Click here!

Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, The

The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler is a musical and visual journey based on the songs, stories and poems of one of Scotland’s most iconic exiles. Read more …

A Jewish, Scottish, Londoner, Ivor Cutler was a wholehearted eccentric whose music and words range from the whimsical to the disturbing; had he been born in Russia he'd perhaps be a Daniil Kharms or a Gogol. Here, Mr Cutler stands alone.

A true maverick, Ivor Cutler was the only artist to have been played on Radios 1,2,3 and 4. He was signed by all the major record labels, influenced the Beatles and was championed by John Peel.

The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler weaves together the music, prose, poetry and biography of Ivor Cutler to tell the story of a remarkable life, from birth, through boyhood, to old age and death.

More information on this production is available at www.nationaltheatrescotland.com.

The critical consensus

Strange, quirky and utterly charming.

Thom Dibdin, The Stage, 11/04/2014

Beautiful Cosmos is flawed. But it’s occasionally touched with magic.

***(*)(*)Lorna Irvine, Exeunt, 16/04/2014

Poignancy aside, the result is a big grin of a show, as funny and idiosyncratic as Cutler and every bit as embraceable.

****(*)Mark Fisher, The Guardian, 21/04/2014

As it ends – with a poignantly funny, cleverly imagined encounter between the poet and the God he didn’t believe in – one feels that one has had a very meaningful, delightfully pleasurable peek into Ivor Cutler’s beautiful cosmos.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage (Sunday Herald), 14/04/2014

Funny, evocative, celebratory and deceptively designed (as if for a straightforward music gig) by Kai Fischer, the show succeeds brilliantly in opening a window onto the undeniably beautiful cosmos of Ivor Cutler.

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage (Daily Telegraph), 17/04/2014

Cutler, a supporter of the Noise Abatement Society, asked his audience to applaud at fifty percent. Judging by the enthusiastic cheering of the Citz audience, it is unlikely that all audiences obliged.

****(*)Susannah Radford, The Skinny, 28/04/2014

Cavils aside (and this reviewer has a few), what emerges is nonetheless a clearly heart-felt attempt to honour a genuinely unique talent, one with its own very particular take on that fragile, fleeting creation, humankind.

***(*)(*)Bill Dunlop, Edinburgh Guide, 30/04/2014

This is both a beautifully paced and well balanced piece.

*****Neil McEwan, TVBomb, 30/04/2014

It is this combination of fun and beauty which is most fitting a tribute to the man in question, and while it perhaps does not do him justice, it is difficult to imagine what could. Even if all it manages is to introduce a few more people to Cutler’s works it would have been well worth doing.

****(*)Hugh Simpson, All Edinburgh Theatre, 30/04/2014


Features about Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, The

Scotland celebrates glorious eccentric Ivor Cutler

Brian Ferguson and Freya Findlay, The Scotsman, 10/12/2013

Ivor Cutler: 'He didn't live by the same rules as everyone else'

Jude Rogers, The Observer, 16/03/2014

Ivor Cutler: National treasure revisited

Susan Mansfield, The Scotsman, 24/03/2014

Theatre company Vanishing Point remembers gentle anarchist, poet and musician Ivor Cutler

Lorna Irvine, The List, 27/03/2014

The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler

Steven Brocklehurst, BBC, 31/03/2014

The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler@Citizens

Eric Karoulla, The Skinny, 03/04/2014

Preview: The Wonderful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, National Theatre of Scotland/Vanishing Point

Mark Brown, Scottish Stage (Sunday Herald), 31/03/2014

Where and when?

Citizens' Theatre, Glasgow from Thursday April 3, 2014, until Saturday April 19, 2014. More info: www.citz.co.uk

The Beacon, Greenock on Wednesday April 23, 2014. More info: http://www.beaconartscentre.co.uk/

macrobert, Stirling on Friday April 25, 2014. More info: www.macrobert.org

Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh from Tuesday April 29, 2014, until Saturday May 3, 2014. More info: www.traverse.co.uk

Comments: 0 (Add)

To post a comment, you need to sign in or register. Forgotten password? Click here.

Find a show


Search the site


Find us on …

Find us on FacebookFollow us on TwitterFind us on YouTube

Click here!