Ali Curran leaves Tron/Male and female audiences

After a year as artistic director of the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, Ali Curran is heading home to Ireland. The surprise departure comes just as she was about to launch the company's 25th birthday celebrations. Reasons are unclear, but she is said to have "burgeoning commitments" in Ireland and an advisory role in Romania for Sibiu's European Year of Culture 2007.

On Mark Fisher's Scottish Theatre Links today is another review of Good Reason by Reeling and Writhing. Someone observed that the women in the audience are leaving in tears and the men are leaving wondering what all the fuss was about. I was in the last camp. Could it be that there are different aesthetics for men and women? Am I just conditioned to respond to the "masculine" action of a tightly plotted play? Could I be reconditioned to accept the rules of something concerned more with exploring emotion than with narrative drive? Or is it universally true that the best way to explore emotion is through the forward thrust of a dynamic plot?

Chris Hannan, Denise Mina and Good Reason theatre review

My interview with playwright Chris Hannan was squeezed into a tight space in Scotland on Sunday yesterday, so I've included the article as I first wrote it here (and even then, there was a lot more I'd have liked to get in). Also on Mark Fisher's Scottish Theatre Links today is an interview with crime novelist Denise Mina who is stepping out into the world of theatre with a play at Oran Mor in Glasgow. And there's a review of Reeling and Writhing's Good Reason.

Sarah Kane meets Graeae

Two articles published in today's Scotland on Sunday - an interview with director Jenny Sealey about staging Sarah Kane's Blasted with her Graeae company, touring to Scotland this week; and an interview with Francis McKee about Glasgow's new art festival, Glagow International, and the plans for the city's financially troubled CCA which he is running for the next few months. Links to both are on Mark Fisher's Scottish Theatre Links

All the "ars": Artemis Fowl, Arthur Miller and the Arches Theatre Festival

Just brought Mark Fisher's Scottish Theatre Links up to date with a few recent articles.

They include a conversation with Richard Reed Parry of the Arcade Fire, who's contributed music for an installation at the Arches Theatre Festival in Glasgow - and, in the same article, a chat with Adriano Shaplin of the Riot Group. The latter could easily have made a feature in its own right - Shaplin's a bright guy with a lot to say.

There are also a couple of reviews of Arthur Miller's The Crucible performed by a mixed cast of professionals and amateurs for TAG and the National Theatre of Scotland - with mixed results.

My interview with Eoin Colfer was published in much reduced form by the Sunday Times: get in touch if you're an Artemis Fowl fan and I'll send you the full version.

There's also an interview with playwright David Harrower about the success of Blackbird.

Death of Ian Hamilton Finlay & Roam takes to the skies

Today on Mark Fisher's Scottish Theatre Links find links to a visual arts piece reflecting on the legacy of Ian Hamilton Finlay and an interview with director Ben Harrison about Grid Iron's site specfic theatre show Roam, performed at Edinburgh International Airport.