Yasmin Sulaiman

Blue Raincoat theatre company to tour Ionesco's The Chairs

Director Niall Henry discusses the fêted production

15 May 2012

After a five-year tug of war over rights, Sligo-based Blue Raincoat arrives in Scotland this month with its fêted production of Eugene Ionesco’s The Chairs. Director Niall Henry, who co-founded the company in 1991, is thrilled about the tour and cites…

Cirque du Soleil: Quidam

16 Apr 2009

Cirque du Soleil might be celebrating its 25th birthday this year, but the French-Canadian company, which has made a name for itself across the world with its foundation-shifting take on traditional circus acrobatics, shows no signs of lagging behind in…

Quadrophenia

14 May 2009

The current economic crisis has cast many minds back to the unemployment-wracked 1970s, so it’s perhaps apt that a new stage adaptation of The Who’s Quadrophenia – one of the decade’s most celebrated albums – is touring this year. Composed by The Who…

An Inspector Calls

19 Feb 2009

REVIVAL Before Oscar glory reached British director Stephen Daldry, he won plaudits at the English National Theatre in 1992 with a powerful re-imagining of JB Priestley’s An Inspector Calls. The production won four Tony and three Olivier awards, and…

Bard in the Botanics

11 Jun 2009

There are probably fewer people in Scotland more excited about the Met Office’s predicted heatwave this summer than Gordon Barr, artistic director of Bard in the Botanics, Glasgow’s annual outdoor Shakespeare festival. ‘I’m really keeping my fingers…

Irene MacDougall to play female Prospero in Dundee Rep's The Tempest

Caliban and Ariel also adapted as female roles in new production

15 May 2012

Irene MacDougall has been a member of the Dundee Rep ensemble since its inception, but 2012 will mark her first turn in The Tempest. Like Helen Mirren in Julie Taymor’s recent film of Shakespeare’s classic, MacDougall will play Prospero as a female. The…

Double Nugget combines shows Marymassacre and Seven Year Itch

Random Accomplice take two duet plays on tour

1 Feb 2012

With hits like Little Johnny’s Big Gay Wedding and last year’s Smalltown, Random Accomplice have proved themselves to be one of Scotland’s best-loved theatre groups. Now, they’ve revived 2008’s Marymassacre and 2009’s Seven Year Itch in a touring double…

Playwright Peter Arnott discusses The Infamous Brothers Davenport

Arnott and Vox Motus to resurrect the 19th century American spiritualists

6 Jan 2012

This new show from playwright Peter Arnott and Vox Motus promises to be part Dickens, part Derren Brown. It focuses on real-life American magicians William and Ira Davenport, who in the 1860s were a central part of the spiritualist movement, which first…

Stage musical The Secret Garden stars Siobhan Redmond

Cross-generational appeal of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s novel makes for ideal festive show

23 Nov 2010

It’s a century since the publication of Frances Hodgson Burnett’s The Secret Garden, but this seminal work of children’s literature has only grown in stature through time. The tale of Mary, an orphaned girl who seeks refuge in a blooming hidden garden…

God: A Comedy by Woody Allen

Deliberately unsatisfying, disposable feeling

25 Aug 2009

UCLU Runaground re-create Woody Allen's neurotic mannerisms with startling clarity in this polished student production of his 1975 play God. The shambolic way in which its narrative blurs the audience/actor relationship may not appeal to theatre-goers…

Alistair McGowan

Back to the 90s

21 Aug 2009

Next to more recent TV impressionists such as Kevin Bishop and Peter Serafinowicz, Alistair McGowan is a positive veteran. Some 13 years after his last Edinburgh run, he proves that he’s still able to draw on his vast repertoire of voices to comic…

Cooking with Elvis

9 Jul 2009

Lee Hall might be best known for his Oscar-nominated screenplay for Billy Elliot, but long before Jamie Bell’s dancing feet captured the public imagination, Hall scored a hit with the acclaimed comedy Cooking with Elvis. First performed in Newcastle’s…

Wheels of Life

From Russia – via Glasgow – with love

7 Aug 2008

It’s hard to call Wheels of Life, the new production by Sharmanka Kinetic Theatre, a ‘play’ as such. Huddled in the intimate Theatre Workshop venue, the audience is confronted with a macabre toy box of intricate artistic contraptions; a captivating maze…

New Junction 25 production Anoesis

Teenage company one of Scotland’s most lauded theatre groups

27 Feb 2012

Junction 25 may be made up of teenagers, aged between 12 and 18, but it’s also one of Scotland’s most lauded theatre groups. The company has been making its own brand of innovative, improvisational plays since 2005 and last year won a Herald Angel Award…

Sophie Hannah - Kind of Cruel

The seventh Zailer and Waterhouse murder mystery zips along but falters at the end

27 Jan 2012

(Hodder & Stoughton) Kind of Cruel is Sophie Hannah’s seventh release to feature police duo and dysfunctional couple DS Charlie Zailer and DC Simon Waterhouse, recently brought to life on ITV by Olivia Williams and Darren Boyd. This taut, nightmarish…

Edinburgh theatre show Rose stars Art Malik and daughter Kiera

Play by Hywel John set for 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

20 Jul 2011

Art Malik is no stranger to the stage, despite being better known for his film and TV roles – which range from a psychotic terrorist in 1994 Hollywood blockbuster True Lies to a heartthrob anaesthetist in hospital drama Holby City. Over the past 30…

Dancing at Lughnasa story of five sisters rural in 1936 Donegal

Citizens run marks 21st anniversary of Brian Friel's hit play

18 Mar 2011

When The Original Theatre Company’s version of Brian Friel’s Dancing at Lughnasa arrives at the Citizens Theatre in April, it will mark the 21st anniversary of its very first performance. ‘We hope that’s it’s going to really speak to people in Glasgow,…

Classic World War I drama Journey’s End set for King’s Theatre

Director David Grindley on massive success of recent revival of play

7 Mar 2011

There’s a tunnel on the Canadian National Memorial site at Vimy Ridge in northern France that tries to give you an insight into the conditions soldiers would have gone through during World War I. Our tour group, a mixed bag of journalists and PRs, is…

The House of Bernarda Alba preview

Rona Munro on her latest theatrical endeavour

3 Sep 2009

It’s been a big year for Rona Munro. Just weeks after the premiere of The Last Witch at the Edinburgh International Festival, the Scottish playwright is gearing up for the first performance of her adaptation of The House of Bernarda Alba, by revered…

Controlled Falling Project

Australian act wows with an elegant mix of physical theatre and acrobatics

20 Aug 2009

The muted colour scheme of the 1930s laboratory instruments cluttering the stage make a charming backdrop for the agile performers in Controlled Falling Project, a theatrical display of acrobatics from Australia’s This Side Up. Speaking few words, the…

Pippa Evans

Wicked musical comedy in every conceivable way

16 Aug 2009

The ease with which Pippa Evans slips between her psychotic characters in this cabaret-style show is an instant reminder of why she was shortlisted for an if.comedy Best Newcomer award last year. However, there is an element of patchiness about her…

The Chronicles of Irania

12 Aug 2009

The pleasantries of tea, sweets and traditional stories are juxtaposed with harrowing tales of violence towards women and homosexuals. The country may be fictional but its real-life inspiration is all too clear, and Maryam Hamidi’s beautiful turn as…

Crush

From hormonal teenagers to marriage: Paul Charlton returns

8 Aug 2009

Paul Charlton’s Fringe debut – 2003’s Love, Sex and Cider – won a major award for its portrayal of the lives of four angst-ridden teenagers in North East England. His comeback piece six years later, however, is a predictably more mature affair. A dark…

Crush

Love, sex and technology from the Love, Sex and Cider author

20 Jul 2009

Paul Charlton hasn't been seen at the Edinburgh Fringe since winning a major award for his debut – Love, Sex and Cider – in 2003. Six years later, north-east England’s emerging playwriting talent returns with Crush, a two-hander that depicts a fractured…

Jane Austen's Guide to Pornography

Another serving of thoughtful, energetic filth from Out Cast Theatre

20 Jul 2009

Out Cast Theatre, Australia's oldest gay theatre company, delighted Fringe-goers last year with their filthy yet poignant comedy, The Adventures of Butt Boy and Tigger. In 2009, they're returning with Jane Austen's Guide to Pornography, in which a…