Theatre and Jonny Ensall

The Hot 100 2011: 100-50

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

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

The definitive list of Scottish creative talent

16 Dec 2011

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

Festival debut marks beginning of major creative space in Edinburgh

16 Dec 2011

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

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…

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…

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…

Futureproof

A fairly unshocking freak show

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…

Hotel Medea

A killer night out

15 Aug 2011

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

Aussie troubadours paying home visits

11 Aug 2011

‘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

Intimate musings on the joy of radio

8 Aug 2011

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

Monologue that’s less than straightforward

8 Aug 2011

'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

2011 Edinburgh Festival show based on singing to strangers

26 Jul 2011

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

Edinburgh Festival Fringe duo bring their cabaret show to your house

20 Jul 2011

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

Our annual chart of the people from Scotland being interesting, successful and creative

16 Dec 2010

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

Achingly beautiful stories from a normal bloke

19 Aug 2010

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

And the beat goes on

3 Feb 2010

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

Cabaret fun with an anti-porn message

14 Aug 2008

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…