Theatre, Jonny Ensall
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The Hot 100 2011: 100-50
16 Dec 2011
The definitive list of Scottish creative talent
100: Gordon Ferris. Kilmarnock crime author makes good. The already packed Scottish crime writing field has finally found a bit of elbow room for another burgeoning talent. Joining the likes of Rankin, Brookmyre, McDermid and co is this Ayrshire-born…
Hot 100 2011 - No. 49 to 1
16 Dec 2011
The definitive list of Scottish creative talent
The Hot 100 is the definitive list of Scottish creative talent. From fashion designers to performance artists, everyone who has made a sizeable splash in 2011 has a place in this countdown. It’s for people who’ve created a buzz, but it’s also about…
Hot 100 2011 - No. 54: Summerhall venue offers something special
16 Dec 2011
Festival debut marks beginning of major creative space in Edinburgh
Before this August it seemed the Edinburgh Festival was already home to every sort of show and venue imaginable. So, when an entirely new major space sprang up, it was difficult to see what it might offer above the usual. On the programme at…
James Corden continues touring success of One Man, Two Guv'nors
27 Oct 2011
National Theatre show treats audiences, but reveals craft behind magic
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
21 Oct 2011
An interesting stab at reviving the art of critical discussion, undermined by technology
‘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…
The Pleasure of Being: Washing, Feeding, Holding
26 Aug 2011
A cure for loneliness?
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…
May I Have the Pleasure . . . ?
19 Aug 2011
Champagne, slow dancing and loneliness
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…
Futureproof
17 Aug 2011
A fairly unshocking freak show
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…
Hotel Medea
15 Aug 2011
A killer night out
Spend a whole night in the company of a murderer. See her history retold, eat with her, dance with her, bathe and clothe her, listen to her problems, understand them if you possibly can, and, ultimately, be party to her gruesome crime. This is the…
Lounge Room Confabulators
11 Aug 2011
Aussie troubadours paying home visits
‘Hello! It’s the Lounge Room Confabulators.’ A voice chimes cheerily through the intercom. The Confabulators – a pair of bearded Australians in Del Monte suits who will be performing an hour-long storytelling show in my home – ascend the stairwell…
John Peel’s Shed
8 Aug 2011
Intimate musings on the joy of radio
In 2002 author John Osborne won a competition to write the best two-sentence description of John Peel’s radio show and win a box of the DJ’s records. ‘Songs you want to hear. Played by a man who wants you to hear them.’ earned Osborne the prize, and he…
Somewhere Beneath It All, A Small Fire Burns Still
8 Aug 2011
Monologue that’s less than straightforward
'This is true.’ Comedian Phil Nichol implores you to believe in his story midway through this experimental monologue, seemingly trying to inject a moment of clarity into a deliberately fractured and confusing play from Royal Court young writer Dave…
Doris Day Can Fuck Off - Greg McLaren interview
26 Jul 2011
2011 Edinburgh Festival show based on singing to strangers
It’s a sunny Saturday in Stoke Newington, North London, and I’m competing in my very first ‘allotment Olympics’. Specifically, a shot putt event that swaps the usual metal balls for hefty, organic potatoes. The games have been organised by Stoke…
Lounge Room Confabulators perform 2011 Fringe show in your home
20 Jul 2011
Edinburgh Festival Fringe duo bring their cabaret show to your house
Lounge Room Confabulators have hit on a wonderful idea in performing their show only in punters’ homes. List editor Jonny Ensall invites them to appraise his flat as a performance space
The Hot 100 2010 - Mark Millar, Kevin Bridges and Alasdair Gray take top 3 spots
16 Dec 2010
Our annual chart of the top creatives in Scotland
The Hot 100 is a list of Scots who’ve made a sizeable creative splash in 2010. It includes musicians, artists, writers, actors, fashion designers, technological innovators, shop owners, festival directors, record label heads and one mad cyclist.
It’s Always Right Now, Until It’s Later
19 Aug 2010
Achingly beautiful stories from a normal bloke
Daniel Kitson is a prodigiously talented comedian and storyteller. He’s also a normal guy. He announces himself normally, strolling onto the stage and thanking his audience for coming to such an early show (10am). He says he’s going to tell two stories…
Betrayed
14 May 2010
There’s little that’s cut and dried about the Iraq war, and current attempts to explain and attribute blame for its follies – Paul Greengrass’ movie Green Zone for example – often choose to overlook the stickier parts of the mess. George Packer’s…
The Glass Menagerie
15 Apr 2010
The Glass Menagerie opens with an address from Tennessee Williams, masquerading as the play’s central character, Tom Wingfield. ‘I give you truth in the pleasant disguise of illusion,’ he says, an idea that Shared Experience’s touring production has…
Backbeat - Stuart Sutcliffe story comes to Citizen's Theatre, Glasgow
3 Feb 2010
And the beat goes on
This season’s major show at the Citizens Theatre is more than just a Beatles biopic. Writer/director Iain Softley explains why to Jonny Ensall
Confined Human Condition
23 Sep 2009
Comprising song, acting, dance and original musical scores, the two compositions that make up Confined Human Condition are both, evidently, Theatre Cryptic, but otherwise make strange bedfellows. The first, ‘Baghdad Monologue’, is an examination of…
Strippers & Gentlemen
21 Aug 2008
This show does little to illuminate the dark truths of the stripper's lifestyle, but a lot to emulate their writhing dance moves and skimpy outfits. Good multimedia elements and promenade staging make the atmosphere genuinely exciting, but its ability…
P.I.E
21 Aug 2008
Velvet and Hatcher are female private detectives. Together they crack bad puns and attempt to stage a full-scale murder mystery with just two actors. This is endearingly silly at best, drawing heavily on existing noir spoofs and lacking the originality…
The Riot Showgrrrls Club
14 Aug 2008
Cabaret fun with an anti-porn message
A polemic against mainstream pornography is not what you’d expect from two be-corseted cabaret performers, but as the Riot Showgrrrls say themselves, there’s a difference between taste and morality, and this show aims to celebrate the flamboyant…
1913 or Nude Descending Staircase
14 Aug 2008
Through the true story of Maria Tarnowska, Russian countess and convicted criminal, this play explores the status and position of women in society, politics and art, in and around the year 1913. Though well researched, the piece struggles to live up to…
Bully
14 Aug 2008
This gritty one-man show from writer/performer Richard Fry is delivered in rhyming verse and covers a lifetime of violence, loss and homophobia. Fry throws in enough jokes to break up the emotional tone, but this is a serious piece with a strong…
