Coffee-Table Notes

Perth Theatre Four stars Don’t be fooled by the Palm Court style pre-show music for Lu Kemp’s pared-down production of Oscar Wilde’s cut-glass classic. The sounds get a whole lot livelier by the end. As indeed do the goings on between Grant O’Rourke and Daniel Cahill’s confirmed bachelors Algernon and Jack - or is it? - and the objects of their affection, Gwendolen and Cecily, brought to posh-frocked life by Caroline Deyga and Amy Kennedy. A whole lot of town and country planning goes into the dynamic duo’s respective attempts at wooing, as they attempt to lead double lives in order to get their way without being found out. Cecily and Gwendolen, meanwhile, bat out their two-faced politesse through gritted teeth over afternoon tea. They’re not a patch, however, on Lady Bracknell, magnificently embodied here by Karen Dunbar as a fur coat and nae knickers upwardly mobile WAG, whose Kelvinside accent only slips enough to reveal her roots on her revelatory handbag line. Artif

Ray Harryhausen’s adventures in stop motion animation left generations of film-goers wide-eyed at the feats of artistry he brought to the big screen. More than half a century’s work is brought together in Ray Harryhausen: Titan of Cinema, a suitably epic blockbuster exhibition that brings together the biggest collection of the mythological master’s work to date. Presented in conjunction with the Ray and Diana Harryhausen Foundation, this major summer commemorates what would have been Harryhausen’s 100 th  birthday.   From the sword-fighting skeletons of the Sinbad films and Jason and the Argonauts to the dinosaurs of One Million Years B.C., Harryhausen’s painstakingly realised creations forged from his ‘Dynamation’ technique had a profound influence on film directors including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and Tim Burton. Nick Park and Peter Lord, who created Wallace and Gromit for Aardman Animation, have also praised Harryhausen’s onscreen alchemy, which itself was influenced by s

When Tim Astley’s grand-father gave him a cassette of a 1960s radio comedy series called Round The Horne, it set in motion a life-long love affair with the show that has resulted in a hugely successful live staging that arrives in Edinburgh next week. Using original scripts by Barry Took and Marty Feldman, Astley’s production for his Apollo Theatre Company recreates the original live radio format to revisit an iconic programme that helped set a template for sketch comedy that continues today. “I was twelve when I was given the cassette of Round The Horne,’ says Astley. “My grand-father said he thought it might be something I’d quite like, and it opened me up to this whole new world which has stayed with me since then. Of course, at that age, I certainly didn’t understand all the jokes. It was only much later I realised how clever they are in terms of what they got away with.” Running for four series’ between 1965 and 1968, Round The Horne’s ensemble cast was led by Kenneth Hor

When Clare Grogan takes the stage in Barefoot in the Park this weekend, it will be something of a dream come true. The Altered Images singer and star of Gregory’s Girl has always been a fan of Neil Simon’s New York-set 1960s rom-com, in which newlyweds Corie and Paul navigate their way around the era’s social mores as much as their new apartment. In Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s new co-production of the play with the Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, Grogan plays Corie’s scene-stealing widowed mother Ethel.   “It's really extraordinary and interesting and fun and scary and a bit overwhelming and overall quite joyous to just have the opportunity to be doing it,” Grogan gushes of the experience on a Valentine’s Day break from rehearsals. I have a very clear memory of the first time I saw the film with my mum and dad and my sisters, and have just loved it ever since, so I was genuinely thrilled that someone was going to put it on stage.” Grogan expressed her enthusiasm on Twitter, and