00:00Hello and welcome to the Daily Video Bulletin for The Scotsman for this Tuesday.
00:05My name's Dale Miller, I'm Deputy Editor of The Scotsman and I'm joined by our arts and culture correspondent, Jane Bradley.
00:12And Jane, we're in the summer, it means festival season isn't too far away and it feels like we have a fair bit to talk about,
00:20but I'm just going to mention the front page of today's paper first.
00:23And we're led on union fury, as John Swinney said, the public sector has to shrink.
00:30John Swinney gave a speech yesterday across in Glasgow.
00:34He was talking about the regeneration or renewal of public services and he mentioned the need to trim back
00:42and effectively reduce the number of jobs across the public sector.
00:46He did reference the spending review as part of this, but there has been union reactions suggesting
00:52that it will be a political choice to cut back jobs in the public sector, not a financial imperative.
01:00Some union chiefs are unhappy with some of the wording used.
01:03And there's also been a little bit of criticism of John Swinney around why at this point of government
01:10and at this point of the SNP being in power just under 12 months out from the election
01:15that they're re-talking about renewing public services.
01:18So a bit of focus on the government, which has also announced today a date in March next year
01:25for the two-child benefit cap to be scrapped.
01:28You can read both those stories at scotsman.com.
01:31Jane, I want to talk about, you know, slightly more uplifting or inspiring stuff, we should say.
01:37You've got a couple of stories that have gone up on the site earlier today about the Royal Lyceum,
01:43but an interesting one about the new one-day musical that's playing.
01:48Yeah, so it was the official launch last night of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh's season program
01:53for next year, for next season.
01:56This is nothing to do with the festivals.
01:57This is the normal program.
01:59So we already knew quite a few of the shows that were coming out.
02:03We'd already sort of reported on it a week or so ago, but there was more information came out
02:08about the one-day musical, which is obviously going to be, I think, the big hit for next year in Scotland.
02:14It is the story of, it's a novel by David Nicholls, which I think is very well known.
02:19It was a bestseller at the time, and it is set in Edinburgh.
02:23The start of the action takes place in Edinburgh, where a couple called Dexter and Emma meet
02:27as they're graduating from Edinburgh University.
02:31It's going to be, it's going to be shown as a musical on the stage next year.
02:35It's already had a Netflix adaptation and a film quite a number of years ago now.
02:40But David Gregg, who's adapting it for the stage, was talking last night about how he's going to do that.
02:45And he talked about some sort of iconic Edinburgh landmarks, which are likely to feature in the show.
02:48One of which is a very well-known student pub, which is going to be the kind of main set for the beginning of the show.
02:56And it's the pear tree. And it's going to be recreated on stage.
03:02And the theatre is going to be in the round. So the audience is going to feel like they're in the pub.
03:06They're going to be there with them. They're going to be sitting there and experiencing the action like that.
03:10He also said he was inspired by Camera Obscura, the tourist attraction, which is a Victorian sort of invention, really,
03:17which uses light and lenses to reflect a picture.
03:22And in the case of the Camera Obscura, it's on the high street.
03:24So it shows people walking down the high street.
03:27And he said he wants people to feel like that's what they're looking at.
03:29That's Dexter and Emma are going to be spied on, really.
03:32And he's sort of taken inspiration from that in his staging of the play.
03:36So it should be quite interesting.
03:37I don't know about you, Jane, but I think a visit to the pear tree is a staple that I fit in every festival season at a minimum.
03:45Just looking to some other coverage, you also had an exclusive which has been on the site as of this morning
03:53about a festival that's had to be postponed or cancelled because one of the star attractions can't be there.
04:01Yeah, that's right.
04:02So it's the festival that is being held by Arc 27 Scotland, which is a – the festival is called Culture Equals Life.
04:11And it's a Palestinian arts festival.
04:14And one of the participants is a filmmaker called Moyad Abu Amuna, who was due to travel from Gaza for the event.
04:22He was being sponsored by the University of Edinburgh's Artists at Risk programme.
04:26And he was due to come over with a group of academics.
04:29Unfortunately, he has not been able to leave the country.
04:31They're not quite sure exactly where he is.
04:35I think the university is still in touch with him.
04:37The festival said they've lost touch with him because there's been very difficult problems with communication in Gaza in the last week.
04:44There was an internet cable which was providing sort of last outward communications, which was severed during the conflict.
04:53So it's been very difficult to get in touch with him.
04:55And they're obviously quite worried about him over the next few weeks.
04:57He's been in Gaza the whole time.
04:59And so they've cancelled the event.
05:00They say they don't want to screen his films without him.
05:02They want him to be here for the Q&A and to explain what it's been like living under the conflict in Gaza for the past 18 months or three years now.
05:13You can read that story at scotsman.com and some of the latest coverage in and around the situation between Israel and Iran,
05:22as well as that escalation of the conflict drags into a fifth day.
05:27Jane, I think we were talking before this record that the Book Festival launch feels like a lifetime ago.
05:34It was only in the past week and it will be on the must-visit events and schedules for a lot of people coming to the festival in August.
05:43Can you just touch on a couple of the highlights for us and what we've got to look forward to?
05:47Yeah, absolutely.
05:48It feels like there is some kind of fringe launch almost every day at the moment.
05:51It's non-stop.
05:53But yes, the Book Festival launch was, I think, just a week ago.
05:57It does feel like a lot longer.
05:59There's some big names that have already been announced.
06:02There was Nicola Sturgeon, who's going to be talking about her memoir.
06:06But some of the newer names that were announced last week, we've got, I think this is going to be one that's really popular.
06:12I mean, it depends on whether you've got a teenager or not.
06:15But Alice Oseman, who is the author of the Heartstopper graphic novel series, which has been made into a absolutely huge Netflix show.
06:22She is going to be speaking, which I think will be definitely one that people will be fighting for tickets over.
06:28For also just on the sort of children's programme, there's Julia Donaldson, who always proves very popular.
06:32But then also we've got the likes of Maggie O'Farrell.
06:37There is the Indian author who is very, very well known for one of his previous books.
06:45But Amitav Ghosh, who is going to discuss wild fictions, which is a collection of his writings from the past 25 years.
06:50That should be a big one.
06:51So, yeah, there's quite a lot going on, quite a lot to see.
06:53And obviously split across several venues, its new home at the Edinburgh Futures Institute for the second year, I think, as well.
07:05So if you want to find out exactly who's going to be there and the highlights of the festival, we've got full coverage at the Scotsman site from Jane, just taking you through all of that.
07:15So please follow us on social media for all the very latest news here in Scotland and further afield and go out and buy a copy of the Scotsman tomorrow.
07:24We'll have full coverage, including details from the first ever Scotland 2050 conference, which is taking place at the Assembly Rooms today, with key speeches from the likes of John Sweeney, Kate Forbes and Cherie Blair.
07:37You can pick up a copy of the paper on the newsstands tomorrow for all the latest.
