:00:10. > :00:16.Welcome to the second review show, perched across from the Edinburgh
:00:16. > :00:20.Castle, the city is packed full of drama, music and comedy. Tonight we
:00:20. > :00:25.help you to a selection of festival delight, the odd disappointment,
:00:25. > :00:32.and live music too. Our panel samples four very
:00:32. > :00:37.physical comedy shows, from Michael Winslow's Thousands of Noise, to
:00:37. > :00:42.mime. Simhon Callow joins us in an unfamiliar guise with an extract of
:00:42. > :00:48.his Edinburgh show. Photography as you have never seen it before, with
:00:48. > :00:53.a high-voltage exhibition from Hiroshi Sugimoto. The oldest
:00:53. > :01:03.winners of the Edinburgh prize announced. A bevy of fringe shows,
:01:03. > :01:08.dealing with an Edinburgh preoccupation, alcohol. Shakespeare,
:01:08. > :01:12.Edinburgh style, including King Lear in Mandarin.
:01:12. > :01:16.Joining me, with our live studio audience, to discuss all of, that
:01:16. > :01:20.are the academic and writer, Sarah Churchwell, author and critic, Paul
:01:20. > :01:25.Morley, the broadcaster Susan Hitch, and Simhon Callow will be along
:01:25. > :01:30.later. Now our panel, audience and festival goers are hardly strangers
:01:30. > :01:34.to the joys and perils of alcohol. It virtually defines the month.
:01:34. > :01:42.Thisery, three shows have decided not to safe the booze until after
:01:42. > :01:46.the show. Alcohol, bevy, growing, liquor, the
:01:46. > :01:50.demon drink is a social lubricant at the Edinburgh Fringe, alcohol
:01:50. > :01:56.has played its part as creative catalyst and emotional crutch for
:01:56. > :02:01.many shows, few have gone for total immersion.
:02:01. > :02:07.This experiment is as to whether or not alcohol is a means to create
:02:07. > :02:14.greater creativity and artistic confidence, is at the scam assembly
:02:14. > :02:19.Square. It came after her own seven-day experiment with alcohol
:02:19. > :02:23.and performed entirely sober. I embarked on the experiment, I
:02:23. > :02:28.wanted to find out whether I was a better artist when I was drunk. I
:02:28. > :02:34.found out, yes I am a better artist, but I don't want that to be a
:02:34. > :02:38.factor in my own practice. It was really dangerous, I didn't really
:02:38. > :02:45.100% understand how harmful alcohol is to your body and your brain.
:02:45. > :02:53.was then when the man in our house was a stranger, it was then that I
:02:53. > :02:57.asked you to leave. After two or three drinks an artist's
:02:57. > :03:02.imagination and physicality can become quite heightened, after a
:03:02. > :03:07.few mother than, it becomes self- indulgent. A lot of things can
:03:07. > :03:13.relax your imagination and body, it doesn't always have to be booze.
:03:13. > :03:21.Alcohol, indiscretions and tales of nights on the lash throughout UK,
:03:21. > :03:27.are the main subjects of Thirsty, from fringe winners Paper Birds, it
:03:27. > :03:32.was weaved together to find one night of excess, and what is it
:03:32. > :03:37.about alcohol that makes it so pref vent in our society. - prevalent in
:03:37. > :03:42.our society. Randy makes a return to the
:03:42. > :03:51.Edinburgh Fringe, with the solo show Randy Is Sober. That is what
:03:51. > :03:58.happens when you take over the beer goggles, the scantily clad seducts
:03:58. > :04:02.re, reveals herself. I don't think drink something a problem, it is
:04:02. > :04:06.what people do here. There is the shows and the partying that goes
:04:06. > :04:10.along with the shows. Since coming here sober I have seen a new side
:04:10. > :04:20.to the city, a side I didn't know existed. Did you know there is a
:04:20. > :04:22.
:04:22. > :04:27.castle here. It was a sobering experience. Let's deal with Thirsty,
:04:27. > :04:32.they set up a hot-line taking drunken stories, stories of
:04:32. > :04:36.drunkenness, did you enjoy it? is interesting seeing the
:04:36. > :04:40.performances trying to find muscles of protest, they are trying to find
:04:40. > :04:44.something beyond material to make themselves or us laugh. It was like
:04:44. > :04:48.watching the first signs of some sense of what the state of the nai,
:04:48. > :04:51.but the first thing they come across is their own alcoholic
:04:51. > :04:55.consumption and the consumption of others. It was interesting to see
:04:55. > :05:01.the muscles of some kind of comment on where we are as a nation come
:05:01. > :05:05.back, it was slight low sad it happens to be about alcohol, and -
:05:05. > :05:13.slightly sad it happens to be a about alcohol in a post reality
:05:13. > :05:17.television sort of way. It was not an analysis about how and why, is
:05:17. > :05:20.it really about being creative. It felt like they were scratching the
:05:20. > :05:25.surface. It was very dark, all dark in their own way. What about the
:05:25. > :05:28.idea of Thirsty, it looked like so many towns on a Saturday night?
:05:28. > :05:31.was setting up to be a really powerful little show, with these
:05:31. > :05:37.two women, who were really kind of showing what it feels like. My
:05:37. > :05:42.problem is it wants to go to a very dark place but it seriously pulls
:05:42. > :05:45.its punches. It sets up a date rape situation, but doesn't have the
:05:45. > :05:49.courage to go through with the story and make the audience feel it.
:05:49. > :05:52.I felt that about a lot of the stories. I agreed they were
:05:52. > :05:56.superficial in the sense they were just beginning to ask pretty
:05:56. > :06:02.obvious questions, oh, is alcohol bad for us, and conclude alcohol is
:06:02. > :06:07.bad for us. 50 minutes later I think I already knew that. That
:06:07. > :06:13.earnestness is also the death of comedy. The dark ones weren't dark
:06:13. > :06:18.enough and the funny ones killed the jokes. I was going to say a
:06:18. > :06:21.jaded palate, but for some people looking at Thirsty and Seven Day
:06:21. > :06:25.Drunk, it was still shocking? didn't think it was. I don't think
:06:26. > :06:28.we were discovering anything we didn't already know. But when they
:06:28. > :06:33.were good that was what was good about them. Something like Thirsty,
:06:33. > :06:37.I didn't mind it didn't have a shocker at the end, it was that
:06:37. > :06:44.wearying disappointment of a world in which expectations are low
:06:44. > :06:48.already. Two very good performances by the women. Moving on to Seven
:06:48. > :06:51.Day Drunk, that was accompanied by film of her with various
:06:51. > :06:55.professionals and the way she was when she was drunk. It was a bit
:06:55. > :07:03.like a BBC documentary? That side of it must be sell wraited. It is
:07:03. > :07:06.better to see this kind of movement of comedy away from the whole Sean
:07:06. > :07:12.Lock and others. There was a movement of something interesting,
:07:12. > :07:15.and there was a multimedia element. I would give the Thirsty girls six
:07:15. > :07:20.half hours immediately on what they were. It was the material, again,
:07:20. > :07:23.the fact that what it needed to be, as a lot of these things need to be,
:07:23. > :07:28.they need to be written. At the moment, you will find this more as
:07:28. > :07:33.we go along, in Edinburgh at the moment you need to do very little
:07:33. > :07:38.to get hysterical laughter, everyone is really needing to laugh.
:07:38. > :07:42.Desperation to laugh. In Seven Day Drunk, there was moments where she
:07:42. > :07:46.was actually just talking horrifically about the impact, I
:07:46. > :07:50.think that alcohol had on her childhood? It wasn't funny or
:07:50. > :07:54.properly written or shaped. wasn't really meant to be comedy?
:07:54. > :07:58.No, but the audience expected it to be. We are back to the audience
:07:58. > :08:01.waiting to laugh and to be allowed to laugh. There was something very
:08:01. > :08:06.peculiar about the mismatch between the audience and the content.
:08:06. > :08:09.was dreadful stories there, about the friend? It was underdeveloped,
:08:09. > :08:14.time limitations all the shows are about 50 minutes, you start to feel
:08:14. > :08:18.the need of a two-hour show. She tells a little bit about the friend,
:08:18. > :08:23.she disappears, she tells stories about her own experiences, it turns
:08:23. > :08:30.out she had a really full on problem which the show touches on.
:08:30. > :08:34.She did say the studies showed her creativity was heightened when she
:08:34. > :08:39.was drunk? She couldn't find Euston Station though. I didn't find the
:08:39. > :08:44.creativity about what was on stage, the fluffy props, that was thrown
:08:44. > :08:51.away. Interesting premise, and idea, not going any way. As a performer
:08:51. > :08:55.there was a lot of things there, it was an interesting combination as a
:08:55. > :09:00.performer. They hugely transcend the material they wrote for
:09:00. > :09:10.themselves. Then there is the sober puppet, this is Randy is Sober,
:09:10. > :09:16.this is a new sobriety, which is going through. Frankie Boyle has
:09:16. > :09:19.stopped drinking and others, this idea that people want to be sober.
:09:19. > :09:23.The whole history of comedy in a way is fuelled with behind the
:09:23. > :09:26.scenes there is alcohol. The greatest comedians are all there
:09:26. > :09:29.because of alcohol. It is an interesting moment about self-
:09:29. > :09:33.consciousness, they want to talk about something, and they want to
:09:33. > :09:36.display something. I got a feeling tonight with all the drinking
:09:36. > :09:39.alcohol comedies, we were eves dropping on people with a lot of
:09:39. > :09:45.problems and using this an opportunity to tell bus their
:09:45. > :09:49.problems. That is what a lot of comedy is about? But transcendantly
:09:49. > :09:56.so, because they were different sorts of problems, grander and more
:09:56. > :10:00.epic. It has to connect with the audience. My problem with Randy is
:10:00. > :10:06.Sober, it was the full extent of narccasism, and it was about him
:10:06. > :10:10.and his problems. It was a puppet, it was like shut up and go away.
:10:10. > :10:14.wish he would go out. It is almost like we can only take it from a
:10:14. > :10:19.Sesame Street puppet. It immediately distances you from
:10:19. > :10:28.it. If you want to learn more about the shows the details are on the
:10:29. > :10:32.website. The James Tait Memorial Prize has Iris Murdoch and Zadie
:10:32. > :10:38.Smith and John Carey as previous winners. We found out this year's
:10:38. > :10:48.winners. Authors in the running for this
:10:48. > :10:54.
:10:54. > :11:01.year's Tait - James Tait Prize are now being announced. The James Tait
:11:01. > :11:11.Black Memorial Prize has been won by Hilary Spurling.
:11:11. > :11:13.
:11:13. > :11:20.The winner of the James Tait Black Prize for Fiction is Tatjani Soli.
:11:20. > :11:24.The book, as you say is as much about Vietnam ass about her. Is
:11:24. > :11:27.that because you have an obsession with Vietnam? I do, I was
:11:27. > :11:32.interested in the war because the books I read before I wrote this
:11:32. > :11:35.were all from the soldiers' perspective, I'm from southern
:11:36. > :11:41.California and we have a huge Vietnamese community there, they
:11:41. > :11:45.talk about their country as a beautiful place torn apart by the
:11:45. > :11:52.war, and we don't talk about that. I thought it would be interesting
:11:52. > :11:57.about the way we go into countries we don't know what we do to them.
:11:57. > :12:00.Australian-born Tatjani Soli, The Lotus Eaters, tells the story of a
:12:00. > :12:05.female combat photographer who falls in love in the final moments
:12:05. > :12:15.of the Vietnam War. Something I found very distinctive about The
:12:15. > :12:19.
:12:19. > :12:23.Lotus Eaters is it has the pace and "from the front of the embassy
:12:23. > :12:28.gates to the other side of the Boulevard, not static, passive
:12:28. > :12:33.crowd, but a turbulent ocean of people, around motorcycles and
:12:33. > :12:37.islands of stacked suitcase, people surging and dashing themselves up
:12:37. > :12:42.against the solid gates of the embassy front, like waves crashing
:12:42. > :12:47.against the rocks of a forbidden coast, falling back on to
:12:47. > :12:51.themselves. What was it about Pearl Buck, there
:12:51. > :12:54.were lots of missionary children around the world? Pearl is unique,
:12:54. > :12:58.because she was the person who explained the east to the west.
:12:58. > :13:05.There are no competitors to that post. A millionaire best-selling
:13:05. > :13:13.author by the time of her death in 1973, Pearl Buck's name is almost
:13:13. > :13:20.forgotten by today's readers, a fact rectifying by the novel
:13:20. > :13:28.Burying the Bones. She was a noble prize literature winner back in
:13:28. > :13:33.1958. The astonishing history behind her writing is revealed.
:13:33. > :13:40.the daughter of Chinese commission rees, she used her impressions of
:13:40. > :13:44.her adopted home as a back drop for her writing. She lived through a
:13:44. > :13:47.fascinating period of Chinese history, through growing up with
:13:47. > :13:51.them, she came to understand how the ordinary people of China lived
:13:51. > :14:01.through the last years of the empire. That just happened a little
:14:01. > :14:02.
:14:02. > :14:08.over a couple of hours ago. Sarah, both books started with places
:14:08. > :14:13.rather than characters. Pearl Buck, an almost forgotten author and the
:14:13. > :14:19.period she was writing about almost forgotten as well? Pearl Buck, as
:14:19. > :14:24.an American growing up, The Good Earth was given to you to read,
:14:24. > :14:29.she's completely forgotten. Because she's too popular fiction? The fact
:14:29. > :14:39.is, and what Spurling's book brings out so clearly. I didn't realise
:14:39. > :14:42.
:14:42. > :14:49.she was bileft-wing usual, she spoke Mandarin from childhood. She
:14:49. > :14:58.explained the east to the west for the first time. I had no idea she
:14:58. > :15:04.had such a horrifically difficult childhood, her sisters dying and
:15:04. > :15:06.her absent missionary father? a bilingual and bicultural
:15:06. > :15:14.childhood. The Burying The Bone Pearl Buck In China title comes
:15:14. > :15:19.from the fact that this child her self - herself was going out of the
:15:19. > :15:26.compound and finding bits of girl babies left out for the dogs to eat.
:15:26. > :15:35.There is a moment when she finds an arm and a leg and finds her own
:15:35. > :15:39.rituals for burying them. There is this thing that Spurling gives
:15:39. > :15:46.about digesting the rock sometimes in popular fiction is very good.
:15:46. > :15:49.is like an academic exercise told so brilliantly, she takes you into
:15:49. > :15:53.fiction and changes her mother's death here and there. It is a fans
:15:53. > :15:57.particular telling of a character, and how somebody become as writer,
:15:57. > :16:01.the fact it is so beautifully written is fantastic. I love the
:16:01. > :16:08.fact, and it seems so important now, that she goes to the book to write
:16:08. > :16:14.the book to find out about China, and does it through the filter of a
:16:14. > :16:21.great American. It creates a dichotomy about the difference
:16:21. > :16:24.between the two, the superpower shift. We can find out so much from
:16:24. > :16:28.this. Hilary Spurling has told me she has been on a book tour of Asia
:16:28. > :16:33.and been to China, the Chinese people she meets are buying the
:16:33. > :16:36.book, they don't know about their own history of that period? It is a
:16:36. > :16:40.dissident voice. Not just as an American actually writing in
:16:40. > :16:44.Chinese and translating it back, but dissident within the Chinese
:16:44. > :16:50.culture in writing about the people that the Chinese don't like to do.
:16:50. > :16:54.The communist thing, the Americans hater her and the Chinese hated her,
:16:54. > :16:58.she disappeared into the void. Talking about Tatjani Soli's book,
:16:58. > :17:02.The Lotus Eaters, here we have the young woman who wants to be the
:17:02. > :17:06.jock camerawoman getting all the best shots. You remember all this
:17:06. > :17:11.from Vietnam, but it was all about the men? This is a woman in some
:17:11. > :17:14.sense who is trying to be man, and discovering very quickly she can't.
:17:14. > :17:17.The whole impetus of the story is this young woman going out there
:17:17. > :17:22.and immediately failing, gradually stepping back from it and learning
:17:22. > :17:27.a different way to do it. It is a huge great love story with an
:17:27. > :17:32.enormous amount of emotional charge to it. I liked the history and
:17:32. > :17:35.emotion in it, you ended informed from within. I didn't like it very
:17:35. > :17:39.much. I read it back-to-back with the Spurling, it suffered in
:17:39. > :17:43.comparison. What I felt here was this attempt to write this epic
:17:43. > :17:48.love story, it is driven by a very sentimental idea, yes it is about a
:17:48. > :17:55.woman in a man's world, but the men are the ones who will redeem her
:17:55. > :18:03.and show her how to live her life properly. I found it clumsily
:18:03. > :18:09.written, it said things like she met her match in female form at
:18:09. > :18:16.last. That was a direct quotation, I will show it to you. The idea of
:18:16. > :18:21.looking back on Vietnam, the great book, Dispatches, that for me was
:18:21. > :18:27.the great book about Vietnam and journalism? There was the missing
:18:27. > :18:35.thing between Apeople lips Now and Mills and Boon. It was submerged
:18:35. > :18:42.into a cliched role model, the Californian blonde, the mysterious
:18:42. > :18:45.eastern guy she falls for. The cliches kept come overcoming the
:18:45. > :18:49.central power. I don't think it was so cliched. The quote was awful.
:18:49. > :18:55.But for all that it seemed to me there are kind of moments in this
:18:55. > :19:05.kind of war, when the cliche is given by the roles you have in the
:19:05. > :19:12.war. And actually that was done rather well. The jock, Sam Darrow,
:19:12. > :19:16.the heroic reporter has a nuanced set of problems, he's hiding behind
:19:16. > :19:19.by enjoying a stereotype. It says it within that the story is never
:19:19. > :19:23.told through the female voice, this was the great opportunity and
:19:23. > :19:32.didn't do it. Both of those books are available in good book shops.
:19:32. > :19:37.Now to get new the mood for Michael Winslow and the pyjama Men. We're
:19:37. > :19:45.joined by a performer wowing the audience, here is Lilli La Scala,
:19:45. > :19:51.with the intriguingly titled Will You Love Me When I am skae mutton.
:19:51. > :19:54.# Two little lambs are in a field of clover
:19:54. > :19:58.# A lamb and a she lamb # I will explain
:19:58. > :20:01.# The he lamb gave the she lamb the once over
:20:01. > :20:06.# Tend early she bleated this refrain
:20:06. > :20:14.# Will you love me # When I'm mutton
:20:14. > :20:19.# As you do now I'm lamb # Ba-ba black sheep tell me do
:20:19. > :20:23.# Will you love me when I'm mutton # Like a true and fateful lamb
:20:24. > :20:28.# Or will you tell me # I'm too tough to chew
:20:28. > :20:32.# When my one and four a found is not so tender
:20:32. > :20:36.# And there's no-one left upon my one and three
:20:37. > :20:45.# When you're sitting in the ice with me darling
:20:45. > :20:51.# Promise that you won't be cold to # Will you love me when I'm mutton
:20:51. > :20:56.# As you do now I'm lamb # Ba-ba black sheep tell me do
:20:57. > :21:01.# Will you love me when I'm mutton # Like a true and faithful lamb
:21:02. > :21:07.# Although I'm cut up # And you feel cut up too
:21:07. > :21:11.# When Cupid's dart is a skewer stuck in my shoulder
:21:11. > :21:15.# And they have stuck a ticket where your tail should be
:21:15. > :21:18.# When a butcher sells your kidney's love
:21:18. > :21:22.# For four pence # Tell him that your heart belongs
:21:22. > :21:28.to me # Will you love me on a Sunday
:21:28. > :21:35.# When you're roasted like I am # And when your served up cold on
:21:35. > :21:39.Monday too # Should we meet in the soup upon a
:21:39. > :21:47.Tuesday # Or promise you won't hide behind
:21:47. > :21:57.a pea # And on Wednesday when they call
:21:57. > :22:02.
:22:03. > :22:12.us rissoles darling # Or say that you will still be
:22:13. > :22:20.
:22:20. > :22:27.The one and only Lilli La Scala, more smu sick to come.
:22:27. > :22:31.Comedy in - music to come. Comedy takes on many forms, we sent
:22:31. > :22:34.our panelists to four shops that put the slapstick back in stand-up.
:22:34. > :22:38.Whilst the stand-up is a great institution, there is still room
:22:38. > :22:42.for some surprises, last year the big hit was the boy with the tape
:22:42. > :22:50.in his face. This year there's a host of new comedy forms.
:22:50. > :22:55.Michael Winslow, best known as Motor Mouth, from the Police
:22:55. > :23:02.Academy films, makes his Edinburgh debut. He may have only one trick,
:23:02. > :23:10.but it is working oned couts, because he has a million - on the
:23:10. > :23:15.counds, he has a millions boyss. don't have to pay for anything - on
:23:15. > :23:24.the crowds, he has a million voices. I don't have to pay for anything, I
:23:24. > :23:29.just do the noise. The Pyjama Men are back to packed
:23:29. > :23:34.performances. They use preposterous situations with mime and different
:23:34. > :23:38.voices. It is just right here between these two chair doors.
:23:38. > :23:45.After seven years on the comedy circuit, and sharing a training
:23:45. > :23:52.with the likes of Mike Myers, and Bill Murray, they have Surrealism
:23:52. > :23:57.with a mass market appeal. Nice to meet you. Pleasure all mine.
:23:57. > :24:04.are you? I'm fine. Would you like some tea? I love tea? Delicious, it
:24:04. > :24:09.is too good. The I am of Doctor Brown adopts a different approach.
:24:09. > :24:13.A graduate of French clowning school, this too is a minimalist
:24:13. > :24:21.approach. Toying, sometimes literally, with audience
:24:21. > :24:28.expectations, and using minute gesture, he enacting everything
:24:28. > :24:31.from a Peking Opera to a Starbucks barista.
:24:32. > :24:37.Two dancers performing in cabaret over the years, but bringing their
:24:37. > :24:47.first show to Edinburgh, it is giddy clowning to taboo breaking
:24:47. > :24:54.
:24:54. > :24:59.sequences, the performance is based So what is it about physical
:24:59. > :25:04.comdough that we return to it again and again. In a time where
:25:04. > :25:10.comedians struggle to satirise the every-changing political landscape,
:25:10. > :25:14.and panel show one-liners dominate the screens. Is the physicality of
:25:14. > :25:17.comedy that appeals, or is clowning good old fashioned fun.
:25:17. > :25:22.I must apologise, we didn't warn you about the nudity in the short
:25:22. > :25:24.film. Let's begin with Michael and his
:25:24. > :25:29.amazing noises. Was there anything more, was there
:25:29. > :25:37.a development in this show, or a series of amazing noises? It was a
:25:37. > :25:42.series of amazing noises. He makes amazing noises amazingly. The only
:25:42. > :25:48.thing is when he is doing something that is an amazing noise, suddenly
:25:48. > :25:56.being Jimi Hendrix, I get very excited by that, I don't get
:25:56. > :25:59.excited by the bong bong noise on the the aeroplane. It is an
:26:00. > :26:05.outstanding skill but it was a long time. It happens to be filtered
:26:05. > :26:12.through popular culture, he does the Star Wars stick, it is Michael
:26:12. > :26:17.Winslow and 142 voices, it is not ten thousand. And ultimately it is
:26:17. > :26:21.a skill, a talent, an ability. And maybe 30 seconds on Saturday night
:26:22. > :26:26.show, once every four years that would be enough. The audience loved
:26:26. > :26:32.him? Everyone is having hysterics, they would have had hysterics if he
:26:32. > :26:37.took a breath. Everyone is so hyped up and pumped up. There were a lot
:26:37. > :26:41.of lads? Some need to be drunk and some don't. They just want to be
:26:41. > :26:45.relieved. Not only is it filtered through pop culture but the
:26:45. > :26:49.decision to do it as stand-up act. If he could find a different
:26:49. > :26:56.skeleton to build the frai framework of noises around it might
:26:56. > :27:02.be good. As a comedian I found him unfunny, he had a joke about 949
:27:02. > :27:08.channels on TV and nothing on. That is a 30-year-old joke. We saw a lot
:27:08. > :27:14.of flesh in the Two Ronies, this couple of girls looked like thing
:27:14. > :27:18.one and two out of Dr Suess. liked the synchronised swimming in
:27:18. > :27:22.the nude, they were nice girls, and the audience wanted them to be
:27:22. > :27:26.nicely nude. It was a terribly sad show. The genesis of the show that
:27:26. > :27:30.you discovered came towards the end with this very unhappy first sexual
:27:30. > :27:33.experience, with Tim in the back bedroom, you thought you haven't
:27:33. > :27:37.worked this out. This could be the genesis of good stuff. This could
:27:37. > :27:41.be alcohol, this could be the genesis of good stuff, but here it
:27:41. > :27:46.isn't. It is getting excited by taking your clothes off and
:27:47. > :27:55.everyone being nice about it. joyless, the funny thing about
:27:55. > :28:00.doing the synchronised swimming to Bohemian Rhapsody. The thing about
:28:00. > :28:06.the music is that is the funny thing. Whether naked or not, it is
:28:06. > :28:08.funny because of Bohemian Rhapsody. There were muscles coming into play,
:28:08. > :28:15.they were annoyed about certain things happening in comedy and in
:28:15. > :28:20.the nation, the only way to find a vow Kabylie to show it was doing
:28:20. > :28:26.the nudity in your face thing. There is the thing if nothing else
:28:26. > :28:30.works take your clothes off? want a grander subversion. Its not
:28:30. > :28:35.very subversive, if it was the 1940s it would be. Let's look at
:28:35. > :28:38.Doctor Brown, who trained as a mime artist with a clown in Paris, and
:28:38. > :28:42.it was all about small movements and making the audience really hang
:28:42. > :28:48.on. He had total control over the audience when I was there?
:28:48. > :28:54.audience absolutely loved it. We had an audience in stitches. I
:28:54. > :28:58.think for me, again, I'm sounding like a broken record, we had a
:28:58. > :29:02.superlative performer, he was fabulous, but the material was thin.
:29:02. > :29:07.You have one big joke here, just build a show out of this. Part of
:29:07. > :29:11.his gag is about the delay, it is about those little tiny movements
:29:11. > :29:15.and waiting for the audience to wait for it, there is not enough
:29:15. > :29:19.pay-off. I kept waiting for the big, and it has to build somewhere. It
:29:19. > :29:25.is a sexual game he's playing towards the end, I kept thinking
:29:25. > :29:32.there is no cloim max, that might be the joke. - Climax, that might
:29:32. > :29:36.be the joke. I know this is a clown, it is
:29:37. > :29:44.filtered with indie clothing, but it is a clown and mime. He wants to
:29:44. > :29:50.be chaplainesque. This one is like the missing link between Mr Bean
:29:50. > :29:53.and Charles Mansen. The audience, this reliance on the audience doing
:29:53. > :29:57.your bidding. He really needs the audience. Because I would love to
:29:57. > :30:02.be able to go out and do eight minutes, and the fact that he can
:30:02. > :30:07.that's a skill. So he has a skill. But again it is the kind of skill
:30:07. > :30:10.of like, God you have a talent, brilliant. He spent an awful lot of
:30:11. > :30:19.time skrunching his eyes up to do it. There is something interesting
:30:19. > :30:27.about the Chinese robe and the hat and the fact that he screws up his
:30:27. > :30:31.eyes and says "Kentucky flied chicken". That was the weakest
:30:31. > :30:38.line? If this was a stereotype of an Afro-Caribbean or somebody Irish,
:30:38. > :30:45.comedy does it, but it immediately gets sub conscious, but Chinese, I
:30:45. > :30:49.think we're a bit racist about it. The Pyjama Men, they do a bit of
:30:49. > :30:54.mime, comedy and physicality, did you like it? I loved t I thought it
:30:54. > :30:58.was intelligent, they were really skilled, they did stuff with the
:30:58. > :31:02.skills. This extraordinary story based in hospital that then turns
:31:02. > :31:10.into a search for aliens, it is completely mad. You know who they
:31:10. > :31:15.are, they become a whole lot of different people, it is crazy but
:31:15. > :31:22.in reality. They disappear the characters but when it comes back
:31:22. > :31:29.you know it, because they do it so well? It took me five minutes they
:31:29. > :31:33.were doing improv, classic improv, cracking each other up because they
:31:33. > :31:43.were saying things they didn't expect T the other shows felt drawn
:31:43. > :31:47.
:31:47. > :31:52.out and thin, this one was pistol fast. The Marion net thing? Largely
:31:52. > :31:59.im - it was interesting because it was language and words striving for
:31:59. > :32:05.meaning. I have to give a mention to the side kick, the beautiful
:32:05. > :32:10.voices, like Nick Drake. Trying hard not to crack up all the way
:32:10. > :32:20.through. All the information about what we cover son the website.
:32:20. > :32:28.Simhon Callow has adopt - is on the website. Simon Callow has adopted
:32:28. > :32:33.many guises and he's in the Edinburgh Festival. Here is his
:32:33. > :32:37.show, Tuesdays At Tesco. He's always barking out orders, giving
:32:37. > :32:45.command, holding out his paw to get anything, in order to get served.
:32:45. > :32:53.Get him the glass of water, I do to the tap, three steps. I come back
:32:53. > :33:03.three steps, not very difficult. Not very tiring. He could do it,
:33:03. > :33:07.
:33:07. > :33:11.really. Not crippled, yet. I am, I put things in the drawers
:33:11. > :33:21.and wardrobes, I say things like I never thought I would be putting
:33:21. > :33:22.
:33:22. > :33:32.away your clothes one way. He seas "pity's sake, trousers, you could
:33:32. > :33:33.
:33:33. > :33:38.wear trousers". My name, I say, is Pauline. I'm delighted to say that
:33:38. > :33:42.Simon joins us now, but sadly not in that lovely suit. We come to
:33:43. > :33:48.look at art, but just before we do that. You have been selling out all
:33:48. > :33:55.the time, is it an extraordinary experience to be with the wonderful
:33:55. > :34:00.audience at Edinburgh? It is, the Assembly Hall is an amazing theatre,
:34:00. > :34:04.considering it is the Assembly Hall of the Church of Scotland, it is a
:34:04. > :34:08.theatrical space with a fabulous relationship with the audience and
:34:08. > :34:14.fabulous acoustics. You have time to do other things, we are going on
:34:14. > :34:20.to the Edinburgh Art Festival, two unique and different offerings.
:34:20. > :34:28.This is photography, but basically I wonder if I can call it that. I'm
:34:28. > :34:38.not using a camera, there is no lens, this is the direct exposure
:34:38. > :34:42.
:34:42. > :34:50.of minature electric sparks on to the fresh film. The man was a great
:34:50. > :34:56.scientist, mathematitions, he asolted with Michael Faraday at
:34:56. > :35:03.that time, he was into the study of static electricity. There is no
:35:03. > :35:10.book how to do it. It is more a regular scientific approach. The
:35:10. > :35:18.power itself, it is electric charges. So it is amazing. It is
:35:18. > :35:26.very organic form as it is created. Right now I'm using 400,000 voltage,
:35:26. > :35:30.I have to risk my life. Sometimes it hits me, it is very painful. But
:35:30. > :35:37.I proved that I'm still alive, so it's not life and death situations
:35:37. > :35:41.yet. Also on show a series of works in
:35:41. > :35:45.which Sugimoto reinterprets a technique developed by Fox Talbot
:35:45. > :35:53.before the birth of photography, and using the pioneer's own
:35:53. > :35:57.original negatives to create new prints. He tested many of his
:35:57. > :36:03.botanical specimens to be placed on top of the photo sensitised paper,
:36:03. > :36:08.and leaving them outside one day. And he removed the samples and then
:36:08. > :36:16.there is clearly a record of the shapes. So it is a very
:36:16. > :36:23.experimental thing. As you can see many of them are very painter
:36:23. > :36:26.quality, and ghost quality, a spooky kind of thing.
:36:26. > :36:32.Sugimoto's work is at the Scottish national gallery of modern art,
:36:32. > :36:36.which is where last year, Turner Prize winner, Martin Creed,
:36:36. > :36:39.unveiled a new work in neon. This year he has yet another
:36:39. > :36:46.installation, this time it is very, very different, in fact, I'm
:36:46. > :36:50.standing on it. Creed has clad a staircase of 104
:36:50. > :36:55.steps, built in 1899, and connecting the city's north bridge
:36:55. > :37:00.to wavely train station, in different types of marble in
:37:00. > :37:04.different colours from around the world. Comised by the Edinburgh art
:37:05. > :37:11.fest - commissioned by the Edinburgh Art Festival, and to show
:37:11. > :37:15.the importance of the city, it is a luxurious renovation of an unloved
:37:15. > :37:22.artery. Will the public enjoy this new piece of public art.
:37:22. > :37:32.Let's begin with the Sugimoto, and the electric images first. It was a
:37:32. > :37:38.
:37:38. > :37:45.mix of ethey areal and incredibly powerful. - Etheral and incredibly
:37:45. > :37:49.powerful. These huge canvasses in intense black and white. You can't
:37:49. > :37:52.tell what they are, they could be abstract paintings almost, or could
:37:52. > :37:56.be representations of the human nervous system, they could be
:37:56. > :38:00.lightning, they are called Lightning Fields, they form shapes
:38:01. > :38:04.like great abstract art, it creates intense archetypal shapes, the
:38:04. > :38:09.power of it is the sensational thing. It is the black and the
:38:09. > :38:15.white, hitting you between the eyes. The power of it, is also 400 though
:38:15. > :38:21.volt, Sugimoto, he says himself - 400,000 volts, Sugimoto, he says
:38:21. > :38:29.himself, is pushing it, all the power blasting out on to the sheet.
:38:29. > :38:32.It is a Frankenstein like being present at the creation of it. He's
:38:32. > :38:37.photographing mystery. He's making you think this sort of thing is
:38:37. > :38:42.aliens on the planet. If I was doing science fiction these would
:38:42. > :38:49.be the aliens. Everything comes from nature, it is primal? It is
:38:50. > :38:53.extraordinary, anyone watching The Code, there is this thing about
:38:53. > :38:58.fractals and he says everything follows this shape, and you walk in
:38:58. > :39:02.and there it is. It becomes the building block of everything around
:39:02. > :39:06.us. It was extraordinary to see it done in light and dark. In an
:39:06. > :39:12.explosive and dark and dangerous way. He doctored it by putting salt
:39:12. > :39:16.down as well. It was the salt that gives you that incredible fizzy
:39:16. > :39:19.images? The depth of it is extraordinary. The nearest thing I
:39:19. > :39:22.had seen when you go to the optician and they take a photograph
:39:22. > :39:26.of the back of your eye. You realise you are recognising in had
:39:26. > :39:30.the thing that is seen, the picture of the receptor that sees it.
:39:30. > :39:36.other thing on the other gallery, completely different, but connected,
:39:36. > :39:42.is that Sugimoto spent a year, he said his profits for one year went
:39:42. > :39:47.into a small collection of Henry Fox Talbot image, he took so long.
:39:47. > :39:51.He has brought back ghosts from the dead? They are gorgeous, they all
:39:51. > :39:55.have double dates, a date in the 19th century and the date right now.
:39:55. > :40:01.They are the date of the making of the original and his remaking it,
:40:01. > :40:09.and it is in that gap the ghosts happen. They are unfor the gettable,
:40:09. > :40:13.and some of the most - unforgettable, and some of the most
:40:13. > :40:17.equisite images I have ever seen. Eerie and haunting, the words get
:40:17. > :40:22.used a lot, but they apply. They are the most spectacular
:40:22. > :40:25.photographs I have seen. Also comparing to what else we have
:40:25. > :40:29.within talking about, it is the matter of factness of the way he
:40:29. > :40:34.has done it. He doesn't have to reveal if he was drunk when he
:40:34. > :40:37.first had the thought, does it heighten creativity. It gets to the
:40:37. > :40:42.essence of how to express how you feel about something. There is
:40:42. > :40:48.something supernatural about them, it is almost what a Victorian
:40:48. > :40:53.spiritualist might have tried to kop convey on to a plate. Utterly
:40:53. > :40:58.overwhelming, in a completely different intensity. Last week we
:40:58. > :41:02.were talking about the lace done on brass, and also the fern, the
:41:02. > :41:06.images you are bringing back, almost bringing back the leaves to
:41:06. > :41:12.life. Yes, but the people, as if they are trying to come back into
:41:12. > :41:18.our world in some way. They do. don't think I would like to be
:41:18. > :41:22.there at night? One back in the mists of time and one far into the
:41:22. > :41:27.future. We have Victorian spiritualism, and also a Japanese
:41:27. > :41:31.obsession with ghosts and shadows. It is two artists collaborating
:41:31. > :41:39.over two-and-a-half centuries. would never believe the photographs
:41:39. > :41:46.were by the same person. A word on the steps, did it heighten your
:41:46. > :41:50.experience? It is the heart and soul of the festival, it is
:41:50. > :41:55.Edinburgh itself. The spaces, here wonderfully every step is gorgeous.
:41:55. > :42:02.It is a gorgeous celebration. Joos a regeneration it is a great thing
:42:02. > :42:08.to do. There is a wonderful joke, Martin Creed is a man who won the
:42:08. > :42:13.prize for a lightbulb you turn on and off, and how expensive the
:42:13. > :42:18.steps are! If that has galvanised you into action, you can see
:42:18. > :42:26.Hiroshi Sugimoto's Lightning Fields at the Scottish national gallery of
:42:26. > :42:33.modern art, and the steps are there for ever. On to Edinburgh
:42:33. > :42:37.International Festival, bringing a global exoticism to Edinburgh's
:42:37. > :42:42.theatres. The connection between Asian art and Shakespeare might not
:42:42. > :42:49.be apparent. But dramatic story telling lies at the heart of both.
:42:49. > :42:58.A one man King Lear in Mandarin, and The Tempest in a 5th century
:42:58. > :43:05.Korea, are two of the works given a distinctly Asian flavour. Wu Hsing-
:43:05. > :43:10.Kuo was designed as an Asians or son Wells, he has performed in an
:43:10. > :43:13.ambitious one man adaptation of King Lear.
:43:13. > :43:18.Portraying multiple characters, including at one point himself,
:43:19. > :43:28.make-up and costume are a key ingredient to the show. With just
:43:29. > :43:29.
:43:29. > :43:33.one interval, he has even worked in an on-stage costume change.
:43:33. > :43:40.Opening tonight at the festival theatre is the Shanghai Peking
:43:41. > :43:46.Opera's reinvention of hamlet, The Revenge Of Prince Zizan, the action
:43:46. > :43:51.on stage is as much about the costume, acrobatics and music as
:43:51. > :43:55.the text. There is this cliche that in a anglophile context doing
:43:55. > :43:59.Shakespeare is all about getting the words right, in traditional
:43:59. > :44:05.Asian theatre, where there is Korean or Chinese, Taiwanese or
:44:05. > :44:13.Japanese, it is about visualisation. When people tour a play they
:44:13. > :44:18.especially, across so many national and cultural borders, they want it
:44:18. > :44:27.to offer things that audiences can immediately hook on to. Rounding
:44:27. > :44:33.off the Shakespearian triology, it is transported to 5th century Korea.
:44:33. > :44:39.This makes historical fact with Shakespearian fiction resulting in
:44:39. > :44:44.a some what surreal take on the Bard. When a play travels different
:44:44. > :44:48.aspects of it would emerge. That would otherwise we would not see,
:44:48. > :44:53.in a more traditional western interpretation. It is about
:44:53. > :45:00.activating the dormant elements in these play, and allowing us to see
:45:00. > :45:04.these plays from a completely fresh perspective.
:45:04. > :45:12.We're going to concentrate on the ones we have seen, we have seen
:45:13. > :45:22.Lear and The Tempest. First of all, the Korean Tempest? It wasn't
:45:22. > :45:27.completely crazy. The idea of using a Korean forum to show Shakespeare
:45:27. > :45:31.was wonderfully refreshing. It was so bizarre, it must have been what
:45:31. > :45:38.it was like in first seeing Shakespeare trying to work out what
:45:38. > :45:43.was happening. The comedy was replaced by costumes. It made me
:45:43. > :45:46.very, very happy. It also enlivened me, it refreshed me, I didn't feel
:45:47. > :45:53.it was silliness, I felt there was something really interesting going
:45:53. > :45:56.on. Did you find it a happy experience, a visual feast
:45:56. > :46:00.definitely? I loved the opening scene, the storm itself. I was
:46:00. > :46:02.interested in the commentary that they are bringing bits of
:46:02. > :46:09.Shakespeare dormant. Which is certainly true, I didn't know there
:46:09. > :46:13.was a version of The Tempest where one of the characters hands an
:46:13. > :46:17.auber gene to another. There is the other thing about the pillow and
:46:17. > :46:24.giving birth to the pillow. It is not your father's Tempest, it is
:46:24. > :46:28.very unusual. At the end of it I felt it was a wonderful Korean play
:46:28. > :46:36.that had nothing to do with Shakespeare. What about the two
:46:36. > :46:40.headed? The monster, separated a Siamese twin separated. I'm
:46:40. > :46:46.inclined to agree with you, it is not unShakespearian at all. It
:46:46. > :46:54.plugs into myths, Korean myths as well as Shakespearian myths. It is
:46:54. > :46:57.also a 5th century Korean story? With a kind of directness, and this
:46:58. > :47:02.agrarian feel, so many animals wandering around the stage.
:47:02. > :47:06.sorts. Ducks you have we have just seen. People were dressed in straw
:47:06. > :47:09.and things. I wasn't sure we needed the Shakespeare. I really wasn't
:47:10. > :47:13.sure what it was doing there. think one after the other to create
:47:13. > :47:17.this other thing that needs the Shakespeare, because it wouldn't go
:47:17. > :47:24.there without the Shakespeare. The Shakespeare is crucial. It wouldn't
:47:24. > :47:28.go to where it goes as a production. What a genius idea to have Prospro
:47:28. > :47:35.start the Tempest on drums, he was playing magnificently. We have to
:47:35. > :47:38.talk about the music. It is all the oriental forms of theatre are
:47:38. > :47:45.musical theatre, the songs of the wind instruments, the pipe, which
:47:45. > :47:50.is almost like a tabor, a medieval instrument, but at times like a
:47:50. > :47:54.saxaphone, sometimes it is wildly sexy, keening rifts, fantastic.
:47:54. > :48:04.Moving on to talk about the Lear you have done lots of one-man shows,
:48:04. > :48:08.
:48:08. > :48:14.it is a big ask to put Lear on stage, he is Gonerail, and Cordelia.
:48:14. > :48:18.These actors are super-actors, they dance, they sing to a high operatic
:48:18. > :48:22.level, they do sword fights like you have never seen before. Huge
:48:22. > :48:28.tumbling effects. This man, the Lear, this is a very, very personal
:48:28. > :48:35.thing for him. It is a little inaccurate to call it a one-man
:48:35. > :48:38.Lear, it is one man's Lear. Susan, it is also Lear but also about the
:48:38. > :48:42.actor himself? It is an investigation of what it is to be
:48:42. > :48:48.an actor. You start, it seems to me there are two ways of doing this
:48:48. > :48:54.kind of one-man show, can you do what central Europe very often does,
:48:54. > :48:58.which is string the solliquays and see what it does to the actor, or
:48:58. > :49:06.not. He does both. In doing so raises questions about what he's
:49:06. > :49:10.doing as an actor doing either. Sometimes I think almost that quest
:49:10. > :49:16.overwhelms Lear himself, in the end Lear is almost not present, when he
:49:16. > :49:22.comes back as the ghost of Lear he's in a dialogue with himself.
:49:22. > :49:27.is a play about Lear, you can't overstate the tour de force of his
:49:27. > :49:34.performance, he moves in sequence through them. He starts as Lear,
:49:34. > :49:38.then the fool, then Goneril, Cordelia, and Regan, then he ends
:49:38. > :49:44.as Edmund on the rock. Is there anything this man can't do. Each
:49:44. > :49:49.one a fully realised character. is pure performance, the
:49:49. > :49:53.interpretation is performance. Interpreting Shakespeare through
:49:53. > :49:59.the opera, it is the wonderful notion, transnational culture has
:49:59. > :50:07.always been pop or cinema, suddenly you see the first mum merings of
:50:07. > :50:12.transnational culture because these people from China and Korea are
:50:12. > :50:16.translating Shakespeare. Is it working? Absolutely, it is the sign
:50:16. > :50:21.of something really new, something that was spoiled and jaded by what
:50:21. > :50:29.we have so far. Both shows are playing at the festival. Audiences
:50:29. > :50:34.at the festivals are getting younger and older, beside me at
:50:34. > :50:41.Simon's show was a new born baby suckling. Everyone was enjoying it
:50:41. > :50:45.massively but an elderly gentleman behind me was snoring. Joining us
:50:46. > :50:49.in the studio is the BBC arts editor, Will Gompertz, you have
:50:49. > :50:55.been looking at the mature end of things on the stage.
:50:55. > :51:00.I have, they are a feisty bunch. Oscar Wilde said the tragedy of old
:51:00. > :51:03.age is not feeling old it is feeling young. The pe formers I
:51:03. > :51:08.have been meeting this week have been - performers I have been
:51:08. > :51:14.meeting this week have been feeling young, but challenging the cliche
:51:14. > :51:16.that anything over 65 is waiting to be carted off.
:51:17. > :51:24.I have come to meet some representatives of a section of
:51:24. > :51:28.society who have been in the news a lot. A fed up, angry,
:51:28. > :51:38.disenfranchised group, who refuse to be marginalised and ignored.
:51:38. > :51:42.
:51:42. > :51:49.This could be a lively encounter. Hello. Welcome to an emerging new
:51:49. > :51:54.wave at Edinburgh, OAPs. By that I mean old aged performers. Vicky is
:51:54. > :52:01.an actor in a play called Still Life Dreaming, about cognitive
:52:01. > :52:06.ageing. None of us acted until we were about 60-65. I never dreamt of
:52:06. > :52:13.acting, as my last child left home to go off to university, I decided
:52:13. > :52:19.to find something that I would like to try out, I found the Spare Time
:52:19. > :52:23.Theatre Company, whose remit is to give a voice to the unvoiced. J why
:52:23. > :52:32.does our thinking get slower, what is the key to keeping us all sharp
:52:32. > :52:38.as a knife. This is Diana, who is performing in a conversation with
:52:38. > :52:48.Carmel, a dance piece celebrating the ageing process, based around
:52:48. > :52:52.her 80th birthday. I'm exhausted, can we sit down? I suppose so.
:52:52. > :52:57.is it important to have roles, such as the one you are in, for older
:52:57. > :53:05.people? To let everybody else in the world know that there is hope
:53:05. > :53:11.and happiness if you keep on going. And indeed, you are lucky if you
:53:11. > :53:15.keep on going. When I go through airport security,
:53:15. > :53:22.it sounds like I just hit the jackpot in Vegas, I love flying,
:53:22. > :53:30.have you flown? Not recently. is a shame, because now they
:53:30. > :53:34.explore your sensitive areas. is a taste of the show, she's 7 8
:53:34. > :53:38.years old. When I say something edgy and rude, they think isn't
:53:38. > :53:43.that funny from that old lady, it isn't, it is just like when you say
:53:43. > :53:48.it. What I want to achieve is other women in their 60s and 70s trying a
:53:48. > :53:52.new career. I don't care what it is, want to be an astronaut, go ahead
:53:52. > :53:56.do it. I'm very vain, when I look into the mirror and see the old
:53:56. > :54:00.woman, I think how can anyone stand to look at me, when I talk they are
:54:00. > :54:04.in love, that's great. The message from this year's festival is clear,
:54:04. > :54:11.if you are looking for hot new talent, check out the old aged
:54:11. > :54:16.performers. Thanks to Will, he's back next week
:54:16. > :54:22.with more surprises. That's it for tonight. My thanks to my guests. I
:54:22. > :54:29.will be joined by Paul and my other guest, we will be discussing the
:54:29. > :54:34.new novel by Sapphire, author of Precious, you can find choice added
:54:34. > :54:38.extras and all details of tonight's show on the website.
:54:38. > :54:44.Don't forget, you can hear more about what's going on in Edinburgh