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ARTS AND CULTURE NEWS A COVERED IN TWO MINUTES C Channel HOPPER
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BOOKS A rare collection of books and papers belonging to Treasure Island writer Robert Louis Stevenson is to return to Edinburgh. A selection of the Scot’s letters and first editions have been donated to the National Library of Scotland and Edinburgh Napier University. Look out for them this autumn. FILM Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) ector have announced that artistic director inue Chris Fujiwara’s tenure will continue news for a further three years. The news this follows a general consensus that this rm year’s festival was a return to form following a difficult year in 2011.
MUSIC In celebration of 30 years rs ts of WOMAD (World of Music, Arts s and Dance), Celtic Connections t has partnered with the Merchant City Festival to bring a taste of the world festival’s spirit to the Old Fruitmarket in Glasgow on s Thu 26 Jul, with performances d from Portugal’s Deolinda and South Africa’s Hot Water. In other a music news, Scottish violinist Nicola o Benedetti has come out against cuts to ti music spending in schools. Benedetti re told the Radio Times that the cuts were al a threat to young people’s cultural identity. THEATRE The National Theatre of of ging Scotland has revealed that four emerging ctors artists and three emerging directors join have been successful in their bid to join Scotland’s National Theatre company on a programme aimed at developing their talents. Huge congratulations to artists Eilidh Daniels, Catriona Lexy Campbell, Martin O’Connor and Adura Onashile, and directors Deborah Hannan, Rob Jones
and Sarah Macdonald. In other great stage news, Theatre Uncut is to return this autumn, with work from new playwrights from across Europe, Egypt, the USA, Syria, Iceland and the UK, responding to the political and economic challenges facing their own countries. Confirmed writers include Neil LaBute, Hayley Squires, Lena Kitsopoulou and Mohammad Al Attar. In similar form to last year, all of the scripts will be available to do be available to download to be performed by anyone, anywh anywhere, creating a weeklong event of mass international theatrical action, with dates to be confirmed. Keep your eyes peeled for more, as we h have it. Following James Corden’s m multi-awardwinning turn on the W West End and Broadway, stand-up co comedian and presenter Rufus Hound wi will lead the cast in Nicholas Hytner’s pro production of One Man, Two Guvnors for for its second UK tour, coming to Gla Gla Glasgow’s Theatre Royal from Tue 13– 13–Sat 17 Nov. asg –S
VISUAL ART And finally, the chance VIS VI to b to be involved in something special. As As part of Martin Creed’s ‘Work No. 11 1197: All the bells in a country rung as as quickly and as loudly as possible fo for three minutes’ to mark the start of th the London 2012 Olympics, Creed w wants bells to ring all over country, including on his own Edinburgh- based 2011 piece, ‘Work 1059: The Scotsman Steps’, the marble staircase commissioned by The Fruitmarket Gall Fruitmarket Gallery last year. In a bid to bring the two together, the Fruitmarket invites you to bring a bell along to the gallery from 7.45am on Fri 27 Jul and from there go to the Scotsman Steps and ring the bell, as part of a nationwide celebration. For more see eventbrite.co.uk/event/3144375913. P H O T O © C O L I N B E L L
DISPATCHES FROM THE SOFA, WITH BRIAN DONALDSON
■ Aaron Sorkin raised the quality TV bar so high with The West Wing that everything he would do subsequently could only really fall short. But no one would have predicted just how spectacularly his creations would dip with the one-season Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip (asides from a thrilling pilot episode and a later scene where Matthew Perry accidentally smashed a window with a baseball bat) and now The Newsroom (Sky Atlantic, Tue, 10pm).
What seems clear is that Sorkin
can write brilliantly about the labyrinthine workings of American politics and the tortured mechanics of putting a TV show together. But when it comes to man versus woman relationships, his material truly sucks. By comparison, the private lives of CJ, Toby, Josh etc seemed to subtly complement the inner doings of the White House, but in The Newsroom the exciting broadcast news scenes are dwarfed by tedious riffing between too many characters who all talk as though they’re auditioning for a 1940s screwball comedy (it’s most unlikely that anyone actually even talked like that during wartime). Jeff Daniels’ Paxmanesque news
helm opened the series with a public attack on modern America (the show is set in 2010), while a later episode begins with an unequivocal apology from him for the tawdry sins of modern broadcasting and a promise that his programme, Newsnight, will help to shift the tide. We await a similar mea culpa from Aaron Sorkin for this shocking mess.
12 THE LIST 19 Jul–2 Aug 2012 Broadcast spews