Search: 5-10, Evening - Edinburgh Festival Guide

Beijing People’s Art Theatre-European Premiere
Performed in Mandarin with English supertitles

Brilliant General Caius Martius returns to Rome a hero. Having conquered the city of Corioles he is named Coriolanus and persuaded to run for Consul. However, when he is rejected by the ‘common people’ Coriolanus vows to destroy Rome and joins forces with his enemy Aufidius to mount an attack.
With live music by two of China’s leading heavy metal bands – Miserable Faith and Suffocated – innovative Chinese director Lin Zhaohua creates an epic night of theatre that re-interprets Shakespeare’s tragedy for the 21st century. Pu Cunxin, one of China’s most famous actors, brings the rebel General vividly to life.
‘magnificent’ Beijing Daily
Tuesday 20 & Wednesday 21 August 7.30pmThe Edinburgh Playhouse
Tickets£30 £27 £22 £17 £12 £10
2 hours 50 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/coriolanus
Supported by The Ministry of Culture, People’s Republic of China
 
 

This seminal work from American dancer and choreographer Glen Tetley was also the starting point of his now iconic choreographic style – combining modern dance with the elongated line and aerial bravuraof ballet. It is a style he perfected through his professional career performing leading roles in the Martha Graham Dance Company as well as with American Ballet Theatre.
Inspired by the three principal characters from the commedia dell’arte, it is a poetic, humorous and dramatic interpretation of composer Arnold Schoenberg’s revolutionary work of the same name.
Saturday 17 August 8.00pmMain Theatre Tickets £18 £15 £12 £10eif.co.uk/pierrotlunaire

After receiving a 2010 Herald Angel Award for Songs of Ascension, US composer, singer, filmmaker and theatre artist Meredith Monk returns to the Festival with her latest music-theatre work, On Behalf of Nature.
A poetic meditation on the environment, On Behalf of Nature evokes the Buddhist notion of different realm categories, uniting heaven and earth by way of human beings. Drawing further inspiration from writers who have sounded the alarm on the state of our global ecology, Monk and her acclaimed Vocal Ensemble create a space where human, natural and spiritual elements are woven into a delicate whole, illuminating the interconnection and interdependency of us all.
‘a rapturous new work… some of the finest music Monk has yet written.’ Los Angeles Times
Friday 16 & Saturday 17 August 8.00pmSunday 18 August 2.30pmRoyal Lyceum Theatre
Tickets£30 £24 £20 £16 £10
1 hour 15 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/meredithmonk
Supported by American Friends of the Edinburgh International Festival

A brilliant programme of modern masterworks from one of the hottest names in dance. Benjamin Millepied brings his new company to the UK for the first time, following his huge success as choreographer and star of Darren Aronofsky’s award-winning film Black Swan.
L.A. Dance Project is an artist collective founded by Millepied, composer Nico Muhly, art consultant Matthieu Humery, producer Charles Fabius and film producer Dimitri Chamblas. At the peak of his career, after starring with New York City Ballet, Millepied embarks on a new adventure.
‘The eclecticism is admirable. All three works look remarkably “now”. The dancers tackle their diverse challenges with skill.’ The New York Times
‘The biggest dancer to cross over into pop culture since Mikhail Baryshnikov.’ The New York Times
Quintett
William Forsythe Choreography (in collaboration with Dana Caspersen, Stephen Galloway, Jacopo Godani, Thomas McManus and Jone San Martin)Stephen Galloway Costume designerWilliam Forsythe Lighting designer
Forsythe’s seminal work, set to Gavin Bryars’s emotional and elegiac Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, is a moving final love letter to his wife before she died.
Winterbranch
Merce Cunningham  ChoreographerLa Monte Young  Music (2 Sounds)Robert Rauschenberg  Décor and costume designerBeverly Emmons  Lighting designer (based on concepts by Robert Rauschenberg)Jennifer Goggans  Staging (assisted by Robert Swinston)
This dramatic work features costumes by Robert Rauschenberg and a score, 2 Sounds, by La Monte Young. Merce Cunningham talked about two ‘facts’ of dancing – the act of falling, and unless one stayson the ground, the subsequent act of rising. The dancers engage in a series of falls, in both slow and fast motion, eventually clustering together to fall and rise united as a cohesive group.
Moving Parts
Benjamin Millepied  ChoreographyNico Muhly  Music compositionChristopher Wool  Visual installationKate and Laura Mulleavy (of Rodarte)  Costumer designersRoderick Murray  Lighting designer
A new work by the group’s founding choreographer.
Saturday 24 – Monday 26 August 7.30pmThe Edinburgh Playhouse
Tickets£30 £27 £22 £17 £12 £10
2 hours approximatelyeif.co.uk/ladance
Sponsored byBaillie Gifford Investment Managers
Supported byDunard Fund
With additional support from Embassy of the United States of America, London
Monday 26 AugustTouch Tour 6.15pm Audio Described 7.15pm
 
 

Moving through constellations of wood and Plexiglas pillars, reacting in sculptor Vera Röhm’s space Cesc Gelabert recreates Gerhard Bohner’s original concept highlighting elements of dance, visual artsand music while allowing them to remain autonomous.
Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, interpreted by Keith Jarrett, provides the music for this reconstruction of Bohner’s solo Im (Goldenen) Schnitt_I, to which Gelabert brings his inimitable style and individuality as a dancer.
Monday 19 August 8.00pmMain Theatre Tickets £18 £15 £12 £10eif.co.uk/im-goldenen-schnitt

Based on Beckett’s trilogy of novels – Molloy, Malone Dies and The Unnamable – this one-man show performed by celebrated Beckett interpreter Barry McGovern brings together three monologues that unify the central characters of each novel, revealing successively deepening layers of reflection and emotion. Firstly there is Molloy, who tells of how he came to occupy his mother’s room. Then there is Malone, alone and dying, telling himself stories as he awaits the inevitable. And finally the Unnamable, desperately seeking the right words that will permit him to utter his real self at last.
‘An outright triumph… arrestingly funny’ Time Magazine‘Stunning… exhilarating’ The New York Times
Sunday 25, Monday 26, Wednesday 28 & Saturday 31 August 9.00pmRoyal Lyceum Theatre
Tickets £20 £15 £10 £8
1 hour 25 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/igoon
Supported byHarold Mitchell Esq, ACCulture Ireland

First LoveBy Samuel Beckett Gate Theatre Dublin Performed in English Michael Colgan  DirectorEileen Diss  Set designerJames McConnell  Lighting designer After the death of his father, a man finds himself homeless, sharing a canal-side bench in Dublin with a prostitute. As she pursues him lustfully he unwillingly falls in love. In the ensuing relationship, he ruthlessly refuses to engage emotionally with her, except when, despite.his reluctance, she arouses his desires. Written in 1946, Beckett’s novella First Love is full of his rich, lyrical prose. This darkly comic story explores how love fails us and how we fail love. ‘one of the most wholly satisfying nights I’ve spent at the theatre this year’ The New York Times‘elegantly profane language and mordant humor’ New York Post Wednesday 28 & Saturday 31 August 7.00pmThursday 29 & Friday 30 August 9.00pmRoyal Lyceum Theatre Tickets £20 £15 £10 £8 1 hour approximately eif.co.uk/firstlove Supported byHarold Mitchell Esq, ACCulture Ireland

EmbersBy Samuel Beckett
Pan Pan Theatre
Performed in English
Gavin Quinn DirectorAndrew Clancy  SculptorAedin Cosgrove  Lighting designerJimmy Eadie  Sound designer
‘silence in the house, not a sound, only the fire, no flames now, embers. Embers.’
Henry sits on a beach, remembering and imagining stories and incidents from his life, tormented by his father’s suicide, his own disfunctional family history and his failure as a writer. Hallucinations and reality merge as he attempts to stoke the fire of his creativity.
First broadcast on radio in 1959, Embers takes us on a journey into the haphazard world of Henry’s imagination, a world of ever-shifting mental leaps, ruminations and ambiguities where creative storytelling and unfinished memories both real and unreal coalesce into one. Was Henry’s father washed out to sea while taking his evening swim, or did he commit suicide?
‘We never found your body, you know…’
Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 August 7.00pmSunday 25 August 2.00pmKing’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Tickets £20 £15 £10
50 minutes approximately
eif.co.uk/embers
Supported byLéan Scully EIF FundCulture Ireland

Eh JoeBy Samuel Beckett Gate Theatre Dublin Performed in English Featuring the voice of Penelope WiltonAtom Egoyan  DirectorEileen Diss  Set designerJames McConnell  Lighting designer The whisper in your head …. Me whispering at you in your head…. Things you can’t catch …. On and off …. Till you join us …. Eh, Joe? An old man in his dressing gown moves around his bedroom, checking behind the door, under the bed, out of the window. Satisfied there are no intruders, he sits on the bed. Then he hears a woman’s ghostly voice… Beckett’s first play written specifically for television, Eh Joe explores how one man is forced to face up to his past and the lovers he has abused and driven to destruction. Tormented by inner demons, he is made to relive everything he has tried to forget. In this acclaimed production from the Gate Theatre, as the disembodied voice speaks out, a camera projects the face of Joe onto a large screen intensifying every flicker of fear, anger and shame. As the emotional tension heightens, we are all forced to admit that we can’t escape our past. Friday 23 August & Tuesday 27 August 9.00pmThursday 29 August 7.00pmSaturday 31 August 5.00pmRoyal Lyceum Theatre Tickets £20 £15 £10 £8 30 minutes approximately eif.co.uk/ehjoe Supported byHarold Mitchell Esq, ACCulture Ireland

Édouard Lock: World Premiere (2013) - Dance Odysseys
Performed by Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet presents a World Premiere from La La La Human Steps Founder, Artistic Director and Choreographer Édouard Lock.
Lock is renowned for his extreme, incandescent style of dance and his precise technique. His boldly challenging style has always attracted international attention. His creations are an arresting fusion of speed, complex combinations of gestures and footwork, and bodies propelled through the air at astonishing angles. Past collaborations include projects with David Bowie, Frank Zappa and Bette Midler, and he has created work for the Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, the Dutch National Ballet and Paris Opéra Ballet.
Friday 16 August 8.00pmMain Theatre Tickets £18 £15 £12 £10eif.co.uk/edouardlock