Summerhall » Programme

Free Belarus Now!

Box Office — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:07:24 +0000

International Director Irina Bogdanova in conversation with Richard Demarco and Zara Coombes.

Richard Demarco and Zara Coombes will interview Irina Bogdanova, Director of Free Belarus Now and sister of imprisoned Presidential candidate Andrei Sannikov, about how her personal tragedy became a global fight for political freedom.

On December 19^th 2010 Presidential “elections” that took place in Belarus. Irina Bogdanova’s brother Andrei Sannikov, a former Deputy Foreign Minister, was the most credible Presidential candidate in that race. But he did not win, the election results were rigged. The incumbent dictator Alexander Lukashenko remained in power. Andrei, his wife Iryna Khalip, an investigative journalist, and over 30,000 Belarusian citizens took to the streets in peaceful protest on election night. Violent mass arrests followed. Andrei is still in custody.

Since that day his sister, Irina has lived in a world where words like, disappearance, KGB, and Torture are in every day use. Irina founded the Free Belarus Now movement to fight for every political prisoner Belarus, and to fight for free and fair elections in Belarus. She now speaks to politicians from around the world, working with other NGO’s to coordinate the Belarusian peoples fighting for freedom.

The DALI Band

Box Office — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:06:07 +0000

The DALI are a four piece music band from Belarus. The two leading members of the band, Victór Rudenka and Ivan Zaprutski, will be performing at Summerhall every evening from the 22nd -27th August.

DALI have a wide following in Belarus, Russia and the Ukraine as well as increasingly in the west. Victór Rudenka toured the UK in 2008 as well as appearing on MTV’s Unplugged. The band’s musical style has been described as, “A hurricane of hard electronic riffs and touching lyrics filled with urban romanticism.”

DALI have been heavily involved in supporting social programmes including the Amnesty International movement for the abolition of capital punishment in Belarus, gave a concert supporting the United Nations campaign against domestic violence.

Note: Due to an unforeseen illness, the DALI Band will not be performing until the 24th August, and not on the 22nd or the 23rd, as previously advertised. Summerhall apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Susie Leiper: Calligrapher & Painter

Rupert — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 10:25:28 +0000

One of Britain’s leading calligraphers, Susie is known both for her traditional skills in writing with quills on vellum and for her innovative use of the Chinese brush as a writing tool. Susie’s formative years as a calligrapher were spent in Hong Kong, where she developed her passion for Chinese art and language.

Susie also paints in oils, watercolours and ink, sometimes combining painting with calligraphy in the tradition of Chinese art. Much of her work takes the form of handmade artist books.

Calligraphy, painting, poetry: the three arts most treasured by the Chinese. Susie aspires to marry western calligraphy, painting and poetry with the spontaneity and harmony of a Chinese master.

李素珊是英国当代著名书法家之一。她以翎毛笔在犊皮上书写的传统技法见长，并以创新手法使用中国毛笔作为书写工具而闻名。素珊在香港开始了她早期的西方书法创作，同时在那里培养了她对中国艺术和语言的热爱。

素珊也创作油画、水彩画和墨画。她有时借鉴中国传统艺术的形式，将书法和绘画相结合。她的作品中有不少是纯手工制作的图书。

素珊深知书法、绘画和诗词是中国最被推崇的三种艺术，因此她力求将西方书法、绘画和诗词完美融合，从而达到中国艺术名家所追寻的自然与和谐的境界。

BAC Scratch: Josie Long

Box Office — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:12:25 +0000

Josie Long is a stand up comedian whose main show at the fringe is about politics and anger. In her Scratch performance she wants to work on something that’s the opposite of that… Probably involving making some kind of papier mâché puppets.

Scratch allows artists to test ideas and get audience feedback. Come explore and be the first to discover the future of theatre.

BAC Scratch: Atomkraft

Box Office — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:55:24 +0000

Greg McLaren has been exploring the ‘Nuclear Issue’. What’s that then? The terror of accident? The mystery of the process? The deep and global energy corruption? And how does that relate to a man boiling his hand? Greg will occupy the fascinating Summerhall building for a day. Inspired by the building and working with collaborator, award winning designer Mamoru Iriguchi, Atomkraft will be let loose at 4pm on Monday 22nd August. Join us for what is likely to be an absorbing and electrifying journey into the (known) unknown.

Scratch allows artists to test ideas and get audience feedback. Come explore and be the first to discover the future of theatre.

Book Ends

Box Office — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:31:41 +0000

Savin-O’Hara Productions repesents Book Ends, a new one act play about loving books a little too much…

A tale of two book lovers who meet while browsing for romance and passion in a local bookshop.

Book Ends is a play for anyone who has ever read voraciously between the lines or fallen madly in love while perusing for just the right story.

Starring Hattie Ruffer and Richard Rowley. Directed by James Savin. Written by David K. O’Hara

LOLfest

Box Office — Sat, 13 Aug 2011 14:02:25 +0000

Summerhall’s only stand-up comedy event for 2011, LOLfest is raising money for Shelter Scotland and features performances from award-winning comedians Josie Long, Daniel Kitson, and Robin Ince, as well as music from ballboy.

twitter: @lolfest

www.shelter.org.uk/lolfest

This event is now sold out.

BAC Scratch: Kate Tempest

Box Office — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:05:31 +0000

Kate Tempest is a poet, rapper and playwright from South East London who will be scratching new work in response to the atmospheric space of Summerhall’s Anatomy Lecture Theatre. Her band Sound of Rum have just released their debut album ‘Balance’ with Sunday Best Recordings. Her first play ‘Wasted’, a collaboration with new writing theatre company Paines Plough, previewed at Latitude festival and will tour the UK early spring 2012. She has supported Femi Kuti, Scroobius Pip and John Cooper Clarke. She has worked with Turner prize winning artist Chris Ofili, had her work commissioned by Barnardo’s children charity, has been featured on BBC TV and Radio, and performed internationally, in Berlin, Latvia, New York, Sydney, Austria and Paris, as well as all over the UK. Her debut spoken word release ‘Broken Herd’, was released on a limited edition run with Pure Groove Records, and sold out within two months of its release.

Please note that this event is taking place on Saturday, not Friday as previously advertised.

Scratch allows artists to test ideas and get audience feedback. Come explore and be the first to discover the future of theatre.

Bernard Rudden: Ars Animalis

Box Office — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 16:09:29 +0000

Bernard Rudden’s Exhibition Ars Animalis is on display in Summerhall’s unique Dissection Room Bar for the duration of the festival.

A sunlit summer room. Light streams on glass cases as the removers in overalls tape the head, neck and torso of a a horse skeleton.

Brown boxes, mothballs, freeze dried animal sections inside. numbered and placed into steel packing cages.

In the midst of this disappearing menagerie there was the sense of life leaving. A memento mori. in fact the image of the dissecting room is a type of memento mori. Life persists among remains. Life in bones, formaldehyde, in books in the steel dissecting-tables.

Making of Ars Animlis there was the same consideration. To create an installation both mortal and immortal. Of inside and Outside. Anatomy and World. The unity of opposites. The Zen sign Enso O seemed apposite in this respect. It seemed to fit perfectly as a unifying principle.

Enso has no fixed meaning. Its meaning is manifold, strength, enlightenment, harmony, elegance, and the universe. Many of the qualities that occur naturally in the animal world.

I applied it the Pigs and the Hare firstly as an experiment. Then realised fairly quickly that it was a case of “first idea, best idea”. It seemed the bridge between the animal and human world. Between the ideas of Inside and Outside. Between art and life.

There is a wonder and a fear in visioning both inside and outside the body. This revelation is de facto, the continuity of the quotidian life-cycle. Yet is something we rarely, if ever, consider, believing solely in the outer shell.

Ars Animalis offers the chance to view both parts simultaneously.

Bernard Rudden is a filmmaker, photographer and artist. His work includes Hunger Artist, Daybreak, Soul Train and many others. His photographic work can be seen at www.bernardrudden.com

BAC Scratch: Made In China

Box Office — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:22:45 +0000

Made in China will be working on new material for a show about the impact of where we’re from and where we have been on who we are. They will be exploring how stories and memories can warp and overlap, and the impact of this on individual identity. Their Scratch performances will feature slow dances, audience data, rousing speeches and a variety of guest performers.

Scratch allows artists to test ideas and get audience feedback. Come explore and be the first to discover the future of theatre.