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Neil Cooper

@neilcooper.bsky.social

Writer & Critic The Noise of Art - neilcooper.substack.com coffeetablenotes.blogspot.com The Herald, The List, The Drouth, Scottish Art News, MAP, Hungry Beat.

850 Followers  |  238 Following  |  706 Posts  |  Joined: 03.12.2023  |  1.5098

Latest posts by neilcooper.bsky.social on Bluesky

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Jack, the beanstalk and a sassy heilan coo - a classic fairy tale with a Scots twist This rendition of Jack and the Beanstalk is underpinned by a plethora of power ballads and showtunes that give panto by way of a cheesy Fringe…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Jack and the Beanstalk, Jonathan O’Neill and Isaac Savage’s new ‘moooosical’ take on the classic story starring a cow named Caroline.

Dundee Rep until December 30. dundeerep.co.uk/events/jack-...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

11.12.2025 16:50 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Shop Local! #121 – W/E 12.12.2025 Not the only fun in town…

New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #121

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Leith Depot: SANKI: Studies in Photography: The House of Smalls: Upright Gallery: Edinburgh Castle: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: Scottish National Portrait Gallery: Leith Launderette:..

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

11.12.2025 10:28 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Get on your Dancing Shoes with this feel good comic drama that subverts expectations Dancing Shoes taps into a need for meaning as a feelgood hit that suggests everyone might benefit from stepping out and dancing to the beat of their…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social
review of Dancing Shoes, Stephen Christopher & Graeme Smith’s play about one man’s liberation as a private dancer.

Traverse Theatre Edinburgh until December 20. www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/eve...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

10.12.2025 15:06 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

An Audience with Pam Hogg

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In honour of fashion designer Pam Hogg, who died in November 2025, a piece from 2018 in which Hogg talks about designing costumes for a brand new production of Cyrano de Bergerac.

09.12.2025 10:00 — 👍 2    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Comic candour meets teenage turmoil in Theatre 118’s What’s the Craic, God? Theatre, What’s the Craic, God?, Theatre 118, Glasgow. Sweet seventeen and a self styled ‘half a virgin’, Aoife McDonagh can’t wait get away…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of What’s the Craic, God? Rebecca Donovan’s solo play about an Irish teenager’s rites of passage.

Seen at Theatre 118, Glasgow.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

08.12.2025 18:00 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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'A bold, offbeat Beauty and the Beast brings festive magic back to the Citizens' Theatre, Beauty and the Beast, Citizens Theatre, Glasgow. When times are tough, secret worlds await in this new look at the classic eighteenth…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Beauty and the Beast, Lewis Hetherington’s new version of the classic folk tale for the Citizens Theatre’s first Christmas show of the Glasgow theatre’s new era.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

08.12.2025 14:45 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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A fine Sunday evening of song at a packed Settlement Projects Edinburgh care of the indefatigable @px4m.bsky.social operation with French/Argentinian singer Fiesta En El Vacío, aka Luna Maria Cedrón, plus Glasgow’s Simone Antigone. Sorry to miss Raiments. Next time.

08.12.2025 13:17 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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'This is a moving meditation on legacy, loss and purging old demons' Theatre: Piano Smashers Pianodrome, St. Oswald’s Centre, Edinburgh, Neil Cooper, Four stars: This is a moving meditation on legacy, loss and…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Piano Smashers, Rupert Page and Rob Thompson’s play about unwanted legacies, which played at the all too appropriate Pianodrome venue in Edinburgh this weekend.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

07.12.2025 14:49 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

Tom Stoppard - Travesties

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From the archive, Tom Stoppard talks in 2018 about his play, Travesties, which looks at literary, artistic & political revolution by putting James Joyce, Tristan Tzara and V.I. Lenin in the same city in 1917

05.12.2025 10:38 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Shop Local! #120 – W/E 5.12. 2025 Not the only fun in town…

New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #120

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Leith Depot: Unlimited Corporation: Leith School of Art: SANKI: Studies in Photography: The House of Smalls: Edinburgh Castle: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: etc…

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

04.12.2025 10:31 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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@pitlochryft.bsky.social has a lot going on just now, but let’s not forget that on stage until December 21st is PFT’s revival of one of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s finest musicals.

As good a reason as any to unlock my essay from last year on the first film I ever saw.

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

03.12.2025 19:23 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Following the death last week of actor Jack Shepherd, who performed in many works by Trevor Griffith, I’ve unlocked my tribute to Griffiths from 2024 after Griffiths’s own death.

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

It also features an archive interview from 2007

02.12.2025 19:23 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Thank You for Calling, Larissa Ryan’s solo play about a young woman working corporate phone lines with only a bunny glove puppet to keep her sane.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Seen at Theatre 118, Glasgow.

01.12.2025 17:06 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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Like a Les Disques du Crepuscule salon, Paul Mackie/Research (violin) led The November Group’s debut performance of Fragments in Time alongside Julia Lee (violin/keys), Allan Radcliffe (cello) and Colin Bendall (sound design) with Mira Knoche (spoken word).

Standard Saturday night at Leith Depot.

30.11.2025 18:47 — 👍 3    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Cinderella: A Fairytale takes flight at the Lyceum with puppets, pizzazz and pure joy Theatre, Cinderella: A Fairytale, Royal Lyceum Theatre. The birds are circling in this new take on one of the greatest children’s stories ever…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Cinderella: A Fairytale, at the @lyceumedinburgh.bsky.social
until January 3.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

30.11.2025 15:38 — 👍 1    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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'He blew the mainstream British stage wide open': Tom Stoppard, Obituary Tom Stoppard – Playwright, Born July 3, 1937; died November 29, 2025

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social obituary of Tom Stoppard, writer of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead and much more besides.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/2566113...

30.11.2025 13:45 — 👍 5    🔁 2    💬 0    📌 0
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These 10 standout Christmas theatre shows will help you end the year in style Discover the best of Scottish theatre this Christmas, from festive pantos to standout new productions lighting up stages across the country.

Tis the season… My Herald Top 10 theatre shows around Scotland to see in December…

@cnauldtheatre.bsky.social @the-citizens.bsky.social @traversetheatre.bsky.social @edinplayhouse.bsky.social

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

29.11.2025 17:12 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of The Sound of Music, @pitlochryft.bsky.social Festival Theatre’s hit revival of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s classic musical.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

PFT until Dec 21. www.pitlochryfestivaltheatre.com/whats-on/the...

28.11.2025 14:29 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #119

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Leith Depot: Unlimited Corporation: Leith School of Art: SANKI: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: Scottish National Portrait Gallery: Studies in Photography: The House of Smalls: etc…

27.11.2025 09:13 — 👍 6    🔁 5    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

Jack Shepherd - Bill Brand, Frank Randle and Old Labour.

29.10.40 - 24.11.25

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

Following the death this week of actor Jack Shepherd aged 85, an archive interview from 2009.

26.11.2025 21:08 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Inside No.9 - Stage/Fright, Steve Pemberton and Reece Shearsmith’s live rendition of their darkly comic TV anthology series.

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

The Playhouse, Edinburgh until November 29. www.atgtickets.com/shows/inside...

26.11.2025 14:35 — 👍 4    🔁 1    💬 1    📌 0
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My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of The Big Day, Milly Sweeney’s play that looks back at the biggest gig Glasgow had ever seen through the eyes of 5 young women

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

Theatre 118, Osborne Street, Mon Nov 24 & Wed Nov 26. www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/gla...

24.11.2025 14:42 — 👍 1    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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As Bruce McLean’s magnificent I Want My Crown exhibition closes in Edinburgh this weekend, I’ve unlocked my look at the show.

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

From Nice Style to Walters Weekly, dancing to Kevin Coyne and reimagining Argyle Street in Glasgow. Plus an archive interview from 2017

21.11.2025 17:06 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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Play exposes what happens when the once-beautiful game is corrupted by money? Theatre review: The Red Lion, Theatre 118, Glasgow, Three stars: Patrick Marber’s play looks at how the purity of a once beautiful game can be…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of The Red Lion, Patrick Marber’s amateur football based play revived by Paperhat Theatre.

Theatre 118, 118 Osborne Street, Glasgow until Sat Nov 22. www.ticketsource.com/theatre-118/...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

20.11.2025 13:13 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

Shop Local! #118

open.substack.com/pub/neilcoop...

Edinburgh’s weekend starts here…

Leith Depot: Craigmillar Now: Leith Makers: Dundas Street Gallery: Unlimited Corporation: Hubcap Gallery: Leith School of Art: Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop: Banshee Labyrinth: etc..

20.11.2025 09:47 — 👍 3    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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A Play, a Pie and a Pint serves up bittersweet laughs in Strangers in the Night Theatre, Strangers in the Night, Oran Mor, Glasgow. In the wee small hours, the members of the Full Shilling Social Club gather under cover to share…

My @heraldscotland.bsky.social review of Strangers in the Night, Alan Muir’s new lunchtime play for A Play, a Pie and a Pint about two people who find friendship in a retirement village.

Oran Mor until Sat Nov 22. 1pm. playpiepint.com/whats-on/eve...

www.heraldscotland.com/life_style/2...

19.11.2025 16:13 — 👍 0    🔁 1    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

Patrick Marber - The Red Lion

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From the archive, as a new production of Patrick Marber’s play, The Red Lion, opens in Glasgow, Marber talks in 2019 about the beautiful game and the tensions that arise when big business comes calling.

19.11.2025 11:01 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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A word as well for Cabaret Voltaire opening act CURRENTMOODGIRL aka Greta Edith, who sang a scorching set of pounding fuzzed up noise laden torch songs that channeled the spirit of electroprimitivists the Lemon Kittens in a way that would even terrify David Lynch.

18.11.2025 01:51 — 👍 1    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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A blistering set by Cabaret Voltaire in SWG3 tonight, with Stephen Mallinder & Chris Watson, plus Eric Random and a young drummer covering all periods, a new piece by Watson, tributes to Richard H.Kirk and JD Twitch, and the inevitable encore of Nag Nag Nag. That was entertainment.

18.11.2025 01:21 — 👍 4    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0
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New on The Noise of Art…

Sheffield Special #3

The Cabaret Voltaire Files - Solo Agents - Stephen Mallinder, Chris Watson, Richard H. Kirk

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As Cabaret Voltaire play Glasgow on Monday, this bumper edition gathers up assorted interviews with all 3 original members

16.11.2025 09:43 — 👍 0    🔁 0    💬 0    📌 0

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