A to Z of the year ahead

Scotland on Sunday’s experts reveal what 2012 has in store in arts and entertainment, from Alan Cumming to Zach Braff

A IS FOR ALAN CUMMING

When Robert Lepage brought Elsinore to Glasgow’s Tramway in 1996, he proved it was possible to perform a Shakespeare play (in this case, Hamlet) single-handedly. That should give some solace to Alan Cumming when he premieres his one-man version of Macbeth in the same venue (14-30 June). “This is going to be hi-tech, with a lot of multimedia,” says the Aberfeldy-born star, who developed the idea behind the National Theatre of Scotland production while thinking about the play’s sexual politics. “I’d originally wanted to do a production where we swapped around Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, and Macduff and Lady Macduff, to explore ideas about gender. Now I’m just doing the whole thing.” The show is co-directed by Black Watch’s John Tiffany and New York’s Andrew Goldberg.

Mark Fisher

B IS FOR BRAVE

Set in “the mystical Scottish Highlands”, Pixar’s new film combines Scots myths with a bid for the lucrative Disney Princess market. Kelly Macdonald voices Titian-tressed Princess Merida, the unlikely offspring of a union between Emma Thompson and Billy Connolly.

Despite a troubled history with both the original leading lady (Reese Witherspoon) and director (Brenda Chapman) departing the project, hopes are high for the animation studio’s first lead heroine, who has the voluminous hair of a Rapunzel yet is also as handy with a bow as Hawkeye. Other Scots accents are contributed by Kevin McKidd, Craig Ferguson and, er, Julie Walters. The film is out on 17 August.

Siobhan Synnot

C IS FOR CELTIC CONNECTIONS

The 19th edition of Glasgow’s world-renowned roots music extravaganza kicks off the year in typically sumptuous and genre-spanning style, featuring more than 2,000 performers in 300-plus shows over 18 heady days and nights. In chronological order, here’s our top ten must-sees:

1. Carolina Chocolate Drops/Punch Brothers, 20 January, O2 ABC. Two contrasting top Americana acts, respectively revitalising black string-band music and reinventing bluegrass.

2. Le Vent du Nord 10th Anniversary with Breabach & Väsen, 21 January, Main Auditorium, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Stunning Québécois four-piece celebrate in style with fiery Scottish outfit Breabach and sublime Swedish trio Väsen.

3. Bring It All Home, Gerry Rafferty Remembered, 22 and 23 January, Main Auditorium, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. A galaxy of stars including The Proclaimers, Jack Bruce, Ron Sexsmith and Maria Muldaur pay tribute to the late Paisley bard.

4. Jack Bruce with Lau & Friends/Domini Màgic, 25 January, Old Fruitmarket. Ex-Cream vocalist/bassist teams up with top avant-folk trio, plus strong Catalan support.

5. Cissokho Solo and Fidil/Fatoumata Diawara & Michael McGoldrick Quartet, 26 January, St Andrews in the Square. Mouthwatering dual encounter between the traditional and contemporary sounds of Senegal and Donegal, Mali and Manchester.

6. Peatbog Faeries/Stanley Odd, 29 January, O2 ABC. Mighty Celtic dance/trance majesty meets cutting-edge Scottish hip-hop.

7. Damien Dempsey/Kitty the Lion/ Eoin Glackin, 1 February, O2 ABC. Probably Ireland’s most compellingly eloquent singer-songwriter, with excellent young Scottish/Irish support.

8. Blues of the World, 2 February, O2 ABC. Blues as it’s lived and sung in Occitan, southern France, Native American tradition and modern-day Brixton.

9. Meschiya Lake and The Little Big Horns/The Wiyos, 4 February, Old Fruitmarket. Depression-era dance music minted anew, with two sizzling-hot combos out of New Orleans and New York.

10. Floating Palace, 5 February, O2 ABC. Stellar singer-songwriters’ circle uniting KT Tunstall, Martin and Eliza Carthy, Abigail Washburn, Howe Gelb and Robyn Hitchcock.

Sue Wilson

D IS FOR THE DARK KNIGHT RISES

Christopher Nolan directs Christian Bale in another instalment of brooding and killer abs. Their third and final act, released on 20 July, also includes Anne Hathaway and Tom Hardy as the villains Catwoman and Bane – but can the DC comic’s Dark Knight conquer his true movie nemesis, Marvel? Despite a mixed reception for Thor, Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk, the superhero all-stars are banding together this year as The Avengers, armed with thunderbolts and wisecracks. For those who are still not allergic to spandex soap operas, Andrew Garfield also reboots The Amazing Spider-Man this year. A showcase for Ant Man cannot be far behind.

Siobhan Synnot

E IS FOR ELAINE C SMITH AS SUSAN BOYLE

The woman known to millions as Mary Doll in Rab C Nesbitt remembers the moment Susan Boyle entered the nation’s consciousness. She was appearing in a West End run of Calendar Girls when, during the interval, her co-stars emerged from the dressing room in tears. They’d just seen an unknown middle-aged Scottish woman bring Britain’s Got Talent to a stand still singing I Dreamed A Dream. Now Elaine C Smith is starring as SuBo in a show named after the song. Co-written with her panto colleague Alan McHugh, it has every likelihood of going global. The first leg of the tour takes in His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen (3-7 April), and Eden Court, Inverness (11-16 June), with Boyle making a nightly cameo appearance. Hankies at the ready.

Mark Fisher

F IS FOR FOR ONCE

Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre spent the autumn without an artistic director after Dominic Hill moved west to Glasgow (see King Lear, below), so the arrival of Orla McLoughlin will be especially welcome. Her work is generally unknown in Scotland, so audiences will be intrigued to see For Once (4-14 April), a play she directed last year at London’s Hampstead Theatre, where it was praised for being “a small quiet cracker of a family drama”. Written by Tim Price, it arrives in Edinburgh as part of a spring season that includes repeat runs of recent hits by Grid Iron (Barflies), Catherine Wheels (White) and Magnetic North (Pass The Spoon).

Mark Fisher

G IS FOR GLASGOW INTERNATIONAL

We may now live in an increasingly virtual world; but visual artists, ever the contrarians, are keeping it real. Thus this year’s Glasgow International Festival has an emphasis on performance, real time and lived experiences: from the chance to have your lunch made by artists John Shankie and Andrew Miller in a tenement in the city’s Hill Street (they are damn good cooks) to a group show, Dialogue Of The Hands, where the work is designed to be directly handled and in some cases climbed upon.

If Glasgow now has an unrivalled reputation for contemporary art, then GI is the time to catch the city at its best in an event that combines its art scene’s stellar international status with its collaborative ethos and unfailing ability to hold a damn good party. The programme – 130 artists in more than 50 venues over 18 days, beginning on 20 April – will include a major new show from Karla Black at GoMA and works on paper by Turner Prize-winner Richard Wright in the grand surroundings of Kelvingrove. At Tramway, artist Graham Fagen and theatre-maker Graham Eatough will collaborate with Michael McDonough, the Scottish cinematographer whose US movie resume includes Winter’s Bone. The three have created a new work that is part installation, part live and filmed performance.

GI director Katrina Brown has set the bar high for her second edition of this biannual festival. Back in 2010, she commissioned the artist Susan Philipsz to make a new work. The artist chose the atmospheric railway bridge over the Clyde to sight her haunting soundpiece Lowlands and it went on to win the Turner Prize. Expect to have lots of fun at this year’s GI, but also to see history in the making.

Moira Jeffrey

H IS FOR HUNGER GAMES

If you’re unfamiliar with The Hunger Games, you’re probably just the wrong age. Suzanne Collins’ trilogy of sci-fi novels for teenagers has been hugely successful, particularly in America, and translated into 26 languages. Set in a post-apocalyptic America where children are forced to take part in a televised battle to the death, the story’s heroine is Katniss, who volunteers for the brutal games to save her younger sister. The book has now been made into a movie by Lionsgate, who must be hoping for another Twilight-sized franchise. Jennifer Lawrence – who made a big impression in the 2010 film Winter’s Bone – stars. It’s in cinemas from 23 March.

Andrew Eaton-Lewis

I IS FOR JOHN IRVING

And also for In One Person, the next novel from the American novelist who has topped the bestseller charts ever since The World According To Garp. It is narrated by Billy, a bisexual man, looking back on friends and lovers from half a century – a motley collection of convention-defying characters. The hypemasters at Bloomsbury promise that “this is a novel that makes you proud to be human”. It will hit bookshelves in May.

David Robinson

J IS FOR JAMES BOND

After a long delay due to MGM’s financial problems, Daniel Craig is back as 007 on 26 October.

Craig’s presence is probably enough, even without Ralph Fiennes, Javier Bardem and, a special 007 treat, Ola Rapace, the father of the other Dragon Tattoo’s Noomi Rapace. Sadly Scotland’s special cameo as the ancestral home of Bond has been ditched in favour of (closer, cheaper) Wales, but this third outing promises to reveal more about the private life of Dame Judi Dench’s unflappable M and gadgets galore seem guaranteed with Ben Whishaw joining the cast as Q.

Siobhan Synnot

K IS FOR KING LEAR

Dominic Hill made his name in Scotland at Dundee Rep, where he directed classics by Henrik Ibsen, Howard Barker and William Shakespeare. After a spell working with new plays at Edinburgh’s Traverse, Hill is now returning to the classics as new artistic director of the Citizens in Glasgow. His inaugural three-play season will kick off with Harold Pinter’s Betrayal (2-24 March), before Shakespeare’s King Lear (20 April-12 May) and Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape (30 May-2 June).

David Hayman, who cut his teeth at the Citizens in the 1970s, plays the title role in King Lear in a modern-dress production that promises to bring out the social impact of the tragedy. “It’s a bleak and brutal play that takes on the whole of humanity,” says Hill.

Mark Fisher

L IS FOR LONG JOHN SILVER

He’s back. The last time we heard of him, in Treasure Island, Jim Hawkins was musing that with all the money he’d brought home, the one-legged pirate probably was going to have a comfortable retirement. “It is to be hoped so,” he added, “for his chances of comfort in another world are very small.”

And who is this bringing him back? Sir Andrew Motion, no less, with a 432-page follow-up to Stevenson’s Treasure Island due out in April from Cape. As Catherine Tate used to say, “How very dare he?”

In his defence, Motion says that had Stevenson lived longer, he might well have returned to his 1883 novel himself and that writing his book Silver has been the most enjoyable project on which he has ever worked. In Motion’s tale, Silver sails back to Treasure Island in search of a cache of silver that had been left behind, but it’s his daughter Natty and Hawkins’ son Jim Jnr who are the main protagonists. Treasure Island: The Next Generation, in other words. Am I bovvered? As Catherine Tate also used to say. On this occasion, probably not.

David Robinson

M IS FOR MADONNA

At 53, Madonna is gearing up for her most comprehensive assault on the world of pop music to date. An internet leak of a partially complete song, Give Me All Your Love, started the wheels of hype rolling. In February, she has landed the most prestigious slot on American television with the viewing figures to match. The former Mrs Ritchie will be seen by millions providing the half-time entertainment at the Super Bowl final, reminding everyone of her back catalogue and previewing the much-anticipated new album. Will it be better than her last, Hard Candy? You would have to hope so.

Colin Somerville