PERFORMANCE

There were a number of outstanding productions in what turned out to be a relatively rich theatre year. Even though the Edinburgh Festival was fairly low key, it did host the Dublin Abbey Theatre's Quietly by Owen McCaffertey at The Traverse.

It's set in a Belfast Catholic pub where two middle-aged men meet, one whose father died in the pub's UVF bombing in 1974 and the other, who is the bomber.

With extended moments of tension-fuelled silence more resonant than any speech, the kind of agonised reconciliation which takes place is squeezed dry of any sentimentality.

Any play is as great as its performers can make it and that was certainly proved in the production of Bertholt Brecht's modern classic The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui at the Duchess Theatre in London.

In Henry Goodman's transformation from a seedy Chicago gangster into a maniac dictator of the city's cauliflower business the play acquired an almost frightening energy, removing it from the world of period satire undermining Hitler to one of threatening contemporaneity. The final warning that "the bitch that bore him is in heat again" made the audience's laughter ring rather hollow.

An unexpected triumph came with Frank Langella's ascent of Shakespeare's Everest, King Lear at Chichester.

This is the Bard's most cruel play not only in his treatment of age and family relationships but in the journey he demands of his protagonist. Langella, physically and vocally hugely impressive in his original self-confidence, visibly deteriorates into a human being divested of all power and self-delusions, recognising too late that reciprocal love is the only reliable prop in the brief transience of life.

Last, but certainly not least, Kander and Ebb's musical The Scottsboro Boys at The Young Vic in London was a stunning treatment of the notorious frame-up of nine southern black youngsters on a charge of raping two white girls.

It drew criticism for "inappropriateness" in some quarters but its framework of a vaudeville minstrel show - the ultimate white demeaning of the black identity - adds a telling potency to the vicious reality. The story of the multiple trials and tragic consequences is told through brilliant song and dance routines by a multi-talented cast.

Theatre doesn't get better than this.

Gordon Parsons

VISUAL ARTS

As a native of Brazil Sebastiao Salgado has witnessed in his homeland some of the most appalling and ruthless decimation of nature for profit anywhere in the world, often administered with the aid of murder of those who would dare to oppose it.

Most of his characteristic, arresting style was in abundance in Sebastiao Salgado: Genesis (above) at the Natural History Museum in London which grasping that elusive fraction of a second that makes the photograph that would defeat time and time again most of us.

His panache for composition is well documented as is the exceptionally rich tonality he achieves and endlessly tactile textures. Overloaded but capable of astonishing.

Intervals at the Barbican's Curve, also in London was an installation by Ayse Erkmen of 11 different stage backdrops at varying intervals which filled the length of the gallery, each being designed and painted by professionals working in the field.

These large images were continuously raised and lowered in a random sequence by an automated fly system and Erkmen's purpose seems to be to force the viewer - while trapped between backdrops, now alone now in company of others - to become a center-stage protagonist in a narrative only hinted at by the backdrop. It was time to let imagination to run free as life became a stage with the public taking on the role of players.

Michal Boncza

MUSIC

There are some gigs that make the audience fall in love with music all over again. Scout Niblett (below) turned in one such life affirming performance in June when she appeared at the Brudenell Social Club in Leeds.

Performing tracks from her sixth album It's Up To Emma, the Staffordshire-born, Portland-based singer-songwriter electrified with her intense delivery.

Backed by a two-piece band, she alternated between Nina Nastasia being played by To Bring You My Love-era PJ Harvey and Hole being interrupted by prog-rock guitar parts, all underlaid by the ever-present influence of Nirvana's Unplugged.

It was a sound that could have been hackneyed and reductionist yet managed to be scarily brilliant. The prospect of reductionism also threatened Suede but their set at O2 Academy Leeds in October found the five-piece in revitalised and re-energised form.

Where many reformed acts from the 1990s rely on pure nostalgia, Brett Anderson's outfit was keen to demonstrate that they remain a contemporary force to be reckoned with through the release of Bloodsports.

Material drawn from it stood up admirably well against classic tracks such as The Two Of Us and So Young, making it possible for them to attract a new cohort of fans.

This cross-generational appeal also applied to Patti Smith when she performed an intimate fund-raising gig at The Old Schoolroom in Haworth last April.

Supported only by Tony Shanahan on acoustic guitar and harmonies, she guided the 125-strong audience through visionaries - My Blakean Year - talented lives cut short - This Is The Girl - and empowerment on the encore People Have The Power.

Frequently contextualizing her material through readings and anecdotes, it was with Because The Night that she really raised the roof.

Performed 35 years to the day after the track was released, it proved she'd lost none of her passion or ability to inspire.

Susan Darlington

Diehards wanting a hit off Nigel Kennedy at the Royal Albert Hall certainly got what they hoped for - and the most brilliantly outrageous and audacious musical performance to boot - at the BBC Proms.

With it came one of the year's talking points, as the violinist claimed that his comment about the Israeli-Palestinian divide being a form of apartheid had been censored before a broadcast of the performance to millions.

Kennedy's programme included perfectly judged improvised jazz and techno-cycle interventions and a recharge of Vivaldi's timeless Four Seasons with moments of spine-tingling energy and sublime calm.

Kennedy was in his element but it was his self-effacing and open engagement with the young musicians from Palestine Strings, Orchestra of Life that gave this performance it's most touching moments.

Earlier in the year pianist Keith Jarrett laid out his stall with a wonderful demonstration of solo improvisation at the Royal Festival Hall while newcomers The Computers went wild and Samaris provided an arresting ambient debut.

Sigur Ros played live across the land with their mind-blowing sonic psycho a threat to anyone with fragile sensitivities and, in pursuit of things plugged in and electrified Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds (above) at the Hammersmith Apollo stoked up the fires for the living damned, as only the grand stallion of rock and roll poetry could.

Last but by no means least, the electro-techno rave tribes were well served by tours from Basement Jaxx, The Orb and System 7, who certainly kept the anarchic fires of insurrection alight.

Peter Lindley