0:00:00 > 0:00:00EDINBURGH FESTIVAL REVIEW SHOW FKR D597E/01 BRD000000
2:03:46 > 2:03:53.
2:04:00 > 2:04:05With almost 3,000 shows, around 300 venues
2:04:05 > 2:04:08and more than 24,000 artistes in town,
2:04:08 > 2:04:10it can only be Edinburgh in August
2:04:10 > 2:04:14and the biggest cultural festival in the world.
2:04:14 > 2:04:18You know, it's never too late to follow your dreams, Alien Boy!
2:04:18 > 2:04:19WHIP CRACKS
2:04:21 > 2:04:24Hello and welcome to this Review Show Special
2:04:24 > 2:04:26from a rather windy Calton Hill in Edinburgh,
2:04:26 > 2:04:28bringing you all the very best of the fest,
2:04:28 > 2:04:31including everything from art to acrobats,
2:04:31 > 2:04:33books to Beckett and comedy to cabaret.
2:04:33 > 2:04:36Coming up, David Baddiel is among the stand-ups
2:04:36 > 2:04:40who'll be telling me about the ineluctable lure of the Fringe,
2:04:40 > 2:04:42I'll be giving you a heads-up
2:04:42 > 2:04:45on an exhibition about Mary, Queen of Scots,
2:04:45 > 2:04:49and we'll be looking forward to a season of Samuel Beckett classics.
2:04:51 > 2:04:54First, though, the Book Festival kicked off this weekend
2:04:54 > 2:04:58with Roddy Doyle, here to discuss his latest novel, The Guts.
2:04:58 > 2:05:02After 26 years, it's the follow-up to his hugely popular book,
2:05:02 > 2:05:05The Commitments, which, having already been made into
2:05:05 > 2:05:09a smash-hit movie, is currently being adapted for the stage.
2:05:09 > 2:05:11- One, two... - # Mustang Sally... #
2:05:11 > 2:05:14In The Commitments, muso Jimmy Rabbitte
2:05:14 > 2:05:17rallies together a troupe of jobless soulsters
2:05:17 > 2:05:19to form a new group.
2:05:19 > 2:05:21- Do you want to be in a band? - What?
2:05:21 > 2:05:24The film and its soundtrack were hugely successful,
2:05:24 > 2:05:27and now, years later, rehearsals have begun
2:05:27 > 2:05:29for The Commitments, the musical.
2:05:29 > 2:05:31- Is this the band, is it?- Yeah.
2:05:31 > 2:05:34I bet you U2 are shitting themselves.
2:05:34 > 2:05:37I caught up with Roddy Doyle at the Palace Theatre.
2:05:37 > 2:05:39Now, for a long time you said you never wanted The Commitments
2:05:39 > 2:05:42- to be a musical.- Yeah. - So, what changed your mind?
2:05:42 > 2:05:45In my house, there's a division between the two people
2:05:45 > 2:05:49who watch The Sound Of Music and the three people who get up and walk out
2:05:49 > 2:05:52when it starts, and I'd be one of the walkers, you know?
2:05:52 > 2:05:56I think...going to a few with my children, as they got older,
2:05:56 > 2:06:00was a revelation, so I began to warm towards the idea.
2:06:00 > 2:06:03It would be very hard to wipe Alan Parker's film from your brain.
2:06:03 > 2:06:07- Very, very hard. That's why I haven't watched it in years.- Really?
2:06:07 > 2:06:09I haven't watched it, not because I don't like it,
2:06:09 > 2:06:12because I do, I love it... I suppose I felt a bit
2:06:12 > 2:06:15smothered by the whole experience, I think, or overwhelmed almost,
2:06:15 > 2:06:17and I didn't want to be defined by it.
2:06:17 > 2:06:20I didn't want to be "the person who wrote The Commitments".
2:06:20 > 2:06:22I'm more relaxed about it now.
2:06:22 > 2:06:25Was it not quite terrifying, approaching a musical?
2:06:25 > 2:06:28Presumably you have the songs there, of course.
2:06:28 > 2:06:30It was terrifying to a degree, because I'd never written one,
2:06:30 > 2:06:33so it was brand new, but on the other hand, you know,
2:06:33 > 2:06:35certainly at my point in life,
2:06:35 > 2:06:39to do something that I had never done before was quite exciting, really.
2:06:39 > 2:06:43The big joy for me was choosing songs that would
2:06:43 > 2:06:47propel the story on stage, because it's not based on the film.
2:06:47 > 2:06:49It's based on the novel.
2:06:49 > 2:06:52So it's a completely different body of songs, and that was great.
2:06:52 > 2:06:56- I loved that, really. - But it was THE book
2:06:56 > 2:07:01of late-20th-century urban poverty in the Republic of Ireland,
2:07:01 > 2:07:05and yet that makes it sound like a misery book, doesn't it?
2:07:05 > 2:07:07I just felt when I started The Commitments,
2:07:07 > 2:07:11I remember quite clearly, early 1986, something clicked it.
2:07:11 > 2:07:12This was the tone that I wanted.
2:07:12 > 2:07:16Working-class kids who were quite happy being working-class kids,
2:07:16 > 2:07:19and although a lot of them were facing a future of unemployment,
2:07:19 > 2:07:21they weren't going to be limited by that.
2:07:21 > 2:07:24They could still laugh, they could still enjoy life.
2:07:24 > 2:07:27- Are you all choir girls, then? - We are.
2:07:27 > 2:07:29Well, you've got fair voices
2:07:29 > 2:07:31but you're not putting much of THAT into it.
2:07:31 > 2:07:32Oh, Jesus.
2:07:34 > 2:07:37These much-loved character have been resurrected in The Guts,
2:07:37 > 2:07:41which revisits the irrepressible Jimmy Rabbitte 26 years on.
2:07:41 > 2:07:45- Here you are, back with Jimmy... - Yeah.
2:07:45 > 2:07:49- He is now in his late 40s.- He is.
2:07:49 > 2:07:53He's now middle-class-ish,
2:07:53 > 2:07:57middle-aged, midlife crisis
2:07:57 > 2:07:59- and cancer.- Yeah.
2:07:59 > 2:08:03And watching everyone around him have their houses repossessed,
2:08:03 > 2:08:07and everything else, while he's doing OK, thank you very much, in that sense.
2:08:07 > 2:08:10So what was the Ireland that you were portraying
2:08:10 > 2:08:12with the new book, The Guts?
2:08:12 > 2:08:15Well, I think the reason to drag Jimmy
2:08:15 > 2:08:21back from his happy post-Commitments retirement and add years to his life
2:08:21 > 2:08:26came from the early reports on the economic crisis in Ireland.
2:08:26 > 2:08:30The word "recession" came back into everyday usage,
2:08:30 > 2:08:32and was a real "boo" word, so to speak.
2:08:32 > 2:08:35And if I remember right, and I probably don't,
2:08:35 > 2:08:37but in the mid, late-'80s,
2:08:37 > 2:08:40Ireland was in recession, but nobody used the word,
2:08:40 > 2:08:44- because most of us thought it was normal life...- Yeah.- ..in Ireland.
2:08:44 > 2:08:49It had been a colony, poor country, basket case of Europe
2:08:49 > 2:08:52and most of us were quite content with that definition.
2:08:52 > 2:08:55We looked around and agreed, really. Just got on with our life.
2:08:55 > 2:08:59The last one was normal life, but then we found a different normality
2:08:59 > 2:09:02and now we're back into a different normality again.
2:09:02 > 2:09:05So I began to think about Jimmy and his parents and his whole family,
2:09:05 > 2:09:08really, wondering how different this one was, because this one is a shock.
2:09:08 > 2:09:14But you twinned the shock of that with the shock of Jimmy's cancer.
2:09:14 > 2:09:18- Yeah.- Now, why did you decide that Jimmy would have cancer?
2:09:18 > 2:09:23It seems a strange question, but it now actually infuses
2:09:23 > 2:09:26the conversation of middle-aged people, doesn't it?
2:09:26 > 2:09:27Yes. That's one of the reasons.
2:09:27 > 2:09:32For Eireans, it's often there in the conversation with football, you know?
2:09:32 > 2:09:35I've lost friends to it and others have come through chemo
2:09:35 > 2:09:39and survived, so just thought, I suppose,
2:09:39 > 2:09:42I've been writing about middle age since I became middle-aged
2:09:42 > 2:09:45and you may as well use... the humiliation of it all.
2:09:45 > 2:09:48I haven't had cancer, luckily, and hope not to.
2:09:48 > 2:09:50"Aoife was doing his worrying for him.
2:09:50 > 2:09:52"That wasn't true. He was worried.
2:09:52 > 2:09:56"Although all of his worry - he couldn't think further than
2:09:56 > 2:09:57"two or three days from now,
2:09:57 > 2:10:01"when the nausea would haul him out of his life.
2:10:01 > 2:10:04"Something by Ennio Morricone. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly.
2:10:04 > 2:10:06"For when they were carrying the coffin."
2:10:06 > 2:10:12That whole love of music, it kind of drives the book.
2:10:12 > 2:10:14It does, yeah.
2:10:14 > 2:10:17Jimmy wouldn't be far off me in that regard. He's a fan.
2:10:17 > 2:10:20I deliberately, when I was writing The Commitments,
2:10:20 > 2:10:22made him the manager. He's off the stage.
2:10:22 > 2:10:25He doesn't know how to play an instrument.
2:10:25 > 2:10:26He doesn't know the language.
2:10:26 > 2:10:29- And now he's trying to play one? - Yes. I added that.
2:10:29 > 2:10:32That's as near to autobiography as you'll get.
2:10:32 > 2:10:35I bought a trumpet some years ago, about two years ago,
2:10:35 > 2:10:38and started trying to learn to play it.
2:10:38 > 2:10:43- And?- With limited success. Very limited success.
2:10:43 > 2:10:46I could struggle through Hey, Jude, and at least one of my children
2:10:46 > 2:10:49recognises it for what it is, and the dog barks.
2:10:49 > 2:10:52But I decided at that point, I remember thinking,
2:10:52 > 2:10:54"Will I do that? Will I bring it in?"
2:10:54 > 2:10:58Because I've never been overly tempted to bring in
2:10:58 > 2:11:00any elements of my own life into the stories.
2:11:00 > 2:11:03- In Jimmy, there's this tremendous lust for life now.- Oh, yeah.
2:11:03 > 2:11:06Again, that was one of the discoveries.
2:11:06 > 2:11:08I don't plan too meticulously when I start to write.
2:11:08 > 2:11:11Once I knew he was going to come out the other end with the cancer,
2:11:11 > 2:11:15he probably sooner than would be the reality
2:11:15 > 2:11:18re-defines his relationship with his older children.
2:11:18 > 2:11:21Because there is a form of grief, I think,
2:11:21 > 2:11:25when you go from the simple relationship - filling the car
2:11:25 > 2:11:29and bringing them places and standing on the side of football pitches
2:11:29 > 2:11:32and watching them - and then it becomes complicated
2:11:32 > 2:11:35when independence kicks in and they do exactly what you would hoped
2:11:35 > 2:11:38they would do, but actually you're deeply hurt when they do it.
2:11:38 > 2:11:41And it takes a while to fill that gap, if you're lucky. But Jimmy does.
2:11:41 > 2:11:44- There's hints of it towards the end. - He does.
2:11:44 > 2:11:47He also has an affair with Imelda Quirke,
2:11:47 > 2:11:50who was the lead singer in The Commitments.
2:11:50 > 2:11:53Jimmy is in the throes of chemotherapy,
2:11:53 > 2:11:57so I suppose common sense is parked for a bit
2:11:57 > 2:12:01and the moral compass, I would imagine, wobbles a bit.
2:12:01 > 2:12:04"There were all sorts of reasons why he shouldn't have done it,
2:12:04 > 2:12:07"and all sorts of reasons why he shouldn't have been able to do it,
2:12:07 > 2:12:11"but he put his hands on the skin of a woman he didn't really know,
2:12:11 > 2:12:14"didn't know well, and he pushed all the worries and doubts away.
2:12:14 > 2:12:18"He'd given Imelda the best five minutes she'd had all week."
2:12:18 > 2:12:22Also in the book, which I think is a generational thing as well,
2:12:22 > 2:12:26- is that Jimmy and his son in a way share love of the same music.- Yeah.
2:12:26 > 2:12:29That whole connection between generations, over music,
2:12:29 > 2:12:32- do you have that with your children? - You know, one of my children
2:12:32 > 2:12:36asked me, "Did you ever hear of a band called Supertramp?"
2:12:36 > 2:12:38THEY CHUCKLE
2:12:38 > 2:12:42Which made my day. "And did you ever hear of a fella called Frank Zappa?"
2:12:42 > 2:12:44You know?
2:12:44 > 2:12:47And you'll suddenly feel useful, somehow or other.
2:12:47 > 2:12:51I don't know. You're something of a musical legend all of a sudden.
2:12:51 > 2:12:54If it's rock'n'roll, I think a lot of fathers
2:12:54 > 2:12:56would have a lot in common with their children.
2:12:56 > 2:12:59- Roddy Doyle, thank you very much. Thank you.- Thank you.
2:13:01 > 2:13:03The Guts is available now, and The Commitments
2:13:03 > 2:13:06opens at the Palace Theatre in London in September.
2:13:06 > 2:13:09The Edinburgh International Festival also launched this weekend,
2:13:09 > 2:13:12bringing the creme de la creme of theatre, opera,
2:13:12 > 2:13:16dance and music from around the world to Edinburgh's stages.
2:13:16 > 2:13:19This year it features a raft of plays,
2:13:19 > 2:13:21films and radio dramas by Samuel Beckett
2:13:21 > 2:13:25in a celebration of his ground-breaking approach to writing.
2:13:25 > 2:13:26Back!
2:13:26 > 2:13:29While Beckett's most famous works were for the stage,
2:13:29 > 2:13:33his plays for TV and radio enabled him to use recorded sounds
2:13:33 > 2:13:36and images to explore his often-absurd approach to life.
2:13:36 > 2:13:38ALARM CLOCK RINGS
2:13:38 > 2:13:41Now, taking his work full circle,
2:13:41 > 2:13:45Beckett At The Festival has adapted some of those works for the stage.
2:13:46 > 2:13:48WOMAN: Preferable in all respects.
2:13:48 > 2:13:51Kinder.
2:13:51 > 2:13:53Stronger.
2:13:53 > 2:13:55More intelligent.
2:13:55 > 2:13:59Eh Joe - the first play Beckett wrote for television - explores how
2:13:59 > 2:14:03one man alone in his bedroom is forced to face up to his past.
2:14:03 > 2:14:07Michael Gambon stars in this acclaimed production,
2:14:07 > 2:14:10directed by Atom Egoyan.
2:14:10 > 2:14:13Wait till he starts talking to you.
2:14:14 > 2:14:17When you're done with yourself.
2:14:17 > 2:14:19Or you're dead dead.
2:14:21 > 2:14:23Sitting there in your foul old wrapper.
2:14:25 > 2:14:29This is really a study in what performance means,
2:14:29 > 2:14:32because you're seeing a figure on stage
2:14:32 > 2:14:34who seems quite immobile and still,
2:14:34 > 2:14:38but you're seeing this face that's so full of detail
2:14:38 > 2:14:39and emotion,
2:14:39 > 2:14:44and reconciling the two is, I think, quite magical.
2:14:44 > 2:14:46How is your Lord these days?
2:14:46 > 2:14:51It is a live 26-minute shot, and the actor,
2:14:51 > 2:14:54while he's sitting on the bed, is being projected up to a camera
2:14:54 > 2:14:57which is projecting back on to a gauze,
2:14:57 > 2:15:00so it's a live sort of film performance,
2:15:00 > 2:15:04but we see the large 18-foot-high face
2:15:04 > 2:15:07and it goes in seven times, I think, until it just comes to here.
2:15:07 > 2:15:11It is a mid-shot at first, but you also see the actor on the bed,
2:15:11 > 2:15:15a very diminutive one, and that gives it a sort of poignancy.
2:15:15 > 2:15:17And that is something that you won't get
2:15:17 > 2:15:21when you look at Eh Joe as a piece of television.
2:15:21 > 2:15:25Penelope Wilton, who provides the voice in Eh Joe, also features
2:15:25 > 2:15:29in Rockaby, one of the Beckett films being shown at the festival.
2:15:29 > 2:15:31All eyes.
2:15:31 > 2:15:32All sides.
2:15:34 > 2:15:36High and low.
2:15:36 > 2:15:40Directed by Richard Eyre, Rockaby is a study in old age
2:15:40 > 2:15:43and focuses upon a woman reciting a poem
2:15:43 > 2:15:45whilst in a rocking chair.
2:15:45 > 2:15:49The sources of Rockaby are very, very simple and very clear.
2:15:49 > 2:15:52His mother had Alzheimer's,
2:15:52 > 2:15:55then called senile dementia.
2:15:55 > 2:16:00She was in a home that was just by the Dublin Grand Canal
2:16:00 > 2:16:06and he could look up and see her in the window of that home,
2:16:06 > 2:16:10a large Georgian window, rocking away.
2:16:11 > 2:16:13The day came
2:16:13 > 2:16:15In the end came
2:16:15 > 2:16:18The close of a long day
2:16:19 > 2:16:22When she said to herself
2:16:22 > 2:16:24Whom else?
2:16:24 > 2:16:26Time she stopped.
2:16:26 > 2:16:29ECHOING: Time she stopped.
2:16:29 > 2:16:33People misunderstand Beckett, I think, very, very badly
2:16:33 > 2:16:39and think that his plays are liable to infinite interpretation.
2:16:39 > 2:16:45He hated the idea that you could veer from what essentially
2:16:45 > 2:16:49he saw as a sort of musical score.
2:16:49 > 2:16:52The recurring image of the lone figure on stage that features
2:16:52 > 2:16:56in much of Beckett's work is also the focus of First Love,
2:16:56 > 2:16:59the stage adaptation of his 1946 novella
2:16:59 > 2:17:03directed by Michael Colgan and starring Peter Egan.
2:17:03 > 2:17:06It fulfils a lifetime's ambition, I think,
2:17:06 > 2:17:08for me to be doing First Love.
2:17:08 > 2:17:14It's a sensational, beautiful piece of writing. It's very personal.
2:17:14 > 2:17:19It's quite personal to me, because I come from an Irish background.
2:17:19 > 2:17:22My father was a Dubliner,
2:17:22 > 2:17:25so there are rhythms in it, and refrains, that...
2:17:25 > 2:17:30I can feel my father in them at times,
2:17:30 > 2:17:37and that's both upsetting and also, um, rewarding.
2:17:39 > 2:17:41"I thought of Anna then.
2:17:42 > 2:17:46"I, who had learned to think of nothing, nothing except my pains,
2:17:46 > 2:17:48"a quick think through,
2:17:48 > 2:17:51"and what steps to take, not to perish offhand
2:17:51 > 2:17:53"of hunger or cold or shame."
2:17:54 > 2:17:59"But never on any account of living beings, as such."
2:18:01 > 2:18:03The references...
2:18:03 > 2:18:05and you can only say this immodestly,
2:18:05 > 2:18:08and I'm not trying to be immodest, because I don't have
2:18:08 > 2:18:12anything like the intellect, but the intellect was extraordinary.
2:18:12 > 2:18:17And when you get that and live with that work, you'll realise what
2:18:17 > 2:18:20those references are doing,
2:18:20 > 2:18:22and the in-jokes that are there.
2:18:22 > 2:18:24And they're right through...
2:18:24 > 2:18:27For example, they're right through First Love,
2:18:27 > 2:18:32they're through the trilogy and most of the plays.
2:18:32 > 2:18:36The choice of a word is absolutely, to him, supreme.
2:18:36 > 2:18:38WOMAN: 'Ohh!
2:18:39 > 2:18:41'Poor woman.
2:18:41 > 2:18:45'All alone in that ruinous old house.'
2:18:45 > 2:18:48It's perhaps the adaptations of two of his radio plays -
2:18:48 > 2:18:52Embers and All That Fall - staged by Dublin-based Pan Pan Theatre,
2:18:52 > 2:18:57where audiences are able to appreciate Beckett's writing at its purist.
2:18:57 > 2:18:59MAN: 'We are sitting on the Strand.'
2:19:02 > 2:19:06'I mention it because the sound is so strange,
2:19:06 > 2:19:10'so unlike the sound of the sea,
2:19:10 > 2:19:14'that if you didn't see what it was you wouldn't know what it was.'
2:19:15 > 2:19:18With the incorporation of technology,
2:19:18 > 2:19:21Pan Pan have created atmospheric listening chambers
2:19:21 > 2:19:25that envelope the audience in a multilayered theatrical experience.
2:19:25 > 2:19:28WOMAN: 'How can I go on?
2:19:28 > 2:19:31'What have I done to deserve all this?
2:19:31 > 2:19:33'What? What?'
2:19:33 > 2:19:35FOOTSTEPS
2:19:35 > 2:19:40'So long ago. No. No.'
2:19:42 > 2:19:50I think Beckett is of the most extraordinary integrity and purity.
2:19:50 > 2:19:53His influence has been enormous.
2:19:53 > 2:19:57Every single thing that he wrote makes you think.
2:19:57 > 2:19:59'So long ago.
2:19:59 > 2:20:01'No. No.'
2:20:04 > 2:20:09The Beckett programme begins with Eh Joe on the 23rd of August.
2:20:09 > 2:20:12Now, Edinburgh has become a Mecca for the stand-up fraternity -
2:20:12 > 2:20:15it's after all where the likes of Steve Coogan, The Mighty Boosh
2:20:15 > 2:20:19and The League Of Gentlemen all made their names.
2:20:19 > 2:20:22But to what extent is the Fringe still a launch pad for new comics
2:20:22 > 2:20:26and why do famous names come back again and again?
2:20:26 > 2:20:29Is it for the pleasure or the pain?
2:20:29 > 2:20:31David Baddiel has played Wembley Arena
2:20:31 > 2:20:34and had numerous hit TV shows but now he's returned
2:20:34 > 2:20:38to his stand-up roots with his first solo fringe show in 15 years.
2:20:38 > 2:20:41I heard her say to her friend, "Oh, look,
2:20:41 > 2:20:44"there's that bloke out of Skinner and Garibaldi."
2:20:44 > 2:20:46I'm Irish, by the way.
2:20:46 > 2:20:51Aisling Bea broke through last year, winning the annual "So You Think You're Funny?" competition,
2:20:51 > 2:20:54and is back for her very first full Fringe run.
2:20:56 > 2:20:57And Caroline Rhea,
2:20:57 > 2:21:01star of the US hit TV show Sabrina The Teenage Witch,
2:21:01 > 2:21:05who's chosen to spend August playing one of Edinburgh's hallowed halls.
2:21:05 > 2:21:08Everyone's like, "People tell me that I look just like you."
2:21:08 > 2:21:13I'm like, "You do look like me. You also look like a snowman and a baby."
2:21:13 > 2:21:15Well, the three of them are with me now.
2:21:15 > 2:21:18Aisling, first of all, I mean, that was the big break for you last year,
2:21:18 > 2:21:21the first time a woman in 20 years has got "So You Think You're Funny?"
2:21:21 > 2:21:24Yes, it boggled scientists trying to work out what happened.
2:21:24 > 2:21:27But you got a show out of it, a whole show for this year.
2:21:27 > 2:21:30Yeah, I did, it's brilliant, and I'm back at the Gilded Balloon as well,
2:21:30 > 2:21:33where the whole competition kind of comes out of.
2:21:33 > 2:21:35Erm, so hopefully people will come and laugh.
2:21:35 > 2:21:37Do you think there's all this expectation,
2:21:37 > 2:21:39"This is the woman that won 'So You Think You're Funny?' last year.
2:21:39 > 2:21:42"We'll see if you're funny this year."
2:21:42 > 2:21:44Yeah, "So you think you're funny, do ya?!"
2:21:44 > 2:21:46Someone rang me up when I won last year,
2:21:46 > 2:21:48someone from an Irish radio station rang me up, and they're like,
2:21:48 > 2:21:52"So I hear you won the So You Think You're Funny Do Ya competition?"
2:21:52 > 2:21:54And I'm like, "No, there's no 'Do Ya' at the end.
2:21:54 > 2:21:56"That's just your sarcasm."
2:21:56 > 2:21:59It is an incredibly aggressive title for a thing, though -
2:21:59 > 2:22:01So You Think You're Funny, question mark.
2:22:01 > 2:22:04There is a thing about Edinburgh now, isn't there?
2:22:04 > 2:22:0615 years since you last did stand-up here,
2:22:06 > 2:22:08now you're doing a show about not being so famous.
2:22:08 > 2:22:11It's such a deathly sentence, isn't it, "15 years ago"?
2:22:11 > 2:22:14Yeah, well, the show I'm doing now is about coming back to do stuff
2:22:14 > 2:22:18and it's about fame, in a kind of very...
2:22:18 > 2:22:22I'm really kind of celebrating the ludicrousness of being
2:22:22 > 2:22:24in and out of fame for a long time.
2:22:24 > 2:22:26And actually, one of the things I try to sort of talk about is
2:22:26 > 2:22:29the fact that I think fame's talked about in two ways in our culture,
2:22:29 > 2:22:32as this bauble that Simon Cowell says we all want
2:22:32 > 2:22:35or as a really tragic narrative, this kind of Amy Whitehouse, Janis Joplin,
2:22:35 > 2:22:37the roar of the crowd versus the pain of the empty hotel room.
2:22:37 > 2:22:40My experience of fame is a third way, which is like
2:22:40 > 2:22:43being on a Ryanair flight and trying to keep a seat I haven't paid for
2:22:43 > 2:22:47for priority seating for my children and a bloke going, "David Baddiel, you're so tight."
2:22:47 > 2:22:50That's my experience of fame, you know, being in an Aldi's car park
2:22:50 > 2:22:53and a man giving me career advice, Andrew Lloyd Webber saying,
2:22:53 > 2:22:57"Hello, Ben Elton." That kind of stuff, that's my experience of fame.
2:22:57 > 2:22:59I went to Auschwitz a few years ago.
2:22:59 > 2:23:01Not as an inmate, don't worry, I just...
2:23:01 > 2:23:03You know, you can go there now, it's fine.
2:23:03 > 2:23:06I went there and I was standing at the very site of the gas chambers
2:23:06 > 2:23:10and a man who'd been staring at me for a while came over
2:23:10 > 2:23:13and he stood by me for a little while, and I thought,
2:23:13 > 2:23:15"He's going to say something, of great insight,
2:23:15 > 2:23:19"of deep truth, of real moral value about the human condition."
2:23:19 > 2:23:24And he said, "Dave, when's Fantasy Football coming back?"
2:23:24 > 2:23:26LAUGHTER
2:23:26 > 2:23:28It's funny. I'm kind of at a stage where I'm deciding...
2:23:28 > 2:23:31- It's my first show and I'm deciding not to read any reviews.- Yeah.
2:23:31 > 2:23:34- That's where it begins. - Comedy, the whole job...
2:23:34 > 2:23:37Yes, that's where it begins! Wah!
2:23:37 > 2:23:41- And then your good friends go, "Don't read the Herald!" - "Don't! Don't!"
2:23:41 > 2:23:44You've got this kind of schizophrenic existence this time,
2:23:44 > 2:23:47because you're a star, a big Canadian star in America,
2:23:47 > 2:23:51you've got a stand-up and you've got a kids' show.
2:23:51 > 2:23:54- Why do you still enjoy stand-up so much?- Why do I still do it?! I know!
2:23:54 > 2:23:56You know what, first of all, I've got nothing to lose,
2:23:56 > 2:23:59because I feel like I've had quite a decent career, so if nothing else
2:23:59 > 2:24:01- good ever happens I'm still very happy with how it's gone.- Yeah.
2:24:01 > 2:24:04And it's the one thing that I love and it helps me
2:24:04 > 2:24:07process my life, and I think I started doing stand-up cos I thought
2:24:07 > 2:24:10I was so unique, and what I am is completely like everyone else.
2:24:10 > 2:24:12Especially in Scotland, cos we all look alike.
2:24:12 > 2:24:14We all are cartilage based...
2:24:14 > 2:24:16Yeah, the Scottish shtick is a thing with you, isn't it?
2:24:16 > 2:24:19- Well, you know what, I'm Canadian, so this is our mother ship.- Is it?
2:24:19 > 2:24:21Yeah, my grandparents are Scottish.
2:24:21 > 2:24:24- I came here all the time. - Do you have Scotticisms,
2:24:24 > 2:24:27things that are kind of weirdly Scottish that you do?
2:24:27 > 2:24:29I love how dramatic everything is here.
2:24:29 > 2:24:32I mean, the fact that there's a castle in the backdrop.
2:24:32 > 2:24:34There is traffic, you know, and the woman said,
2:24:34 > 2:24:38"The traffic is quite dire!" I was like, "Really, it's OK."
2:24:38 > 2:24:40But everything is so, like...
2:24:40 > 2:24:44And I was clothes shopping and there was a very proper sales lady.
2:24:44 > 2:24:48As I was going into the dressing room she said something which I thought was quite mean,
2:24:48 > 2:24:50which was, "Good luck." And I...
2:24:52 > 2:24:53Odd.
2:24:56 > 2:24:59It was so Scottish, cos you guys are so... What is that word?
2:24:59 > 2:25:03Mean. Anyway, as I was going into the dressing room and she said,
2:25:03 > 2:25:04"Good luck," I...
2:25:04 > 2:25:08When I came out I was having a moment of denial and I said,
2:25:08 > 2:25:10"Is this too big on me?"
2:25:10 > 2:25:13And she said, "Quite the opposite, madam.
2:25:13 > 2:25:15"Quite the opposite."
2:25:15 > 2:25:19There's something nice about stand-up, no matter what level you get to, that you never...
2:25:19 > 2:25:22I've found doing stand-up that I now have a job for life and it doesn't
2:25:22 > 2:25:25sort of matter what you look like or what you do as long as you're funny.
2:25:25 > 2:25:28- And that's what keeps you going. - Yeah. As long as you're funny!
2:25:28 > 2:25:31- Yeah, you're still in your 20s! - If you go to America...
2:25:31 > 2:25:36- NORTH AMERICAN ACCENT:- I work hard! What is this?! Whatever!
2:25:36 > 2:25:39I'd love to see the film where Liam Neeson sees a bit of trouble
2:25:39 > 2:25:43and just walks on by. You know, goes home, has an egg for his tea.
2:25:43 > 2:25:46That'd be nice, Liam. That should be an acting challenge for you.
2:25:46 > 2:25:51In America, do people think you're Scottish? Because I think Americans don't know the difference between...
2:25:51 > 2:25:53I think Americans know the Irish thing.
2:25:53 > 2:25:55I found in Canada... I was in Canada last week,
2:25:55 > 2:25:58for the Montreal Festival, and they didn't totally know...
2:25:58 > 2:26:02They didn't immediately hear the accent straightaway.
2:26:02 > 2:26:04- I had to go down the "potato potato" route.- You said "potato" a lot?
2:26:04 > 2:26:07Just kind of going in, "Potato potato?"
2:26:07 > 2:26:09"Potato. Oh, now you know.
2:26:09 > 2:26:11"We're grand. We're off." But it did take a while.
2:26:11 > 2:26:12But did you come here last year,
2:26:12 > 2:26:17- did you really think, "This is going to be a life changer?"- No, I didn't.
2:26:17 > 2:26:19I came and did a play and I wanted to get...
2:26:19 > 2:26:22I think there's something about... Especially doing the show this year,
2:26:22 > 2:26:25there's something about doing your job, like an hour, 30 times in a row,
2:26:25 > 2:26:28that it's just going to make you a better stand-up.
2:26:28 > 2:26:32Because there'll be dud gigs and bad gigs and to sustain stand-up
2:26:32 > 2:26:34and telling stories for an hour is completely different
2:26:34 > 2:26:36to a 20-minute set, or a seven-minute set.
2:26:36 > 2:26:39I mean, the competition was seven to eight minutes last year,
2:26:39 > 2:26:40and that doesn't really...
2:26:40 > 2:26:43It's like an advert for what you do, and it's so nice to have the space.
2:26:43 > 2:26:46I'm shocked how...erm...
2:26:46 > 2:26:49how much this city encourages stand-up and how it's got all
2:26:49 > 2:26:52these venues, and yet the brutality of some of the reviews that I...
2:26:52 > 2:26:54I will not read my own, don't worry. The cruelty in which...
2:26:54 > 2:26:56And you're just like, you know,
2:26:56 > 2:26:59the objective here is we're all trying to make everybody laugh.
2:26:59 > 2:27:02You know, the fact that they take it so seriously.
2:27:02 > 2:27:03I think there's an issue as well...
2:27:03 > 2:27:06Comedy's a massive thing now, and there's a lot of critics,
2:27:06 > 2:27:10but I have thought for a while that it's an issue for critics,
2:27:10 > 2:27:13comedy, because it's the only art form where they're really not needed.
2:27:13 > 2:27:17- Because, really, if the audience are laughing, it is working.- Yes.
2:27:17 > 2:27:19- Exactly.- That's why quite a lot of critics... I've read this,
2:27:19 > 2:27:21I remember AA Gill once saying,
2:27:21 > 2:27:23"I prefer comedy which doesn't really make the audience laugh,"
2:27:23 > 2:27:27and I thought, "What you mean is, you prefer comedy where you can still tell us readers
2:27:27 > 2:27:29"whether or not this thing is working,
2:27:29 > 2:27:32"because otherwise, if it's laughing, why do you need a critic?"
2:27:32 > 2:27:35Well, thank you all very much indeed.
2:27:35 > 2:27:39Well, you can see Caroline until the 22nd and Aisling until the 26th,
2:27:39 > 2:27:40both at the Gilded Balloon,
2:27:40 > 2:27:45and David finishes his run tonight but is on tour in October.
2:27:45 > 2:27:49Leading choreographers from Mark Morris to Michael Clark,
2:27:49 > 2:27:53Lucinda Childs to Pina Bausch, have staged work here in Edinburgh
2:27:53 > 2:27:57but contemporary dance can be one of the most misunderstood of art forms.
2:27:57 > 2:28:01Pete Shenton and Tom Roden, aka New Art Club, have made it their mission
2:28:01 > 2:28:04to bring new audiences to the world of dance,
2:28:04 > 2:28:06so we asked them for the low-down
2:28:06 > 2:28:09on what to expect from this year's movers and shakers.
2:28:24 > 2:28:28With so much dance going on here at the Edinburgh Festival,
2:28:28 > 2:28:30it can be hard to decide what to go and see.
2:28:30 > 2:28:33You could try using Pete's technique.
2:28:33 > 2:28:35Which has its pros and cons.
2:28:37 > 2:28:40Or you could get somebody who knows what they're talking about
2:28:40 > 2:28:41to be your guide.
2:28:41 > 2:28:43With everything from pure movement
2:28:43 > 2:28:45to surreal retellings of great stories
2:28:45 > 2:28:50and with choreographers using all manner of theatrical devices,
2:28:50 > 2:28:55including film, spoken word and even physical comedy...
2:28:55 > 2:29:01You can be bombarded with images or taken deep into intimate moments.
2:29:01 > 2:29:06It can be completely abstract, and on occasion, utterly meaningless.
2:29:08 > 2:29:11This year possibly the most abstract...
2:29:11 > 2:29:14And in dance terms, therefore the most traditional...
2:29:14 > 2:29:16Is the LA dance project.
2:29:40 > 2:29:42This is the company from celebrity dancer
2:29:42 > 2:29:45and choreographer Benjamin Millepied.
2:29:45 > 2:29:48Not only are they presenting work by two renowned masters
2:29:48 > 2:29:52of contemporary dance, Merce Cunningham and William Forsythe,
2:29:52 > 2:29:54but also a piece by Millepied himself.
2:30:18 > 2:30:24But even in these seemingly abstract dance pieces, you might see meaning.
2:30:24 > 2:30:28The snaking, intertwining bodies of the dancers
2:30:28 > 2:30:33may suggest a relationship of support and trust.
2:30:35 > 2:30:39The work of a comedy double act is similarly based on trust.
2:30:39 > 2:30:42It just manifests itself in a slightly different way.
2:30:45 > 2:30:48The next piece, by Korean artist Hyo Jin Kim,
2:30:48 > 2:30:50has a stronger relationship to narrative
2:30:50 > 2:30:55and uses projected images in film to create and manipulate meaning.
2:30:55 > 2:30:58The piece plays around with scale, and pitches the human body
2:30:58 > 2:31:05against images as varied as a 1950s classic of Korean cinema...
2:31:05 > 2:31:07..and enormous fish.
2:31:16 > 2:31:19In Jose Montalvo's Don Quichotte du Trocadero
2:31:19 > 2:31:24the already surreal narrative is transformed into a series of imagistic episodes.
2:31:24 > 2:31:30It also uses specially created film projection in order to shift location
2:31:30 > 2:31:34and to illuminate the interior world of the characters' imaginations.
2:31:34 > 2:31:37This allows it to move around freely inside the narrative,
2:31:37 > 2:31:42providing a comic discourse between the live and the filmed elements.
2:32:14 > 2:32:17So, if you're thinking of coming to see some dance in Edinburgh this year,
2:32:17 > 2:32:21you can expect plenty of visual and physical stimulation.
2:32:21 > 2:32:26Probably some film, and even people talking to you.
2:32:26 > 2:32:27Or, to each other.
2:32:27 > 2:32:29Yeah. Or to each other.
2:32:29 > 2:32:32But they probably won't be trying to tell you any kind of story
2:32:32 > 2:32:36with a clear narrative - so in the words of the great funk philosopher George Clinton,
2:32:36 > 2:32:40free your mind and your ass will follow.
2:32:40 > 2:32:42# Free your mind and your ass will follow
2:32:42 > 2:32:45# The kingdom of heaven is within
2:32:45 > 2:32:48# Free your mind
2:32:48 > 2:32:50# And your ass will follow
2:32:50 > 2:32:52# The kingdom of heaven is within
2:32:55 > 2:32:56# Yeah...
2:32:59 > 2:33:01# Mmm... #
2:33:07 > 2:33:09New Art Club are at the Assembly in Edinburgh
2:33:09 > 2:33:11until the 26th of the month.
2:33:11 > 2:33:15From modern dance to modern opera, American Lulu relocates
2:33:15 > 2:33:18Alban Berg's femme fatale to New York,
2:33:18 > 2:33:20with Angel Blue taking the lead role
2:33:20 > 2:33:23in this collaboration by Scottish Opera and The Opera Group.
2:33:23 > 2:33:26We caught up with the company during their rehearsals.
2:33:26 > 2:33:29- # Can't you tell me your name? - # No, it would make me uneasy
2:33:29 > 2:33:30# You're so secretive
2:33:30 > 2:33:36# I'm secretive? I never needed to be... #
2:33:36 > 2:33:40This interpretation of Lulu is by the composer Olga Neuwirth.
2:33:40 > 2:33:44Olga chose to set the piece in the United States of America
2:33:44 > 2:33:47across the civil rights era, the civil rights revolution.
2:33:47 > 2:33:50And I think the reason for doing that
2:33:50 > 2:33:53is that she wanted to say that this is a piece
2:33:53 > 2:33:57not only about gender and about sexuality, but also about race.
2:33:57 > 2:34:03And that it's a piece about what it is to be a human in its broadest sense. It's about human rights.
2:34:03 > 2:34:07San Francisco-based soprano Angel Blue
2:34:07 > 2:34:10plays the young and beautiful dancer, whose world is torn apart by the jealous
2:34:10 > 2:34:15and controlling men and women desperate to be her lovers.
2:34:15 > 2:34:19# ..I remember
2:34:19 > 2:34:28# The times that we used to have... #
2:34:28 > 2:34:30'It's a political piece, for sure.
2:34:30 > 2:34:33'And in the end you sort of see Lulu kind of just,'
2:34:33 > 2:34:36in a very violent manner,
2:34:36 > 2:34:41feel that that's the way that she has to sort everything out in her life.
2:34:41 > 2:34:42She kind of shuts off to people.
2:34:42 > 2:34:46# Slowly You have to slow down
2:34:46 > 2:34:49# How dare you just turn up like that... #
2:34:49 > 2:34:51'I love it because it's nothing like me as a person.
2:34:51 > 2:34:53'I just, I really sort of enjoy being,'
2:34:53 > 2:34:56for lack of a better word, crazy.
2:34:56 > 2:34:59I like the journey that she makes, I think she starts out
2:34:59 > 2:35:03'kind of innocent, but I think you just sort of see her just go down
2:35:03 > 2:35:05'a downward spiral,
2:35:05 > 2:35:08'and hopefully that will never happen to me in my real life
2:35:08 > 2:35:12'but I do enjoy playing her because she has... She's like an onion.'
2:35:12 > 2:35:14Peel an onion, many layers and everything -
2:35:14 > 2:35:17that's how I feel about Lulu.
2:35:17 > 2:35:19SHE SINGS
2:35:24 > 2:35:26American Lulu is at the King's Theatre
2:35:26 > 2:35:29on the 30th and 31st of August,
2:35:29 > 2:35:32and also at the Young Vic in London in September.
2:35:32 > 2:35:34Fringe theatre now,
2:35:34 > 2:35:36and this year a number of new plays set out to tackle
2:35:36 > 2:35:40some of the most shocking and significant events in recent history.
2:35:42 > 2:35:46Chalk Farm, by ThickSkin, is an explosive new play about love
2:35:46 > 2:35:50and blame during the 2011 London riots.
2:35:50 > 2:35:53There's this loud cracking noise like frying bacon,
2:35:53 > 2:35:56and a bunch of kids are peeling away the smashed window
2:35:56 > 2:35:58like big strips of sunburnt skin.
2:35:58 > 2:36:02Ram Singh starts the engine...
2:36:04 > 2:36:08After much acclaim for her version of Mies Julie last year,
2:36:08 > 2:36:10Yale farmer returns with Nirbhaya,
2:36:10 > 2:36:13a devastating exploration of violence against women in India,
2:36:13 > 2:36:17highlighted by the gang rape on a Delhi bus in December last year.
2:36:25 > 2:36:29And closer to home in more ways than one, Making News
2:36:29 > 2:36:33is a satire on the BBC, as things go very wrong in the newsroom.
2:36:33 > 2:36:35We're all in this together, Rachel.
2:36:35 > 2:36:37Yes.
2:36:37 > 2:36:38- And we all know our place?- Yes.
2:36:40 > 2:36:43Good. Let's hope it isn't Salford.
2:36:46 > 2:36:51Well, with me to give me their verdict on these plays are the playwright Mark Ravenhill,
2:36:51 > 2:36:54Lyn Gardner from The Guardian and the broadcaster Gyles Brandreth.
2:36:54 > 2:36:59First of all, Gyles, Making News. An easy target, the BBC, do you think?
2:36:59 > 2:37:03An easy target indeed, therefore we are fulfilling here
2:37:03 > 2:37:04what their premise is.
2:37:04 > 2:37:07They say if you do something critical of the BBC,
2:37:07 > 2:37:09the BBC has to give it extra attention.
2:37:09 > 2:37:12So here we are, hundreds of plays on, we are focusing on one
2:37:12 > 2:37:16which is basically a corporate drama about the Corporation.
2:37:16 > 2:37:19A new Acting Head of News has just been appointed,
2:37:19 > 2:37:22played by Suki Webster. She has a dilemma.
2:37:22 > 2:37:24A young reporter from Panorama arrives
2:37:24 > 2:37:27with what he thinks is a hot story.
2:37:27 > 2:37:29A cult has been uncovered, a million people -
2:37:29 > 2:37:31is it funded by the BBC itself?
2:37:31 > 2:37:34The best of the performances was from somebody called Hal Cruttenden,
2:37:34 > 2:37:36who is the star newsreader,
2:37:36 > 2:37:39who comes really from the Reginald Bosanquet generation.
2:37:41 > 2:37:43That suit is cursed!
2:37:43 > 2:37:46That's the suit I wore during the Crisis of the Forbidden Angle.
2:37:49 > 2:37:52This is the biggest news story of the year.
2:37:52 > 2:37:56- The DG selected you personally. - Get someone else!
2:37:56 > 2:38:00- There is no-one else. - This is suicide! Career suicide!
2:38:00 > 2:38:02Do they capture the whole atmosphere of crisis in the BBC?
2:38:02 > 2:38:05This is obviously a crazy story, but do they capture that well?
2:38:05 > 2:38:08Well, there are a little bit too few of them
2:38:08 > 2:38:11to create the drama within the newsroom there should be.
2:38:11 > 2:38:13There seems to be quite a lot of leisurely time taken,
2:38:13 > 2:38:16and there's a fair bit of disappearing behind the water cooler
2:38:16 > 2:38:19to do some light bonking, which I have to tell you -
2:38:19 > 2:38:22I work on The One Show, where none of that ever happens.
2:38:22 > 2:38:27- And maybe it does on news, you'd be better placed to tell us about that.- Couldn't say a word.
2:38:27 > 2:38:30Lyn, what about Phill Jupitus as the DG?
2:38:30 > 2:38:34Phill Jupitus is Phill Jupitus, he's not really the DG,
2:38:34 > 2:38:38but nobody on that stage really is acting other than Hal.
2:38:38 > 2:38:41And I think that Gyles makes it sound considerably more
2:38:41 > 2:38:43interesting than it actually is.
2:38:43 > 2:38:48I enjoyed it. I went with the flow. It's Edinburgh, it was a fun show, it was topical.
2:38:48 > 2:38:50I enjoyed the performances.
2:38:50 > 2:38:54Well, another play, again with the news at its heart
2:38:54 > 2:38:57but a much more serious affair and reflecting on something
2:38:57 > 2:39:02that happened in 2011, is Chalk Farm, about the riots. You saw that.
2:39:02 > 2:39:05Now, this is a two-hander, a mother and her son.
2:39:05 > 2:39:10Yeah, and it's an extraordinary insight I think into
2:39:10 > 2:39:13what happened that summer, which we've all been looking for.
2:39:13 > 2:39:16It deals with the fact that there is no easy answer.
2:39:16 > 2:39:18Very early on the young son has a speech at the beginning
2:39:18 > 2:39:21saying this was about everything and nothing.
2:39:21 > 2:39:24But then it takes us into the heart of this relationship between mother and son -
2:39:24 > 2:39:27a mother who's really proud to be living in Chalk Farm.
2:39:27 > 2:39:30She feels she's doing the best by her boy,
2:39:30 > 2:39:32and then he gets drawn into the nights of the riots.
2:39:32 > 2:39:35But it's after that that she comes to this realisation that
2:39:35 > 2:39:39because the riots have happened, now people are perceiving
2:39:39 > 2:39:43a whole section of society as being chavs and scum.
2:39:43 > 2:39:47No right to live here amongst good law-abiding citizens.
2:39:47 > 2:39:51Should be hounded up, or locked away, or worse.
2:39:51 > 2:39:53And she's screaming now, proper yelling,
2:39:53 > 2:39:57and all I can see is my little Jamie, in dim light,
2:39:57 > 2:40:00with the curtains closed, breathing softly like an angel
2:40:00 > 2:40:06and I'm thinking, "You don't know. You don't know him."
2:40:06 > 2:40:11This idea of the rich and poor living cheek by jowl very much at the heart of the problem.
2:40:11 > 2:40:14I think it really captures that sense of, what has happened to us
2:40:14 > 2:40:19when we have such a broadening gap between the rich and the poor?
2:40:19 > 2:40:22And is there any society left, is there any shared ground left
2:40:22 > 2:40:25between this hugely torn apart society?
2:40:25 > 2:40:29You saw that as well, Lyn. Is it too sympathetic?
2:40:29 > 2:40:33Well, no, I think that actually it's a deceptively simple play
2:40:33 > 2:40:36about a really complex issue.
2:40:36 > 2:40:39And I think it puts things very beautifully
2:40:39 > 2:40:43and very movingly about the way that it explores,
2:40:43 > 2:40:48that it's possible to have two women living on opposite sides of a road,
2:40:48 > 2:40:52and yet the gulf between them is impossible to breach.
2:40:52 > 2:40:57And what about the staging? Because there's music, video, text...
2:40:57 > 2:40:59A really complex staging,
2:40:59 > 2:41:02very hard to do at the Fringe, where the turnover is very fast-moving.
2:41:02 > 2:41:04I thought it was an incredibly accomplished production.
2:41:04 > 2:41:07I thought, am I just being impressed because it's on the Fringe
2:41:07 > 2:41:11and we're normally expecting a few black drapes and a couple of lighting states?
2:41:11 > 2:41:16But actually I think on any level, the combination of underscoring - the score was fantastic,
2:41:16 > 2:41:20the use of video worked, the movement worked, the precision of the acting -
2:41:20 > 2:41:24I think in any context, it's an incredibly thought through and accomplished production.
2:41:24 > 2:41:28This is it. This is it!
2:41:28 > 2:41:30It doesn't get better than this.
2:41:33 > 2:41:38Well, Lyn, you went to see a drama not only based
2:41:38 > 2:41:42on the true story of the dreadful rape and subsequent death of the young woman
2:41:42 > 2:41:46on the bus in India, but the performers on stage
2:41:46 > 2:41:51have suffered the kind of abuse that's being portrayed in the drama.
2:41:51 > 2:41:55I would say that this is a show which almost defies criticism
2:41:55 > 2:42:00to some extent, because it is so extraordinarily powerful.
2:42:00 > 2:42:02To be sitting there in a theatre,
2:42:02 > 2:42:06and in a way what you're actually doing is bearing witness
2:42:06 > 2:42:09to the stories of these women,
2:42:09 > 2:42:17who in one case has been serially abused by the men in her life,
2:42:17 > 2:42:20other women who have been raped,
2:42:20 > 2:42:24a woman who stands on stage in really quite obvious distress
2:42:24 > 2:42:30telling us how her husband and his brother poured kerosene over her
2:42:30 > 2:42:33in front of her small child and set alight to her.
2:42:33 > 2:42:36So it's a hugely powerful show.
2:42:36 > 2:42:40In that moment, you understood what they were doing.
2:42:40 > 2:42:42They wanted to kill you.
2:42:42 > 2:42:44SHE SPEAKS SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGE
2:42:46 > 2:42:50"If you are going to burn me - do it," you said.
2:42:50 > 2:42:53SHE SPEAKS SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGE
2:42:53 > 2:42:55He lit the match and threw it.
2:42:55 > 2:43:00The stark, horrific quality of what was being said
2:43:00 > 2:43:04contrasted with some of the more beautiful moments.
2:43:04 > 2:43:07I think it uses ritual in a really sophisticated
2:43:07 > 2:43:10and very interesting way theatrically.
2:43:10 > 2:43:14And I think that that absolutely helps the audience
2:43:14 > 2:43:19actually bear something which is almost unbearable to watch, it is really, really harrowing.
2:43:25 > 2:43:29Isn't that the joy of Edinburgh - at one stage you can get a complete drama like this
2:43:29 > 2:43:34that clearly involves catharsis as well, and then you can go away and you can be calm
2:43:34 > 2:43:36and see something completely hilarious.
2:43:36 > 2:43:40It is the very roller coaster of it, and the variety of quality and content.
2:43:40 > 2:43:42And it doesn't mean you'll forget it.
2:43:42 > 2:43:47Audiences at Edinburgh do expect this whole variety of experience.
2:43:47 > 2:43:54Is it still the place that you think that you find the most excitement, culturally, jammed into three weeks?
2:43:54 > 2:43:58I think the great thing about Edinburgh is the emphasis on the new.
2:43:58 > 2:44:01What is rewarded here is new work.
2:44:01 > 2:44:04Sometimes that can just mean the novel and the freakish,
2:44:04 > 2:44:07but also sometimes it genuinely means the innovative and the fresh.
2:44:07 > 2:44:11And Lyn, Mark in his opening address on the Fringe
2:44:11 > 2:44:15talks about the danger of becoming too cosy if you're funded.
2:44:15 > 2:44:21You refer to New Labour, for example, as creating a liberal arts that wasn't critical enough.
2:44:21 > 2:44:24Yes, and I think one of the things about Edinburgh is of course
2:44:24 > 2:44:28that most people are here absolutely unfunded.
2:44:28 > 2:44:33That they've had to find other ways to raise the money in order to get here.
2:44:33 > 2:44:36For a lot of young companies you see that spirit
2:44:36 > 2:44:38where they say, "We're going to make art, come what may."
2:44:38 > 2:44:43I think one of the things I'm saying is, as artists our ultimate duty is
2:44:43 > 2:44:47to tell the truth, and is public subsidy one way to get ourselves
2:44:47 > 2:44:49in the position where we can tell the truth?
2:44:49 > 2:44:52Quite possibly, but it may not be the only context.
2:44:52 > 2:44:57But we have to fight and fight and find whatever resources that we can to be able to tell the truth.
2:44:57 > 2:45:01Thanks to my guests, Gyles, Lynne and Mark, and all three plays continue throughout the Fringe.
2:45:01 > 2:45:04Well, amidst all this plethora of performance,
2:45:04 > 2:45:07there are some titans of art in the capital this summer.
2:45:09 > 2:45:11At the Queen's Gallery,
2:45:11 > 2:45:14a collection of anatomical studies by Leonardo da Vinci
2:45:14 > 2:45:17are on show alongside CT and MRI scans,
2:45:17 > 2:45:20in an exhibition that seeks to show the artist's understanding
2:45:20 > 2:45:24of the human form was way ahead of its time.
2:45:24 > 2:45:27Mexico's foremost contemporary artist Gabriel Orozco's
2:45:27 > 2:45:29geometric forms are showcased
2:45:29 > 2:45:32at The Fruitmarket Gallery.
2:45:32 > 2:45:35And there's a homecoming for Peter Doig,
2:45:35 > 2:45:38an Edinburgh-born painter who spent many years in the Caribbean.
2:45:38 > 2:45:41Doig's first major exhibition in the country of his birth
2:45:41 > 2:45:45features his lush large-scale canvases, whose vivid palettes
2:45:45 > 2:45:49link him to great colourists such as Gauguin and Matisse.
2:45:50 > 2:45:53Meanwhile, at the National Museum of Scotland,
2:45:53 > 2:45:57a major exhibition brings together paintings, jewellery and maps
2:45:57 > 2:46:01and textiles to illustrate the life and times of Mary, Queen of Scots.
2:46:01 > 2:46:06I met the poet and playwright Liz Lochhead, writer of Mary Queen Of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off,
2:46:06 > 2:46:11to discuss one of the most controversial characters in Scottish history.
2:46:14 > 2:46:17Perhaps best-known for the manner of her death,
2:46:17 > 2:46:20the execution which was sanctioned by her cousin Elizabeth I,
2:46:20 > 2:46:23this exhibition chronicles an eventful life,
2:46:23 > 2:46:28filled with bereavement, adultery, religious conflict and imprisonment.
2:46:29 > 2:46:33I think that there's always been a complete fascination with Mary
2:46:33 > 2:46:34in Scotland, because she exists
2:46:34 > 2:46:38as much in myth as she does in history.
2:46:38 > 2:46:41I don't mean untruth, I mean deep myth, deep dreams.
2:46:41 > 2:46:46So if you're a Catholic Irish Scot, culturally,
2:46:46 > 2:46:48or a Protestant Scot,
2:46:48 > 2:46:51you're brought up with a totally different view of what this woman was.
2:46:51 > 2:46:54For one she's a she-devil and for another she's a saint.
2:46:54 > 2:46:57So it's fascinating, it's a very dramatic story.
2:46:57 > 2:47:03No wonder, Kirsty, that there are literally hundreds of plays,
2:47:03 > 2:47:06operas and everything about these two women.
2:47:06 > 2:47:11'At the age of 15, Mary married Francois, the Dauphin of France,
2:47:11 > 2:47:16'but by her 18th birthday she was widowed and returned to Scotland.'
2:47:16 > 2:47:19There she was, a widow and a virgin,
2:47:19 > 2:47:24and she said, "My heart keeps watch for one who's gone."
2:47:24 > 2:47:28And there she is in white, which is the colour of mourning.
2:47:28 > 2:47:30No jewellery, very sober,
2:47:30 > 2:47:34and the start of what's going to be a very hard life for her.
2:47:34 > 2:47:37Because of course her mother died six months previously,
2:47:37 > 2:47:42Mary of Guise had died in Edinburgh Castle, where she'd been put.
2:47:42 > 2:47:46And she knew - she must have known at this point that she was
2:47:46 > 2:47:50- entering an incredibly turbulent time.- I don't think she did.
2:47:50 > 2:47:51I don't feel she did.
2:47:51 > 2:47:56I feel that she came to Scotland and got a very rude awakening, really.
2:47:58 > 2:48:00'Violence marred Mary's life.
2:48:00 > 2:48:04'She witnessed the assassination of her secretary David Rizzio,
2:48:04 > 2:48:07'and following the murder of her second husband, Lord Darnley,
2:48:07 > 2:48:09'Mary married the Earl of Bothwell.
2:48:09 > 2:48:12'Letters allegedly sent from Mary to Bothwell
2:48:12 > 2:48:16'appear to incriminate the couple in Darnley's death.'
2:48:16 > 2:48:20Of course we've got no proof that this is actually the truth,
2:48:20 > 2:48:22but if you are a playwright like me
2:48:22 > 2:48:25you'd be daft not to go for that story because it is a much better story.
2:48:25 > 2:48:28But whether or not these letters are genuine
2:48:28 > 2:48:32we don't historically know, but it seems to me
2:48:32 > 2:48:37that Darnley murdered Rizzio, her secretary, her favourite,
2:48:37 > 2:48:42because he was made very jealous, so he plotted with some nobles
2:48:42 > 2:48:44and then Darnley had to be murdered as well,
2:48:44 > 2:48:48probably by Bothwell and Mary, I think.
2:48:48 > 2:48:55It was also essentially a tussle between two incredibly strong women.
2:48:55 > 2:48:58At a time when by and large men were the ones who had power.
2:48:58 > 2:49:01But here were two women fighting over thrones.
2:49:01 > 2:49:05Yes - two women, two different kingdoms,
2:49:05 > 2:49:09in the one little green island. I find that completely fascinating.
2:49:09 > 2:49:12And they went about it in such a different way.
2:49:12 > 2:49:15Elizabeth's such a wonderful character as well,
2:49:15 > 2:49:19but what an irony that Elizabeth prevailed during her lifetime.
2:49:19 > 2:49:23She never married, she never got into the position that Mary got into all the time
2:49:23 > 2:49:25with men and sex and child-bearing,
2:49:25 > 2:49:32because somebody could seize the child and get rid of the Queen.
2:49:32 > 2:49:37So Elizabeth absolutely refused to do that, but the irony is
2:49:37 > 2:49:42that of course it was then Mary's son who succeeded her.
2:49:42 > 2:49:47- And it leads to the Union of the Crowns.- James the VI and I.
2:49:47 > 2:49:50And the Union of the Crowns leads 100 years later
2:49:50 > 2:49:55to the Union of the Parliaments, which might or might not be disentangled again.
2:49:58 > 2:50:02- This is such an extraordinary thing of beauty.- And strangeness.
2:50:02 > 2:50:06So what we think is that Mary and Bess of Hardwick
2:50:06 > 2:50:11embroidered all these different, almost like, motifs.
2:50:11 > 2:50:14Mm-hm. Symbolic motifs.
2:50:14 > 2:50:16And then it was put together into this amazing...
2:50:16 > 2:50:21The story of her life, told in a strange symbolic way, and we don't understand the symbols
2:50:21 > 2:50:25necessarily, but we're kind of intrigued by them, and we know that
2:50:25 > 2:50:29she was making up a sort of poetic version of her life within it.
2:50:29 > 2:50:33The Dauphin is a dolphin, and things like this.
2:50:33 > 2:50:38And a very strange representation of Darnley as a tortoise
2:50:38 > 2:50:41climbing a palm tree. Incredible.
2:50:41 > 2:50:47What does it say, something like "Virtue flourishes from its wounds"?
2:50:47 > 2:50:50Very sad and strange.
2:50:50 > 2:50:54Incredible feeling of melancholy comes of this
2:50:54 > 2:51:01very beautiful, large embroidery. A real feeling of sadness.
2:51:01 > 2:51:05And of course eventually she's been in captivity so long,
2:51:05 > 2:51:11Elizabeth's put off signing her death warrant, and then there's finally the Babington Plot.
2:51:11 > 2:51:17And here is this most extraordinary letter by Mary's son
2:51:17 > 2:51:19begging for his mother's life.
2:51:19 > 2:51:21To his godmother, Elizabeth I.
2:51:21 > 2:51:25"Madam and dear sister, if you could have known
2:51:25 > 2:51:27"what has agitated my mind..."
2:51:27 > 2:51:31Could just really be PR, it could be him trying to convince
2:51:31 > 2:51:34the Scottish people that he's sticking up for his mother,
2:51:34 > 2:51:37but of course they're all in these incredible dilemmas
2:51:37 > 2:51:40because they've got to be seen to be doing certain things.
2:51:40 > 2:51:43It's very like politicians nowadays in so many ways -
2:51:43 > 2:51:48people have to keep face up all the time.
2:51:48 > 2:51:52And Elizabeth, when she's actually signing this death warrant,
2:51:52 > 2:51:55she's got to convince herself that she's not really doing it.
2:51:55 > 2:51:59And it's all those positions
2:51:59 > 2:52:02that everybody was getting put into which are so difficult for them.
2:52:02 > 2:52:05It's a difficult position that Mary's been in,
2:52:05 > 2:52:08it's a terribly difficult position for Elizabeth to be in,
2:52:08 > 2:52:11it's a difficult position for this son to be in,
2:52:11 > 2:52:14to seem to condone the murder of his mother.
2:52:14 > 2:52:17And he can't look as if he does.
2:52:17 > 2:52:21So because there's all these dilemmas it makes a fantastic dramatic story.
2:52:23 > 2:52:26Mary, Queen of Scots is at the National Museum of Scotland
2:52:26 > 2:52:29until 17th November, and you can see a Culture Show special
2:52:29 > 2:52:33on Leonardo da Vinci on Wednesday on BBC Two.
2:52:33 > 2:52:38With space at a premium, everything from a public toilet to a climbing centre
2:52:38 > 2:52:40have been transformed into a stage in Edinburgh.
2:52:40 > 2:52:44One of the newest and most inventive venues is Summerhall,
2:52:44 > 2:52:47formerly The Royal School of Veterinary Studies.
2:52:47 > 2:52:49Launched in 2011,
2:52:49 > 2:52:53it's quickly earned a reputation for its eclectic and edgy programming
2:52:53 > 2:52:57of visual arts, theatre, dance, music, film and spoken word.
2:53:04 > 2:53:07Summerhall is an artistic village, which is very special.
2:53:07 > 2:53:09We have people here year-round -
2:53:09 > 2:53:12studios, office space and artistic community coming together.
2:53:16 > 2:53:20The Festival is our flagship month where we have a distinct programme.
2:53:22 > 2:53:24It's really exciting, top-quality work
2:53:24 > 2:53:28that we pitch to an audience between the Fringe and the International Festival.
2:53:36 > 2:53:40One of the highlights at Summerhall this year is Michael Nyman's
2:53:40 > 2:53:44Nyman With A Movie Camera, a pun both linguistic and visual
2:53:44 > 2:53:48on Dziga Vertov's documentary classic Man With A Movie Camera.
2:53:50 > 2:53:54Nyman, probably best known for his Oscar-winning film scores,
2:53:54 > 2:53:58has been working on this most personal of projects for ten years.
2:53:58 > 2:54:01But this is the first time he's been able to present it
2:54:01 > 2:54:04in all its mesmerising complexity.
2:54:04 > 2:54:07What I've had the good fortune to do here in Summerhall
2:54:07 > 2:54:10was to realise a project that I've been thinking about
2:54:10 > 2:54:14for the whole period that I've been editing and constantly re-editing
2:54:14 > 2:54:18and filming, and constantly re-filming and adding new footage
2:54:18 > 2:54:22to all these versions of Nyman With A Movie Camera.
2:54:22 > 2:54:29Which is to show six, eight, ten different versions, simultaneously,
2:54:29 > 2:54:34in a large room, with what I've always called a forest of screens.
2:54:34 > 2:54:37This has never been possible to do until now at Summerhall.
2:54:40 > 2:54:45On the one hand it is a very strict homage
2:54:45 > 2:54:48to Dziga Vertov's Man With A Movie Camera.
2:54:48 > 2:54:51But on the other hand in a sense I am the cameraman,
2:54:51 > 2:54:53I am the photographer,
2:54:53 > 2:54:58we're living in a digital age, it's a kind of huge explosion.
2:55:06 > 2:55:10Summerhall's former incarnation as a vet school gives the venue
2:55:10 > 2:55:13a brilliantly adaptable and highly idiosyncratic quality.
2:55:15 > 2:55:18They say that in some of its 400 spaces,
2:55:18 > 2:55:20you can still smell the formaldehyde.
2:55:23 > 2:55:26In the former anatomy lecture theatre,
2:55:26 > 2:55:30pianist and entertainer Will Pickvance is staging a show
2:55:30 > 2:55:33named, appropriately enough, Anatomy Of The Piano.
2:55:33 > 2:55:38The piano has evolved from two distinct genetic lineages.
2:55:38 > 2:55:42'I've been playing pianos up and down the land for many a year,'
2:55:42 > 2:55:44and I've often found that some of the cheaper,
2:55:44 > 2:55:48more honky-tonk instruments have a generosity about them, whereas
2:55:48 > 2:55:54some of the more expensive grand pianos can be a little bit mean-spirited.
2:55:54 > 2:55:58So, I thought, I'll take a piano apart and see if
2:55:58 > 2:56:00I can find out why that might be.
2:56:00 > 2:56:04We see clearly that the grand piano has a spine
2:56:04 > 2:56:06running down the left-hand side of the body.
2:56:08 > 2:56:11The upgrade, by contrast, is spineless.
2:56:13 > 2:56:17There is a nice symmetry obviously, because it's an old anatomy theatre
2:56:17 > 2:56:21where they used to pull pigs and sheep and dogs and cows apart
2:56:21 > 2:56:26and look at how they're put together, so why not a piano?
2:56:26 > 2:56:28But it's going to be more humane.
2:56:28 > 2:56:33It's been suggested that the grand piano might mate successfully
2:56:33 > 2:56:35with the upright.
2:56:35 > 2:56:39Producing a baby grand.
2:56:39 > 2:56:42I have a love of pianos, and I wouldn't want to see one treated badly.
2:56:54 > 2:56:59Summerhall is all about unexpected discoveries, odd collisions, constant surprises.
2:57:05 > 2:57:10It's a place where carnival and celebration coexist with contemplation and reflection.
2:57:15 > 2:57:19We were all sitting around the dinner table. It was about eight o'clock.
2:57:21 > 2:57:23There were loud bangs...
2:57:23 > 2:57:26Perhaps one of the most profoundly moving performances at Summerhall
2:57:26 > 2:57:30this Festival is The Tin Ring. Based on the book of the same name
2:57:30 > 2:57:33by Holocaust survivor Zdenka Fantlova,
2:57:33 > 2:57:37it's an unforgettable testament to the strength of the human spirit.
2:57:37 > 2:57:43They burst in. There was a lot of shouting, aggression.
2:57:43 > 2:57:45"Aufstehen!
2:57:45 > 2:57:47"Aufstehen! Achtung, achtung!"
2:57:47 > 2:57:49They grabbed my father.
2:57:49 > 2:57:50"Name?!"
2:57:50 > 2:57:54He replied - "Ernst Fantl."
2:57:54 > 2:57:56"What?!"
2:57:56 > 2:57:59"Jew, Ernst Fantl" - and then they hit him.
2:58:01 > 2:58:04The picture that stayed in my mind is my father
2:58:04 > 2:58:08standing at the door, looking us over
2:58:08 > 2:58:13as though he wanted to make a mental picture of the family,
2:58:13 > 2:58:15and said only these words.
2:58:16 > 2:58:23"Just keep calm. Remember, calmness is strength."
2:58:23 > 2:58:26In certain situations there are only two types.
2:58:27 > 2:58:30Those who consider themselves victims - well,
2:58:30 > 2:58:33if you consider yourself a victim, you become a victim.
2:58:35 > 2:58:40The other half - well, you know, actually it's less than half,
2:58:40 > 2:58:45very few in fact - are observers.
2:58:45 > 2:58:47I was an observer.
2:58:48 > 2:58:54After 50 years, I conceived the idea that I have to write it down
2:58:54 > 2:58:55as a document.
2:58:55 > 2:59:00Not only about myself but about those who didn't make it,
2:59:00 > 2:59:06and that will make a document for the future generations, as a warning.
2:59:07 > 2:59:11Not only what happened, but what can happen again.
2:59:11 > 2:59:13It didn't frighten me.
2:59:13 > 2:59:15Because I wasn't a victim.
2:59:15 > 2:59:20And if you're not a victim, you stand a better chance, of course.
2:59:21 > 2:59:27I think what people get out of it - because I asked them once,
2:59:27 > 2:59:30"What do you take home from this play?"
2:59:30 > 2:59:33And the answer was, "The value of life."
2:59:35 > 2:59:40Summerhall's Festival programme runs until 25th August.
2:59:40 > 2:59:42We'll be back next Sunday with more from Edinburgh
2:59:42 > 2:59:46on our regular review show, including Grid Iron's Leaving Planet Earth,
2:59:46 > 2:59:49and an exhibition of work by Nam June Paik.
2:59:49 > 2:59:53For even more highlights, including artist Peter Doig,
2:59:53 > 2:59:55this year's standout stand-ups,
2:59:55 > 2:59:57and an exclusive film from Scottish Ballet,
2:59:57 > 3:00:00you can press red now to see At The Edinburgh Festival
3:00:00 > 3:00:04presented by Sue Perkins, or watch on BBC iPlayer from tomorrow.
3:00:05 > 3:00:08We leave you tonight with music from Steel Harmony, long-term
3:00:08 > 3:00:12collaborators with the artist Jeremy Deller, who has an exhibition
3:00:12 > 3:00:16at Jupiter Artland, a sculpture park on the edge of the city. Goodnight.
3:00:18 > 3:00:20MUSIC: "Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division
3:02:40 > 3:02:42Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd