Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

The Sleeping Beauty – Church Hill Theatre

16Dec

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Sleeping Beauty – Church Hill Theatre

This traditional Panto is great family entertainment, including cheesy jokes, audience participation, sing alongs and all the familiar ‘panto’ tropes. Edinburgh People’s Theatre throw themselves into this retro production, and you find yourself laughing, singing and shouting out ‘behind you!’, almost in spite of yourself. It’s enough to make even a moody teen smirk! On the night I attended the massed ranks of Brownies and Guides and large family groups fairly filled up the well appointed and comfortable seats of the Church Hill Theatre and provide plenty of atmosphere and hilarious heckling in all the right places. When dame, Derek Ward, as Queen Dorothy asks if his ‘bum looks big in this’, he looks suitably hurt by the inevitable audience responses. Mandy Black’s assured directi...

Butterflies & Benefits / Cheapo – Traverse Theatre

7Dec

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Butterflies & Benefits / Cheapo – Traverse Theatre

As Part 2 of 4Play at The Traverse Theatre’s support of new writing, four brand new plays by four Edinburgh Playwrights are given their first airings over two nights. Tonight it is the turn of plays 3 and 4 in the roster to have their premier outings to an almost full Traverse 2. Butterflies & Benefits follows the lives of four twenty-something friends, starting at Hogmanay in 1998, the year before the dreaded Y2K, and is set to a soundtrack of dance tunes from that time. Whilst I like a ‘banger’ as much as the next guy, it is fair to say that there is an over reliance on music to both set the scenes and to fill dead air. Character development is left behind in favour of pounding music, dancing madly around, drinking and taking drugs, Coke seemingly the flavour of choice. Maybe ...

Fuckers & Colours Run (Part of 4Play) – Traverse Theatre

7Dec

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Fuckers & Colours Run (Part of 4Play) – Traverse Theatre

As part of Traverse Theatre’s support of new writing, four brand new plays by four Edinburgh Playwrights are given their first airings over two nights, and it is truly heartwarming to see that they are playing to an almost full Traverse 2 tonight. The thrust format of the subterranean Trav 2 seems highly appropriate to the first play Fuckers, pardon my French, which, with full frontal nudity, and sexual content from the start packs quite a punch. Ruaraidh Murray’s script follows the on/off relationship between an American actress Lois, played by Olivia Caw, and Scottish comedian, Andrew, played by Liam Ballantyne. The play is unashamedly sexual in content, but in a playful and joyful way which remarkably manages to overcome any sordid undertones, which is surely the biggest challenge he...

1Dec

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Treasure Island – The Lyceum, Edinburgh

The Lyceum Christmas show has landed! And in the tradition of Lyceum Christmas shows passed it (thankfully!) takes a wide berth around the ‘panto’ genre and serves up its own idiosyncratic recipe; take a classic tale, give it an Edinburgh flavour, a sprinkling of humour, a seasonal twist, a large dollop of live music and action, and serve it firmly tongue -in-cheek and aimed squarely at the family market. For the most part, Treasure Island, adapted by Orkney based writer, Duncan McLean, achieves its objectives, and the production is hilarious, fast-paced and always wonderfully musical. In a clever plot twist, we start our tale in a rest home for reformed pirates, no beards, no swashbuckling and absolutely no treasure hunts… Awwww! But old habits are hard to break, timbers req...

The Tailor of Inverness – Traverse Theatre

15Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Tailor of Inverness – Traverse Theatre

The Tailor of Inverness is not so much about the capital of the North or about the profession of tailoring, rather it is about identity, about truth (or lack of it) and about home. Actor/writer Matthew Zajac plays his own father and then himself as well as multiple other characters in between, in an absolute tour de force, a performancenot to be missed. History is written by the winners, as they say, and for the Tailor, winning was always going to be measured by simply being alive at the end of the Second World War, by whatever means possible. A history lesson, a geography lesson, a survival lesson. A story told how the titular tailor would like to have you believe it, followed by the truth, told by the son who eventually draws all the threads together, however unpalatable. The...

9Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Run, Rebel – Traverse Theatre

Run, Rebel is an award-winning young adult fiction novel, which has garnered significant praise for its punchy verse led telling of life within a traditional Indian family in Britain. The story received Guardians Best Book of 2020 award. Amber Rai is a fifteen-year-old who lives with her non-English speaking parents on a tough estate somewhere in middle England. Her home life has never been easy, her mother and older sister all try hard to avoid and placate their temperamental domineering and sometimes violent, alcoholic father. He is determined to impose the traditional Indian values on his wife and children, and the older sister, Ruby (Simran Kular) has already flown the coop, choosing to go along with an arranged marriage as a way to escape, the lesser of two evils. But she is alread...

The Ritual – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

5Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Ritual – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

Is there a better example of Vampire Clowning in the UK? I doubt it. The Ritual, my favourite show of the annual Edinburgh Horror Festival, sees the charismatic duo, Gregory Lass and Steffens Hanes team up once again, ably assisted by ‘Emily’, their gate closing, vape puffing (smoke machine) tech wizard who brings it all together rather beautifully. Imagine Fawlty Towers’ Manuel and Basil as vampires and you get an idea of the hilarious roles that Lass and Hanes take on stage. The sycophantic servant, who tries hard but always falls short, and the master who demands perfection and ends up a little deranged trying to achieve it. The beauty here, is that although the roles are very clearly defined, there is also plenty of ‘air’ in this performance, leaving ample room for improvisat...

A Gift of Nightmares – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

5Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

A Gift of Nightmares – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

Storyteller, Ines Alvarez Villa, brings to vivid life two stories of her own creation in the deep-padded luxury of the Cinema Room at Banshee Labyrinth. Thankfully, background noise is low (not always the case!) and we are able to sink into the colourful fabric that Ines weaves for us. Both stories are allegorical and centre around the danger of averice, of excessive greed of always wanting more, and prioritising personal gain over integrity. In the first, caution is cast aside when a group of sailors happen upon an abandoned galley. Unable to resist, their curiosity gets the better of them, and whilst they reap the treasure rewards from the silent ship, they also inadvertently invite something else along for the ride! The second, which I preferred, is more in the style of classi...

Spooky and Gay – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

5Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Spooky and Gay – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

Orlandoan, Bruce Ryan Costella packs a lot into this hour long show at Banshee Labyrinth as part of the Edinburgh Horror Festival, maybe too much. Arcing from queer Halloween fairy tales through cowboy folk tales to real life gay bar shootings, with a splash of cheery then sad ukulele tunes thrown in for good measure. Uplifting in places, spooky at times, then desperately sad, it is all a bit of a rollercoaster to be honest. Costella’s, Orlando homage ends rather unfunnily with his recounting of the mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Florida in 2016, where 49 people died, and 53 were seriously injured. The overriding emotion at the conclusion of the show is of a man desperately trying to save himself with humour in spite of an overwhelming burden of grief. Which probably exp...

Stand Up Horror – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

5Nov

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Stand Up Horror – Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh

Alex Staniforth, actor, writer and tour guide is an old hand at the Edinburgh Horror Festival, and a regular performer at Banshee Labyrinth throughout the year, and it shows. His easy and warm interaction with the room between generous gulps from his pint allows the group to relax together and the story that unfolds between them to flow organically, and hilariously. The small size of the audience in the intimate Cave Bar space ensures that everyone contributes - whether they want to or not! The story as it develops under Staniforth’s tutelage is guaranteed to take some unlikely turns, and tonight is no exception. Elon Musk makes an unscheduled appearance, making our heroine an offer she can’t refuse for her flying keyboard, meanwhile the hordes of zombies heading for Edinburgh Ca...