What's On Scotland 8-15 Apr: Douglas Stuart, Orphans and more

With Douglas Stuart's 2020 debut novel Shuggie Bain – a tender and tenacious tale of poverty and addiction based on Stuart’s childhood growing up in 1980s Glasgow – he gave us an instant Scottish classic. At once hilarious and heartbreaking, it became only the second Scottish novel to win the coveted Booker Prize and went on to be a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic.

Fans of Shuggie Bain haven’t had to wait long for Stuart’s followup. Young Mungo is released 14 April and is another devastating drama set in Glasgow, in this case in the early 90s, where the city is in economic ruin in the wake of Margaret Thatcher’s reign. Young Mungo and Shuggie Bain don’t only share a milieu. Like the earlier book, this sophomore effort is digging deep into Stuart’s early years growing up gay in a dysfunctional working-class family. “Thematically, I am still getting my hands around some pain, or some hurt, or some really big themes that will haunt me, I think, for my entire writing life,” Stuart told us in our April issue.

You’ve several chances to hear Stuart discuss Young Mungo this week as the book hits shelves. He’s in conversation with Louise Welsh on 14 April at Glasgow’s The Mitchell Library as part of the Aye Write festival, doing signings at Glasgow Waterstones on 15 April, visits Edinburgh on 16 April for a talk at The Tom Fleming Centre for Performing Arts and rocks up at Portobello Bookshop on 18 April.

Illustration: Amy Lauren

Barbara Hepworth: Art & Life
National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh. 9 Apr-2 Oct
One of the 20th century’s most influential artists gets a major retrospective. Featuring many of Hepworth’s ground-breaking modernist sculptures, as well as rarely seen drawings and paintings, this new exhibition is a remarkable journey through the last century’s turbulent creative, social, and political landscape. Photo: Jerry Hardman-Jones.

The Meaning of Zong
Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. 13-23 Apr
Penned and directed by Hamilton’s own Giles Terera, The Meaning of Zong tells the story of Olaudah Equiano, whose condemnation of a massacre aboard the slave ship Zong sets in motion the UK's abolitionist movement. Weaving together multiple characters, Terera’s debut play is as inventive as it is timely. Image: Josiah Hyacinth.

ADVERTISEMENT | Tectonics
City Halls and Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, 30 Apr & 1 May
Tectonics – Glasgow’s festival of new and experimental music – returns this month. Mixing composition, sound art, jazz, improvisation, and performance, discover the incredible line-up of local and international artists who’ll gather to explore what music can be. Plus, save by booking a Weekend Festival Pass before 22 April.

Night Music: Djrum + Loraine James + object blue
Fruitmarket Warehouse, Edinburgh. 15 Apr, 7pm
Fruitmarket’s immense new warehouse makes its debut as an experimental music space as part of new series Night Music. Beneath the eaves of Jyll Bradley’s sculptural installation Pardes, experimental producers Djrum, Loraine James and object blue will perform a series of atmospheric back-to-back sets. For those who like their music very good and very vibey. Image courtesy of Fruitmarket and artist.

Orphans
Armadillo, Glasgow. until 9 Apr
Cora Bissett and Douglas Maxwell have transform Peter Mullan’s darkly hilarious 1998 film Orphans into a stage musical. Comedian Robert Florence is making his stage debut here as one of the four siblings who go on various adventures across Glasgow on the eve of their mother’s funeral. Early word suggests this is a raucous delight (also at King's Theatre, Edinburgh, 12-16 Apr). Image: Peter Dibdin.

A Play, A Pie and A Pint spring season
Oran Mor, Glasgow. Various dates
The spring season of A Play, A Pie and A Pint returns to Oran Mor with a myriad of plays telling stories from all over Scotland. Proceedings kick off with Doric jukebox musical My Doric Diary (pictured, until 9 April), while next week sees the debut of Mooning (11-16 Apr), which follows a young woman who, after a break up, joins a cult worshiping the Man on the Moon. Image: A Play, A Pie and A Pint

Workshop
Edinburgh Printmakers. until 26 Jun
Edinburgh Printmakers are digging into the vaults with new exhibition Workshop. Curator Tiffany Boyle has assembled a treasure trove of rarely seen prints, including work by Eduardo Palozzi, Graham Fagen, Sam Ainsley, Rachel Maclean, Toby Paterson, Pio Abad, Hardeep Pandhal and Jacqueline Donachie. Visitors will also have an opportunity to see archive items including lithography stone used by John Byrne for his 2014 print Moonstruck. Image: Sam Ainsley, Passion Imagination Conscience.

BIOVERSE
Summerhall, Edinburgh. until 9 Jun
Summerhall are opening three exhibitions tonight as part of the Edinburgh Science Festival that explore the themes of the title BIOVERSE. The three shows are BLACK BOX – KINSHIP, a series of films curated by artist Louise Mackenzie and scientist Kasia Piro; G-Lands: An Out of Body Experience, a collaboration between artist Emily Fong and Dr Elaine Emmerson; and The Rooted Sea: Halophytic Futures, a project led by multidisciplinary artist and researcher Sonia Mehra Chawla and creative producer Miriam Walsh. Image: Black Box courtesy of Edinburgh Science Festival