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.
Strange, quirky and utterly charming.
Almost irresistible.
Beautiful Cosmos is flawed. But it’s occasionally touched with magic.
Poignancy aside, the result is a big grin of a show, as funny and idiosyncratic as Cutler and every bit as embraceable.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This is both a beautifully paced and well balanced piece.
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.
Scotland celebrates glorious eccentric Ivor Cutler
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Theatre company Vanishing Point remembers gentle anarchist, poet and musician Ivor Cutler
The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler
The Beautiful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler@Citizens
Preview: The Wonderful Cosmos of Ivor Cutler, National Theatre of Scotland/Vanishing Point
First Look: Ivor Cutler
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
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