ll. V frontlines

Cartoon counterparts at the Edinburgh Festival. This week: Anthony Delicate and Chef

All the fabulous ieViews of Gargantua may have led you to believe that bird lion Theatie's promenade show is a profound and insightful theatrit al merstenverk Not a bit of it Gargantua is about food and lurve, sum and shagging, it's about getting a good stuffing in every sense of the word How appropriate, then, that our final South Park lookalike is find lion’s Tony Delicata, who plays both the eponymous giant and a rotund Italian took. Skin pigmentation apart, Tony is Chef, South Park 's toque-heavy love machine. Admittedly, Delicata isn‘t vorced by Isaac Hayes, but in Gargantua his sin sausage is allegedly 25 feet long, an endowment Chef himself hung like a low 2 can relate to, (Peter Ross)

Gargantua (Fringe) The Underbelly (Venue 6 l) 226 5 I38, until 3l Aug, 4pm & 8pm, [l0 ((7) South Park, Channel 4, Fridays

Hans van Manen

In a Festival dominated by top—notch Dutch dance, choreographer Hans van Manen is the biggest cheese of them all. He may not be Mark Morris, but a quick peek at the Dutch dance—maker and accomplished photographer’s CV reveals one of the 20th century’s most influential dance figures. His choreography, which takes ballet and contemporary techniques and filters them into one elegant and cool symbiosis, has been seen in the work of over 50 companies in a 40-year career. Despite his position as an arts elder statesman, van Manen still gives the hoofers the credit for all the hard work. ’| work with many different dancers,’ he says, ’and that’s very inspiring. It’s the dancers who inspire me every time.’ See his choreography made flesh at the International Festival’s major Hans van Manen retrospective. By the end of next week, Netherlands Dans Theater II and III (the junior and senior branches of this remarkable company) and Dutch National Ballet will have chalked up no less than thirteen van l\/|anen performances, in the biggest tribute to his work ever seen outside Holland. Not bad for a dance dude you’ve never heard of. Till now. (Ellie Carr) Nether/ands Dans Theater // and //l (/htemationa/ Festival) Edinburgh Playhouse (473 2000) 28—30 Aug, 7.30pm, f5—f22.

Programme TWO (International Festival) Dutch Nationa/ Ba/let, Edinburgh Festiva/ Theatre (473 2000) 29 & 30 Aug, 7.30pm, f5—f22.

ldlewild

They're more wild than idle, having recorded for three different labels in their short life. and they're too big for the planet. For the first tim ever. Edinburgh's independent rock festival, Planet Pop, is staging an event away from its (as Rock home. Homegrown scuzzrock band ldlewild sold out so quickly at last year's Planet Pop that the organisers have moved this year‘s gig to the bigger-capacity Venue. Watch them ill the space with noise.

ldlewild (Planet Pop) The Venue, SS 7 3073, 27