A Midsummer Night’s Dream Scottish Opera Glasgow – 22 February 2022  Kelvin Holdsworth  Scottish Opera’s covid-delayed production of Britten’s   A Midsummer Night’s Dream   is full of fun. Good singing and powerful stage magic make for an entertaining evening.  As the curtain rises, we are faced with a proscenium arch within a proscenium arch – presumably a nod to the play within a play that concludes the   Dream . We are drawn straight into director Dominic Hill’s comfort zone –a big open stage with wide open wings. Above and beyond the stage, large beds float in the air which will become part of the business later on and the inner arch forms the frame for a hall of mirrors – mirrors which were to become problematic as the evening unfolded.  Benjamin Britten’s version of Shakespeare’s play puts the territory of a fairies firmly at the centre of the action. The piece opens, not with Theseus and Hippolyta but with Oberon and Titania. It is thus s...

February Issue

  Interview with Adam Kay Adam Kay How does it feel to have the finest actor of his generation playing me? In a career-defining performance? Yeah, it’s OK, I guess." Adam Kay is the writer, creator and excutive producer of This Is Going To Hurt which  Starts on Tuesday 8 February at 9pm on BBC One What is This Is Going To Hurt about? It's the story of a junior doctor in obstetrics and gynaecology (or brats and twats as it’s known) and the huge impact this job has on his life - both at home and at work. How did you find the process of adapting your own book to the screen? Is it much the same as the book, or will there be lots of new elements that weren’t in the book? The nature of the book - hundreds of diary entries in a single person’s voice - meant that a totally direct adaptation would have been something of a one-man sketch show. The TV series expands the world, predominantly in terms of the other characters we meet: from Adam’s family and boyfriend, to his midwife colleag...

  they're back and now going global for the first time in Drag Race herstory! How was it to see queens from around the world together in one competition? It oddly felt like a big family reunion even though we've never met. I'm a proper Drag Race fan and watch all the international versions of the show so I loved getting to know these international drag superstars. What are the main qualities you think it takes to be Queen of the World? To be crowned Queen of the World you need more than just the looks and the talent. They have to have the sort of personality that transcends language and culture and these queens all have that. How was it to meet some of the queens you hadn’t met before from other iterations of the show? Did they exceed your expectations? Drag Race contestants always exceed my expectations. I always go into the competition feeling like we must have seen the best already but then the bar gets raised again and again. I think people will be blown away by the loo...