Beth Eltringham, Author at North West End UK

Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel – Underbelly Bistro Square

9Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel – Underbelly Bistro Square

Witty, outrageous and almost Austin, Austentatious is a hit! Back from its successful run on the West End Austentatious brings you a Jane Austin novel like you’ve never seen before (literally! they make the whole thing up as they go along). With an excellent cast featuring Rachel Parris, Graham Dickson, Amy Cooke-Hodgson, Lauren Shearing, Charlotte Gittins, Daniel Nils Roberts, Joseph Morpurgo and Cariad Lloyd, these comedy masters are sure to put on a good show. As with most improvised performances at this fringe, the plot it created using audience suggestion, so come prepared with your best Jane Austin novel name suggestions. I’m afraid our selected one of the day was a little long for me to remember but what ensued was a lot of talk of trysting (if you know what I mean) , door kic...

The Rejects – The Space on The Mile – Space 3

8Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Rejects – The Space on The Mile – Space 3

We all struggle with rejection, some more than others but it’s how we deal with it that counts. When One (Robyn Reilly), Two (Jess Ferrier), Three (Abi Price), Four (Lex Joyce) and Five (Isla Campbell) all go for the same job, they know the chances of success are limited. After the nerves of the interview a drink is much needed leaving these very different personalities to hash it out over who’s truly worthy of the new position. We’ve all been in that interview, the one where you’re saying all the wrong things out of sheer nerves, praying the interviewer will see your potential shine through, give you the job despite your stutters. You can’t be too honest, but you also can’t lie or seem over enthusiastic about the position. From beginning to end this production presents characters that ...

The Dead Ducks – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

8Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Dead Ducks – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

You can expect the weird and somewhat wonderful as The Dead Ducks troupe take the stage for a sketch show that takes place within a dead grandmother’s funeral, acting out scenes in which said grandmother has written in her will. The Dead Ducks are a comedy sketch troupe from the University of York, bringing another one of their sketch shows to the Fringe after a successful run last year. Made up of 6 young performers, the sketch team create the kind of strange content you would expect to see in a student’s showcase relying heavily on the element of absurdity to gain laughs. Whilst there are a handful of pretty funny scenes in this show, personally the set up did not quite hit my funny bone as often as I’d have liked it to, but that’s not to say they didn’t have other members of the a...

Topless: The One Woman Musical – Open Top Deck at Big Bus Betty

5Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Topless: The One Woman Musical – Open Top Deck at Big Bus Betty

Who doesn’t love an open top bus tour? Maybe not of the wrong city (yes, this bus tour is of London from the comfort of Edinburgh!), but for this show it’s not the site seeing that takes precedent rather the emotional roller coaster in which your guide is going to take you on. Your tour guide Sandie is sure to show you why it’s best not to mix business with your personal life in this one woman musical. Based off the original play Topless by Miles Trednnick (my favourite play and worth a read alone) this dark comedy shows Sandie a tour guide with a messy relationship history as she tells her unsuspecting tourists just how she dealt with her cheating husband, but unlike the previous play back in 1999 she does some of it through song. Set in the very intimate setting of an old open ...

The Death of Molly Miller – Underbelly Cowgate

5Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Death of Molly Miller – Underbelly Cowgate

Ever wondered if a social media influencer and a thief could get along? Perhaps for the most part just not when the thief has the influencer tied to a chair! The Death of Molly Miller is a dark satire which delves into the stereotypes of reality TV social media stars and desperate thieves, demonstrating that you can’t always judge a book by its cover. When Thomas (Matthew Greenhough), a desperate burglar, breaks into famous social media star Molly Miller’s house, he ends up in deeper water than he’d expected as the star arrives home early. Miller (Esther-Grace Button) is loud, dramatic and overly unlikable, surprisingly putting the audience onto the side of nervous yet humorous thief Thomas. Despite their differences the characters work very well together giving a real back and forth...

Murder She Didn’t Write – Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance One

4Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Murder She Didn’t Write – Pleasance Courtyard, Pleasance One

Have you ever fancied watching a murder mystery where even the murderer doesn’t know its them until halfway through the show? Well then, this murder mystery improvised phenomena may just be right what you’re looking for. Taking all the classic elements of a typical ‘who done it’ murder mystery but shaking it up with the plot, characters and murder weapon being decided upon by the audience right at the start of the show. It’s a wonder how the Degrees Of Error theatre company manage to come up with a fully-fledged play that still leaves it’s audience gasping with shock when the truth is revealed. With the events of the play being decided upon during the show I feel no fear in revealing the plot of our performance: Donald Trump’s trial and the tiny shark. To even shape such a ...

Titanic the Musical – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

21Jun

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Titanic the Musical – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

We all know the story of the Titanic, a tragedy on the seas brought about through malpractice, ego over practicality and safety. The name of the show alone is sure to bring in the masses, generations of people interested in the ships’ story and downfall. A whole audience entering the theatre with the expectation to cry, an expectation that I’m afraid fell short. The music of this show is without a doubt beautiful with an incredibly talented cast of vocalists and performers, each song alone could work well if not for the over use of ‘I want’ ballads in succession of each other throughout act one. It is clear the production set out with the plan of showing the multiple classes on the ship, trying to give its audience a multitude of people to build a connection with before some of their un...

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Festival Theatre

19Apr

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Ocean at the End of the Lane – Festival Theatre

If it’s the Stranger Things style poster that caught your attention or simply the usual high standard that comes with productions by the National Theatre one thing is to be sure you will not be disappointed when going to see the spooky phenomena that is The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Based on the best-selling novel by Neil Gaiman (also known for Coraline, Stardust, Good Omens and many more), you are bound to expect to be taken on a journey through the strange and wonderful but at times frightening. The National Theatre have managed to take Gaiman’s story of a young lad both coming to terms with the suicide of their family lodger due to money as well as learning to deal with the monsters (or should I say flees) he had no idea where lurking at the edges of his world and stamp it onto t...

21Feb

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Bodyguard – Edinburgh Playhouse

A show that literally starts with a bang. The Bodyguard follows Pop sensation Rachel Marron (Melody Thornton) as she receives death threats from an obsessive fan (Marios Nicolaides), to save the pop stars life her team hire Frank (Ayden Callaghan) as her personal bodyguard. Despite their dislike for one another the situation only serves to bring the two closer together providing us with a will they won’t they love story within the midst of danger. Of course, this is all accompanied by the hits of musical legend Whitney Houston. Visually this show is something to be seen, using techniques very rarely seen within musical theatre such as a heavy load of pre-recorded video projection used to give the show a much more sinister true crime atmosphere when discussing the stalker building suspen...

An Inspector Calls – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

1Feb

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

An Inspector Calls – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

An upper class family oblivious to fact that the world around them is falling to ruin, a family laughing around a dinner table without a care in the world; that is until he arrives. A detective. A dead girl and secrets to be explored. There’s a reason that An Inspector calls by J B Priestley has been wildly used in educational studies throughout the years and that’s simply because it fantastic. It’s a play that keeps us on our toes as it unravels itself with every character, providing us with twists and turns but also striving in the end to leave us with important moral lessons. The lessons of this tale clearly being ‘our own actions have consequences’ and that ‘we should take responsibility for how we treat others because we never know what could be going on in their lives’. T...