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...

  HOLOCAUST MEMORIAL DAY The Pink Triangle: From Nazi Label to Symbol of Gay Pride Pink triangles were originally used in concentration camps to identify gay prisoners. Before the pink triangle became a worldwide symbol of gay power and pride, it was intended as a badge of shame. In Nazi Germany, a downward-pointing pink triangle was sewn onto the shirts of gay men in concentration camps—to identify and further dehumanize them. It wasn’t until the 1970s that activists would reclaim the symbol as one of liberation. Homosexuality was technically made illegal in Germany in 1871, but it was rarely enforced until the Nazi Party took power in 1933. As part of their mission to racially and culturally “purify” Germany, the Nazis arrested thousands of LGBT individuals, mostly gay men, whom they viewed as degenerate. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates 100,000 gay men were arrested and between 5,000 and 15,000 were placed in concentration camps. Just as Jews were forced to ...

  January 2022 issue of Scotland's LGBTQ award-winning magazine. A big thanks to everyone that helped us raise over £5000 over the last year for different charities. January Issue

Truth to Light by Eddie Newton Publisher:  NineStar Press LLC. Any book that starts off with a mage pulling a dragon out of his hat, only to have the dragon proceed to eat the audience that is watching the magic show has my attention. Yup. That's the opening scene folks. Memorable. But this book is exactly that, in so many ways. Usually in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy realm tales are told with aliens, creatures on new worlds, or in Urban Fantasy you get magic users and occasionally the odd beastie - ghosts, werewolves, demons, angels, the odd elf, or gnome. It's a truly unique read if you are greeted with golems or creatures from legends or urban myths we generally don't see - selkies, manticores, and yuki-ona come to mind. In Truth to Light, you get it all. And what's more, Newton has managed to string them all together in one consistent tale that explains everyone's existence. The Great Lie. Without being all spoilery, I can't very well tell you anything more than this....