Beth Eltringham, Author at North West End UK

11Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Eglantyne – Gilded Balloon Teviot

Eglantyne is a one woman play written and performed by actress Anne Chamberlain which follows the life and story of Eglantyne Jebb. This 75-minute documentary play delves deep into Chamberlain’s love and respect for the woman who fronted and fought for the charity campaign ‘Save The Children’ exploring what made Jebb the woman she was. You can feel the love and admiration Chamberlain has for Jebb, it radiates from her, giving her a glow that shines through her eyes rather than just the stage lights. She uses a range of storytelling tactics jumping from first person into third and even taking time to explain her own emotional connection to the historical figure and a few costume changes. Eglantyne’s story is one of triumph and failure and unfortunately this production is too. Whil...

Seven Minutes in Heaven – Traverse Theatre

11Jun

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Seven Minutes in Heaven – Traverse Theatre

Strange Town Youth Theatre brings us a 1-hour short play written by Edinburgh writer Shelley Middler exploring the struggles teenagers face in this current world. We get a glimpse into serious issues such as the sharing of personal pictures, the sexual pressures on young people today and discovery of sexuality, all of this is brought together in the setting of a small house party. Every cast member has a chance to showcase their skills with an overwhelming abundance of characters, demonstrating some brilliant mime work and use of freeze frames and monologues. There’s an overall story that someone has been attacked and each of the characters have moments in which they are questioned by the police in their own spotlight. This is designed to keep the audience on their toes allowing them to...

Wuthering Heights – King’s Theatre Edinburgh

26May

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Wuthering Heights – King’s Theatre Edinburgh

Wise Children’s Wuthering Heights takes its form as a creative and all together magical adaptation of the 1847 Emily Bronte novel: Wuthering Heights. It’s serves to tell the story of two young lovers whose social status, race and upbringing become their own downfall. Heathcliff (Liam Tamne) is a young man found and adopted at Liverpool docks only to live his life in the shadows due to his ethnic background and darker features, when he meets adoptive sister Catherine (Lucy McCormick) he falls in love with the strange and mentally unstable young lady. Unfortunately, Catherine has other ideas and instead of pursuing her romance with Heathcliff she marries another man to attain her rank in society and so Heathcliff vows to get his revenge on those he blames for the loss of his happiness. This ...

11May

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Rock Of Ages – Edinburgh Playhouse

Rock of Ages is a cheesy jukebox musical that plays as the perfect throw back to everyone’s favourite 80s and 90s rock anthems such as “Here I Go Again”, “Dead or Alive” and “Don’t Stop Believing”. There are several stories told throughout by fantastic narrator Lonny (played by Joe Gash), the main one being of star crossed lovers Sherrie (Gabriella Williams) and Drew (Sam Turrell) who both moved to the Sunset Strip to find fame but instead found each other however the one and only Stacee Jaxx (Matt Terry) proves to become their biggest obstacle. There is another secondary plot concerning the demolition of the Sunset Strip. It goes without saying that this production is near perfect! The cast are all incredibly talented and perfectly cast, we all already love the music, an...

21Apr

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Waitress – Edinburgh Playhouse

A story of baking, infidelity and finding love, waitress is a problematic musical surrounding a waitress who bakes pies to avoid talking about her feelings. Jenna (played tonight by Aimee Fisher) is a waitress for a small diner who specializes in making the best pies in town whilst avoiding dealing with her unhappy marriage and overall feeling of failure for the life she believes her mother would have wanted her to live. When a pregnancy test proves positive, she is forced to reconsider her life choices as she begins an affair with her gynaecologist (played by Liam McHugh) and starts to save up money to enter a baking contest that could guarantee her enough money to leave her abusive husband Earl (Donal Brennan) for good. At the same time, we follow her co-workers Dawn (Evelyn Hoskins) ...

Magic Goes Wrong – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

14Apr

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Magic Goes Wrong – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Magic Goes Wrong is exactly what it says on the tin, it’s a magic show that simply goes wrong in every way imaginable. Created by Mischief Theatre famous for their West end hit ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’, Magic Goes Wrong follows its predecessors in its slapstick and childish humour which is enough to make most people belly laugh their way through the show however it comes into question if that humour gets old a little too soon. The show centres around Sophisticato (Sam Hill), a rather terrible magician attempting to put together a charity night in memory of his father and other magicians who have lost their lives in magic related accidents. He honours this by pulling together a strange and equally terrible band of magicians that his father had met in the past. The Mind Mangler (Rory Fa...

Everybody’s Talking About Jaime – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

30Mar

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Everybody’s Talking About Jaime – Edinburgh Festival Theatre

When you learn to except yourself for who you truly are and want to be, that is when the world will follow suit and accept you too, this is the message that this show communicates. Everyone’s Talking about Jamie is based around the true life and journey of drag star Jamie Campbell: one of the youngest drag queens of his time, taking up the art at just 16. Whilst drag is an important plot device do not get this show confused for a drag show; Jamie’s alter ego Mimi Me (or in real life Fifi La True) only actually surfaces once in the show and in its complete form this is via projection. The plot is actually about a young sixteen-year-old queer boy (Jamie played by Layton Williams) who dreams of being a drag queen yet fears the backlash he may get from his classmates, teacher (Lara Denning...

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Leith Theatre

28Feb

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde – Leith Theatre

The story of Jekyll and Hyde has had many a version or retelling over the years, usually focusing on Dr Jekyll’s battle with himself and his genetically mutated personality of Mr Hyde however this production takes a very different angle. The script sticks closer to that of the original text by Robert Louis Stevenson, making Utterson (Lorn Macdonald) the lead and having Dr Jekyll (Henry Pettigrew) take a back seat. The story follows Gabriel Utterson, a lawyer who goes to visit his old friend Harry Jekyll when finding a strange note within Jekyll’s will. This leads Utterson down a very dark rabbit hole when he discovers Jekyll has been helping out a certain barbaric and mysterious Mr Hyde. Building an obsession over capturing and punishing Hyde for his wicked crimes, Utterson finds himsel...

The Rocky Horror Show – Edinburgh King’s Theatre

22Feb

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Rocky Horror Show – Edinburgh King’s Theatre

Sexy, Camp and a real cult classic. Rocky horror has been entertaining us musical weirdos since 1973 and to this day has yet to lose its charm and fun. Before the show even begins, you’ll find yourself surrounded by its fans decked out in suspenders, corsets, feather bowers and tinier shorts than you could have mentally prepared yourself for. Rocky Horror is a sci-fi rock musical all about giving into your own sexual desires and discovering one’s self, but with aliens! These are not the green little Martians we televise but a group of human looking aliens from the distant planet of Transexual Transylvania. They are sexy, strange and at times dangerous. When newly engaged and conservative couple Brad (Ore Oduba) and Janet (Haley Flaherty) turn up at their door, all hell breaks loos...

15Feb

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

REVIEWS

Hedda (After Ibsen) – Soho Theatre

Hedda is an avant-garde re-imagining of the early text Hedda Gabler by esteemed realist writer Henrik Ibsen however it can be argued that it goes against everything Ibsen stood for within theatre. Any fan of the original text like myself will be likely to be left with many a mix feelings after watching this one person performance. The story of Hedda and Hedda Gabler (1891) is one in the same, Hedda is a distasteful woman of great social status who has recently married a man who she believes is beneath her. Being away from her social class and stuck in a less than luxurious home she finds herself bored and loathing her current living situation. When a friend from the past shows up with his new manuscript and a pretty young girl at his side Hedda sees an opportunity to take control over h...