V&A Dundee opens ground-breaking Michael Clark exhibition V&A Dundee opens the first major exhibition on the pioneering and radical work of Scottish dancer and choreographer Michael Clark this Saturday (5 March), curated and organised by Barbican, London.    Michael Clark: Cosmic Dancer   runs from 5 March to 4 September 2022.   Tickets are on sale now at   www.vam.ac.uk/dundee  

  Tears For Fears - The Tipping Point ⅘ It's difficult to imagine what a 21st century Tears For Fear album would sound like, you may feel you’ve put the wrong record on when opener ‘No Small Thing’ begins. A folk-pop number more closely aligned with the likes of Eddi Reader not the huge synth kings of old, or even the Beatles bating later 80’s version of ‘Sowing the Seeds of Love’, Don’t be misled though, it sets a false tone for the album soon enough we hear the old magic again particularly on tracks like ‘Break the Man’ or  the ‘Woman in Chainsesque’ ‘Rivers of Mercy’. This is a rather mature Tears for Fears. The vocals deeper, less shouting more whispering for this album. ‘The Tipping Point’ is a warm and deeply personal album, ‘Please Be Happy’ feels like a confessional set to stirring music while ‘Master Plan’ is an unfolding biography carried along by an epic wave of orchestral sweeps and chirping keyboards. If you really need a blast of eighties then ‘End of Night’ is t...

  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 ...