Feature – Summerhall August Festival 2015

Earlier and Later

Programme — Thu, 30 Jul 2015 12:08:33 +0000

Paines Plough and special guests invite you to a series of early morning and late night one-off shows: theatre, poetry, comedy, music, rumbles, shenanigans and much more throughout the festival. Get your fix of fresh new work, exhilarating debates and rip-roaring performances.

Kick start your morning and round-up your evening in Roundabout – “the loveliest venue at the fringe” The List, 2014.

Follow @painesplough to stay in the loop or check out daily listings outside Roundabout at Summerhall.

#PPEARLIER / #PPLATER

Tomorrow’s Parties

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:06 +0000

International innovators Forced Entertainment present a compelling performance that imagines a multitude of hypothetical futures. Tomorrow’s Parties is a playful, poignant and at times delirious look forwards to futures both possible and impossible.

On a stage framed by coloured fairground lights, this seemingly minimal performance soon reveals itself as a low-fi theatrical explosion. Two performers enjoy the pleasure of invention as their suppositions take them in different directions. From utopian and dystopian visions, science fiction scenarios, political nightmares and absurd fantasies, Forced Entertainment deliver a thought-provoking survey of hopes and fears as they speculate about what the future might bring.

British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2015.

Tomorrow’s Parties is a Forced Entertainment and Belluard Bollwerk International (Fribourg) production. Co-produced by BIT Teatergarasjen (Bergen), Internationale Sommerfestival (Hamburg), Kaaitheater (Brussels), Künstlerhaus Mousonturm (Frankfurt), Theaterhaus Gessnerallee (Zurich) and Sheffield City Council. With the support of Stanley Thomas Johnson Foundation.

The Sun Ra Arkestra with Richard Youngs

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:29 +0000

Summerhall is proud to present the Sun Ra Arkestra, live in the Dissection Room. Led by legendary alto saxophonist and original member, Marshall Allan, the band move forward not as a repertory or ghost band, but as a spirit band, maintaining the discipline centred on the study, research and further development of Sun Ra precepts.

Supporting is one of the most enigmatic and prolific songwriters working in the UK underground, Richard Youngs adds a touch of humanity to any project he’s involved with.

The spirit of Sun Ra is alive and well!

The Happiness Project

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:12 +0000

‘I looked for it on Blackpool beach with my Mum. I looked for it in a raspberry ripple cheesecake. I looked for it in detention. I looked for it online. I looked for it but it got complicated.’ Are we looking for happiness in all the wrong places?

A brand new show devised by a company of young artists, scientists and academics in response to reports that raised concerns over young people’s well-being in the UK. The Happiness Project journeys through autobiographical stories set to a musical landscape, to discover what happiness means to us in 2015.

Simon Thacker’s Svara-Kanti

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:16 +0000

The premiere of Simon Thacker’s latest pioneering intercultural explorations with a special trio line-up of his award-winning Indo-Western ensemble.

It features Scotland’s visionary guitar virtuoso/composer with the soulful voice khamak playing of Raju das Baul, spectacular exponent of one of Bengal’s spiritually richest folk forms, and tabla master Sarvar Sabri. Simon brings his acclaimed compositional voice to the mystical, universally affecting Baul tradition, and showcases his stunning instrumental music.

“Oh lucky, lucky Edinburgh. Simon Thacker is, in my opinion, one of the most important musicians of his generation.” ★★★★★ Three Weeks 2014

Part of Made in Scotland Showcase

Summerhall’s Opening Night Party– Prosumer with House of Traps

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:42 +0000

Prosumer aka Achim Brandenburg has a fever for Chicago’s Jack flavour with a vision, passion and knowledge which makes Prosumer a guardian of house music history and one of the finest party spinners operating today.

He is supported by Lindsay Todd (aka House of Traps), head honcho of Firecracker Records and proprietor and vinyl pusher in Edinburgh’s The Living Mountain record shop and print studio. His sets effortlessly jilt between blissed out afro futurism, jacking techno to slabs of obtuse music concrete.

Owen Pallett

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:00 +0000

Owen Pallett’s new album In Conflict was released in 2014.

Made in collaboration with Brian Eno, it features Pallett’s trademark looping string and electronic arrangements – ‘beautiful and often strangely euphoric’ (Guardian). Pallett has also released work as Final Fantasy, with his 2006 album He Poos Clouds winning the Polaris Prize in Canada.

He regularly collaborates with Arcade Fire, co-writing the string arrangements for their albums Funeral and Neon Bible, and has also worked with The National, The Last Shadow Puppets and Caribou.

Ndebele Funeral

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:47 +0000

Hilariously heartbreaking, Ndebele Funeral pulls audiences into the music, dirt, and dreams of modern South Africa, by examining the aspirations and losses of three characters whose lives intersect in a Soweto shack.

Smoke & Mirrors Collaborative’s powerfully physical production delves bravely into modern poverty, health care and violence, featuring original music and gumboot dancing from the mines of Jo’burg.

“…A heartbreaking yet beautiful story.” nytheatre.com 

“Expertly acted.” The New Yorker 

“This funeral comes fully and furiously alive.” –The New York Times 

“Ndebele Funeral is a true achievement of richness and humanity.” Theater Pizzazz </blockquote>

Winner of FringeNYC Overall Excellence Award Best Play, Critics’ Pick Time Out NY.

MacGillivray – Damn Rebel Bitch

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:43 +0000

Howl throated ghost poet MacGillivray stamps the stage in folk noir electronica, evocative of post-apocalyptic punk Gaelic, chewed chandelier glass and electric autoharp. For this, her first Fringe outing, expect Damn Rebel Bitch songs, Scots litanies and underground cityscapes.

Having worked with The Fall, Arlo Guthrie, Arthur Brown, Current 93, Shirley Collins, performing on BBC Radio 3, Cafe Oto, Union Chapel, NYC’s Rockwood Music Hall, and the Volksbühne, Berlin, MacGillivray showcases work from her fifth album Once Upon a Dirty Ear, in a première at Summerhall for the Edinburgh Fringe

Confirmation

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2015 03:05:49 +0000

‘If you pinned me against a wall, I’d probably admit to being a liberal. Of course, pinning me against a wall is exactly what I’d expect from someone like you.’

Confirmation is a show about the gulfs we cannot talk across, and about the way we choose to see only the evidence that proves we are right. Working with research into the phenomenon of confirmation bias, Confirmation attempts to have an honourable dialogue, real and imagined, with political extremism.

From multiple award-winning Chris Thorpe (Unlimited, Royal Exchange, Hannah Jane Walker) and Rachel Chavkin” (The Team)

Presented by Warwick Arts Centre and China Plate.
Commissioned by Northern Stage and Battersea Arts Centre.

Fringe First winner 2014.
British Council Edinburgh Showcase 2015.