This July, join the Royal Opera House for a special, live-streamed Insight. Actor and director Rikki Beadle Blair chairs a thought-provoking panel that features some of the UK’s most celebrated LGBTQ+ voices from across the creative industries.
Point A Hotels has announced that it will be giving away a free two-week stay at the city-centre hotel during this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The independent hoteliers have issued a unique opportunity for comedians and actors performing at the Fringe Festival to apply for the free room giveaway. Following their brand motto of ‘small hotels, big heart’, Point A wants to make sure up-and-coming talent is not priced out of the popular festival. As such, they are offering a room to a comedian or theatre performer from the 4th to 18th of August at Point A Edinburgh, in the centre of the city’s Haymarket district.
Duende – a term referring to the mysterious power of art to deeply move a person is an integral facet of Spanish culture, the term itself deriving from a fairy or goblin like creature within Spanish and Latin American mythology, it is the ‘spirit of evocation’. A powerful exploration of the duende, and the strength of women both on an individual and communal basis, Compañía María del Mar Moreno, with guest artists La Moneta, Pastora Galván and Juana la del Pipa present Gala Fiesta de la Bulería de Jerez: Mujeres de Cal y Cante.
Edinburgh International Festival is giving out over 35,000 free tickets to celebrate its 75thanniversary, with performances featuring leading contemporary circus performers and world-renowned orchestras as well as an immersive installation described as a ‘spa for the psyche’. The free programme is dedicated to the residents of Edinburgh who have opened their city and helped the International Festival to welcome the world to Scotland’s capital for the last 75 years.
Fiddler on the roof: Aidan O’Rourke (pictured on the roof of BT Murrayfield) appears in MACRO alongside Gravity & Other Myths, Djuki Mala, the National Youth Choir of Scotland and other Scottish musicians. Photo credit: Duncan McGlynn
This year marks 35 years since Princess Diana’s famous visit to Middlesex hospital, where she visited Britain’s first specialist HIV/AIDS Unit and shook the hands of an AIDS patient. This well documented moment preceded by stark health campaigns in the late 80s targeted at the population in response to its emergence and hopes of tackling the illness, but with it evoking confusion and fear. Inspired by this particular moment of history and his own experience of living with HIV, LGBTQ+ writer Bren Gosling presents award winning show Moment of Grace, which forms part of various events showing as part of this year’s Pride in London, a piece delving deeper into this pivotal hospital visit and the stories behind it – helping to shed light and demystify. Ahead of the production, Bren tells us more about exploring the narrative further, creating the show in association with The National HIV Story Trust (NHST) and what to expect from a post show Q&A discussion taking place on Saturday 9th July after the matinee performance which will be chaired by BAFTA-nominated TV and film producer and NHST founder and trustee Paul Coleman.
Pride in London announced today the finalists for the Pride’s Got Talent Competition, one of countless events marking the 50thanniversary of the Pride March in London. Now in its 10th year, Pride’s Got Talent brings together a range of performers from across the LGBT+ community, showcasing its diversity, creativity, and talent.
How we consume art is unique to us all, sounds and visuals holding with them their own special meanings and ways of making us feel. With ideas typically presented within a certain manner, Korean dance company Art Project BORA’s production MUAK challenge this. Consisting of eight performers, a piano is dismantled and with it, creates a live soundtrack through their movements – inviting the audience to see the sounds as a spectator and hear the movement as a listener.
Courtesy of Sanghoon Ok.
Taking on an additional job role is a story familiar to many, this offering a means of survival, as well as helping to support with the attainment of any aspirations held. With the rise of the delivery sector, in particular the takeaway industry symbolic of our cultural shift from the traditional phone call to your local takeaway restaurant to now accessing a variety restaurants at the click of a button, we live in the age of convenience. An exploration of the eponymous food delivery rider’s day to day, Rainer vividly offers insight into the ups and downs of her personal and professional world.
Courtesy of Olivia Spencer.
TikTok and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society have announced an exclusive new partnership that will see the entertainment platform become the first Official Virtual Stage to the world’s premier performing arts festival.
To be red pilled is for someone’s world view to be radically shifted by ideas that deviate from the mainstream. Those familiar with the concept, one which was introduced into our popular culture by 90s sci-fi classic The Matrix. With the Internet providing a means to easily access an ever growing multitude of virtual platforms, our age of forums have allowed for users to interact with one another, no matter their location and air various views and ideas. An exploration of our social media driven world and the cultural war that continues to see traditional ideas challenged by progressive ones, Blue Bar Productions’ Red Pill observes the gradual deviation from reality – the impact of extremism and radicalisation on both the individual, and those around them.
