Festival has it all, from punk poetry to space

Arts Correspondent

Wednesday 13 March 2013

Music from a "punk rock poetess", two heavy metal bands, a climbing centre and the late Richard Burton will all star in this year's Edinburgh International Festival programme.

LIGHTBULB MOMENT: Artistic director Jonathan Mills launches this year's Edinburgh Festival, which has the theme of technology. Picture: PA/Danny Lawson

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Phil Miller Arts Correspondent

Jonathan Mills, artistic director of the EIF, has chosen the theme of technology for this year's event, which will take place between August 9 and September 1.

The event, one of the most challenging of his tenure, also features two mini-festivals: Dance Odysseys, led by Scottish Ballet, and a Samuel Beckett retrospective led by the Gate Theatre and Pan Pan Theatre of Dublin.

There will be a version of Fidelio, Beethoven's only opera, set in space by Opera de Lyon, and Leaving Planet Earth, a major new theatrical production from Grid Iron which will take place in the Edinburgh International Conference Centre and, after some simulated space flight to New Earth, at the Climbing Arena in Ratho.New York's lauded Wooster Group will bring its version of Hamlet that will not only star Scott Shepherd, but also a recording of Richard Burton's lauded 1964 performance of the Shakespeare play on Broadway.Modern music will include Philip Glass, the "punk rock poetess" Patti Smith in a Homage to Beat poet Allen Ginsberg, the Bang on a Can All-Stars with Laurie Anderson, and a tribute to the maverick musician Frank Zappa, while the Beijing People's Art Theatre version of Coriolanus features two heavy metal bands, Miserable Faith and Suffocated.There will be performances by the Russian National Orchestra and conductor Mikhail Pletnev,.The dance programme also features the choreographer of the movie Black Swan, Benjamin Millepied, husband of actress Natalie Portman, who will bring his LA Dance Project to the UK for the first time.Mr Mills said he had confidence the programme would be popular with the public: "I think audiences will embrace it. I think there is enough in there that will satisfy our audiences as we know them, but there will be a lot of people who will be intrigued to discover that Frank Zappa is a serious composer and not just a rock and roll subversive, for example," he said.Mr Mills, who is holding a launch event in Glasgow in a major way for the first time this week, added: "It's not about alienating people, it's about saying: actually, think about the broader sweep of human ingenuity and history, and you won't be as alienated by it, it won't sound as crazy."

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Festival has it all, from punk poetry to space

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