Theatre and Reviews

Sleeping Beauty Insomnia

Israeli War-set play with absorbing characterisation and comedy

15 May 2012

Lebanese playwright Abdelrahim Alawji bounds to the front of the stage. ‘This play is set in a theatre, during the Israeli war, where people used to hide during the...’ Then boom, acrid smoke and the lights go up on two figures clinging on to each…

Anne Boleyn

Howard Brenton's iconoclastic historical drama is a hands-down crowd-pleaser

9 May 2012

You can see why the original Globe theatre production of Anne Boleyn sold out, and why Howard Brenton’s iconoclastic re-imagining of Henry VIII’s second wife was subsequently sent on a tour of the UK: the show is a hands down, no-arguments…

Roman Bridge

An unflinchingly claustrophobic production with bold performances and muscular dialogue

9 May 2012

There’s a knowing nod to Samuel Beckett in Martin Travers’ Roman Bridge, the first full production in the National Theatre of Scotland’s Reveal 2012 season. The main protagonists are a pair of ragged-trousered hobos, who cling to each other, eat, sleep…

Enquirer

3 May 2012

Whether by luck or incredible foresight, the National Theatre of Scotland’s exploration of the demise of the newspaper industry couldn’t be playing at a more auspicious time. Entering the top floor of the Hub at Pacific Quay, the first thing that draws…

Further Than the Furthest Thing

Haunting, beautifully-designed production of Zinnie Harris' play

30 Apr 2012

From ripping out the seating for a powerful in-the-round production of Peter Shaffer’s Equus to the Mad Men-style two-storey 1950s maisonette of A Doll’s House, Dundee Rep has often impressed with its bold, imaginative use of design. The company’s…

King Lear

David Hayman heads an impressive ensemble cast in a gripping production of Shakespeare's play

26 Apr 2012

Incredibly, it’s 33 years since David Hayman appeared in a Shakespeare play at the Citz, and his casting here, as the Bard’s aged monarch, raging against the dying of the light, provides a link to that spell in the 1970s-1990s when the Glasgow…

The Lieutenant of Inishmore

Comedy about republicanism, terrorists and dead cats follows predictable arc

25 Apr 2012

A comedy about republicanism, terrorists, and dead cats that’s more fun than it sounds, The Lieutenant of Inishmore displays Martin McDonagh’s talent for harnessing the comic potential in those peculiarly Irish turns of phrase. Many of the play’s best…

Could You Please Look into the Camera

Clunky, unengaging and under-rehearsed piece on Syria

17 Apr 2012

Great theatre will, at some point, emerge from the Arab Spring. This is not it. As rough and raw as a piece about Syria would have to be in the face of unfolding events, Mohammed Al Attar’s patchwork of real people’s experiences of detention is also…

The Silence of Bees

New play by the writer of Roadkill explores family tensions against a backdrop of bee-keeping

13 Apr 2012

This moving site-specific piece written and directed by Stef Smith, award-winning playwright behind 2010’s human trafficking drama Roadkill, focuses on three generations of women who have dedicated their lives to bee-keeping and honey production.

For Once

Poignancy and lyricism in play exploring fragility of family unit

7 Apr 2012

The sight of a hyper-realistic kitchen set, complete with fridge, cluttered shelves and fully functional sink usually portends an hour or two of domestic desolation of the kind favoured by the Angry Young Men of 50s/60s British drama. And when the…

Moonlight and Magnolias

Ron Hutchinson's comedy explores the story behind the making of a Hollywood epic

2 Apr 2012

The strange alchemy that sorts screen hits from cinematic turkeys is energetically explored in Ron Hutchinson’s play about the events leading up to the shooting of Hollywood blockbuster, Gone with the Wind. The story behind the filming of Margaret…

The Man Who Lived Twice

Stylish, striking and poignant study of 1930s dramatist Edward Sheldon and actor John Gielgud

28 Mar 2012

For a few years in the early 20th century playwright Edward Sheldon was the toast of Broadway, with melodramas such as Romance notching up lengthy runs and inspiring movies with Garbo and Dietrich. Crippled by rheumatoid arthritis, he withdrew…

The Marriage of Figaro

DC Jackson breathes new life into Beaumarchais’ 18th-century original

28 Mar 2012

With this energetic adaptation of Beaumarchais’ 18th-century original, DC Jackson has breathed fresh life into a classic. It’s a good-humoured, good-time show, with just enough emotional power up its sleeve (plus a few other surprises) to make you feel…

Antigone

Lung Ha's Theatre impresses with an excellent, stripped-back adaptation of Sophocles' Theban tragedy

19 Mar 2012

Lung Ha’s Theatre Company has gone from strength to strength in recent years, notching up acclaimed adaptations of everything from Chekhov to Aldous Huxley and Jules Verne. The company’s latest outing returns to the origins of European Theatre and…

Waterproof / From Paisley to Paolo

Comic double-bill features some laughs but lacks freshness and subtlety

14 Mar 2012

These short comic plays, being toured by Mull Theatre, began their lives at A Play, a Pie and a Pint (Òran Mór, Glasgow’s famous lunchtime theatre). Both contemplate the life disappointments of young, Scottish, working-class men (most often with a…

ANA

Audacious, enjoyable bilingual co-production from Scottish and Québécois companies

12 Mar 2012

The eponymous heroine of this enjoyable co-production between Scotland’s Stellar Quines and Québécois company Imago Théâtre is one of those everlasting figures present throughout history, a cross between Virginia Woolf’s Orlando and Dr Who, whom we…

Betrayal

Dominic Hill's treatment of Pinter's celebrated play is humourous and affecting

9 Mar 2012

With works by Pinter, Shakespeare and Beckett scheduled for his first season as artistic director at the Citz, Dominic Hill couldn’t have made a bolder statement about his ambitions for the venerable Glasgow institution. Yet his production of the late…

Episode 2: A Special Form of Darkness, Tramway, Glasgow, Sun 26 Feb

A mixed bag exploration of pessimism, decay and banality

7 Mar 2012

Genre: Experimental music, Theatre, Philosophy So, is everything just a bit fucked? Dissecting pessimism, decay and banality is the theme of the day on the Sunday of Arika’s Episode 2: A Special Form of Darkness, with opening talks by writer, theorist…

Of Mice and Men

Quietly shocking aftertaste of Lyceum Steinbeck adaptation

27 Feb 2012

Director John Dove breaks his run of eminently solid productions of Arthur Miller plays at the Lyceum with this solid adaptation of John Steinbeck. And in a similar style to shows like 2010’s The Price, the sets here are towering, intricate and…

Double Nugget - Mary Massacre and Seven Year Itch

A dark comedy that's too light and a play for for a rewrite

27 Feb 2012

Lovers of Johnny McKnight’s brand of pathos-laden, observational comedy will find some moments to enjoy in Mary Massacre (such as a sullen, gossipy sales assistant in Argos or the dubious joys of online dating). However, the twin track monologues of…

Raydale Dower - Cryptic Nights at CCA, Glasgow, Thu 2 Feb 2012

Experimental but playful sound installation

8 Feb 2012

The title of Raydale Dower's new 'spatial sound composition' speaks volumes about the former Uncle John & Whitelock bassist and current Tut Vu Vu clarinettist and sonic architect's methodology.…

Swallows and Amazons

Slick, spirited musical play with Neil Hannon score grasps essence of original

2 Feb 2012

The four children of the Walker family, aged 12 to 7, are given permission by their naval father to set off alone on the sailing dinghy Swallow to camp on an uninhabited island on Coniston Water in the Lake District. Their imaginations let loose, they…

The Infamous Brothers Davenport

Captures excitement of Victorian public séance but makes for unsatisfactory theatre

1 Feb 2012

Some 52 members of the crew on this co-production between Vox Motus and the Lyceum were required to sign secrecy clauses, so it’s no surprise that the show has its fair share of ‘how-did-they-do-that’ moments. In one scene, a table rises from the ground…

The King and I

This stylish production of the musical classic can't disguise the script's patronising tone

6 Jan 2012

Like most of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s quintet of hit musicals, the deceptively light surface action in The King and I struggles to keep the lid on the problematic themes rumbling away underneath. Where the culture clash between prim, feisty governess…

Hansel and Gretel (Platform, Glasgow)

Magical and truly unpatronising update of the Grimm Brothers' classic

21 Dec 2011

If the Grimm Brothers had grown up in Easterhouse, their version of the cannibalistic horror story for kids, Hansel and Gretel, might have turned out slightly differently. In Platform’s magical, and truly unpatronising 2011 update, Gretel (Becki…

The Lost Sock Princess

Puppet Lab's festive show for under-sevens is infectious, interactive fun

19 Dec 2011

Ever wondered what happens to your socks when they disappear from the washing machine? Puppet Lab provides some highly persuasive answers to this conundrum in a big-hearted entertainment pitched at children under the age of seven. The show kicks off in…

The Tree of Knowledge

David Hume and Adam Smith point out obvious pitfalls of 21st century life

12 Dec 2011

The central conceit of Jo Clifford’s new play is an interesting one. Two influential figures from 18th century Scotland find themselves in early 21st century Edinburgh, surveying the world they helped create. The witty lines flow thick and fast, as…

Cinderella (Dundee Rep)

Witty script, excellent performances and bold lack of concern for tradition

12 Dec 2011

Writer Phil Porter has taken perhaps the best-loved of all festive tales, pulled it apart and reassembled it with a bold lack of concern for tradition. Yes, folks, this is Cinderella but not as we know it. For starters, this version is set on a…

Sleeping Beauty

King’s Theatre panto sends everyone home happy

9 Dec 2011

As much a part of the Glaswegian festive season as green and blue santa hats, the King’s Theatre panto looks like an institution defiant of change. So it is refreshing to find a new face, Arron Usher as Jimmy Jingles the Jester, going through the…

Hansel and Gretel (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow)

Musical theatre of dry ice, flashing lights and belting numbers

9 Dec 2011

The Citz, of recent years, have taken their festive shows down a musical theatre route and Alan McHugh’s Hansel and Gretel ticks all the genre’s boxes. Older audience members may prefer a quirkier Christmas production but the dry ice, flashing lights…

Cinderella (King's Theatre, Edinburgh)

Panto dream time Allan Stewart, Andy Gray, Grant Stott and Paul Elliot strike gold once again

8 Dec 2011

The great strength of the King’s panto, year upon year, is its ability to hook audiences of all ages and tastes. The script, co-written by Paul Elliott and everyone’s favourite dame, Allan Stewart, features great dollops of slapstick and toilet humour…

Rudolf

The Arches strike again with imaginative alt.panto starring Ross Allan and Rob Evans

7 Dec 2011

For the last couple of years, The Arches have offered an offbeat alternative to the traditional panto – and this year’s Rudolf is no exception. The classic reindeer tale (red nosed fella, rejected by society, wins out in the end by saving Christmas) is…

Mister Merlin

The Weegie-centric Tron panto continues to entertain despite uncertain future

7 Dec 2011

Renowned for their particularly weegie take on a festive tale, the Tron may sadly be unable to continue their affordable Christmas shows due to the loss of their corporate sponsor. Unless they find another, the theatre will need to raise £20,000 a year…

A Christmas Carol

Dickens' festive spook story is given a compelling and creepy outing by Graham McLaren

7 Dec 2011

Scrooge and Marley’s gloomy office. Dangerous cables loop across the ceiling, piles of dusty papers fill the walls. As we enter in twos and threes to a whooping, fussing welcome, Scrooge himself – a grizzled figure in shrunken tailcoat and slippers…

Jackie and the Beanstalk

Johnny McKnight's panto manages to entertain while challenging traditional gender roles

7 Dec 2011

According to panto dame Dott Von Trott, things have got so bad in the austerity-stricken pantosphere that ‘parents in Bridge of Allan have started firing their nannies and learning their own kids’ names’. Serious times indeed, and there’s something…

Beauty and the Beast

Stuart Paterson's 'children's play' is enjoyable but lacks the energy of true panto

6 Dec 2011

The basic story is so simple it’s mythic: girl meets beast, they fall in love, beast turns into boy. Stuart Paterson’s venerable adaptation is a tad more complicated. There are ugly sisters (as if a titular ugly character weren’t enough), played with…

Top Hat

Loving tribute to the Fred'n'Ginger classic, starring Tom Chambers and Summer Strallen

24 Nov 2011

According to legend, screen hoofer Fred Astaire was such a perfectionist that, during the 40th take of a scene from Swing Time (1936), his partner Ginger Rogers’ feet started to bleed through her satin slippers. In this stage adaptation of one of…

South Pacific

New York revival with refreshing emphasis on character in Rodgers and Hammerstein classic

15 Nov 2011

Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Pulitzer-winning musical set in and around a US naval base during World War II includes so many songs that have become standards that the plot seems almost surplus to requirements. You can almost feel the smiles of recognition…

The Little Match Girl Passion

Movements surplus to requirements in David Lang's fragmented, overlapping score

15 Nov 2011

Amid Victorian clutter – ram’s skull, case of butterflies, mangy toy dog on wheels – four comfortable-looking individuals in deconstructed versions of period dress sing the story of a barefoot lass selling matches on a freezing night. Above them, the…

The Crucible

Stiff performances and lethargic pace dog Arthur Miller classic

15 Nov 2011

Pored over by students across the globe and regularly revived, Arthur Miler’s The Crucible is an audacious choice as Strathclyde Theatre Group’s first production as an independent company following the closure of the Ramshorn Theatre earlier in the year…

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Abi Morgan explores tensions between faith and science in a fascinating but frustrating new play

3 Nov 2011

The tensions that lie beneath the serene surface of convent life have proved fertile territory for writers and dramatists down the years, from Powell and Pressburger’s psychological horror Black Narcissus to Muriel Spark’s Watergate satire The Abbess of…

Dr Marigold & Mr Chops

Great but high-cholesterol fun starring Simon Callow

2 Nov 2011

There's an old Yiddish showtune called ‘What can you mach? S'is Amerika’ (‘What can you do? It's America’), which comes to mind during this entertaining but frustrating show. It's not Simon Callow's fault. Performing two monologues by Charles Dickens…

James Corden continues touring success of One Man, Two Guv'nors

National Theatre show treats audiences, but reveals craft behind magic

27 Oct 2011

One Man, Two Guv’nors is no longer a play that needs much of an introduction. It’s one of the most critically and commercially successful productions of the 21st century, now on tour from the National Theatre, and gathering more momentum, column inches…

The Salon Project

An interesting stab at reviving the art of critical discussion, undermined by technology

21 Oct 2011

‘A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge.’ So says Wikipedia – the significant choice of source that The Salon Project uses to define…

Saturday Night - Tramway, Glasgow, Sat 8 Oct 2011

Vanishing Point's Interiors follow-up explores similar themes but lacks direction

21 Oct 2011

Vanishing Point’s lovely, imaginative 2009 work, Interiors, revolved around a disparate group of characters at a dinner party. As the audience were cast in the role of voyeurs spying through lit windows the scene was played out in complete silence, the…

Calum’s Road - Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Wed 5 Oct

Generally strong but with clunky direction and heavy-handed message

21 Oct 2011

Calum MacLeod claims not to remember when he started the road. Exasperated at the council’s refusal to connect his home, in the hamlet of Arnish on the Isle of Raasay, with the rest of the island, he picked up a shovel and did it himself. It could have…

Apocalypse! - John Clancy's 'glamorously ugly cabaret'

Cabaret at the end of the world takes aim at complacency and hypocrisy

21 Oct 2011

There’s an inspired idea at the heart of John Clancy’s ‘glamorously ugly cabaret’, that, with a couple of tweaks and the right home, could develop into a truly anarchic calling card for new Scottish company The Occasional Cabaret. The premise of a…

Para Handy

Nosalgic escapism to the fore in stage adaptation of Neil Munro's popular sea-faring stories

21 Oct 2011

It’s over a century since Neil Munro first regaled readers of the Glasgow Evening News with the adventures of Para Handy and his crew aboard the Vital Spark. John Bett’s stage adaptation (with original songs and music by composer Robert Pettigrew…

Days of Wine and Roses

Owen McCafferty's adaptation of JP Miller's teleplay is revived, with Keith Fleming and Sally Reid

20 Oct 2011

Originally a teleplay by JP Miller from 1958, the story of Days of Wine and Roses is best known for the 1962 Oscar-nominated film starring Jack Lemmon. That story, which focuses on the plight of two average Americans, has been relocated to London by…

The Hunted - Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh, Sat 15 Oct 2011

Enjoyably scary but slightly confused fairy tale mashup

20 Oct 2011

At first glance the new production from acclaimed young person’s company Visible Fictions seems a straightforward, if well-crafted, thriller, perfect for the spooky season. A wolf is at large, preying on the residents of a timeless fairy tale village.

Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off

Timely revival of Liz Lochhead's seminal allegorical play

21 Sep 2011

Liz Lochhead’s powerful, playful dissection of a key chapter in Scotland’s history may have debuted at the height of the Thatcherite 80s, but the play’s central themes – the pernicious effects of sectarianism, the Scots’ complex relationship with our…

The Missing

Powerful performance of Andrew O'Hagan's non-fiction script across several platforms

21 Sep 2011

Part memoir, part investigative journalism, Scottish writer Andrew O’Hagan’s powerful non-fiction work doesn’t easily fit into any generic pigeon hole. It is fitting, then, that this stage adaptation of The Missing is accompanied by complementary art…

Kes

Poignant adaptation of the grim Northern English fable

21 Sep 2011

This sensitive stage version of Barry Hines’ award-winning book opens with utter chaos on stage. Tables lie on their sides, a sofa is upturned, and remnants of 1970s life are strewn amongst them. The central conceit of the adaptation is that a grown-up…

Arthur, the Story of a King

Colourful family-friendly production about the legendary king from theatre group Wee Stories

21 Sep 2011

Nobody really knows for sure what King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table got up to – a fact quickly acknowledged by Wee Stories in its lively historical drama. Each book documents different facts and figures, so Wee Stories offer us ‘an…

Men Should Weep

Graham McLaren's adaptation has good comedic beats but lacks the necessary tragedy

21 Sep 2011

It does not take much imagination to see that, when it was first performed in 1947, Ena Lamont Stewart’s play would be genuinely shocking. Eight spunky dames and two hopeless men are trapped in a squalid room and kitchen during the 1930s. In the absence…

If That's All There Is?

Eccentric study of a banal relationship

26 Aug 2011

What happens when you realise the man you're marrying is actually utterly dull? Such is the fate that befalls Frances, no sooner than her new husband Daniel has finished his painfully long wedding speech. In the opening scene, we are the guests and as…

The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding

A cure for loneliness?

26 Aug 2011

This one-on-one hotel room experience is Adrian Howells’ attempt at total care for a single audience member. It starts with a warm bath filled with rose petals. I undress and step in. ‘It’s my honour to bathe you,’ Howells says, with no hint of…

The Pretender

One man show about lying gets out of control

26 Aug 2011

Lying: people often do it to get over life's hurdles. Whether in politics, relationships, or childhood, lies are part of everyday social tactics, but can often spiral out of control. In this play, we're complicit in one such fib. Our host, a nameless…

Soldier and Death

Soldier fable let down by tiny puppets

26 Aug 2011

There’s bags of potential in this talented young troupe of puppeteers who tell the fable-esque tale of a soldier who cheats death. All are compelling storytellers, taking turns as the narrator. But the puppets are miniscule, dwarfed by multiple…

Nourish

Thought-provoking suffragette drama

25 Aug 2011

1913 was a year when suffragette militant violence turned inwards with devastating consequences. But while Emily Wilding Davison made headlines by stepping in front of the King’s horse at the Derby, Sylvia Pankhurst was engaged in a quieter but no less…

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Haruki Marukami's novel is given multimedia stage adaptation by Stephen Earnhart

24 Aug 2011

Toru Okada is 29 and shares an apartment with his wife, Kumiko and their cat. When both the wife and cat vanish and don’t come back for several days, Toru tries to work out what’s happened to them, with the help of a spiritualist who doubles as a…

The Simple Things in Life

Five opportunities to meditate on what we should value

24 Aug 2011

Against the backdrop of festival chaos, Fuel theatre provides individual spaces for a slightly different, enclosed experience. Walking through the gates of the Botanic Gardens already provides respite from pounding the cobbles of the Royal Mile, and the…

Batman! Holy Spoof Musical Batstravaganza!

Amateurish and unnecessary spoof of a spoof

24 Aug 2011

Is it possible to spoof something that was already somewhat spoofy originally? In the 1960s, Adam West played his Batman with bat-tongue firmly in cheek, so what made this particular version of the Caped Crusader seem ripe for pastiche to the folks at…

Constantinople

Completely ridiculous and unexpectedly educational

23 Aug 2011

Theatre Beating’s lunatic dramatisation of the rise and fall of Constantinople is like a great pop song; it thrives on the tension between being completely brilliant and also very, very stupid. The jokes are consistently from the daft end of the street…

And the Birds Fell from the Sky

Striking multi-sensory experience

23 Aug 2011

Don a pair of video goggles, put headphones in your ears and surrender yourself to the bizarre Faruk clowns in this short immersive experience, where you’re the main protagonist. Production values are high, and the performers make every effort to ensure…

Bette and Joan - The Final Curtain

Witty other-worldly ode to Hollywood starlets

23 Aug 2011

It’s 1989 and Bette Davis, betrayed by kith and kin, lies alone and dying. Her nemesis Joan Crawford arrives to guide her to the other side, and then the fireworks begin. Foursight Theatre’s witty and inventive deconstruction of the relationship between…

Maybe if you Choreograph Me, You Will Feel Better

Solo show with a unique personal experience

23 Aug 2011

Tania El Khoury is a gifted young Lebanese performance artist based in the UK. This tantalising solo gives one man at a time the power to decide what she’ll do and how she will do it. Led to a ‘secret’ yet public location we speak to her via headset a…

Steal Compass, Drive North, Disappear

Minimal and moving life awakening

23 Aug 2011

Against a minimalist background of black walls and a scattering of blank chalkboards, Rachel Blackman unravels the story of Martin Charon, philandering video artist, university professor and father of two. Through the four women in his life (each…

Some Small Love Story

A gem with a young but talented cast

23 Aug 2011

Theatrical tales about love – particularly love lost – can so easily be overly saccharine, lacking the depth and sentiment to truly engage. Not so here. Stripped back simplicity is to the fore, as four excellent young performers reveal two great love…

Little Matter

Charming, dark puppetry

23 Aug 2011

In their delightful purpose-built gypsy caravan/tent venue the River People weave a story of hope and despair using puppetry and song. The performers overflow with wit and charm, interacting with each other and the puppets comfortably. While the…

3rd Ring Out: the Emergency

An intelligent audience-led thriller

23 Aug 2011

If it’s not perfect in execution, this piece is both intriguing and thought-provoking. The audience is ushered into a container functioning as an emergency response room and required to make life-and-death decisions about an ecological catastrophe in…

The Overcoat

All-Scottish cast lead excellent classic satire

23 Aug 2011

An up-to-the minute, fast-paced version of Gogol’s great satire, Catherine Grosvenor’s sharp and hilarious translation (for Finnish companies Rhymäteatteri and Ace Productions) finds us in the world of Edinburgh banking. A fine, all-Scottish cast is led…

Hotel Methuselah

Stunning and inventive multimedia production

23 Aug 2011

In a war-time hotel night porter Harry delves into his memories in this tense, mysterious multimedia work from Imitating the Dog. A frame around the stage offers limited views of the actors who work in tandem with pre-filmed dialogue and supplementary…

You Wouldn't Know Him, He Lives in Texas

An innovative concept that needs thinking through

23 Aug 2011

The title of this show refers to the boyfriend of Lizzie, who will, if you buy a ticket, invite you to her party. The purpose of the gathering is to introduce us (her 'friends') to her beloved Ryan, all the way from Austin. But of course, he won't be…

Teechers

Fast-paced youth production despite large cast

23 Aug 2011

This is how to do it. A fast paced youth production of Godber’s now well worn play in front of a really good sized audience. The rotation of performers for each character, as a result of a very large troupe, was a pity as there were stand out…

Medea

Modern-edged take let down by cast

23 Aug 2011

Critical Mass theatre’s modern-edged take on Euripides’ story of the woman who killed her children never quite delivers the emotional clout promised by its heart-wrenching storyline. Stella Duffy’s script is gutsy and raw, but delivered unimaginatively…

Sunday in the Park with George

Wonderfully presented look at the creation of art

23 Aug 2011

Sondheim’s musical about the creation of impressionist masterpiece ‘Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ focuses on an obsessed Georges Seurat, whose dedication to his work ruins his life. As the painting’s characters all offer…

The World According to Bertie

A well performed, interestingly staged production

23 Aug 2011

Alexander McCall Smith’s prose is brought pretty niftily to the stage as part twee New Town soap opera, part mild satire. An 11-strong cast bring to vivid life the various dramas amidst the chinking tea cups of Edinburgh’s bourgeoisie, centring on the…

7 Day Drunk

Shallow attempt at drunken creativity

23 Aug 2011

Performance artist Bryony Kimmings sets out to explore the connection between alcohol and creativity. In this she uses art made during her experiment to form the basis of a show, which, while colourful and energetic, fails to bring any original insight…

Eight

Eight beautifully-written stories impressively told

23 Aug 2011

A selection of eight stories are impressively told here in monologue rotation. Among them are grieving art gallery owner Andre, Bobby, a struggling single Mum and Jude, a well-to-do lad coming of age on foreign shores. Ella Hickson’s characters are…

Yours, Isabel

Strong script brings together romance and female independence

23 Aug 2011

Set in1940s America and based on a real correspondence, this play subverts the classic war time romance of pining love letters to give an altogether more nuanced portrayal of the relationship between Isabel and her traditionally minded boyfriend Nick.

Doris Day Can F**k Off

Musical one-man experiment

23 Aug 2011

The concept for Greg McLaren’s show should certainly be applauded: for a number of weeks he went round the UK communicating to people through song, taping his experience as he went. Accompanied by a sound deck, guitar and gold lame jacket, this is the…

Devotion

Incredible performances hindered by weak story

23 Aug 2011

Insofar as it attempts to convey the depth of feeling engendered by the traditions and solemn ceremony of the bullfight, Devotion just about succeeds, powered by two stunningly intense performances from its male leads. However its story is too slight…

When Abel Met Cain

Middle Eastern music distracted by incoherant stories

23 Aug 2011

Raphael Rodan and Anastasis Sarakatsanos are talented musicians – between them they create a Middle-Eastern atmosphere using guitar, percussion and kanun (a Turkish stringed instrument). Rodan is also highly charismatic, telling tales of brotherhood and…

Hedda Gabler

Stark and surprising modern adaptation

23 Aug 2011

A boldly minimal, variably acted and oddly updated adaptation of Ibsen’s great drama from the young actors of Palindrome Theatre Company of Austin, Texas. One of the Norwegian Bard’s characters will, we are told, ‘piss his pants’, another is ‘a piece of…

Unanswered, We Ride

An emotional portrait of grief

23 Aug 2011

Joe Tippett and Martha Wollner take on multiple roles to flank Joy Barrett’s journey as bereaved mother Reese in a portrait of all-consuming, selfish grief. Despite one jarring attempt at an Irish accent, all aspects collide to create an engrossing…

Phantasmagoria

Depressing, lazy and naïvely acted

23 Aug 2011

This glum story about friendship betrayed aims for something moving and grown-up, but isn’t helped by performances that vary from winsome to teeth-grindingly awful (it takes more than pouting, stomping and shouting to represent a child). The lazily…

Cul-De-Sac

Capable garden-fence comedy

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

Tenderly performed memories

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

A theatre's story told through unusual interpretation

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

Flagship EIF production feels like a rediscovery of a lost classic

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

Revisiting Shakespeare’s maligned steward

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

Weak storyline made up for by macabre, colourful underworld

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)

Overlong play with little to say about contemporary life

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

Utterly convincing and compelling

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

Poignantly Pixar-esque underwater adventure

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…

May I Have the Pleasure . . . ?

Champagne, slow dancing and loneliness

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…

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Paranoid Orwellian bureaucracy has comically sinister effect

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

Edinburgh audio tours from spoken word performers

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

Postmodern interaction with a classic

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…