Highland Fling, Market Gallery, 85a

The opposite of funny isn't serious: the best comedy is often serious, and some of the things I laugh at on Failbook are life-threateningly intense. The real opposite of funny is the press release, in which even jesters and vaudeville slapstick acts impress upon their readers how important they are. So it's hats off to The Market Gallery for their press release for Kim Noble's Solo Exhibition.  Here's an extract. "Kim Noble, who's no stranger to the common cold, will be holding a solo exhibition in Glasgow featuring several works, which could be deemed 'o.k'.  He is an award winning comedy performance and video artist, whose work crosses theatre, TV, comedy and art.  On route from London to Glasgow he will be stopping at the Gretna Green Services on the M74 to bury £100 in the ground, so if anyone wants anything then contact him directly at info@mrkimnoble.com.  Some other stuff should go here about some interesting recent projects." Then there's something about a siege in 1204, and the promise of a video. Mind you, I got him confused with Ross Noble who is a comedy and, therefore, not very funny. Market Gallery, Glasgow 15th March - 12th April 2012 Compulsive behaviour is, of course, not funny. But it can be entertaining, if Matthew Bourne does the choreography and is wryly updating La Sylphide to contemporary Glasgow. Bourne hasn't neglected Glasgow sinnce he got his OBE - his Gothic remix of Sleeping Beauty turned up a few months ago - and Scottish Ballet have become the first company, apart from Bourne's own, to get the license to Highland Fling. Highland Fling came out in 1994 - possibly the last good year to set a ballet in a nightclub and still be part of the zeitgeist  - and the arrival of Christopher Hampson at SB marks a new phase in the company's journey from also-rans to major force. It's a long way from their old Christmas classic The Snowman to Highland Fling. Hampson - an old sparring partner of Bourne - has managed to persuade the award winning choreographer to let SB have the piece, although he has never "leased" any of his full length numbers before.

SCOTTISH BALLET presents

Matthew Bourne’s HIGHLAND FLING

Sponsored by Adam & Company

Directed and choreographed by Matthew Bourne

Music La Sylphide by Herman Severin Løvenskjold,

performed live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra

Designs: Lez Brotherston

Lighting: Paule Constable

Theatre Royal GLASGOW 27 April – 4 May 2013

Eden Court Theatre INVERNESS 9 – 11 May 2013

His Majesty’s Theatre ABERDEEN 16 – 18 May 2013

Festival Theatre EDINBURGH 22 - 25 May 2013

While I am out on the edge, here's a shout out for Chernozem. 85a - Vile Arts' favourites and likely to be on the radio hour soon enough, are showing their dystopian film at the GFT. Since last time they displayed the movie, it was part of a wild promenade performance, featuring nasty machines that ate audience members and a cheeky tour of The Glue Factory's hidden spaces, they couldn't just have a quiet showing. They are having a big party at The Flying Duck as part of the fun. 

Too much information - overloaded - here's the press release. 

85A Collective presents:

C  H  E  R  N  O  Z  E  M

(‘Black Earth’)

 MARCH   29th  2013

Glasgow art collective 85A are set to unleash a cinematic barrage with the premiere of ‘CHERNOZEM’ - an industrial horror film - kicking off with a dystopian masquerade party at The Flying Duck, then rocketing the audience towards the GFT in a riotous parade - all to be followed by a total rinse-out back at the ‘Duck with special guests Golden Teacher. An unmissable night!   

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!

TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM 1^st MARCH 2013   

CHERNOZEM

Film Premiere (2013,1hr 15mins. B/W)

GFT

Glasgow

29^th March 2013

23:00

Tickets £6

Available 1st March www.85A.org.uk

Limited availability

  

Burrowing through the dark vein of German Expressionism and Soviet propaganda films comes the premiere of CHERNOZEM (‘Black Earth’). Written and directed by Judd Brucke and produced by the Glasgow based multi-disciplinary art collective 85A, this is a horror tale of a man with a factory for a head that struggles for survival in a post-apocalyptic world.

Paying aesthetical homage to Weimar-era cinema and industrial documentaries, this is thematically a classic chase-movie wrapped in the cloak of the Kunstmärchen. Shot entirely on VHS and filmed in the hidden, crumbling shadows of a bygone era, CHERNOZEM not only serves as a sideways document to Glasgow's fading industrial past, but strips Hi-def. films right down to the bone, stoking the fires of deracinating, thunderous filmmaking!

85A's RENEGADE MASKERRADE

The Flying Duck, Glasgow

29^th March 2013

20:00 - 04:00

CHERNOZEM based, masked costume party, with performances, a live set from Sister Deadfoot, and midnight beats from 85A dj's + very special guests: Golden Teacher.

Part I: RENEGADE MASKERRADE

Pre-screening party with 'Sister Deadfoot' (Footstomping hillbilly-bop) followed by an astonishing showcase of hyper-costumes, freekish masks, blazing soundsuits and bitchin' style!

20:00 - 22:45

Tickets £3

Available 1st March 85A.org.uk, The Flying Duck and The Art School Bar

Teetering on the edge of civilization, beneath the tidal flows of technology, led by a gang of costumed outcasts, geishas and gichts in the blackened folds of our metropolis, bursts...

'85A's RENEGADE MASKERRADE', where the engine oil liquor flows like wormwood from the skies and your dreams are full of bare-footed voodoo sex.

This mad subterranean bar in the hidden depths of the near-future, enveloped by flotsam, jetsam and incubuses of the night, is only eclipsed by the ravishing, sand-strewn fashions of these exotic denizens as they lose themselves in the pulsing lights and glide uninhibited along the alluring catwalk into the frenzy of the Mask Pit!

Later at the witching hour back at The Flying Duck…

Part II: CHERNOZEM AFTER PARTY

>With 'Golden Teacher' (Hypno-psych voodoo groove) and the bombastic

big, big beats of the legendary 85A dj's.

00:30 - 04:00

/// FREE ///

To complete the triptych of CHERNOZEM's mighty premiere, bear witness to our special guests in the form of the hypnotically divine Golden Teacher, enthralling the masked crowds with their polyrhythmic palpitating sounds.

Then 85A dj's will be dropping the most mental bush-burning beats this side of zef! (“Loud enough to knock you down!!”)