frontlines

King Of The Hill

Take one God-fearin’, Texas-dwellin', beer-chuggin’, propane-sellin’, lawn-mOWin' honest-to-goodness All- American Man and he will become the biggest thing to hit the box since JR. chibbed Cliff Barnes With a TV. Created by Mike Judge of Beavis 81 Butthead fame, King Of The Hill the tale of Hank Hill and his white trash kinsfolk is one of Uncle Sam’s biggest shows and is about to start a second series on our

side of the Pond.

King Of The Hill starts on Channel 4, Fri 27 Feb,

70.30pm.

.‘ I‘ t W o #5:.

4THE “ST 20 Feb—S Mar 1998

Amistad

Cinema’s reputation for historical accuracy takes another dent With Steven Spielberg’s latest epic. Based on real events in 1839, the film centres on a mutiny on board an American slave ship. Following a high-profile trial, the African instigators were eventually released. The technicalities of 19th century law proved too complex for Hollywood; but Spielberg found himself With more immediate legal wrangles When Barbara Chase- Riboud, author of the novel Echo Of Lions (which tells the same story) took out a $10 million infringement- of-copyright lawsuit against him. Now there's a subject for a courtroom drama.

See reVieW, page 27.

Sharmanka

If you’ve Visited Glasgow's Gallery of Modern Art, you've probably seen Eduard Bersudsky’s kinetic sculptures. Less well known is the Sharmanka Gallery in Trongate, where Bersudsky and his partner Tatiana Jakovskaia display two dozen 'kinemats’, fashioned from wood and scrap metal. The Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre performed tWice every weekend is like a grotesque fairground: mechanically ingenious, Witty, bawdy, mournful, Violent, political and bristling With Judao-RUSSian iconography. In 'Time Of Rats’ (pictured), the mole represents Russia, powerful but blind to the capricious manipulators that exploit it. Go see.

The Sharmanka Gallery, Glasgow, is open every Sat 81 Sun from noon. Kinetic Theatre performances at 4pm.

Metacorpus

Body armour inspired by transmigration and physical aging. Pneumatic butterflies, glass Wings and beeswax teeth. All of these feature in Metacorpus, a bizarre collaboration between costume artists Jeanette Sendler and Anna Cocoadiferro, musiCIans Neil MacArthur and Spotov, and choreographer Lindsay John. ’The audience is inVited to interact,’ says the publicity adding ominously, ’close observation becomes compulsory.’

Metacorpus is at St Bride ’5 Centre, Edinburgh, on Tue 3 & Wed 4 Mar. See drama & dance listings,

page 67.