:00:15. > :00:20.This programme contains some strong For the next three weeks the Review
:00:20. > :00:26.Show will bring you the best, the weirdest and rudiest of what the
:00:26. > :00:34.festival has to offer. Live as usual, and joined by a studio who
:00:34. > :00:38.couldn't get into any other show! On tonight's show, we explore three
:00:38. > :00:42.fringe productions of experimental theatre. Two in unusual locations
:00:42. > :00:46.and one which virtually does away with actors all together. We also
:00:46. > :00:51.throw ourselves into the best of the Edinburgh Art Festival, with
:00:51. > :00:54.new exhi bigs from Tony Cragg, Robert Rauschenberg and the force
:00:54. > :01:00.of nature, David Mach. Put Mark Almond and Mark Ravenhill together
:01:00. > :01:06.and the result is one of the hottest tickets of the week so far.
:01:06. > :01:10.A song-cycle collaboration, Ten Plagues. With 941 comedy acts
:01:10. > :01:15.jostling for attention, we ask if there are any tab boos left,
:01:15. > :01:25.looking at four comics, whose acts are trying to push the boundaries.
:01:25. > :01:27.
:01:28. > :01:35.Asian people don't have a lot of So, here we are in our new home for
:01:35. > :01:38.the month, slap bang inside the castle. Joining me to discuss
:01:38. > :01:42.everything are writer and Edinburgh resident Hannah McGill. Author and
:01:42. > :01:47.critic Natalie Haynes and the novelist Hari Kunzru, whose latest
:01:47. > :01:53.book is hot off the fress. Before we get going -- press. Before we
:01:53. > :02:03.get going we thought we should give you a taste of the atmosphere. We
:02:03. > :02:07.
:02:07. > :02:13.asked Tom Allen to lead us in. With 41,689 performances of 2,542
:02:13. > :02:16.across 258 venues using 21,192 official performers, the figures
:02:16. > :02:21.for Edinburgh continue to be as baffling as ever. The numbers are
:02:21. > :02:25.up on last year. It is still the world's largest arts event. This
:02:25. > :02:30.year the big four are closer together.
:02:30. > :02:36.George square gardens has been taken over. The weather has
:02:36. > :02:40.nominated the conversation. John Malkovich has his own show. The
:02:40. > :02:46.Edinburgh International Festival, known to comedians like me, as the
:02:46. > :02:56.posh one, draws inspiration from Asian culture. Shakespeare will be
:02:56. > :03:00.
:03:00. > :03:05.performed in Korean and man da drin -- mandarin. Phil Glass,vy never
:03:05. > :03:12.met him, we are all friends here. I he is making his debut sound
:03:12. > :03:18.tracking films. Then, there's the art festival. I know! Taking to the
:03:18. > :03:23.street with Martin, David Mach tackles the king James's bible. And
:03:23. > :03:33.Robert Rauschenberg - the first works for 30 years T book festival
:03:33. > :03:36.
:03:36. > :03:40.has welcomed a lot of book royalty. We hear about the new book, The Kid.
:03:40. > :03:45.And the fringe. The venues continue to range from someone's front room
:03:45. > :03:50.through to telecom mixs packing people in by the thousands. Last
:03:50. > :03:55.year 2.74 million people visited the fringe. Stuart Leigh has sold
:03:55. > :04:00.out previews at the stand. Joesy Long is more political than ever. I
:04:00. > :04:05.have a chat show at the Gilded Balloon. And a stripper, through to
:04:05. > :04:12.comedy for kids, showcasing comedians as young as 12. There is
:04:12. > :04:16.something for everyone. Simon Callw has put on lipstick. -- Callow has
:04:16. > :04:19.put on lipstick. Margaret Cho, we have not mentioned that picture of
:04:19. > :04:25.the tattoo, the one at the castle. People love it so much, you cannot
:04:25. > :04:30.get a ticket. I thought it was a bunch of soldiers mincing up and
:04:30. > :04:34.down with bagpipes. It is just like Glastonbury but there is short
:04:34. > :04:43.beard in the gift shop and you don't have to camp, not unless you
:04:43. > :04:49.really want to! This is the see-through upon cho
:04:49. > :04:56.festival. I have seen hundreds over -- poncho festival. I have seen
:04:56. > :05:03.hundreds of them. I only own endless waterproof and thin layers
:05:03. > :05:07.because of doing the show so many times. It is steamy.
:05:07. > :05:11.All the comedy venues would say they are up. It is a good sign.
:05:11. > :05:14.hope it is true. There are lots and lots of people who have been on
:05:14. > :05:20.main-stream TV shows and they have massive venues, so the numbers go
:05:20. > :05:25.up every year. I am not sure it is easy to be a new act here. You are
:05:26. > :05:30.appearing here on the Review Show, but you are at the book show at the
:05:30. > :05:34.festival? Looking at the international festival, it is
:05:34. > :05:39.looking towards Asia this year? Fascinating. The range of stuff on
:05:39. > :05:43.there is extraordinary. You get caught up with the fringe at the
:05:43. > :05:47.beginning. You forget there is still the book festival, still the
:05:47. > :05:51.international festival. Hopefully the rain will ease off.
:05:51. > :05:56.International Festival, what has come up this year is the Art
:05:56. > :06:00.Festival. There is lots to see. Masses and masses. We will review
:06:00. > :06:05.some tonight. Let's dive head-long into the festival, starting the
:06:05. > :06:14.fringe. Travelling minute strels, cameramen, there is no shortage of
:06:14. > :06:18.weird and sometimes wonderful settings for the experience.
:06:18. > :06:24.The Edinburgh Fringe has been the place to experiment. We asked our
:06:24. > :06:29.three guests to try out some very different theatrical experiences.
:06:29. > :06:38.Ranging from performances in a constructed child's bedroom to a
:06:39. > :06:45.performance in their own living room. The Lounge Room are happy to
:06:45. > :06:51.tell theiral tales. The thin air was lost. All of its passengers
:06:51. > :06:57.were never seen again. The two are making their Edinburgh Fringe debut
:06:58. > :07:03.after a sell-out tour in Australia, where they won two Adelaide Fringe
:07:03. > :07:07.awards already. They are armed with a guitar and props. They weave
:07:07. > :07:14.together Gothic stories, set everywhere from your lower intest
:07:14. > :07:18.tins to an unusual morgue. I opened my eyes and I noticed I was back in
:07:19. > :07:24.the morgue. She lies neck tot me. I am scared to touch her cold, dead
:07:24. > :07:34.body. I notice she is breathing. I put my hand on her bottom. It's
:07:34. > :07:41.
:07:41. > :07:46.warm. It's a warm bottom. It's a sexy one.
:07:46. > :07:50.Also embracing an experimental approach to performance is a
:07:50. > :07:56.journey played out in an iPad within a child's bedroom. Each
:07:56. > :08:01.person enters alone and the story unfolds on their hand-held screen.
:08:01. > :08:08.Lasting 20 minutes. It offers a child's eye view of the world in an
:08:08. > :08:12.unusual space. I'll sit on the bed. The viewer is encouraged to move
:08:12. > :08:22.around the specially constructed white room, directed by the action
:08:22. > :08:23.
:08:23. > :08:28.in the film. The fringe is the perfect place to
:08:28. > :08:31.have a piece like this. There are a lot of audience members who are
:08:31. > :08:34.really open to different experiences. They are not worrying
:08:34. > :08:39.about exactly what it would be. They want to see something
:08:39. > :08:43.different. Also offering something different
:08:43. > :08:47.from the more traditional theatre is a Belgium company, who have
:08:47. > :08:53.returned to the fringe this year w a piece that promised to celebrate
:08:53. > :08:58.us, the audience. I guess there's nothing else I can
:08:58. > :09:08.do. All the faces before me. I'm waiting to hear what you'll say
:09:08. > :09:09.
:09:09. > :09:13.about me! Turning the cameras on to the seats, they take handbags and
:09:13. > :09:17.ask about individuality. I want to create something which will make
:09:17. > :09:24.people have an opinion and make people react to that. We all look
:09:24. > :09:34.at each other and we adapt. What is wrong with that? It is beautiful!
:09:34. > :09:34.
:09:34. > :09:38.Let's take you back to the Contrabulators. Did it fall into a
:09:38. > :09:42.different kind of production, or do you feel you have seen this before?
:09:42. > :09:46.I don't know if I have seen it before in the fringe. I am
:09:46. > :09:51.essentially charmed by the idea these two guys will turn up and
:09:51. > :09:55.make a space out of theatre. They bring a carpet. A very small carpet.
:09:55. > :10:03.They unroll it. They kind of make a little space for themselves and all
:10:03. > :10:09.their props are in a case. They - I found - you have lots of footage in
:10:09. > :10:14.that package of me looking grumpy. That's my happy face. That is your
:10:14. > :10:24."I better not give away what I think face!" They are engaging
:10:24. > :10:26.
:10:26. > :10:29.performers. It was a sweet show. was like travelling - kind of mis-
:10:29. > :10:34.firing tales. It was not their fault we had them during the day,
:10:34. > :10:39.with telly lighting on. I could have gone a little more horror. It
:10:39. > :10:43.has a strange tonal clash that you get often with Australian comedy,
:10:43. > :10:52.of having incredibly glory or gruesome and then really volume ger.
:10:52. > :10:58.They smash into each other. No, -- vulgar. They smash into each other.
:10:58. > :11:02.I kind of want to see the next one more than I wanted to see this one.
:11:02. > :11:07.Underbelly, a huge sensation in Melbourne and in Adelaide. They are
:11:07. > :11:12.charming. Do you agree with Natalie they are not dark enough? I could
:11:12. > :11:17.have gone darker. What I had problems with, like Hari I liked
:11:17. > :11:21.something coming to your house. When you have Fringe fatigue and
:11:22. > :11:31.you are in venues too hot or too cold t idea of having someone come
:11:32. > :11:33.
:11:33. > :11:39.to perform to you, it is like being spoilt. It had a child-like quality.
:11:39. > :11:45.I mean, I can take a lot of flimsy, I liked the little characters.
:11:45. > :11:51.had to say, the lighting, we had bright lights on them. They have a
:11:51. > :11:54.shadow puppet we had to imagine really. The stories take on a life
:11:54. > :12:00.of their own and change in the retailing. You can imagine it
:12:00. > :12:05.happening every day as they do it differently. The nearest is the
:12:05. > :12:10.village in India. The guy turns one the puppets and the back lights. It
:12:10. > :12:17.is a traditional form of story telling. Moving on to the product
:12:17. > :12:22.of bang new technology was the iPad experience of being in a little
:12:22. > :12:26.white room. Were you disconcerted? I don't like interactive things.
:12:26. > :12:30.This is the most I have spoken to other people in about a month. If I
:12:30. > :12:37.am honest I am finding it disturbing now. It looks
:12:37. > :12:40.interactive, but it isn't. For me, the fact it was in an enclosed
:12:40. > :12:45.space is more harrowing. Did you think the child was going to come
:12:45. > :12:49.through the window. When it did not happen, weirdly because I would
:12:49. > :12:52.have skwarked had it happened, I was disappointed. There is a moment
:12:52. > :12:57.you walk into this empty white room. You look at the empty white room on
:12:57. > :13:01.the iPad. You are in there. And you look on the iPad and two pairs of
:13:01. > :13:07.shoes had appeared. And the thing is that awesome thing does not come.
:13:07. > :13:11.It is charming, but it is never thrilling. If I am honest! They
:13:12. > :13:19.were all about narratives, a weaving narrative. This was about
:13:19. > :13:26.imagination. What did you make of the way it was filmed The music and
:13:26. > :13:30.cinema was gorgeous. There was some pretentious art-class cliches. I
:13:30. > :13:35.didn't know what was going on. The same as Natalie. There is a
:13:35. > :13:39.disconcerting n a lovely way, you walk in, you are holding the thing,
:13:39. > :13:43.you can see the door and a real door. You want more of that to run
:13:43. > :13:48.through it. You end up sitting on the edge of a bed thrsm is a bit n
:13:48. > :13:53.the film she --. There is a bit in the film she looks under the bed
:13:53. > :13:58.and finds something. I wish there had been more interactivity.
:13:58. > :14:04.performance by the six-year-old, I thought was mesmerising. She's a
:14:04. > :14:08.very compelling little girl, isn't she? She is the best thing about it.
:14:08. > :14:18.It looks great. The set that they have built for you to have this
:14:18. > :14:20.
:14:20. > :14:28.experience in is also great. Then The mother becomes a ginger bread
:14:28. > :14:35.woman. I'm not convinced it's ginger bread. The dough can't make
:14:35. > :14:38.that baked item. This is not Masterchef. Let's move to a
:14:38. > :14:42.performance group who have been here before and they ultimately
:14:42. > :14:45.have said right, OK, it's down to the audience, but except it's not
:14:45. > :14:48.because we're going to turn ourselves on you and make you do
:14:48. > :14:54.things. Never hand over your coat and bag to an actor when you walk
:14:54. > :14:56.into a show. Did you do that? Is it the whole idea is that they
:14:56. > :15:01.take very kindly your coat, bag, whatever you have and then what
:15:01. > :15:06.they do is reveal it on stage. Of course none of us were stupid
:15:06. > :15:12.enough. I live with an actor. I'm not an idiot. Then they train the
:15:12. > :15:16.camera on the audience. You get voices going "Oh, I'm so self-
:15:17. > :15:20.conscious." That's sweet for a while. Then it becomes nasty.
:15:20. > :15:24.the message? Their trouble is they've co-flaited the idea of an
:15:24. > :15:28.audience with the idea of a crowd. By the end of it they're flowing
:15:28. > :15:33.everything at the wall like the Nuremberg rallies and vi a dream.
:15:33. > :15:38.We know a lot of things about being in crowds and being in an audience
:15:38. > :15:41.is a specific thing. They started to play with that. I felt it was an
:15:41. > :15:45.undercooked show. It was like if they'd really focused on what they
:15:45. > :15:51.wanted to tell us a bit more, it could have been good. Of course,
:15:51. > :15:53.what they had was this scene where, well, the moment where they abuse a
:15:53. > :15:56.member of the audience, because everyone is savvy, you don't know
:15:56. > :15:59.whether it's a member of the audience or the cast. Yes and
:15:59. > :16:03.they're doing this thing in the wrong town. What you get is people
:16:03. > :16:06.going, here's the things, we as actors have realised that the
:16:06. > :16:11.audience, like you, are not completely passive. We can interact
:16:11. > :16:14.with them. Yeah you're in a mate with nearly a thousand stand-up
:16:14. > :16:17.comedians. Even the ones doing a free show have thought more about
:16:17. > :16:22.going through a fourth wall than you have, honestly. What about the
:16:22. > :16:27.whole idea of immersion, not you because I know you're in hives
:16:27. > :16:34.already, what about being involved? You like it or you don't? Generally
:16:34. > :16:38.I hate it. I think it's nice if it's a connection, it's nice if
:16:38. > :16:42.they're nice to you. I like the fact the performers are making
:16:42. > :16:46.contact with you. What the audience show did that was offensive was
:16:46. > :16:50.kind of going, you're all so passive sitting there judging us.
:16:50. > :16:55.It's like you came to your show. That's what you want. I don't see
:16:55. > :17:00.where this big ref latory thing about the bad audience. You pay
:17:00. > :17:06.your audience to be entertained. have a lot of time for beingents
:17:06. > :17:11.taind after a hard day's work. their job. When anyone welcomes the
:17:11. > :17:16.Nazis as a retorical point, we should be able to go home. The idea
:17:16. > :17:22.that the crowd goes to a nightclub with the Mexican wave at a football
:17:22. > :17:28.match, With fascism. If you want details on that, you can find them
:17:28. > :17:30.on our website. From staink theatrical experiences to the more
:17:30. > :17:35.recognisable setting of the art gallery and our selection of three
:17:35. > :17:38.big exhibition that's are very hard to miss.
:17:38. > :17:44.This year's Edinburgh Art Festival is the most ambitious yet, with
:17:44. > :17:52.major work from world renowned artists and sculpt Tors. Robert
:17:52. > :17:55.Rauschenberg is at Inverleith House, a posthumous exhibition of his work,
:17:55. > :18:01.Botanical Vaudeville focuses on work from the latter part of his
:18:01. > :18:04.career, from large-scale scuppure to intricate painting. Turner Prize
:18:04. > :18:13.winner Cragg considering's first museum show for more than a decade
:18:13. > :18:18.is at the Scottish modern gallery of modern art. At the City Art
:18:18. > :18:21.Centre, Professor of sculpture at the Royal Academy David Mach has
:18:22. > :18:25.taken up residence. This is his biggest solo show and perhaps his
:18:25. > :18:31.most important ever. It is absolutely massive, spread over
:18:31. > :18:35.four storeys of the City Art Centre, everything from colossal kolaudges
:18:35. > :18:39.to soaring sculpture, it's all inspired bit King James version of
:18:39. > :18:44.the Bible. What Mach has done is take biblical stories and set them
:18:44. > :18:47.in a modern context. I had thought about the King James Bible maybe
:18:47. > :18:52.ten, 12 years ago. There's the place where all the stories are,
:18:52. > :18:57.all the love and pest lens, the heat, famine, sex, jealousy. It's
:18:57. > :19:01.got everything you know. When you have people standing in front of
:19:01. > :19:05.judgment day, it means different things to different people but what
:19:05. > :19:09.do you want people to think when they're looking at this? I want you
:19:09. > :19:13.to look. I want you to feel. I want you to use this. I want you to use
:19:13. > :19:16.that. I want you to use your stomach, all the thing that's
:19:16. > :19:25.you've got to figure out what it is that you're looking at. You want to
:19:25. > :19:30.suck people in. When you move to the sculptures you have golgopha.
:19:30. > :19:35.needed to tease the hooks for spikes. The hairs on your body
:19:35. > :19:41.standing on end. It's a coat hanger. It sounds naff. But when you see it,
:19:41. > :19:46.it's a powerful thing. There's an insulation, which is essentially
:19:46. > :19:51.your studio. A kolage has a mood. It has a feeling, a message, a
:19:51. > :19:55.story, it has colour, size, shape. You're busy using those things. I
:19:55. > :20:00.mean thousands of those things together, you're weaving them
:20:00. > :20:04.through and trying to get some kind of collective idea of a story.
:20:04. > :20:09.construction of the satan's head to be burnt, tell me, how did you go
:20:09. > :20:15.about doing all that? The devil took about three-and-a-half, four
:20:15. > :20:20.months to work. It's mad work. they're going to be burned? Yeah,
:20:20. > :20:25.in a couple of days we will burn the devil. What you get is a 30
:20:25. > :20:28.second, 40 second ludicrously powerful performance, where this
:20:28. > :20:33.thing flares up. Stand back, if you do it inside, it would burn the
:20:33. > :20:41.house down. Of all the stars on this year's art festival stellar
:20:41. > :20:44.programme, who lives up to their illustrious billing?
:20:44. > :20:49.Let's start with Precious Light on the anniversary of the King James
:20:49. > :20:55.Bible. Do you think this was simply a vehicle for David Mach, I don't
:20:55. > :21:00.mean that disparagingly or is it something more epic, not in a
:21:00. > :21:05.religious way, but epic as the stories in the Bible are.
:21:05. > :21:09.certainly has captured a stale in these pieces. They're enormous
:21:09. > :21:13.pieces. They're busy. You can dive into them, all these tiny figures
:21:13. > :21:19.doing them. They are a lot of them very powerful. The one that's work
:21:19. > :21:23.less well for me shade into the weird aesthetic of Jehovah's
:21:23. > :21:28.Witness literature, where you get pandas and multiethnic people happy
:21:29. > :21:34.in a garden. I would split the show down the middle. The works are by
:21:34. > :21:41.and large fantastic. The sculpture is awful. Really, the tank traps?
:21:41. > :21:45.The weird horror movie Christ thing I got nothing from it. And the
:21:45. > :21:49.strange pop Jesus and pop devil as well. It didn't relate very well to
:21:49. > :21:55.the other work. It made it slightly unbalanced show for me. Natalie,
:21:55. > :22:03.what did you think? I quite liked the sculpture. I liked the scary
:22:03. > :22:08.devil. I didn't realise, I had a catalogue, but I was so wet, I
:22:08. > :22:12.couldn't view it. When I saw the devil's head, it's burned now. I
:22:12. > :22:16.thought how smart the devil is burned out. And look, lovely Jesus
:22:16. > :22:19.who is lovely matches. It was one of those things going, I see that
:22:19. > :22:22.the subtitle of this exhibition is the celebration of the King James
:22:22. > :22:27.Bible and I wonder if that stopped people who really like the Bible
:22:27. > :22:33.from really hating you, because vi to admit there were moments when I
:22:33. > :22:38.was going, these sculptures are properly horrifying. This is a cues
:22:38. > :22:44.fix... He looks like he was made out of cake. He's going to be
:22:44. > :22:50.burned as well at the end. crucified Jesus is, it reminds you
:22:50. > :22:55.that the crucifix is an instrument of torture. I'm blanking on the
:22:55. > :22:59.horror movie when the guy has... Hell raiser. The idea that David
:22:59. > :23:02.Mach moved his entire studio up here. What the audience can do when
:23:02. > :23:06.they go there is they can watch everybody working, cutting out
:23:06. > :23:11.commando comics, cutting out woman and homes, cutting all these things
:23:11. > :23:17.and there are stacks of moxs of things like women kneeling, frogs
:23:17. > :23:19.jumping that have been collected over the years. The idea that it's
:23:19. > :23:23.like Victoriana. I love that there's a huge exhibition, over
:23:23. > :23:27.five floors. A lot of them, I mean, some of them I found compelling and
:23:27. > :23:30.some of them I thought it's more of the same, there's so much material
:23:30. > :23:33.on the walls. But when you get up to a certain level and you see him
:23:33. > :23:37.doing it, that's wonderful. That's moving and it reminds you that this
:23:37. > :23:45.is a real craftsman and actually, one of the things that's nice about
:23:45. > :23:51.it... With assistance. Yes! Cutting out parrots all day. It's been
:23:51. > :23:55.built by hands, it's not photo shop. It's been layered. If these scraps
:23:55. > :23:59.are incredibly fine, Tony Cragg has got the completely material, this
:23:59. > :24:03.is massive stuff, working with a lot of assistance as well, created
:24:03. > :24:08.a bronze, muscular stuff, but feeling very fluid wha. Due make of
:24:08. > :24:13.that? It's the solidity and fluidity that's beautiful. The
:24:13. > :24:18.scale of it is great. It's just something that you can wonder
:24:18. > :24:23.around and gaze upon. It doesn't have forceful meanings. It's
:24:23. > :24:29.beautiful images of mofl caught. You want to touch them and you
:24:29. > :24:32.can't. You'll not damage a bronze to stand and stroke it. Really
:24:32. > :24:36.properly passive aggressive. Even clean hands can cause damage.
:24:36. > :24:41.though. I know it's true. I take it all back. I didn't touch anything
:24:41. > :24:45.and I walk round with my hands like that. The wooden ones look so
:24:45. > :24:48.tactile and they are just, I really loved them. They are slightly more
:24:48. > :24:52.than opt cull illusions I think. You walk round them and suddenly
:24:52. > :24:56.these things which look like random collections of discs on top of each
:24:56. > :25:01.other, suddenly a face appears. You walk past and it disappears. It's
:25:01. > :25:05.there from one side or both. There's lots of space to walk round
:25:05. > :25:08.things. He's a Turner Prize winner, but this show is his biggest in a
:25:08. > :25:12.decade. And a lot of this work has never been seen in this country.
:25:12. > :25:21.Did you feel that you were kind of, in the presence of something
:25:21. > :25:26.masterful? He's a serious modernist sculptor. He's making references to
:25:26. > :25:32.thradigs. These fluid movement works are nods to futurist
:25:32. > :25:38.sculpture and he's also making gestures towards St Ives, Barbara
:25:38. > :25:42.Hepworth and Garbo. He's into his Chinese scholars rocks, the natural
:25:42. > :25:45.form that's he's copying in some of these things. There's earlier work
:25:45. > :25:50.where, which is completely different. It's odd to see it in
:25:50. > :25:55.this show, next to the fin shalled, polished sculpture on plinths.
:25:55. > :26:00.Things are on the floor, with humble materials, raw. It's the
:26:00. > :26:03.phase he was in in the 70s and 80s. It's odd to show the two things up
:26:03. > :26:08.against each other. The third thing in the show, which I think is
:26:08. > :26:12.beautiful, are wonderful, delicate water colours that, you know, I
:26:12. > :26:17.haven't seen these water colours of his at all. And some of these
:26:17. > :26:21.wonderful drawings, intimate drawings with zeros and ones.
:26:22. > :26:27.drawings are quite strange. There's something obsessive about the
:26:27. > :26:29.doodles. There's metal work transforming form. You mention the
:26:30. > :26:33.Italian movement using cheap material. Robert Rauschenberg
:26:33. > :26:36.followed that tradition as well when he moved into pop art. His
:26:37. > :26:41.show is a late show at Botanical Vaudeville. Did you like it or did
:26:41. > :26:46.you think you were at the fag end of a career? A little bit of the
:26:46. > :26:49.latter. If you put it in the botanic gardens you already get
:26:49. > :26:53.three stars from me. It is gorgeous. Even though it was pouring with
:26:54. > :26:58.rain when I went, it's still beautiful. So the Rauschenberg
:26:58. > :27:01.there's a video down stairs on a 60 minute loop, which is really
:27:01. > :27:06.interesting. I was glad I went to that, because otherwise I'm not
:27:06. > :27:12.sure I would have enjoyed the exhibition as much. I think the
:27:12. > :27:18.found object pieces of roadsides I liked much less than the strange
:27:18. > :27:22.metal etching pieces. Beautiful fossil with the lace. Incredible
:27:22. > :27:27.silver, aluminium. You look at it from one side and you go this is
:27:27. > :27:36.pretty. Then you see a peacock or Egyptian king appear out of it.
:27:36. > :27:40.Things like idle speed no wake, is like Ian Hamilton Finlay. Those as
:27:40. > :27:44.found objects were wonderful. Harked to a depression era in
:27:44. > :27:48.America, which we are in again almost. This is my problem with it.
:27:48. > :27:52.This is isn't the Rauschenberg of the 50s and 60s which transformed
:27:52. > :27:55.American art, who made the combines out of these kind of materials.
:27:55. > :28:00.This is him being asked to dot same thing by wealthy collectors going
:28:00. > :28:04.again and again and again. They are works made in the 80s but they have
:28:04. > :28:10.a look of stuff that's 30 years previously. The whole thing has
:28:10. > :28:15.been faked up to look like his earlier work the -- work. The newer
:28:15. > :28:18.style, the shiny stuff, makes a vague go at saying something about
:28:19. > :28:23.luxury and the shininess of the 80s, but he's trailing in the wake of
:28:23. > :28:26.other people by that point. It was a sad show for me. If any of those
:28:26. > :28:30.have taken your fancy, find details on the website or tweet us and
:28:30. > :28:33.we'll let you know. Now before we come to the
:28:33. > :28:41.seriousness of the new muedsical from Marc Almond and Mark Ravenhill,
:28:41. > :28:48.something light hearted. Joining us now the YouTube hit that has set
:28:48. > :28:50.them stratfeerk, the one and only fascinating aida. # We received an
:28:50. > :28:53.invitation in the post one Monday morn,
:28:54. > :28:57.# To attend our cousins wedding in the town where we were born,
:28:57. > :29:00.# The do was back in Kerry, so wishing to be frugal
:29:00. > :29:03.# We trawled the net to find some decent travel deals on Goole
:29:03. > :29:07.# Cheap flights, cheap flights as cheap as they can be,
:29:07. > :29:13.# Bedad we found an airline selling flights for 50p.
:29:13. > :29:16.# Diddly aiden daidin daidin dai # Well, we clicked onto the website
:29:16. > :29:18.# And were mightily surprised, # To find the actual cost
:29:18. > :29:21.# Wasn't quite as advertised # We'd forgotten airport taxes, had
:29:21. > :29:24.also to be billed # But a bargain is a bargain and
:29:24. > :29:33.begorrah we were thrilled # Cheap flights, cheap flights
:29:33. > :29:38.# Stansted to Trelee # Ah, it isn't every airline offers
:29:38. > :29:41.flights for 50p. # Diddly aiden daidin daidin dai
:29:41. > :29:45.# After studying the website we decided it was best
:29:45. > :29:50.# To pay priority boarding so that we'd sit three abreast
:29:50. > :29:53.# Three abreast, that's the best # And of course we'd all have
:29:53. > :29:56.luggage so that's an extra cost # And then we paid insurance in
:29:56. > :30:01.case our cases might get lost # Our cheap flights, chips flights
:30:01. > :30:09.# It's obvious to see # There must be extra charges when
:30:09. > :30:12.the flights are 50p # Minya, minya, minya, key change
:30:12. > :30:16.# At last the flight was booked, with all of the additions
:30:16. > :30:20.# We'd read the reams of small print of terms and conditions,
:30:20. > :30:24.# And then picked up the charge for using visa which was drastic '# Cos
:30:24. > :30:27.how the feck are you supposed to pay if not with fecking plastic?
:30:27. > :30:30.# Cheap flights, cheap flights # We paid the fecking fee
:30:30. > :30:40.# Because by now we were committed to the flights for 50p
:30:40. > :30:48.
:30:48. > :30:50.# Diddly aiden daidin daidin dai # Ochone, ochone aah
:30:50. > :30:53.# Now I don't if you've tried locating
:30:53. > :30:56.# Stansted on a map # But checking in at 5am is a load
:30:56. > :31:00.of fecking crap, # You's are banjaxed if you tried
:31:00. > :31:02.to catch a train or underground # So a taxi to the arse of the
:31:02. > :31:06.world was more than �100s. # Cheap flights, cheap flights, we
:31:06. > :31:08.should have gone by sea # There's no such fecking thing as
:31:08. > :31:10.a fecking flight for 50p # Feckity, feckity, feckity,
:31:10. > :31:17.feckity, feck, feck, feck # Feckity, feckity, feckity,
:31:17. > :31:21.feckity, feck, feck, feck # Then at last we reached the
:31:21. > :31:24.airport where we had to pay a fine, # The fecking feckers charged us
:31:24. > :31:26.'cos we hadn't checked in online # And finally aboard the flight
:31:26. > :31:29.there's an extra charge of tax # 'Cos the fecking, fecking,
:31:30. > :31:33.feckers charge to use the jacks. # Cheap flights, cheap flights,
:31:33. > :31:36.# I think you must agree # That only fecking gobshites think
:31:36. > :31:40.there's flights for 50p # Feck, shite, feck, shite, feck,
:31:40. > :31:48.shite, arse # Feck, shite, shite, feck, feck,
:31:48. > :31:55.arse Sad verse, # Well finally we landed and tried
:31:55. > :32:01.to shuffle up the aisle # But the steward sent us down to
:32:01. > :32:07.the back # With never a hint of a smile
:32:07. > :32:09.# And as we heard this announcement # Our hearts gave a terrible thump
:32:09. > :32:12.# If you haven't prepaid to use the steps
:32:12. > :32:15.# You'll have to fecking jump # Cheap flights, cheap flights
:32:15. > :32:25.# Your harking onto me # You're an eejit if you think a
:32:25. > :32:49.
:32:49. > :32:56.Fascinating Aida there with a look into the world of low-cost travel
:32:56. > :33:06.or not. Now to as dark as it gets. Mark Almond, the eighties synth pop
:33:06. > :33:12.
:33:12. > :33:16.supremo has delved into history 30 years on from his hit song
:33:16. > :33:21.Tainted Love, Mark Almond has swapped pop music for a song cycle,
:33:21. > :33:27.with an emotionally and musically challenged score. It tells a tale
:33:27. > :33:33.of one man's journey through plague-ridden London. Now I am
:33:33. > :33:37.getting into the swing of it, I find the whole piece is like a
:33:37. > :33:41.rollercoaster,. Once you start it the words and music take you from
:33:41. > :33:46.one place to another. Working a fantastic director like Stewart
:33:46. > :33:49.Laing. It was strange for me. I only worked with directors on a
:33:49. > :33:53.small scale. He has guided me through the whole piece. Made me
:33:53. > :33:59.see it in different ways. It brought things out of me that I
:33:59. > :34:03.never realised I could do. That is interesting. I think of Mark as a
:34:03. > :34:09.bigger project, playing rock concerts. I was looking to see what
:34:09. > :34:13.Mark could bring to the project. I see what Mark is, he's a fantastic
:34:13. > :34:17.storyteller, through song. Mark Ravenhill, better known for his
:34:17. > :34:21.plays, wrote Ten Plagues especially for Mark Almond, along with
:34:21. > :34:25.composer Conor Mitchell. balance is writing something that
:34:25. > :34:32.Mark as a performer can log into, without it being out of his range,
:34:32. > :34:37.and also to hand over a mellodic line to Mark and see what he --
:34:37. > :34:43.melodic line to Mark and see what he does with it. This whole piece
:34:43. > :34:48.has been emotional for me. I cried a few times when I performed it. I
:34:48. > :34:56.kind of felt the songs like Farewell and Seeing You, where he
:34:56. > :35:00.sees his dead lover in the pit and sees the bodies.
:35:01. > :35:05.Obviously I have feelings to mind like grieving and loss. I can bring
:35:05. > :35:09.so many of my own experiences, thingsvy been through through my
:35:09. > :35:13.life, so I have lots of experience to draw on. One week in, and
:35:13. > :35:19.reviews have been favourable. However, on opening night, there
:35:19. > :35:25.was one voice of dissent. We did get booed. I work a lot in opera.
:35:25. > :35:31.Booing is big in opera. It is like you feel like you have not done
:35:31. > :35:36.your job properly unless you get booed. If we wanted to please
:35:36. > :35:42.everybody we would be doing Mamma Mia!.
:35:42. > :35:50.You know it was a big ask, it was, I know he has done rock concerts,
:35:50. > :35:55.out on stage, on his own with a pinnist. Did he have this --
:35:55. > :36:00.pianist? Did he have this? One of the problems with it is his voice
:36:00. > :36:06.is not there. You feel a bit pained. He has to keep singing and keep
:36:06. > :36:10.singing. I feel conflicked about it. I admire the fact they did
:36:10. > :36:13.something deliberately divisive and different. It does feel original
:36:13. > :36:17.and it is very creative. We were talking about reading this thing on
:36:17. > :36:21.the page, which is a different experience. The text is interesting.
:36:21. > :36:27.Having it presented in such a stark way with one person's voice the
:36:27. > :36:34.entire way through is moments of comedy I felt were miss judged. I
:36:34. > :36:39.felt it didn't quite connect how they wanted it to. There were many
:36:39. > :36:43.different things there. It is moving about the plague. You get
:36:43. > :36:50.all senses of different plagues, including AIDS. There is the thing
:36:50. > :36:58.about survivor guilt. Did you feel he invested enough of himself in
:36:58. > :37:05.that? I did. I know an opera singer would sing better. His voice may be
:37:06. > :37:10.radleed by the end of this -- radled by the end of this run. I
:37:10. > :37:17.found him the most compelling. There are moments he stands on
:37:17. > :37:22.stage and the lighting falls on him, suddenly you can see 30 years ago
:37:22. > :37:26.Mark Almond. The light changes and he looks haggarded and the idea of
:37:26. > :37:34.this man becoming more and more raddled by his survival as people
:37:34. > :37:39.around him drop, I found him absolutely astonishing. It did
:37:39. > :37:43.mirror what happened during the plague, Defoe and Pepys, the ones
:37:43. > :37:47.who stayed and survived. The others fled and came back. There was a
:37:47. > :37:57.huge division. That comes out in this? Mark Ravenhill knows his 18th
:37:57. > :38:02.
:38:02. > :38:11.century. He has worked with that used that plague-ridden city - he's
:38:11. > :38:20.made a very claust introduce phobic world. I would say it is -- class
:38:20. > :38:26.tro phobic world. He has guided Britain through AIDS
:38:26. > :38:35.until now. This is a piece about AIDS.
:38:35. > :38:39.Mark Almond, as this di va figure, and the way that he performs is
:38:39. > :38:43.very very important in the atmosphere of this. What do you
:38:43. > :38:46.feel about how he inhabited that stage? It is difficult when you
:38:46. > :38:50.don't have furniture. Instead of furniture what they have is music
:38:50. > :38:54.stands. Then they have this wonderful projection. How did you
:38:54. > :38:57.feel about the music stands and him having to weave around them? They
:38:57. > :39:02.needed something for him to do physically, so he can move around a
:39:02. > :39:08.bit and you have something to look at. The set is beautiful. I think
:39:08. > :39:12.the use of projection is very clever and elegant. It gives him
:39:12. > :39:17.someone to interact with. I am interested to know if you connected
:39:17. > :39:26.with the character or not. I didn't know who he was at all. He was a
:39:26. > :39:31.void to me. I felt he was Mark, basically. This was a piece for a
:39:31. > :39:36.star and it was a piece which worked because of this background
:39:36. > :39:40.that he brings into it. If another unknown singer had walked on to
:39:40. > :39:44.that stage and performed in the same way it would have felt
:39:44. > :39:47.extremely flat. If they were not so well known I
:39:47. > :39:54.think they would have had to perform in a better singing way. I
:39:54. > :40:02.think that was the problem. He's not hitting the notes. He's
:40:02. > :40:05.straining a lot doing that. There is an aesthetic failure in this.
:40:05. > :40:09.His imperfection makes it very human.
:40:09. > :40:14.That is true because his physical and vocal performance, he walks
:40:14. > :40:22.around the flights of stairs with such caution. You remember that he
:40:22. > :40:28.had a terrible motorbike accident. He was crippled and he has to --
:40:28. > :40:34.had to learn how to walk again. It is compelling to watch. The music
:40:34. > :40:37.is fantastic. And the piano player is extraordinary and wearing a kilt.
:40:37. > :40:42.Ten Plagues is playing throughout the festival. If Ten Plagues was
:40:42. > :40:47.not a bundle of laughs we should send you into the wokend on a
:40:47. > :40:55.lighter note. The most famous fringe, the comedy. Be ware some of
:40:55. > :41:02.what you see contains extremely strong language.
:41:02. > :41:07.We can rely on comedians to push the envelope, to try and shock and
:41:07. > :41:17.court controversial with provocative material. This year is
:41:17. > :41:19.
:41:19. > :41:24.no exception. Torchwood actor Tom Price reveals intimate tales of his
:41:24. > :41:29.mother's alcoholism and cerebral palsy. We arrive at the chemist. He
:41:29. > :41:34.gives her medication. It is one of those bottles where you have to
:41:34. > :41:44.squeeze. She cannot do that. She only has one hand. She is shaking
:41:44. > :41:50.
:41:50. > :41:59.it, going "I may be a locking ...." Ending racism in about an hour,
:41:59. > :42:08.part stand-up, part social comedy, it proves that de-- despite
:42:08. > :42:18.electing its first black President, racism is still there. There is a
:42:18. > :42:21.
:42:21. > :42:29.black President. I saw a woman cry. I was like, "Wow, first of all you
:42:29. > :42:33.should never play Scrabble, because there's no U in America." Radical
:42:33. > :42:38.comedian and recording artist Margaret Cho is back in the cap
:42:38. > :42:41.follow for the first time in a decade with her show. I know that a
:42:41. > :42:45.lot of Asian people don't have a lot of bush. I have all of their
:42:45. > :42:50.bush. I carry the burden of my race!
:42:50. > :42:57.Based on the recent Grammy nominated album of the same name t
:42:57. > :43:03.by sexual American aims to shock with her treatment of sexuality,
:43:03. > :43:09.which one critic said would make Richard Prior blush. They turn
:43:09. > :43:14.around and their T-shirt says "Number one grandma." Almost a
:43:14. > :43:23.quarter of a century since she first appeared on the Fringe, Ruby
:43:23. > :43:29.Wax is back on stage, supported by singer-songwriter and close friend,
:43:29. > :43:39.Judith Owen. I said if you have a disability, use it. I said "Get out
:43:39. > :43:39.
:43:40. > :43:45.of bed." Losing It is an autoby og graphal story of her mental illness.
:43:45. > :43:51.It is one in four. It is one, two, three, four. Actually that whole
:43:51. > :43:56.row is not well! Do these shows prove there are plenty of taboos to
:43:56. > :44:02.be busted through comedy? Does comedy have the shower to shock,
:44:02. > :44:07.provoke and challenge an audience? Let's begin with Ruby Wax, which is
:44:07. > :44:12.a combination of stand-up comedy and personal pain. Does that give
:44:12. > :44:17.it an added kick? It does and it doesn't. I have to be honest. I
:44:17. > :44:22.think Ruby Wax is a massively inspirational figure to my
:44:22. > :44:26.generation of comedians. It's no exaggeration to say I worshipped
:44:26. > :44:32.her as a teenager, of course. My expectations were too high for this
:44:33. > :44:37.show. I kind of assumed it would be a brutal unpicking of her nervous
:44:37. > :44:41.breakdown, her time in The Priory. Strangely it feels like she has
:44:41. > :44:46.backed off from writing that show. There are 40 minutes of
:44:47. > :44:50.observational stuff about American people may not like English people,
:44:50. > :44:54.English people might not like Scottish people. You think, OK, you
:44:54. > :44:58.are better than this. Why are you here? When it comes to her
:44:58. > :45:02.depression it is much more raw and much more painful. I am not sure
:45:02. > :45:07.the first half of the show really needs to be there. Isn't it the
:45:07. > :45:12.case to welcome the audience in you have to soften them up. Isn't that
:45:12. > :45:20.the structure of the show? There are blows. I think what she was
:45:20. > :45:25.celebrated for when she was.... She was kind of brutal.
:45:25. > :45:29.She's been busy. She's been in The Priory. I forgive her! What I was
:45:29. > :45:34.looking for was more of an attack. There is this kind of, some middle
:45:34. > :45:43.of the road stuff in there. Maybe she did back off from revealing too
:45:43. > :45:49.much about her -- herself. There are instrumental singer-songwriter
:45:49. > :45:59.stuff about sadness. Do you think Judith Owen was there
:45:59. > :46:01.
:46:01. > :46:04.to have a foil for her to have I didn't think it fitted together.
:46:04. > :46:12.Judith Owen starts talking seriously about tragic events in
:46:12. > :46:15.her life. You're like, I don't this. It's weird to have suddenly
:46:15. > :46:20.gone there. That was one taboo. Let's move on to Tom Price, who
:46:20. > :46:25.talk abouts his own embarrassing story. He's referring to his mother
:46:25. > :46:28.several times as a plastic and revealing a bit about her. I think
:46:28. > :46:34.again it's a similar thing. Most of the show is very nice and you know
:46:34. > :46:40.he's a very charming man. It's nice, friendly stand-up guy you want to
:46:40. > :46:45.go for a drink with. The stuff about his mum, it was like you use
:46:45. > :46:49.the word plastic when you're little. It didn't seem he dug deeply as to
:46:49. > :46:54.whether what he was saying it true seasoned if it's what he felt about
:46:54. > :46:59.it. His mother as cerebral palsy, she's a single mother and alcoholic.
:46:59. > :47:04.I felt she was more interesting than him. That's extremely
:47:04. > :47:09.ungenerous. But for a show, I think it's incredibly charming. He's a
:47:09. > :47:13.massively likeable performer. And the clunky direction in ruby's show
:47:13. > :47:18.is not in his at all. There's so much narrative distance to make
:47:18. > :47:22.sure you don't think he's being offensive. The word plastic is only
:47:22. > :47:30.used in the context of my mother calls herself a plastic and other
:47:30. > :47:36.people are upset by it. He goes, I would never say that, you go yes I
:47:36. > :47:40.know that. He's shy ago way from taboo to bust it. Now let's move on
:47:40. > :47:44.to WpsKamau Bell. What lovely is that he opens up with a clip of
:47:44. > :47:48.himself on American television saying how much he loves Obama, but
:47:48. > :47:52.Obama will never be President. Very good to fess up on his own mistake.
:47:52. > :47:55.He's a very charming performer. He giveles us a tour of the current
:47:55. > :48:02.state of race relations in the States. You know, I'm living in the
:48:02. > :48:06.US, at the moment. A lot of that material is very familiar. I didn't
:48:06. > :48:10.have a sense how it would play to the Edinburgh audience who aren't
:48:10. > :48:13.quite engaged in the cultural wars in the same way as they are in the
:48:13. > :48:17.States. There's something exciting about him. When you get stand ups
:48:17. > :48:22.here from the US, they are bullet- proof. If the building caught fire
:48:22. > :48:26.they would have a line. It's incredibly impressive but not
:48:26. > :48:30.remotely scary. For somebody so competent, he was surprisingly
:48:30. > :48:33.nervey the night we saw him. It made me like him so much more. At
:48:33. > :48:38.one point he says smoking a fag that means something different here
:48:38. > :48:44.from in America. You know, why I know, that joke needs cards and a
:48:44. > :48:48.cake. Please don't do it. It is beneath you. What he had which
:48:48. > :48:51.helped, is he had some furniture. He had the US census and UK census
:48:51. > :48:55.and they're such a joke in themselves the way they address
:48:55. > :49:00.race. I thought it was good. It gave shape to his show. What he did
:49:00. > :49:04.say was white people have to re- examine the way they behave.
:49:04. > :49:08.think that is interesting. You write a bit of research and a bit
:49:08. > :49:12.of Powerpoint is right. He was partly nervous because there was
:49:12. > :49:16.rioting going on. He was nervous about whether his material would be
:49:16. > :49:21.more incendiary than it was. It was quite the opposite. It would have
:49:21. > :49:25.been great if he had gone there. We were seeing it. What we've seen is
:49:25. > :49:29.a lot of comedians going I'm shocking you, aren't I? Well
:49:29. > :49:33.actually no. They were shocking and not really. Margaret Cho. Margaret
:49:33. > :49:39.Cho did shock me. Margaret Cho there's nowhere Margaret Cho won't
:49:39. > :49:45.go. That's part of the whole thing. She wants to overturn the idea.
:49:45. > :49:50.Were you upset the fact she told you everywhere she's been. It's not
:49:50. > :49:53.that the fact that the jokes are that funny, but it's that she's
:49:53. > :49:58.actually saying these things. was really funny. She was the only
:49:58. > :50:02.one who really got the laughs out of me. I couldn't tell when I was
:50:02. > :50:06.laughing out of sheer shock and when I thought it was funny. That's
:50:06. > :50:16.great. You can't believe she's doing that and the actions. There's
:50:16. > :50:21.a lot of mime, yeah. She has wonderful confidence as a performer.
:50:21. > :50:25.It's very funny, when she does her own parents... That's wonderful.
:50:25. > :50:28.She takes the Michael out of her Korean parents, it's funny, but
:50:28. > :50:34.it's like we're laughing at her parents. I felt fine about laughing
:50:34. > :50:39.at her parents. They aren't, you can see them as individuals. She
:50:39. > :50:45.also does her grandfather as well. There's a whole interesting family
:50:45. > :50:50.dynamic. She has this thing that a lot of Asian women have of being,
:50:50. > :50:54.as children being very, very talked down to, you're ugly, you're bad,
:50:54. > :51:00.you're wrong by her mother and grandfather, seems to have been the
:51:00. > :51:04.person who saved her, saying it's fine, I'm ugly too. I felt the Cho
:51:04. > :51:10.familiar will were real to by the end of the show. Was that taboo
:51:10. > :51:15.busting or just a really fine show? A fine show, but in a way retro and
:51:15. > :51:20.therefore taboo busting. Jenny Eclair won the Perrier in 95 with
:51:20. > :51:24.such a show of mind numbing vulgarity. It was I long time
:51:24. > :51:28.before she was talking about, I can't even say it. It's like going
:51:28. > :51:32.back in time. Wow remember when standups weren't all desperate to
:51:32. > :51:35.be on the comedy road show and they were prepared to take a risk of
:51:35. > :51:39.upsetting everybody in the building. She was thrilling in that reguard
:51:39. > :51:43.and she mentioned Dancing With The Stars. It's not just The Review
:51:43. > :51:47.Show which has taken up residence here for a movement you'll be able
:51:47. > :51:51.to hear more of what's going on in the Culture Show Edinburgh special.
:51:51. > :51:56.Here's Sue Perkins to give us a taster of what they have coming up.
:51:56. > :52:00.On the Culture Show next week, Alastair Sooke meets Tony Cragg.
:52:00. > :52:09.Book Festival regular, Ian Rankin investigates art theft. And we look
:52:09. > :52:15.at the art of the comedy song. I'll be talking to American huem arist
:52:15. > :52:20.David Sodarist. And the theatrical take of Murakami's cult novel of
:52:20. > :52:25.the international festival. That's Thursday, 7pm on BBC Two. Thanks to
:52:25. > :52:30.my guests, Natalie Haynes, Hannah McGill and Hari Kunzru and fatly
:52:30. > :52:35.for putting herself through the trauma ever audience participation
:52:35. > :52:39.again. Full details are on the website and a few added extras.
:52:39. > :52:46.We'll tweet updates on the festival every day. Do tweet us back. We
:52:46. > :52:50.have thick skins. Next we're week we discuss the winners of the James