Claire Sawers

Edinburgh

Writer and Journalist at Freelance

freelance journalist: music, dance, books, food and travel 🪩🩰🗺📚 @thewiremagazine @thetimes @thelistmagazine @BigIssue @festmag @theQuietus

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Articles

Fodder + Farm, Stirling review

Jan 13, 2025 | thetimes.com | Claire Sawers
Nadair, Edinburgh restaurant review: a feast of foraged delights

Nov 13, 2024 | thetimes.com | Claire Sawers

Just as the trend for low-tox living has seeped (harmlessly, of course) into our skincare and household products, so have we also grown to expect our food and wines to be available without pollutants too. And so to Nadair (meaning nature in Gaelic), opened in August, where the chef-owners Sarah Baldry and Alan Keery (formerly both at Wedgwood on the Royal Mile) choose local, organic produce and natural, eco wines wherever they can.
Coorie Inn, Perthshire review - worth it just for dessert

Oct 23, 2024 | thetimes.com | Claire Sawers

PSL turned 20 last year. For the uninitiated — if anyone managed to miss the pumpkin spiced candle and air freshener spin-offs that followed in its spicy-sweet wake — the pumpkin spice latte was invented by Starbucks in 2003 to signal the arrival of autumn. Or fall, if you’re that way inclined. Now at the first sign of misted-up windows on cold mornings, coffee shops board the autumnal bandwagon and crack open the pumpkin spice syrup.
Since Yesterday, and The Sororal Strength of Scottish Girl Bands

Oct 17, 2024 | thequietus.com | Patrick Clarke |Claire Sawers

“Watching the documentary, you were left at the end going, ‘But… why?’ Why didn’t these bands receive more recognition? I mean, that’s good music.”Louise Rutkowski is saying exactly what everyone else will think after watching Since Yesterday: The Untold Story of Scotland’s Girl Bands. Louise and her sister Deirdre Rutkowski formed the 80s soul pop band Sunset Gun, one of the groups featured in the new documentary about to tour UK cinemas.
Pali and Jay's Ultimate Asian Wedding DJ Roadshow

Aug 13, 2024 | festmag.com | Claire Sawers

By Claire Sawers Published 13 Aug 2024 P.O.V: You’re a guest at a Punjabi wedding. You’re facing the flashy lights and decks of nephew and uncle DJ duo, Pali and Jay. (Played with nerd vulnerability by Tez Ilyas, and brat swagger by Viraj Juenja, who wrote the comedy play). Outside is Southall, the West London town nicknamed Little India, with the largest Punjabi community outside India.
Review: Mother Nature

Aug 13, 2024 | festmag.com | Claire Sawers

close A healing rock opera warding off the ills of Planet Earth ★★★ cabaret review (edinburgh) | Read in About 2 minutes query_builder By Claire Sawers Published 13 Aug 2024 Seattle actor Bhama Roget has appeared in Grey’s Anatomy and narrated books on Audible in the past, but here we find her covered in flower tattoos, auburn hair flowing and crowned with a few nesting birds. Roget plays Mother Nature, a ‘cool mom’ who has come to ‘soothe the ennui of homo sapiens’.
Review: The Show for Young Men

Aug 12, 2024 | festmag.com | Claire Sawers

By Claire Sawers Published 12 Aug 2024 It’s a big one nil against toxic masculinity in this absolute gem of a show. Robbie Synge (aged 44) and Alfie (aged 10) mime and dance in this gorgeous duet, their ballad of male friendship. They needn’t be father and son; they could be uncle and nephew, teacher and pupil, maybe kind neighbour and friendly local menace.
Review: Unseen

Aug 11, 2024 | festmag.com | Claire Sawers

By Claire Sawers Published 12 Aug 2024 Kimberly Prentice has worked for 25 years as a dresser on Broadway. She prides herself on staying unseen, helping the talent into their next outfit, mending any wardrobe malfunctions. She would glide about backstage like a resourceful ninja, toolbelt packed with torch, scissors, bottled water – but was it bringing her closer to her dream of one day being out front, as a dancer?
Review: my home is not my home

Aug 10, 2024 | festmag.com | Claire Sawers

By Claire Sawers Published 11 Aug 2024 If you’re not force feeding a banana to a semi-naked pretend Jesus, are you even at the Fringe? Berlin performance art collective Bambule Babys follow up their 2018 show, Paradise Baby with this piece “dedicated to all those homesick for a better world”. Artistic director Anna Valeska Pohl likes her art to rebel against good taste and boring art, and that anti-anodyne mission statement sounds pretty great.
Review: DRUM

Aug 10, 2024 | festmag.com | Claire Sawers

By Claire Sawers Published 11 Aug 2024 There’s a series of black and white photos in the Tate Britain’s collection, showing when the BBC’s first black broadcaster, Mike Eghan, was photographed by fellow Ghanaian, James Barnor. The 1967 photoshoot, starting in the BBC radio studios and ending up in Piccadilly Circus, is the focus of Jacob Roberts-Mensah’s excellent play.