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LONG LIVE THE LITTLE KNIFE David Leddy shows his lighter side with a raucous theatrical caper
‘A few months ago I saw the writer Daniel Jackson in Euston Station,’ says David Leddy, ‘and we got the train back to Glasgow together. We were talking about our projects, and as I described all these avant garde things, Daniel sighed and said, ‘are you never going to write something funny again, where people talk to each other?’’ Leddy, whose company Fire Exit has produced acclaimed and always challenging shows in diverse locations (don’t call them ‘site-specific’, he finds the term reductive), decided to accept the challenge, and ‘raucous caper’ Long Live the Little Knife is the result, premiering at Film C ity, Glasgow, ahead of a planned Edinburgh Fringe run and tour.
98 THE LIST 24 Jan–21 Feb 2013
It’s about a couple of small-time market traders who get in over their heads and have to find a lot of money very quickly, deciding to become art forgers with no experience of actually creating art. ‘The whole show is about what makes something real and authentic,’ says Leddy. ‘What’s a real artwork, what’s real love, what’s a real man and a real woman?’ The title is a classical term of appreciation for the castrato soprano, a dark allusion to the act of canine castration which opens the piece. But DC Jackson take note, there’ll be laughter too. (David Pollock) Film City, Glasgow, Thu 7–Sat 9 Feb.
HITLIST THE BEST THEATRE & DANCE
✽ Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival The puppetry and animation festival
returns with its largest ever programme. See preview, page 100. Traverse, Edinburgh, Sat 2–Sat 16 Feb; Summerhall, Edinburgh, Sun 3–Sat 9 Feb.
✽ In an Alien Landscape Danny Start’s new play for Birds of Paradise focuses on
a man who awakes from a coma and finds himself compulsively unable to stop painting. See preview, page 100. On tour throughout Scotland, Fri 1–Fri 22 Feb.
✽ Long Live the Little Knife Theatrical maverick David Leddy’s new piece about
a couple of small-time market traders who take up art forgery. See preview, left. Film City, Glasgow, Thu 7–Sat 9 Feb.
✽ Alan Greig Dance Theatre: Do you nomi? The life and work of Klaus Nomi, a prominent member of New York’s club scene in the late 70s/early 80s are resurrected by choreographer Alan Greig and director Grant Smeaton. See preview, page 101. Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Fri 8 Feb, then touring.
✽ Balletboyz: The Talent 2013 Double-bill of dance by Russell Maliphant
and Liam Scarlett drawing on classical and contemporary techniques. See preview, page 101. Edinburgh Festival Theatre, Mon 18 Feb.
✽ Found at Sea Playwright David Greig adapts a series of poems by Andrew Greig
(no relation) following two fiftysomething men as they set out on a sailing adventure to an uninhabited island near Orkney. See preview, page 100. Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, Tue 19–Sat 23 Feb.
✽ Takin’ Over the Asylum Donna Franceschild adapts her own
award-winning television comedy-drama for the stage. See feature, page 99. Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, Thu 14 Feb–Sat 9 Mar; Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, Wed 13 Mar–Sat 6 Apr.