Watch our slideshow here Herald Angels 2010
Selected each week by The Herald’s team of critics working in Edinburgh, the Angels recognise excellence wherever it can be found, on stage and behind the scenes, and as demonstrated by artists, writers, administrators, actors and musicians. In addition we award an Archangel to someone who has made a sustained contribution to festivals in Edinburgh over the years, and a Little Devil to those who have demonstrated the commitment to ensure that the show goes on, despite setbacks and challenges.
This week’s Bank of Scotland Herald Archangel goes to Jack Klaff, a veteran of politically outspoken theatre in the days when such things seemed much more central to the importance of the Fringe and audiences were enlightened and united in their opposition to the injustices made apparent in the world. Klaff has returned to the Assembly Rooms with a live memoir that takes no prisoners and recognises that battles have been lost as well as won. As Neil Cooper’s review noted, he doesn’t shy away from the criticism of some of those he has encountered over the past 40 years: “If he ever works again after this, he may yet change the world.”
Another veteran, Richard Michael, wins a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel in the year that the Fife Youth Jazz Orchestra he directs marked its 30th anniversary. Michael has recently become better known through his regular presence on BBC Radio Scotland’s Jazz House, where it is his mission to demystify the music. He brought that approach to the Fringe with his History of the Jazz Piano at St Mark’s artSpace. For just two performances, Michael took his audience through syncopated improvising pianism from Bach to Chick Corea.
Three shows from the Traverse programme are recognised this week, but only one actually takes place in the theatre. It is Apples, director John Retallack’s adaptation of Richard Milward’s controversial novel of Middlesbrough teen life, co-produced by Northern Stage and Retallack’s own Company of Angels. With a superb young cast, Retallack’s staging comes to Edinburgh straight from Stirling’s teen-programmed mFest, and is worthy successor to his previous Angel-winner Hanna and Hannah.
Cora Bissett’s Roadkill takes its audience on a journey to an Edinburgh flat for a harrowing tale of the reality of sex-trafficking. Featuring a trio of excellent performances, the production is also superbly effective in the way it marshalls a whole range of theatrical skills and techniques, including video, in an entirely focused way. Andy Manley’s show for Catherine Wheels, White, is presented by the Traverse at the home of the Scottish Book Trust on the High Street. Here, too, a range of talent, including intricate design work by Shona Reppe, has been combined to make a lovely thoughtful piece of theatre for pre-school children. It will make them think about colours in important ways, and adults sitting at the back will marvel at how the questions Manley raises have resonances far beyond the realisation of the tots.
New tenants, Remarkable Arts, have taken up residence at the Masonic Lodge in Hill Street and there Canada’s 2B Theatre presents a beautifully conceived and staged one-man show, Invisible Atom.
Written and performed by Anthony Black, it is live storytelling that embraces most of the concerns of the modern world in a tale of a life spun out of control. The same venue is the late-night location for David Leddy’s Sub Rosa, originally seen at the Citizens’ Theatre, Glasgow, and now re-staged to take advantage of the old Edinburgh building -- a disturbing tale of dark deeds done backstage from a man who won an Angel last year for White Tea.
The technical demands of including Sub Rosa in its inaugural programme wins Remarkable Arts this week’s Little Devil. Each night the decor of the Fringe venue -- posters, flyers and glowing five-star reviews -- must be removed before the site-specific show can begin. Undressing on a nightly basis is not uncommon on the Fringe, but rarely does it involve the whole house. Visit ww.heraldscotland.com/ go/heraldangels.
