Performance
Hidden Door
Leith Theatre, Edinburgh
Neil Cooper
four stars
THE SUN may have shone on Leith this weekend, but inside Leith Theatre, the stars were looking down on the first swathe of artistic interventions this shamefully neglected building has seen for a quarter of a century. Those stars may have been projected, but they gave a sheen of cosmic glamour to a reinvigorated space that is the sort of large-scale civic hall the capital has been crying out for.
Beyond the main auditorium, all manner of performances, film screenings and artistic interventions took hold, from beneath the main stage right up to the makeshift galleries on the roof of the building. Things began early on Friday night, with the theatre's upstairs balcony playing host to Heroines, Charlotte Hastings' three-woman cut-up of speeches by a trio of Greek tragedy's female icons. The entire auditorium was utilised by The Mash Collective, a grey-clad ensemble who tapped into Leith Theatre's history with a series of dance routines. In one of the smaller spaces, Heather Marshall and her Creative Electric troupe presented Sinking Horses, a personal meditation on mental illness that saw a group of young female performers sharing their darkest thoughts.
The first act to grace the main stage on Friday were FOUND, the now two-piece band who made full facility of the venue's lights and sound system with a set of instrumental electronica, the likes of which hadn't been heard within Leith Theatre's walls since Kraftwerk played there. This was followed by BDY_PTS, the duo of Jenny Reeve and Jill O'Sullivan, who combined epic electronic pop chorales with a few contemporary dance steps and the sartorial extravagance of Bloomsbury Group super-heroines. The pure pop vibe was kept up by Helen Marnie, co-vocalist of Ladytron who, as Marnie, channelled an infectious pot pourri of full on r'n'b bubblegum. The audience lingered into the small hours, with more electronica from Rival Consoles, aka Ryan Lee West, that gave the night a rhythmic momentum even a fire alarm couldn't stop.
Saturday's main stage action was enlivened by Manuela, the vehicle for recently departed Franz Ferdinand guitarist Nick McCarthy and his partner, singer Manuela Gernedal. As was demonstrated by their set of chunky disco pop anthems, if Eurovision ever went indie, Manuela could represent the world. At one point, McCarthy's guitar licks were a dead ringer for ABBA's Knowing Me, Knowing You. Hidden Door remains well and truly open all this week.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here