When poet Roddy Lumsden died in 2020 aged 53, it called time on a mercurial figure, whose work impacted worlds beyond the rarefied literary circuit. This should be in evidence at Mischief Night, which commemorates what would have been Lumsden’s sixtieth birthday in the same venue he launched his first collection, Yeah Yeah Yeah, in 1997. Named after Lumsden’s 2004 book, while Mischief Night will of course feature poetry, there will also be a focus on his other obsessions. This will come in the form of a quiz, and will feature a soundtrack drawn from his substantial collection of 7-inch singles. The latter will be played by those behind a weekly event called Sleepless Nights. This was a Thursday night vinyl only happening that took place at Edinburgh’s now long lost St. James Oyster Bar, and which featured the sort of left-field obscurities that fired Lumsden’s own musical tastes. Requests are being taken on the event website. As unofficial writer in residence at St. J, Lum...
Citizens Theatre, Glasgow Five stars The vintage microphone that hangs down centre stage may be designed for old school crooners in Linda McLean’s adaptation of Denise Mina’s true crime novel, but as it swings between those confessing not quite all, those behind it tell a far darker story. It is 1958, and in a world where gangsterism and civic entrepreneurism rub shoulders in spit and sawdust bars and after-hours members clubs, William Watt has been released from prison after being tried for the murder of his wife, daughter and sister-in-law. Determined to clear his name, the Lanarkshire businessman ends up on a twelve-hour bender with Peter Manuel, who will later be convicted and hanged for these and other killings. Over two intense hours, Mina’s story flits between the trial and a speculative dramatisation of what may or may not have happened during Watt and Manuel’s epic session. The result in Dominic Hill’s main stage production is a slow burnin...