Coffee-Table Notes

Paul Lucas – Theatre producer, writer Born October 15, 1961; died August 11, 2020     Paul Lucas, who has died peacefully at home in New Jersey aged 58 following a short battle with cancer, was a theatre producer whose work was fired with passion and energy. Whether presenting solo pieces or ensemble works, Lucas was unwavering in his integrity and his dedication to saying what needed to be said onstage. Lucas facilitated this with a charm and an inherent sense of fun that embraced anyone who became part of his orbit. If you were a friend of Paul Lucas, you were a friend for life.   This openhearted ebullience never undermined the seriousness of Lucas’s work. That was the case with both the Herald Angel winning The Be(A)st of Taylor Mac and Simon Levy’s dramatic adaptation of Eliot Weinberger’s prose poem, What I Heard About Iraq, both of which Lucas brought to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006. It was there even more in Trans Scripts, Part 1: The Women, which revealed Lucas the pl

Dunfermline Carnegie Library and Galleries until May 10th; Gracefield Arts Centre, Dumfries, May 16 th -July 25 th .   The pen-pal style intimations of the title of this independently curated exhibition for Fife-based arts umbrella Fife Contemporary is a very gentle double-edged sword for the broad exploration of drawing it covers. The old-school stencil font of each label for the twenty-three cross-generation artists puts stylistic and symbolic faith in its craft, particularly in relation to the natural world.    Things start simply enough, with Elizabeth Blackadder’s quick-fire capture of Edinburgh in View of North Bridge (1972) and three drawings by Carol Rhodes, Factory Roof and Countryside (2001-02), Reservoir (1999) and Wharf (1999), all so much more than studies for paintings. Blackadder returns later, with reciprocal portraits by and of her and John Houston, that capture the relaxation of marital bliss at its best.    The exhibition’s brief expands by way of musician Inge Thoms

Scottish Opera, Glasgow Four stars Universal Basic Income probably wasn’t on Puccini’s mind back in the 1890s when he penned his backstreet tragedy of love and death amongst the starving artist set. How to make a living in the latter-day creative industries is nevertheless one of the many of-the-moment concerns in Scottish Opera’s ingenious new production, the company’s first for six months.    Using Jonathan Dove’s arrangement and a scaled down orchestra, director Roxana Haines reimagines the story for the Covid-19 created socially distanced age. Performed outdoors in what is normally the company’s car park, Haines’ new take sets the story among freelancers trying to get a break as they’re starved of work.   Chances are that writer Rodolfo, painter Marcello, busker Schaunard and thinker in residence Colline can beg, steal or borrow their way through things. For Elizabeth Llewellyn’s costume designer, Mimi, alas, it looks fatal. If only she’d got herself a sugar daddy like Marcello’s g

The sky was ablaze  with light over  c entral  Edinbu rgh   last  Saturday  night . O n what would have been the opening weekend of the 2020 Edinburgh International Festival, the  heavens   were n’t   lit up  by fireworks, as is the norm at thi s time of year . Rather, the shafts of light that pierced the air were part of a  spectacular  installation design ed to illuminate the  city’s  empty theatres and ve nues  that would  ordinarily  be hosting EIF events this month.    Created by  lighting de signers Kate Bonney and Simon Hayes ,  aka Lightworks,  the sky-borne spectacle was the flagship event of My Lig ht Shines On. This is the name given to  E IF’s  d igital programme of films   taking place on line throughout August  in place of the physical events cancelled by the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic .    The films showcase   performances of commissioned works from Scotland’s national arts companies , including  Scottish Opera, Scottish Ballet, the Ro yal Scottish National Orchestra and