Coffee-Table Notes

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Four stars In 2014, a Birmingham school was accused of promoting Islamist propaganda in an attempt to radicalise its high-achieving students. As was eventually proven in court following national tabloid hysteria, such inflammatory notions were in fact complete hokum, and any ideology being promoted was more likely that propagated by government. While the fall-out of the damage done prevails, it remains vital that what happened is shouted from the rooftops. This is more than achieved here in this touring revival of Helen Monks and Matt Woodhead’s verbatim play for their LUNG company, presented here in co-production with Leeds Playhouse. Drawn from 200 hours of interviews, what could be a dry and dense affair is transformed in Woodhead’s production into an urgent dramatic dispatch from the frontline. As it gives voice to teachers and pupils caught in the crossfire as well as local councillors treading on eggshells, it lays bare how fake news can

Collective Gallery, Edinburgh until March 29 th Four stars Through the window from the inside of the Collective’s Hillside gallery you can see the wall surrounding the venue’s buildings. In the context of Sulaïman Majali’s constructed interior for this latest edition of the Collective’s Satellites programme for developing artists, it’s easy to think of biblical Jericho, 1970s Berlin, the Gaza Strip or Trump’s Mexican fantasy. Inside, Majali draws from ideas of diaspora and imperialism in the wake of racist graffiti on a mosque in Cumbernauld that gives the show its title. A row of four grey/black plastic bucket seats are lined up opposite a microphone stand beside a stage monitor in the corner. The monitor broadcasts a looped collage of anthropologically-inclined field recording fragments that move from hushed mantras to electronic hums and heart-beat percussion. The powerfully named ‘though we know the dream is built from the collateral of our minds and the shrapnel tha

The first time Philip Differ met Jim McLean, the man behind football-based comedy sketch show Only an Excuse remembers the legendary former manager of Dundee United as being angry. “Not at me,” Differ hastens to add, though his description of McLean is one familiar to many football fans, as the passions and tensions of the beautiful game sometimes got the better of their hero. Despite McLean’s grim-faced image, it was a second meeting that lingered with Differ more. This followed an appearance on Offside, the comic football chat show presented by Tam Cowan which Differ co-produced. “He was a completely different person,” Differ remembers. “We were in the green room after the show, and he was totally relaxed and open. We had a conversation about theatre, and through that I realised there was much more depth to the guy than I thought.” The result of this is Smile, Differ’s brand new play about McLean for Dundee Rep ensemble, which opens on home turf this month. As Differ’s f