An affectionate and side-splittingly funny telling of the Laurel and Hardy story. How do you tell the story of such iconic comedians? You learn from them and slow the slapstick of their peers down. From their genesis in vaudeville, through their heyday and their survival with the arrival of the talkies, to their demise from the limelight. The story is mainly told as the comedians look back from the end of their careers. The current run seems Barnaby Power and Steven McNicoll reprise their roles from 2005. After almost twenty years, the actors are nearer the ages of the iconic characters they portray. This adds an extra layer of depth to the process of looking back at their lives, loves, and friendship. Their ability to inhabit the characters is uncanny. Plenty of visual and verbal gags keep the audience constantly chortling. And fans of slapstick can tick them off from the films. The wallpaper hanging sketch is lovingly recreated with perfect timing and beautiful dance between th...

  What is MIngin’ ? Mingin’ is a house / trance / techno club-night hosted by myself, Alan Joy and Brian Dempster, my co-DJ for over 20 years. It is primarily an LGBT+ space but is open to everyone with the right attitude. We aim to be as inclusive as possible. At the next Mingin’ on 9 th July, we are joined for the first time by Lou Thomas & Lucky Luciano (from The Street) who will be serving up they’re own special brew of tunes in the back room of La Belle Angele.   Will it be a month night or just one off specials ? Mingin’ originally ran monthly, then went to fortnightly, then back to monthly, depending on which venue we were using and which dates were available. Nowadays, we usually host Mingin’ twice a year – it takes me a long time to get over being out so late!   How has clubbing change since you 1st started JOY in 1993 ? In the early 90’s, going to a club-night was like being part of a big family. There was a real sense of “belonging” and liberation on the d...

  Don Giovanni Scottish Opera Glasgow – 18 May 2022 Kelvin Holdsworth It is difficult to know why Scottish Opera have revived Thomas Allan’s production of Don Giovanni, which they first presented in 2013. It wasn’t exciting then and isn’t exciting now. The curtain goes up to reveal a gauze that will remain in place to obscure the first scenes. Clouds can be seen scudding across it and eventually we get to glimpse Simon Higlett’s moody design.   The clouds had been going for quite a while though and were the perfect visual metaphor for the intonation problems that the strings were having during the overture. This lack of musical clarity continued throughout the first few scenes too. This was particularly noticeable during the initial trios. Herr Mozart doesn’t give much room for manoeuvre here – the mirroring of Leporello’s vocal part in the woodwind needs to be precise and crisp. In the event, it highlighted the fact that pit and stage were just a little out of kilter. The tro...

  Red Ellen 4 stars Lyceum, Edinburgh 4 May 2022 to 21 May 2022 How do you write a play about someone’s whole life? How do you fit a person’s complete history into a script? And how do you do it if your subject lived so intensely that her life could conceivably fuel a dozen dramatic productions? These were presumably the questions that Caroline Bird—an award-winning poet and playwright—asked herself when she embarked on the writing of Red Ellen, her new play about the firebrand socialist politician Ellen Wilkinson. How well she answered them may be judged by audiences at the Lyceum, where the play runs throughout May. Ellen Wilkinson was a remarkable woman. Born to a working-class family in Manchester in the last years of the 19th century, she went on to become a founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain, an activist for women’s suffrage, a reporter in the Spanish civil war, the organiser of the Jarrow March, a Labour MP and Minister for Education in the Attlee Governm...

  Revolting by Bryony Kimmings: A WonderFool Youth Board production at Traverse Theatre 22nd April. Bryony Kimmings has provided ‘a paint by numbers self-generating play’ and Youth Board have collaborated, explored and negotiated this piece through a series of workshops with a cast of young people from across Scotland. The actors sprung confidently onto the stage with examples of what they found revolting- from some bodily functions to global injustices. It was a piece of work that caught the audience’s attention and held it: as much due to the entire cast’s passion and energy as due to the content. There was lightness and silliness as well as serious concerns including poverty, capitalism, the environment, toxic relationships, and racism. However, the tone was one of optimism rather than despair. There was enough capering to balance the weight. Leo Shak’s initial comedy of ‘Cher- ing’ and the reasons why he wasn’t able to ‘Cher’ for a few days was a good example of this balance. T...

  Legend of the Sea Devils airs on BBC One and BBC iPlayer on Sunday April 17. Q&A with Jodie Whittaker The Doctor (Jodie Whittaker) What can audiences expect from this special? We’re a few centuries off where the Doctor was aiming for and we stumble across a period in history that is a first for the Doctor Who universe. The TARDIS knows that it's going to China so Yaz and the Doctor have prepared appropriately for it but Dan gets a bit of a bum steer and his costume is all wrong! It’s a Pirates of the Caribbean style sci-fi, action adventure that marries historical characters with Whovian characters with a really brilliant high octane Doctor Who adventure. Did you enjoy stepping onto set – we heard the ship was impressive? Yeah, it was amazing! The art department worked night and day to create a really extraordinary set and I think it's the biggest one that we've worked on. We walked into an incredible pirate ship - it has so many different levels, it was really epic. ...

  Our new award SAM LGBTQ Short Stories Awards. After last year's launch of The SAM LGBTQ Comedy Awards, which are back for this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festive, we have this new award for shorts stories of no more than 10,000 words written by an LGBTQ+ person living in Scotland. There will be 10 cash prizes, 9 awards of £250, and the top prize of £500. The stories will then be published as a collection . Submissions open on 11 April, the closing date will be July 15. send a submission to mail@scenealba.co.uk

  Q&A with Chris Chibnall Where do we find our core cast at the beginning of this special? This special sees the TARDIS crew landing in a coastal village in China, on the trail of the mystery of the treasure of the Flor de la Mar, which the Doctor has been meaning to find out about for a long time. When they get there, they discover some very strange events and a terrible evil being unleashed in this village! What was your inspiration for this episode and how did you come to work together with Ella Road on this script? We had been intending to do a piratey story during Flux and we didn't manage to make it work for all sorts of reasons. So when it came to thinking about the final specials that was one of things I really wanted to revisit, to do a big, thrilling Bank Holiday romp of an adventure for Jodie's penultimate story, featuring a warrior pirate queen. Ella (Road) then came to us with the idea of Madam Ching - this incredible character from history - and it all knitted...