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1 month ago | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
Jennifer Reid performs nineteenth-century Lancashire dialect and Victorian broadside ballads. She comes from Rochdale, “but I admit it”. Reid sings unaccompanied throughout the evening but provides percussion for one of Carthy’s songs in the form of clog dancing. Eliza Carthy describes herself as a “modern English musician”. She sings centuries-old traditional songs, and more modern pieces including her own compositions. She mostly sings unaccompanied and occasionally brings out her fiddle.
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1 month ago | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
The Flames is a performance company for people over the age of fifty. Each member of the ensemble (I counted approximately 22) tells a moving story from their own past. The theme of the stories is ikigai, a Japanese term often translated as “purpose”. Ikigai is about the things that bring value and meaning to life.
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2 months ago | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
I’m not especially familiar with jazz, and if I’d heard this music on the radio, I wouldn’t have got it. It turns out that jazz makes more sense when you experience a live performance, and my ears begin to tune in to its language. It reminds me of the first time I saw Shakespeare performed. The gathering feels cosy, in the informal setting of the Traverse bar. I am struck by the intense concentration of each musician when the others are playing.
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Jan 12, 2025 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
The BA Dance and Drama students from PASS showcase their artistry in two ensemble pieces, created in collaboration with Dance Base. First up, the cryptically titled YGNEREME. The blurb in the programme talks about grief, collective action and emergency. A single dancer, Clara Browning, moves playfully in a spotlight, but then something changes and she is swept away by the collective. Assimilated, if you like.
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Oct 21, 2024 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
Nigeria’s population is overwhelmingly young, and unemployment is high. Amidst the hardship, dance is a popular creative outlet, and many young Nigerians share their talents through videos on social media. In 2014, Qudus Onikeku returned to his home city of Lagos, having achieved acclaim as a choreographer in France. He was inspired by the abundance of creative talent, and invited some dancers to a workshop.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
It started in my mid-forties. A woman, maybe a decade older than me, would look around to check for eavesdroppers, then say something like, ‘I can’t drink coffee anymore. Not since the menopause.’Nobody had prepared them for the change of life. Nobody spoke about it. For generations, everyone was blindsided by the menopause, just like that other taboo experience, menstruation.
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Sep 24, 2024 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
Ben Harrison and David Paul Jones were both teenagers in the 1980s. Both felt suffocated by their respective small towns, and both found solace in the music of the time. Harrison tells a selection of stories from his youth, and Jones performs his own interpretations of some of those songs. It’s a nostalgic revisit to a vibrant era that now seems defined by its contrasts. Emery Hunter’s integrated BSL interpretation drew me in right from the start.
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Aug 28, 2024 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
Everyone needs a laugh now and then, and Edinburgh-based Broadsword Theatre are here to save the day with a selection of comedy sketches. It’s energetic, playful, and, as the title suggests, ever so silly. Why work with a focus group to evaluate programming ideas for your TV station, when you can simply get a Content Goblin? This monosyllabic “average” viewer loves shows about hot people running pyramid schemes, and cops who are also other things, but whatever you do, don’t mention werewolves.
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Aug 27, 2024 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
Dionne (Molly Geddes) and Eilidh (Molly Jayne-Graham) want to take a selfie in front of the Hollywood sign, so they go on a retreat in a California convent. But the nuns won’t let them leave the building. On their last night, the resourceful teens make one last attempt to escape and go clubbing. Instead, they get trapped in the basement with cantankerous Sister Stacey (Emma Gray) and accident-prone Sister Grace (Olaya Ciccarelli-Bermudez).
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
northwestend.com | Wendy McEwan
Deep in the basement of Nebula Inc, a team of intrepid astrogeologists spot some weird rock markings on an alien world. Could this be evidence of life beyond our planet – or is it just another hoax? The interns are on strike, and they are torn between fighting for better pay and conditions and researching the discovery of a lifetime. Student Mae (Kikelomo Hassan) isn’t being paid at all, and she is really struggling to make ends meet.
