🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 5 - 11 March 2025
Festival boss stands down, inside the new Fringe HQ, International Women's Day events + a creative twist on pen-pals
Welcome to the 80th weekly edition of the Culture Minute: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities.
As always, if I’ve missed anything please get in touch.
👀 The most-viewed links from the last Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🎪 Fringe By The Sea line-up announced.
- 🛜 Edinburgh Futures Institute hosts ‘responsible AI adoption’ workshops.
- 🎤 City Art Centre ‘Late’ event announced.
News:
🎭 Shona McCarthy stands down as Chief Executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society this week after nine years in the job. She claimed the festival’s needs were still routinely ignored by public authorities in an interview with Severin Carrell in The Guardian.
⮑ Meanwhile the Fringe team have begun work on revamping their new home on Infirmary Street. - They share their plans in this new video.
🎧 This month’s EHFM Culture Show has an emphasis on film and sex, going deep with author Xuanlin Tham about their new book Revolutionary Desires: The Political Power of the Sex Scene, published by 404 Ink.
⮑ The podcast’s headline chat topics include: the outcome of Creative Scotland’s multi-year funding, the future of daily local arts journalism and this very newsletter calling out press releases being published/uploaded by ‘trusted newsbrands’.
⮑ Xuanlin Tham will be in conversation with Anahit Behrooz at Lighthouse on 12 March.
🖼️ “Zimbabwean artist Portia Zvavahera’s first Scottish exhibition (at Fruitmarket) is a beautiful exploration of dreams – and a must-see this March,” writes Gemma Meek in Quine.
🎼 Scottish Opera is celebrating the music of German composer Richard Strauss this weekend with a concerts at the Usher Hall. Expect music from Ariadne auf Naxos, Arabella, and Der Rosenkavalier.- More details via Scottish Opera.
🍿 This week’s Cinetopia list of film screenings around town includes: A screening of Poly-Styrene: I Am a Cliché, the 2021 documentary by Edinburgh-based director Paul Sng about the life of Poly Styrene, the lead singer of the British punk band X-Ray Spex. - More details from Duncan Place Community Hub and the Local Cinema Network.
🤟 There’s an introduction to British Sign Language event at Southside Community Centre on Friday 14 March. - Find out more in this week’s Good Egg Project newsletter.
🗞️ In print:
- The latest issue of The List features an interview with Scottish stand-up’s reigning champ Larry Dean, a tattoo special and HippFest’s annual celebration of silent cinema. Read it now online here.
- It’s movie month in The Skinny, previewing a host of film festivals taking over the Central Belt over the next few weeks. - More here.
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week?
Here’s All Edinburgh Theatre’s Thom Dibdin:
It's all about the Traverse this week, although the shows are so strong and the runs so short, you might have to join the returns queue if you want a seat.
The big news is the opening on Thursday of new musical Wild Rose at the Lyceum for previews (tickets). This Country music, Glasgow-set tale opens fully on Friday 14; these preview nights are a great opportunity to get reduced price tickets.
At the Pleasance, the Edinburgh Studio Opera are staging Massenet's Cendrillon (Wed, Thurs: tickets), based on Perrault’s version of the Cinderella fairy tale.
For opera fans, Ellen Kent's productions of La Bohème (Mon tickets) and Madama Butterfly (Tue: tickets) hit the Playhouse before next week's Culture Minute drops.
There are a fair number of seats at the Playhouse for Abba tribute act Voulez Vous (Sat: tickets), but very few for An Evening with Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis & Karine Polwart at the Festival Theatre (Fri/Sat: tickets).
As for the Traverse: the Spring lunchtime theatre season opens with Dookin Oot (ends Sat: tickets). This week is now returns only and a word to the wise: future weeks are selling well.
Otherwise, best opportunity is James Rowland's storytelling show Piece of Work (Sat: tickets). Intriguing tale of brothers, Driftwood (Wed: tickets) is selling fast, and Dogstar's version of James Robertson’s novel The Testament of Gideon Mack (ends Sat: tickets) is returns only.
For future weeks and more detail, please see Æ's various listings pages, all linked here.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard:
⮑ Get in touch using this form. We kick off this week with a creative twist on pen-pals:
📌 “The Postal Collage: Get matched with other artists, send each other monthly cuttings, create new mixed media and collage art work. A chance to shake up your practice with other artists deciding your materials. Potential of a 2025 group exhibition to showcase your work.” - Thanks to Miriam Morris, artist and curator, for sharing this.
📌 TONIGHT: “DOCo, Edinburgh’s documentary community, invites you to a special work-in-progress screening of About Grief, a documentary by Gauri Sharma, on 5th March 2025 at 7 PM at Outhouse Bar, Edinburgh. This intimate film follows Zenab, a young painter struggling to reclaim her artistic passion after the loss of her mentor. The evening will also feature a short film by Gauri, a screening of Rupture, and a chance to participate in the DOCMA film game—come be part of the creative process!” - Thanks to DOCo for sharing this.
📌 “Join our musical feast of Scotland's top female jazz and genre-adjacent artists to celebrate International Women's Day in the Jazz Bar! A showcase putting ladies to the front, from intimate duets to swinging brass jazz bands. Saturday 8th March, 5.30pm in The Jazz Bar, Chamber Street. Booking tickets in advance recommended.” - Thanks to Kat Brooks & Nicole Smit, curators of IWD Showcase, for sharing this.
📌 “St Cecilia's Hall on Saturday: Join us this International Women's Day for an evening of celebration and music! With performances from: Ellie Beaton, Some Strange Harmony, Lucia Capellaro.” - Thanks to Hannah, Museum Assistant, St Cecilia's Hall: Concert Room & Music Museum, for sharing this.
📌 “We’re thrilled to be hosting a pop-up record fair with Edinburgh Record & CD Fair in our shop on Saturday March 8th. The fair will be from 10am until 2pm and our shop will be open for more browsing after that. Free admission so please pop along and say hello!” - Thanks to Laura, Umbrella Vinyl, for sharing this.
📌 “Acclaimed storyteller and Fringe favourite James Rowland is back in Edinburgh this Saturday with two performances at the Traverse Theatre. James performs his critically acclaimed autobiographical show, Piece of Work, which sold out at the Festival in 2023. The "Master Storyteller" takes to the Traverse 2 stage at 5pm and 8pm.” - Thanks to Fraser for sharing this.
📌 “Join us in welcoming Natasha Brown to The Portobello Bookshop at 7pm on Thursday 13th March for the publication day launch of her eagerly-anticipated second novel, Universality, in conversation with Sasha de Buyl. The follow-up novel to bookseller-favourite Assembly is a compellingly nasty celebration of the spectacular force of language. Sign up to attend in person or tune into the livestream via theportobellobookshop.com/events.” - Thanks to The Portobello Bookshop team for sharing this.
📌 “Unleash your creativity at Studio Mol’s Paper Assemblage Workshop on Thursday, 13th March, from 7-9pm at the Moonwake Beer Co. taproom! Paper assemblage is like collage but with a more design-led twist, guiding you to create bespoke geometric artwork using luxury papers—all abilities welcome. Enjoy 10% off drinks, with tickets at £30 and 20% off if you book before Thursday, 6th March. Don’t miss out!” - Thanks to the Studio Mol team for sharing this.