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Cul-De-Sac

Cul-De-Sac

Capable garden-fence comedy

(3 stars)23 Aug 2011

Scripted by Matthew Osborn, this natty little three-hander (Alan Francis, Mike Hayley, Toby Longworth) relocates The ’burbs to Middle England. Taking the tested trope of a seeming idyll masking a sinister reality, the deviant Tony Deveraux rules the…

Silken Veils

Silken Veils

Tenderly performed memories

(3 stars)23 Aug 2011

We join a Persian woman (Leila Ghaznavi) as she freaks out about her impending nuptials. Using puppetry, silhouette-work and animation to complement live action we are taken on a journey through her memories of Iran, suffused with the poetry of Rumi. A…

Dan Canham: 30 Cecil Street

Dan Canham: 30 Cecil Street

A theatre's story told through unusual interpretation

(3 stars)23 Aug 2011

Canham tells the story of a now dilapidated theatre in Ireland through movement and actions, set to a soundtrack of voices, everyday sounds and ambient noise. An unusual piece of dance-theatre with a surprising amount of humour, even if the recorded…

One Thousand and One Nights

One Thousand and One Nights

Flagship EIF production feels like a rediscovery of a lost classic

(4 stars)22 Aug 2011

There’s a tremendous life force pulsating through director Tim Supple’s reclamation of these ancient folk tales. It’s a life force that exists, most palpably, for Houda Echouafni’s Shahrazad, whose survival depends on her ability to spin a yarn and…

I, Malvolio

I, Malvolio

Revisiting Shakespeare’s maligned steward

(4 stars)22 Aug 2011

Appearing in the latter half of a Festival that has made its theatre audience work harder than in previous years, Tim Crouch keeps us on the edge of our seats with a show that probes cultural tastes through the figure of Shakespeare’s much maligned…

The Fall Children

The Fall Children

Weak storyline made up for by macabre, colourful underworld

(3 stars)22 Aug 2011

This sinister fairytale turns a place that young children fear to tread – under the bed - into a delightfully macabre underworld. A little girl awakes to find that she and her stuffed toy Caruso have fallen into this dark chasm. With the help of a…

Llwyth (Tribe)

Llwyth (Tribe)

Overlong play with little to say about contemporary life

(1 star)22 Aug 2011

Dafydd James’s text deals with issues of home and relationships, of both blood and fraternity, as well as the responsibilities these bring. Thirty-something Welshman living in London returns home to Cardiff and hooks up with his old friends from the gay…

Bash

Bash

Utterly convincing and compelling

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

With no set, no more than a few props, and only the faint murmur of a soundtrack, this show relies solely on its script and actors' abilities: it's lucky that they're both brilliant. Neil LaBute's three monologues, first shown in 1999, unravel moments…

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik

Poignantly Pixar-esque underwater adventure

(4 stars)19 Aug 2011

Alvin Sputnik’s poster comparison to Wall-E is an apt one, although other Pixar parallels would fit equally well. As in Finding Nemo, this underwater world is vast and filled with danger. As in Up, there are moments of heartbreaking grief. And like…

(g)Host City - Virtual festival at Edinburgh Fringe

(g)Host City - Virtual festival at Edinburgh Fringe

Behind the scenes at spoken word audio tour project

19 Aug 2011

It’s day one of the Fringe. I’m walking up the steps of the Library but I’m not going to take anything out, i’m going to put something in. My palms are tingling and my hands are shaking a little as I clutch the bag containing my precious quarry. Looking…

May I Have the Pleasure . . . ?

May I Have the Pleasure . . . ?

Champagne, slow dancing and loneliness

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

Adrian Howells is a warm and empathetic character and a captivating speaker. This helps to explain why he’s been picked to be a best man six times. However, in this one-man show he’s facing up to some cold facts. Like how, at 50 years old, he’s still…

Viewless

Viewless

Paranoid Orwellian bureaucracy has comically sinister effect

(3 stars)19 Aug 2011

A paranoid story of Orwellian bureaucracy played for comically sinister effect, this short piece feels unfinished. We’re introduced to two officers from the Witness Protection Programme, going about their daily business in a warehouse; the boredom, the…

(g)Host City

(g)Host City

Edinburgh audio tours from spoken word performers

(3 stars)18 Aug 2011

First thing in the morning, I’m standing on top of Calton Hill looking out to Arthur’s Seat, Princes Street and the Pentlands. It’s a view I never tire of, but on my headphones Jenny Lindsay is giving a different message. ‘Edinburgh, you old tart,…

Beowulf – A Thousand Years Of Baggage

Beowulf – A Thousand Years Of Baggage

Postmodern interaction with a classic

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

As Beowulf was pitted against the manbeast Grendel in the Old English epic, NY theatre company Banana Bag & Bodice pits Beowulf the man against Beowulf the text in this clever, stylish interaction with a classic. Seemingly set in a jazz club, three…

Federer Vs Murray

Federer Vs Murray

Geopolitics, war and tennis

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

Any illusion that the tennis match of the title will be at the centre of Gerda Stevenson’s production of her own text is quickly dispelled in this transfer from Oran Mor’s admirable Play, Pie & Pint lunchtime theatre strand. Yet the game plays a…

Crunch

Crunch

Cunning manipulation of attitudes to money

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

A theatrical performance acutely parodying motivational lectures, or an actual motivational lecture? Gary McNair is playing with his audience, and they’re probably not the type who thought they were susceptible to such things. They probably think…

An Instinct for Kindness

An Instinct for Kindness

Dignitas tale told with dignity

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

Last year, Chris Larner accompanied his ex-wife Allyson to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland and watched as she drank a liquid that would swiftly end her life. Here, with just a simple chair as a prop, Larner recounts the days, weeks and years leading…

The Dark Philosophers

The Dark Philosophers

Dark Welsh classic given a postmodern twist

(4 stars)17 Aug 2011

Death is no impairment to being on stage (as being a goat is no impairment to being a stagehand) in this darkly comic delight from National Theatre Wales and Told by an Idiot. Weaving together two novellas from Welsh English-language writer Gwyn Thomas…

Futureproof

Futureproof

A fairly unshocking freak show

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

In the world of the freak show there is, Lynda Radley’s play informs us, a hierarchy. At the top are the ‘reals’ – people like bearded lady Countess Marketa (Irene Macdougall), Siamese twins Lillie and Millie (Ashley Smith and Nicola Roy, mirroring each…

Alternative Fringe hubs: The Forest Cafe

Alternative Fringe hubs: The Forest Cafe

Edinburgh's soon-to-be dearly-departed hippy haven

17 Aug 2011

Name: The Forest Café Occupation: Leader of the resistance, home of Edinburgh’s true creative spirit. Resembles: A glorious, shambolic cluster of plants, art, rugs, hippies and graffiti, spread across several rooms. What’s on there, then?

Reservoir Dogs

Reservoir Dogs

Unimaginative adaptation of Tarantino’s heist movie

(2 stars)17 Aug 2011

Quentin Tarantino has his fair share of detractors – those who claim his films make up for their lack of originality with profanity and violence. These people should swipe an extra star or two from this review, since Tarantino’s plot and dialogue are…

Und

Und

Tough play with the meaning stressed out

(2 stars)17 Aug 2011

Howard Barker is a playwright loved by academics for the challenges thrown down by his knotty ‘theatre of catastrophe’ and by actors for the chance to get their tongues round his muscular language. His writing is tough, poetic and…

Untitled Love Story

Untitled Love Story

Stories of love and loss that fail to catch fire

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

Untitled Love Story is the first of David Leddy’s productions for years to be set in a conventional theatre. And, while the Venice-set meditation on lost love contains the lyrical writing and formal innovations that have made his past work so exciting…

Emergence

Emergence

Death becomes the Pachamamas

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

It’s always tricky to deal with grief on stage. By its nature, it is an emotion that comes after the fact, making an audience feel it has missed out on the main event. It cannot be resolved in the way any other dramatic conflict is resolved. This…

Dust

Dust

Mining a rich seam of anger among Thatcher and coal industry

(3 stars)17 Aug 2011

It’s 2011 and (you might need party hats and a few crates of beer at the ready) Margaret Thatcher has died. Such is the lovely dream (er, I mean ‘fictional scenario’, of course) at the heart of Ade Morris’s Dust, a play set largely in Arthur Scargill’s…

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