The Edinburgh Reporter May 2021

20 THE ARTS
JL Preece
Children’s
Festival
Connecting children with art from 25 May to 6 June
By JOHN PREECE
THE EDINBURGH International Children’s Festival
has announced its 2021 hybrid programme of online
and outdoor theatre and dance for young people
following months of planning (and re-planning).
The digital programme will include streamed
performances such as Removed (the gripping story
of a young man’s experience of the care system) and
innovative “live” digital interactions such as The
University of Wonder & Imagination (a live magic
show over Zoom).
To complement the online offer, the Festival
programme includes Family Encounters, a series of
free pop-up performances happening in outdoor
spaces across Edinburgh in the first and last
weekend of the Festival.
Festival Director Noel Jordan said: “There are so
many things to celebrate about this year’s Children’s
Festival. We are proud to be able to offer paid work to
so many Scottish artists, freelancers and companies,
from an industry that has almost been at a standstill
for over a year.
"Most importantly, we are appreciative and inspired
by the opportunity to be able to present much need arts
and culture to children, young people and their families
at this time of need. As our community re-emerges from
lockdown, now is the time to enjoy the world of wonder,
curiosity and connectedness that the arts can offer us.”
www.imaginate.org.uk
Lift off for student opera
The unicorn by
Nudge Puppets
with Rosa
Festival pops up in new format
This summer Edinburgh International Festival will go under canvas in three
locations such as that featured above in the Old Quad at the University of
Edinburgh. Live performances will be shorter and there will be no intervals.
By DAVID LEWIS
LOCAL STUDENT ensemble,
Edinburgh Studio Opera,
managed little short of a miracle
by putting on an entire
performance recorded using
their singers’ webcams amid the
heights of lockdown. The
production, The Remarkable
Rocket, was an adaptation of the
Oscar Wilde short story of the
same name, with various “best
hits” from classic operas woven
around the plot.
Student music groups have
been hard-hit amid the
pandemic, subject to often two
or more sets of restrictions yet
lacking the ample online
resources of professional
ensembles. But ESO made the
best of some rudimentary
technology to give the
performance a flamboyant, if
low-budget, aesthetic that
strangely suited the zany
sentiment of Wilde’s prose – a
tongue-in-cheek moralising
fable about a precocious
anthropomorphised firework
(yes, really!).
There were plenty of good
performances and some
exceptional ones, both from the
more experienced soloists and
the up-and-coming singers who
performed duets or trios. The
best singers leant into the
strengths of their youthful voices
with keen attention to not just
the musical expression but also
the textual detail.
If you’re looking for something
with high production values then
The Remarkable Rocket
definitely isn’t for you. But if
you’re willing to part with the
modest sum of £5 (plus a small
booking fee, or even less if you’re
a student) to help aspiring
singers keep doing what they
love, you might find yourself
charmed by this exuberant, if
slightly make-do-and-mend
performance.
To purchase your viewing of the
online performance please visit:
edinburghstudioopera.org