Coffee-Table Notes

Shauna Macdonald sees herself everywhere just now. As the former star of TV spy drama Spooks prepares to play the title role in a new production of Liz Lochhead's Mary Queen of Scots Got Her head Chopped Off, so ubiquitous around town are images of the iconic historical figure her character is based on that Macdonald might easily suspect a plot as labrynthine as the one told in the play. “Mary's on the back of all the buses,” Macdonald shrieks in only partially mock alarm. “I'm cycling to work thinking about my lines, thinking it'll all be alright, when suddenly Mary passes me on the bus and I'm like, Oh, God, the pressure.” The bus hoardings may be aimed at luring tourists into Holyrood Palace, where the twenty-two year old monarch once resided following her marriage to Lord Darnley in 1565, but the image remains captivating enough for Macdonald to feel a certain sense of responsibility in her version of Mary. “All the characters are complicated,

Edinburgh Castle 4 stars The pre-show soul soundtrack may be telling of former Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry's roots, but the wash of purple lighting and giant flashing lightbulb on the big-screen backdrop as Ferry's black-suited seven-piece band and silver-frocked vocal quartet arrive onstage appears infinitely more airbrushed. As does too the opening take on Screaming Jay Hawkins' I Put A Spell On You, which segues into ultimate 1980s softcore soundtrack, Slave To Love. As the accompanying film montages show off a series of soft-focus neon-lit city-scapes populated by mysteriously aloof women, the two flesh and blood young ladies bumping and grinding in pink-tasselled leotards beneath only add to the spectacle. From such a tastefully textured opening, Ferry confounds expectations by launching into If There Is Something, from Roxy Music's 1972 debut album. With sax player Jorja Chalmers moving centre-stage, the sheer drama of the extended riffing is

When the National Theatre of Scotland was launched five years ago, there were some who suggested that the scale of the company's resources would effectively kill off the chance for younger artists to develop, let alone find an outlet for their work on a shoestring budget. The launch of two new initiatives by the NTS, however, begs to differ. The New Directors Placement Programme and the Emerging Artists Attachment Programme will enable three directors and four emerging artists to work at close quarters with the NTS, either assisting on specific projects or else given the time and space to develop their own practice over the next year in a more recognisably holistic approach than simple traineeships. Crucial to these two schemes is the support of the Bank of Scotland Pioneering Partnership, itself a new venture. Long time champion of the Bank of Scotland Herald Angel awards and currently Managing Director of Lloyds Banking Group Scotland Susan Rice has been particula

Anyone who hates Edinburgh in August is probably missing the point. The last month has opened up opportunities to see ex Soft Cell vocalist Marc Almond appearing solo in discordant song cycle Ten Plagues, the Philip Glass Ensemble playing the live accompaniment to Godfrey Reggio's Qatsi trilogy of films, and young American upstarts The TEAM (Theatre of the Emerging American Moment) present their most accomplished dissection of capitalism yet with Mission Drift, featuring songs by New York downtown singer/songwriter Heather Christian. Then there's the chance to see The TEAM's New York peers Banana Bag and Baggage deconstruct ninth century epic Beowulf by way of a skronky, wonky, jazz-punk band featuring Joanna Newsom's trombonist, or the National Theatre of Scotland do something similar with border balladeering in The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart. How about local hero Paul Vickers of The Leg's unique take on DIY junkshop absurdism in Twonkey's

Bryan Ferry looks very comfortable sitting on the balcony of Edinburgh Castle. You might even suggest he looks like he owns the place. Which, given the former Roxy Music singer and style icon's aristocratic social connections, his place in the Sunday Times rich list and his recently acquired CBE status, is a perfectly reasonable observation. In a rare burst of August sun, Ferry, dressed from head to toe in various immaculate shades of blue, looks over the balcony where what might well be his subjects mingle below. Ferry is on a recce to the city prior to his concert here next Thursday night, and, as befits his art school background, is already making festival plans. “I'd love to see the Richard Strauss,” he says, referring to the Mariinsky Opera's German language production of Die fraue ohne Schatten. “I'd love to see the Robert Rauchenberg exhibition as well.” Cultural references are never far from Ferry's lips. It's like when the dapper sixty-

Luke Haines and Cathal Coughlin – Cabaret Voltaire – 4 stars Ulrich Schnauss – Electric Circus – 4 stars The Pineapple Chunks – Electric Circus – 4 stars Three middle-aged men walk onstage sporting colonial pith helmets and medals. With one seated at a keyboard and another clutching an acoustic guitar, the third stands behind a plinth and bangs a gavel before declaiming an introduction to The North Sea Scrolls, a pop culture referencing alternative history of England by left-field pop curmudgeons Luke Haines and Cathal Coughlin, with music journalist Andrew Mueller as MC. Seemingly gifted to the trio by bit part TV actor Tony Allen, doyen of uncredited roles in The Sweeney and Minder, here fascist leader Oswald Mosley served two terms as Prime Minister of an England successfully invaded by Ireland, singer/songwriter Tim Hardin was an MP and electronic pioneer and producer of Telstar, Joe Meek, was Minister of Culture, putting John Lennon under house arrest for the sa

Theatre Uncut – Traverse Theatre – 4 stars Maybe If You Choreograph Me, You Will Feel Better – Forest Fringe – 4 stars Untitled Love Story – St George's West – 4 stars If the recent spate of rioting on Britain's streets were a response in part to the alliance government's ongoing public spending cuts in a society that's been told for the last thirty years that greed is good, then Theatre Uncut now looks like prophecy. First presented across the world on March 19th this year, this series of eight plays by major writers in response was protest theatre at its most intelligent. Presented this week at the Traverse as a rough and ready script in hand performed reading in a loose-knit production by Traverse artist in residence Stewart Laing and one of the project's instigators, Hannah Price, the plays range from absurdity to anger, taking advantage of the short form in much the same way the likes of the post 1968 generation of political writers used to pe