Laughing and dancing and chilling our blood A week of cultural thrills

THEATRE

Sean and Daro Flake It ’Til They Make It, Traverse Theatre, from Friday to April 23

Laurie Motherwell’s new play takes one ice cream, two Weegie wannabe entrepreneurs and a friendship tested to the limits.

Sean Connor and Cameron Fulton play our eponymous heroes in this comic treat directed by Robert Softley Gale.

BRIAN BEACOM’S PREVIEW: P37

MUSIC

The Matt Goss Experience with MG Big Band and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Thursday

Matt Goss is “Britain’s Sinatra” according to one tabloid, which seems a bit over the top, but there’s no doubt the former Bros frontman has managed to reinvent himself of late thanks to a lengthy stint in Las Vegas. This show is a throwback to the big band sound and sees him tackle the Cole Porter songbook as well as the odd Bros tune. Admit it, you’re kind of curious. If you can’t make the Glasgow date he’s also playing the Usher Hall in Edinburgh on April 22.

The Bathers, Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, Friday

Purveyors of the lushest of chamber pop back in the 1980s, Chris Thomson’s band has made a return to the live circuit in the last couple of years to remind us just how good they were back in the day. And if anything Thomson’s voice might even be better in the 21st century. An intimate musical treat, in other words.

BALLET

A Streetcar Named Desire, Scottish Ballet, Theatre Royal, Glasgow, Thursday to Saturday

Scottish Ballet’s award-winning adaptation of Tennessee Williams’s classic play makes its first return to Scotland since 2015 with these dates in Glasgow, before touring around the country between now and June. Choreographed by Annabelle Lopez Ochoa and directed by Nancy Meckler, this production also features costume design by Niki Turner and Peter Salem’s score played live by the Scottish Ballet Orchestra. “Dance, desire, despair” is the promise. Sounds like a good night out.

FILM

Sands: International Film Festival of St Andrews, from Friday

There’s making an impression and there’s showing off. And Sands:

International Film Festival of St Andrews is definitely doing the latter next weekend with a threeday programme of screenings and talks. Guests include Ellen Mirojnick, costume designer on Bridgerton and Basic Instinct, intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien, casting director Margery Simkin (Top Gun, Avatar) and Stanley Tucci, below left, who’ll be in conversation with Joe Russo after a screening of his directorial debut Big Night next Saturday.

FICTION

Cast A Cold Eye, Robbie Morrison, Macmillan, £16.99, published on Thursday

Helensburgh-born author Robbie Morrison won the Bloody Scotland Scottish Debut award with his first novel Edge of the Grave.

Now he returns with a sequel, a hefty page-turner, once again set in Glasgow in the early 1930s. Down these mean streets his heroes Dreghorn and McDaid must once again go.