 473 2000)
Vladimir Jurowski directs the London Philharmonic Orchestra in a programme of Sibelius, Szymanowski and Tchaikovsky.
PHAROAHE MONCH
The Arches, Glasgow, Tue (0870 240 7528)
The New York hip-hop veteran Pharoahe Monch was one half of 1990s duo Organized Konfusion with Prince Po, a much-underrated rap outfit who called it quits after the poor sales of their first album. Unfazed, Monch has gone on to become one of the most influential voices of the East Coast hip-hop scene earning particular respect for his hard-hitting lyrics. His latest album Innervision moves away from the straight hip-hop sound to include soul and rock influences.
VELVET REVOLVER
Carling Academy, Glasgow, Tue (0870 771 2000)
They call themselves Velvet Revolver but this is essentially Scott Weiland from Stone Temple Pilots fronting Guns N’ Roses in the absence of Axel Rose. This is rock’n’roll at its most self-indulgent — songs like the raucous Do it for the Kids and power ballad Fall to Pieces cross into the realm of pastiche — but there are moments on the band’s debut album Contraband that flicker with the kind of energy that made both Stone Temple Pilots and Guns N ’ Roses two of the biggest rock bands on earth in the 1990s. UK fans of both bands have been waiting a long time to see these rock icons mix it on stage.
COLIN STEELE QUINTET
Eden Court, Inverness, Tue (01463 234 234)
This much-praised jazz quintet have developed an almost telepathic understanding of each other’s moods and meanderings. From the front line of trumpeter Steele, and soprano and tenor saxophonist Julian Arguelles through to pianist Dave Milligan, drummer John Rae and bassist Aidan O’Donnell, the line-up oozes class and the subtle integration of jazz with folk is the combo’s strength.
SONIC YOUTH
Barrowland, Glasgow, Wed (0141 204 5151)
From their epic melodic jams to nickel string guitar symphonies, Sonic Youth have always managed to produce experimental music of staggering beauty. The band are on tour to promote their 19th album, Sonic Nurse.
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THE DRIFTERS
King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Thu (0141 240 1111)
This legendary soul outfit had numerous hits in the 1950s including Save the Last Dance for Me, Under the Boardwalk, Kissing in the Back Row of the Movies and Up on the Roof. Only one of the original band, Bill Pinkney, lines up beside this new generation of Drifters.
ALY BAIN AND PHIL CUNNINGHAM
Cumbernauld Theatre, Cumbernauld, Thu, (01236 732 887); the MacPhail Centre, Ullapool, Fri (01854 613 336); Eden Court, Inverness, Sat (01463 234 234)
Aly Bain and Phil Cunningham reach the midway stage of their 17th annual summer tour of Scotland and the UK. This year they are out on the road to promote a new album, the Best of Aly and Phil, proving that some people never get sick of the sight of each other.
THE ANGEL BROTHERS
Eden Court, Inverness, Thu (01463 234 234)
The Angel Brothers produce an Anglo-Asian blend of traditional European folk, dub, rock, bhangra dance grooves and classical Indian patterns.
KIERAN DOCHERTY
Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Fri (0141 552 4267)
Glasgow singer-songwriter Kieran Docherty writes beautifully crafted country-tinged songs about love and longing. Docherty cites among his influences songwriters such as Roddy Frame, Neil Finn and Nick Drake. If he can get his music out there to a bigger audience he has all the talent to match the success of current darlings Damien Rice and Ryan Adams.
SERGEY KHACHATRYAN AND LUSINE KHACHATRYAN
The Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, Sat (0131 473 2000)
The Bank of Scotland Queen’s Hall series ends with a recital from the 18-year-old Armenian violinist Sergey Khachatryan.
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PJ HARVEY
Carling Academy, Glasgow, Sat (0870 771 2000)
Lock up your menfolk, Polly Jean Harvey is in town. Uh Huh Her, the follow-up to her 2001 Mercury prize-winning album Stories from the City, Stories From the Sea, is perhaps her most complete record so far, a collection of powerful and seductive rock songs.
T ON THE FRINGE
THE HIVES
Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, today (0870 169 0100)
These Swedish dandies have plenty of life in them yet, particularly now that guitar music is firmly back on the agenda. New album Tyrannosaurus Hives is far superior to 2000’s Eurogarage debut, Veni Vidi Vicious.
JURASSIC 5
Corn Exchange, Edinburgh, Wed (0870 169 0100)
Los Angeles-based hip-hop sextet Jurassic 5 have more than a decade behind them and still continue to grow, bringing new sounds to old styles. A fantastic live band, no two Jurassic 5 shows are ever the same.
OPERA
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ORFEO ED EURIDICE
Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Wed, Fri & Sat (0131 473 2000)
A brand new production of Gluck’s opera from Italian choreographer Emio Greco and Dutch theatre director Pieter C Scholten. This production with Opera North puts the duo’s unique stamp on Gluck’s retelling of the classical myth of Orpheus’s journey to Hades to rescue his beloved Eurydice.
DANCE
LORD OF THE DANCE
AECC, Aberdeen, Tue-Sep 5 (01224 620 011)
Michael Flatley’s dance extravaganza is long past the stage of sore muscles and lactic acid burn. However, this faux-Celtic romp still draws the crowds keen to see the rippling muscles and rock-hard abs on display, though what they make of the fairy subplot is anybody’s guess.
MAHLER AND DANCE
The Playhouse, Edinburgh, Thu-Sat (0131 473 2000)
Created specially for the festival, this performance features three song cycles by Gustav Mahler performed by the Rambert Dance Company, soprano Jane Irwin Mezzo, baritone Gerald Finley and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.
JALEO
King’s Theatre, Glasgow, Fri & Sat (0141 240 1111)
The flamenco company returns to Scotland with its energetic and sensuous cocktail of Andalusian dance, song and guitar and percussive hand-clapping performed by award-winning artists.
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ART
JOHN BELLANY
Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh, until Wed (0131 557 1020)
Small but not-to-be-missed exhibition from Scottish artist John Bellany, who is now based in Italy and clearly more light-hearted for it. This colourful and stirring collection of paintings created on a recent trip to China and from his new Italian home retains those nightmarish qualities so prevalent in Bellany’s work and adds a dose of bittersweet humour.
SCOTTISH ART 1800-1900
Hunterian Gallery, Glasgow, until Sep 18 (0141 330 5431)
A chance to revisit the Hunterian’s collection of 19th-century Scottish art. Included in the exhibition are works by Alexander Naysmyth, Horatio MacCulloch and Sir William McTaggart.
STEVEN CAMPBELL
Glasgow Print Studio, Glasgow, until Sep 25 (0141 552 0704)
The exhibition, entitled Jean-Pierre Léaud after the French actor who appeared in the films of Francois Truffaut, features a series of paintings inspired by the mysteries and mythologies of Rosslyn Chapel.
CYCLORAMA: SANFORD WURMFELD
Talbot Rice Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sep 25 (0131 650 2210)
Invented in Edinburgh in the late 18th century by Robert Barker, the Panorama allowed people to view an “all-round” painting from within a huge cylinder. New York painter Sandy Wurmfeld has built his own. Measuring 30 feet in diameter, the Cyclorama displays Wurmfeld’s abstract rainbow painting.
EMMANUELLE ANTILLE: ANGELS CAMP — FIRST SONGS
CCA, Glasgow, until Sep 26 (0141 352 4900)
Swiss artist Emmanuelle Antille’s movies and video projects are intimate fictional stories depicting mothers and daughters or friends and lovers. The exhibition features a full-length film, sound and video installations, photographs, music and a novel.
RE AWAKENING
Mount Stuart, Rothesay, Isle of Bute, until Sep 26 (01700 503 877)
This installation by Turner prize nominees Langlands and Bell is intended to bring the tiny Byzantine chapel designed by William Burgess at Mount Stuart back to life through the use of floor mirrors and wall paintings.
TERMINAL FRONTIERS
Streetlevel Photoworks, Glasgow, until Oct 2 (0141 552 2151)
An exhibition of digital art works that attempt to cross artistic and cultural boundaries.
STUBBS AND THE HUNTERS
Hunterian Art Gallery, Glasgow, until Oct 2 (0141 330 5431)
The works of animal painter George Stubbs are assembled for the first time in more than 200 years.
MIKE NELSON — THE PUMPKIN PALACE
Collective Gallery, Edinburgh, until Sep 12 (0131 220 1260)
Created in San Francisco and bused to Edinburgh at a cost of £15,000, Mike Nelson’s installation presents a series of rooms inside a 1954 single-decker that comment on the complexities of war and globalisation — one is an abandoned opium den, one a terrorist hideout, and another a Middle Eastern field hospital.
FRED TOMASELLI
The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, until Oct 3 (0131 225 2383)
The Fruitmarket Gallery’s festival exhibition presents the work of Fred Tomaselli, a New York-based artist whose elaborate “hybrid pictures”, made using a staggering array of materials including paint, pills, insects, photo-collage, leaves and flowers, have taken the art world by storm.
NAHUM TEVET: SEVEN WALKS
Dundee Contemporary Arts, Dundee, until Oct 3 (01382 909 900)
Constructed using simple shapes and household materials, Nahum Tevet’s room-size sculptural installations combine elements of architectural models and vast abstract paintings.
THE AGE OF TITIAN
Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh, until Dec 5 (0131 624 6560)
The Age of Titian appraises the Scottish appetite for Venetian art by bringing together many of the great Venetian artworks that have entered Scottish collections. These include Titian’s Venus Rising from the Sea and paintings by Tintoretto, Bellini, Veronese and Bassano.
ONE MILLION DAYS IN CHINA
Burrell Collection, Glasgow, until Feb 13 2005
(0141 287 2550)
An exhibition that delves into 4,000 years of Chinese culture and history via William Burrell’s extensive collection of art from the region. With more than 150 objects on display, the exhibition covers ancient China, the emergence of a writing system, beliefs in life after death and ancestor worship.
CHILDREN
TOM’S MIDNIGHT GARDEN
Adam Smith, Kirkcaldy, Sep 8-11 (01592 412 929)
The Birmingham Stage Company presents Philippa Pearce’s much-loved children’s fantasy about a boy who is transported back in time to a secret garden when his grandfather’s clock strikes 13.