Christina Schmidt, Author at North West End UK

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

26Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

It’s Apsaras Dance Company’s first time in Edinburgh and this was their first performance of Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee. Coming all the way from Singapore to share this beautiful piece of dance theatre with Scottish and International audiences. Agathi intends to destigmatise the refugee experience and calls for empathy and understanding. Inspired by the book of poems by refugee children as well as specific lived experiences, the show explores displacement, various people’s stories and the dangers refugees often have to deal with. Some of the Voice-overs and monologues are in English and during the songs in Tamil, surtitles of the translations are screened to make it fully understandable. The traditional Indian Bharatanatyam dance is choreographed beautifully and although the...

2050: A Manifesto – Greenside @ Riddles Court

25Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

2050: A Manifesto – Greenside @ Riddles Court

2050: A Manifesto promises a lot but fulfils very few of those promises. The show sounds exciting! Clowning, comedy, social criticism of tech-bros and the AI-centric futures they’re trying to sell us. Then why is it that most if it ended up being jokes about balls? The beginning was promising. We see a typical sci-fi inspired set and costume on writer and performer Alexander Hentrick. And to be fair, there was some decent comedic timing and deadpan humour that got a chuckle out of the audience. But it doesn’t go anywhere. The character doesn’t progress and more and more jokes were falling flat. It’s clear that he was trying to make fun of performantive men and tech-bros, but Hentrick just seems like one of them. Maybe if this was an actual clown persona or performed by a Drag King i...

24Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Deluge – Underbelly Cowgate

Inspired by a break-up and interviews with 40 other people dealing with some form of loss, Gabi Flares merges these stories into a 60min fever-dream of Jam Jars, live piano playing and singing, emotional outbursts, flooding houses and just about every manner of movement whilst carrying around a ladder. Though calling it a comedy show might be a bit of a stretch, there were certainly funny moments, along with every other emotion as well. Flares doesn’t just explore heartbreak and grief theoretically, she fully embodies it. The messiness, the flip-flopping from being angry to exhausted to overjoyed and sad again, and generally just spilling over with emotions that have nowhere to go anymore. The constant dripping that slowly floods her world being a reminder of what she’s lost and how tho...

Non-Human Animal – Gilded Balloon Teviot

23Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Non-Human Animal – Gilded Balloon Teviot

Roisin’s father was murdered. Now she’s left alone to deal with the consequeses – grieving, bingeing on mini Mars-bars and Gilmore Girls, shutting out the outside world, with a Mammy that’s suffering from dementia, and a health system that’s failing her. Writer Kat Woods pulled from her own experiences after the murder of her father which comes through in the confessional tone of the piece. Non-Human animal scratches the surface on many incredibly important topics, but unfortunately loses the actual storyline in this web of problems. What is the play about? The prison system? Trauma? Role-play? The NHS? Grief? Mental Health? Soberiety? Northern Ireland after the Troubles? Class? Social Media? Neurodiversity? Body image issues? Guilt? All of the above? Of course all of these socie...

Peregrinations – Central at Assembly Roxy

23Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Peregrinations – Central at Assembly Roxy

According to the dictionary, peregrination means a journey to foreign lands, especially on foot. This play by Dutch Kills Theater Company, follows multiple of such journeys of people crossing borders and eplores themes of migration, exile, and the search for belonging in a culture hostile towards immigrants. That alone makes it an important piece of work in the times of ICE in the US and ever increasing support for right-wing politics across the west. But Peregrinations is more than that. It is a wordless, but visually stunning theatre piece. It is a masterclass in mask-work and physical theatre with some incredible puppetry sprinkled in throughout the show. Based on interviews of the ensemble’s real lived experiences it tells stories of humanity, resilience and hope for a better...

Witches Corner – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

19Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Witches Corner – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

Walking into the space to see Witches Corner, the audience is welcomed with a soft song being performed as they settle into their seats, perfectly setting up the tone of the show. Blending the stories of real women convicted as witches with modern women’s struggles, Eilidh Smith’s play is a lesson in Scottish history and a feminist rallying cry packaged into a 50 minute music theatre production. Stepping into the accused women’s shoes, it is incredible how contemporary their pleas for justice sound even though we like to tell ourselves that the world has changed since the witch hunts. And unfortunately the men’s points of view for convincing these witches isn’t unfamiliar either. Similar points of view can easily be found on the manosphere side of TikTok. But it makes sense. After a...

12Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

The 39 Steps – theSpace @ Triplex

You might not have set out to see an amateur production on this year’s Fringe, but ‘The 39 Steps’ presented by Clifton College could be worth rethinking that. This adaptation of Hitchcock’s classic thriller uses physical theatre, shadow puppetry, fairly minimal set and props, some clever stage tricks and leans towards slapstick elements - essentially celebrating the magic live theatre has to offer. Of course it’s still a school production, so don’t expect anything too polished or equal performances across the board. No, there are things that could be improved upon. Some of the puppetry bits didn’t work as well as they could have with different direction for example. There were small inconsistencies that might have been overlooked but could easily be fixed and we see varying levels o...

9Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Belly – Greenside @ George Street

Three women, three generations, one family - and all of them struggle with their belly. The play follows Ellie, who gets pressured into an eating disorder by her high school swim coach, her aunt Katherine, who wants to do everything right for her baby but has to navigate a fatphobic healthcare system and patronizing doctors and Katherine’s mother Susan, newly widowed and learning to live with her grief. From time to time, writer and performer Reilly O'Shaughnessy checks back in with the audience as herself, and we get to learn about her own story and the reasons behind her creating this show. This variety of characters and storylines keeps the audience engaged and waiting to learn more about their relationships. They get rewarded with a very sweet ending, tying the different s...

Crash and Burn – theSpace @ Niddry Street

16Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Crash and Burn – theSpace @ Niddry Street

Set on a private jet, heading to the climate conference COP26 in Glasgow: Oil Baron James Johnson with his employee and daughter are forced to share the plane with eccentric actor and activist Amodius Vassano and his personal manager. After take-off, they find out that this and other planes have been hijacked by a group of radical environmental activists and they are being held hostage, only to survive if Johnson confesses to his crimes. ‘Crash and Burn’, a new play written by Will Leckie, who also plays Amodius Vassano, aims to be a political comedy that wants to ask the question of how far activism can or should go. Whilst this is a great premise, although an unoriginal idea, the execution of it was rather poor. The play lacks structure, trying to tackle too many topics at once...

Twenty People a Minute – theSpace on the Mile

14Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Twenty People a Minute – theSpace on the Mile

‘Twenty People a Minute’ is a new play that provides a terrifying outlook of what the near future could look like. Set in 2030, the play follows four people fleeing from their homes for different reasons – whether being persecuted for their gender, sexuality, or fleeing from war and natural disasters. These refugees of tomorrow highlight the social, political and environmental crises plaguing the world today and how they might impact individuals in the future. Written by Samantha Robinson, her prose seamlessly becomes poetry whilst the fragmented storylines slowly intertwine and come together in the end. Her excellent writing carries the audience through the play, being fast-paced and using repetitions to underline the characters constant questioning of themselves and the situation they...