Various venues, Leith, June 28th 2012 4 stars On a rare evening of summer sun, for one night only, Leith Walk itself became a little piece of live art promenade theatre it's sort of always been. From Whitespace and Superclub in Gayfield Square at the top to Henderson Halls in South Leith Parish Church at the left of the bottom, some nineteen largely bespoke venues from the Windsor Buffet to Oscar's Alterations, Leith Walk Barber's Salon and beyond played host to a cavalcade of live music and pop-up exhibitions that fused a civic and social experience with an artistic one to expand the aesthetics of community spirit in the best sense of that much overused phrase. Individual events were sometimes rough and not always ready, but in their willingness to experiment with form, content and circumstance, facilitated an explosion of noisy life that captured a sense of what's going on artistically in Leith – and indeed Edinburgh – away from the city's more august institutions and designated cultural quarters. The sound may have been a mess for much of the after-show party headlined by Remember Remember's mighty Steve Reich for indie kids routine, but seeing the multitude of chit-chatting auteurs, rogues, vagabonds and other creative types in the same room makes you realise what a glorious playground the neighbourhood's become. This was the city's real avant-garde out in force. The List, July 2012 ends
Edinburgh Playhouse Five stars A big National Coal Board sign looms large at the opening of Lee Hall and Elton John's decade-old musical stage version of Hall and director Stephen Daldry's hit turn of the century film. In a tale of one little boy's liberation as a dancer against the backdrop of the 1980s miners strike, however, the Durham Miners banner and the 'Save Our Community' sash held aloft matter more. It is this call to arms that forms the heart of Daldry's production, as Billy becomes a potty-mouthed beacon of hope in a situation where picket line, thin blue line and chorus line rub uneasily up against each other. Given such a context, there is bound to be some pretty grown-up stuff going on here, be it the institutionalised homophobia in Billy's village, the class war going on within it, or Billy's grieving for his dead mother that drives his every move. And, as so magnificently choreographed by Peter Darling, what moves they are. Watch...
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