The Edinburgh International Festival launched its programme at a press conference in Edinburgh today. Artistic director Jonathan Mills’ final festival features a series of productions exploring the relationship between Culture and Conflict in the year of the centenary commemoration of the First World War.
Mills maintains his promise not to programme anything directly connected to the referendum on Scottish independence which takes place shortly after the festival closes at the end of August; however, Rona Munro’s trilogy of plays funded by The Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund, The James Plays, is likely to provide sufficient fodder for discussions about Scotland’s place in the world through the lens of 15th century history.
The plays about three Stewart kings, at the Festival Theatre, star James McArdle, Blythe Duff, Andrew Rothney, Jamie Sives and Sofie Gråbøl among an ensemble cast directed by Laurie Sansom. The trilogy marks the first co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and the National Theatre of Great Britain, and the Edinburgh International Festival as well as Laurie Sansom’s artistic debut as artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland.
While conflict and war may be a theme this year, Mills says he is looking to present “intimate and epic” work that brings together cultures around the world.
“‘I look forward to welcoming audiences from Scotland and around the world to Edinburgh this August to share in compelling stories from artists who are exploring and transcending conflict to create the most sublime and optimistic work,” he says.
Post-apartheid South Africa celebrated
With the Commonwealth Games taking place in Glasgow, there's something of a Commonwealth theme with work in particular by artists from Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
One of the must-see shows is likely to be the world premiere of a new ballet Inala (meaning abundance of goodwill), part of a season of work celebrating the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa. Composer Ella Spira has collaborated with Ladysmith Black Mambazo to provide a live soundscape for dancers from Rambert and The Royal Ballet choreographed by Mark Baldwin.
Handspring Puppet Company is remounting the work with which it made its name internationally, Ubu and the Truth Commission. The show, appearing at the Royal Lyceum Theatre, is based on the text by Alfred Jarry and the transcriptions of the South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee.
South African artist Brett Bailey also brings his provocative and widely acclaimed live installation Exhibit B to the grand setting of the Playfair Library Hall. The performance cum exhibition features 13 tableau vivant installations featuring black performers as a commentary on European colonialism.
Opera on a grand scale
Opera goes large with Berlioz’s Les Troyens, being staged in Scotland for the first time in over 40 years by Valery Gergiev and the mass forces of the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra.
Also in the opera programme for Festival 2014 is Benjamin Britten’s opera written for television, Owen Wingrave, a co-production between Aldeburgh Music and Edinburgh International Festival. A story of a young man’s moral tussle with his family’s military history and expectations in a production directed by Neil Bartlett and conducted by Mark Wigglesworth, this is the first time Owen Wingrave will be staged at the Festival.
Paris in Winter, 1913
The Festival’s other co-productions this year include The War. The story of young artists in Paris from 1913 onwards is directed by Vladimir Pankov and staged by the Chekhov International Theatre Festival. Another co-pro is I AM, a new production from choreographer Lemi Ponifasio and MAU, last at the Festival in 2010 with Birds with Skymirrors and Tempest: Without a Body.
Tom Cairns directs Peter Eyre in an Edinburgh International Festival production of Minetti, a Thomas Bernhard play, in association with Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and The Julliard School in New York.
The Festival has also commissioned the revival of Akram Khan’s Gnosis in which he dances alongside Fang-Yi Sheu.
Also on the dance side, the late Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal returns with her distinct dance theatre Sweet Mambo, a roller-coaster ride through relationships between men and women, and Heiner Goebbels returns directing Ensemble musicFabrik in the large scale music-theatre work Delusion of the Fury by American composer Harry Partch.
Cinematic plays
Perhaps the most curious show on the war theme will be from participatory dance experts Bal Moderne, who intend to immerse audiences in the songs and dances of wartime Europe encouraging everyone to dress up in period clothing and dance in Escaping War.
Kronos Quartet plays live for its new collaboration with composer Aleksandra Vrebalov and filmmaker Bill Morrison, Beyond Zero: 1914 – 1918 using the cinema set-up at the Festival Theatre, alongside a concert in the Usher Hall featuring Glass’s recent collaboration String Quartet No 6 and music by Clint Mansell made famous through the films of Darren Aronofsky.
Flemish director Luk Perceval returns to the Festival after 10 years with his company Thalia Theater staging FRONT, bringing together actors and texts from countries on all sides of the First World War including Remarque’s famous novel All Quiet on the Western Front.
Canadian Stage brings together visual artist Stan Douglas and screen writer Chris Haddock in Helen Lawrence, bringing seduction to the stage with this film noir styled thriller of the 1940s is a ground breaking multimedia production.
Ganesh Versus the Third Reich is a provocative and comical story of the elephant god’s attempt to reclaim the swastika from Nazi Germany, conceived and performed by an ensemble of actors with disabilities, which gives voice to social and political issues relevant to everyone.
Usher Hall Concert Series
The Opening Concert brings together three works written in the years preceding the First World War by Schoenberg, Scriabin and Debussy conducted by conductor and composer Oliver Knussen and performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Kirill Gerstein and Claire Booth.
The Usher Hall’s 23 concert season includes Holst’s The Planets, Britten’s War Requiem, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Ute Lemper, the first performance of Shostakovich’s Leningrad Symphony at the Festival, the Festival debut of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra with Erin Wall and the Czech Philharmonic in two concerts the first of which stars Nicola Benedetti and the second mezzo soprano Bernarda Fink.
Teatro Regio Torino, making its UK debut, performs William Tell in concert with conductor Gianandrea Noseda.
Bernstein’s Kaddish Symphony, dedicated to the memory of President John F Kennedy, is performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and narrated by holocaust survivor and UN Special Envoy Samuel Pisar.
The Usher Hall closes with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra playing Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Sandakan Threnody by outgoing Festival director and composer Jonathan Mills.
The Festival’s musical ambassadors the Edinburgh Festival Chorus, a 130-strong choir drawn from Edinburgh and elsewhere in Scotland and now in its 49th year, play a central role in The Opening Concert, The Planets, Britten’s War Requiem, the Kaddish Symphony and the closing concert in the Usher Hall.
Greyfriars early evening concert series returns, opening with Messiaen’s sublime Quartet for the End of Time played by an ensemble of Steven Osborne, Alban Gerhardt, Antje Weithaas and Jörg Widmann.
The world premiere of Patria brings Paco Peña Flamenco Company back to the Festival with a personal new work in music and song by Peña inspired by the poet, artist, playwright and musician Federico García Lorca.
BBC broadcasts
BBC Radio 3 broadcast 14 concerts live from The Queen’s Hall including Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Anna Prohaska, Trio Verlaine and Artemis Quartet and record four in the Usher Hall for future broadcast including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra conducted by Maris Jansons, and Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent singing Bach’s Mass in B minor.
EIF Talks and Film Screenings
Continuing on the theme of Culture and Conflict talks by leading commentators including Sir Adam Roberts, Professor Margaret MacMillan and Sir Hew Strachan among many others is complemented by a series of films based on stories from times of war including The Burmese Harp, The Tin Drum and Darfur.
The EIF is following up last year’s inaugural schools lecture with Jean Kilbourne, an event open to all young people. This year’s speaker at the Festival’s Young People’s Lecture is Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal reflecting on his life from child soldier to political activist.
Australian artist Danie Mellor presents Primordial: SuperNaturalBayiMinyjirral at the National Museum of Scotland, drawing on its World Cultures Collection as well as his own indigenous and European heritage.
As always the Festival will go out with The Virgin Money Fireworks Concert with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra performing a particularly rousing Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, among other rousing classics, as more than 400,000 fireworks are launched above Edinburgh castle.
Ticket specials
The Festival’s Young Musician Passport in association with the City of Edinburgh Council gave almost 700 pupils learning an instrument or singing in choirs free tickets to Festival concerts last year. This scheme will be developed in 2014 to offer students of music in the Lothians access to free tickets as well.
Students and young people are able to buy tickets for half price from the opening of booking, and those 26 and under can still access £8 on-the-day tickets for the best available seats during the Festival.
Free podcasts
The Festival is rolling out a series of 60 podcasts from launch day through to the Festival on its website which offers interviews with artists, musical extracts and insights into all the music events in a new partnership with online music site sinfinimusic.com, Festival SoundBites from Sinfini Music.
EIF Funding
EIF ticket sales account for approximately one quarter of the organisation’s annual turnover. The Festival costs around £10.5m with £2.67million fundraised as a not-for-profit charity from sponsors, trusts, foundations international partners and individuals in 2014.
The Festival says that its ability to generate such commitment and ongoing support from its range of donors is made possible by the sustained core support of its public funders Creative Scotland and the City of Edinburgh Council.
EIF in the community
The Festival’s year round programme of community engagement activities continues to grow and is expected to reach around 8,500 people in 2014. Love in a…. the Festival’s pop-up performance series is set to perform in 13 venues across the city including galleries, museums, bookshops, libraries, gardens and even palaces.
Tickets go on sale for the Festival to Friends and Patrons of the Festival on Wednesday 19 March. Tickets go on sale to the general public from Saturday 29 March.