Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

21Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

In The Cult of Work – Traverse Theatre

Edinburgh Youth Theatre charity, Strange town, return to the Traverse this week with three shows and this is the second of them. On stage tonight are the Tuesday 14 – 18-year-olds and they certainly put on a spirited and well rehearsed show, with no obvious line blunders, a well-drilled cohort who are a credit to director Catherine Ward-Stoddart. I’ve seen a few shows by Strange town over the years and what always comes across is the unbridled enthusiasm and commitment to the creative process from all involved. It’s always great to see the acting youth of Edinburgh taking over one of the best performance spaces in the Capital. Writer, Daniel Orejon was tasked with producing a short play on the theme of, Nobody wants to work anymore. In the centre of the stage a poster pronounces, ‘Ou...

15Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Hidden Door – Edinburgh Paper Factory

Looking like a set from Blade Runner, lit up with coloured lasers and strobe lighting, the gigantic Paper Factory, out near the airport, is Hidden Door’s most ambitious project yet, and quite possibly it’s final resting place, and why not? This architectural maze is a sprawling series of wide-open spaces, culminating in the cathedral grandeur of The Crane Shed where you have to break your neck to see the ceiling. The Factory Floor is open plan on a vast scale and will take your breath away. Grimy, grungy and littered with looming hulks of dead machines, illuminated from within by carefully placed coloured LEDs, this is a steam punk’s fever dream come to life. Hidden Door is the Capital’s five-day yearly arts and music festival, known for transforming unique often overlooked spaces i...

7Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lear – Traverse Theatre

Shakespeare’s infamous tragedy is significantly thinned down and reinterpreted into a one hour wordless anti-war allegory by Ramesh Meyyappan, but retains a raw power and delicate beauty and some rather unexpected humour that make it a thoroughly watchable and thought provoking addition to the Lear genre. This Lear has a worldly feel and international backing, a production by Glasgow based Raw Material in association with National Theatre for Scotland and Singapore National Festival of Arts, it looks made to tour extensively. In the hands of writer and performer Meyyappan and acclaimed director Orla O’Loughlin, we see and feel the effects of war on a father returning from the battlefield and his three daughters. The returning king of the household is welcomed with initial relief and ...

1Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Macbeth – Traquair House Gardens

Shakespeare at Traquair has become something of an institution, this year marking the 30th anniversary for the talented troupe of amateur actors and volunteers who bring a different bard play to life each year. This is the third outing of ‘the Scottish Play’, performed promenade style in the grounds of the ancient building, claimed to be the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland. Each scene is set in a different location in the grounds; amongst towering trees, against giant billowing rhododendrons, on great lawns and ancient cobbled stable yards and in one particularly effective scene, amongst the twisted limbs of a yew tree clearing as daylight dwindled. Add to this, the weird soundscape of electronica, grinding gears or static fuzz, or banging doors from carefully placed speaker...

The Ultimate Classic Rock Show – Festival Theatre

27May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Ultimate Classic Rock Show – Festival Theatre

UCRS are becoming something of an institution, celebrating twenty years of rocking on stage this year. Original band members Luke Bradshaw (Lead Guitar) and Gareth Kedward (Keyboards) are still going strong and showing no signs of slacking in this high tempo run through some of the most iconic rock tracks of the last few decades of the twentieth century. Bradshaw guitar work is simply wonderful, and without doubt some of the best I have seen for many a year! An enthusiastic audience at Edinburgh’s Festival theatre were on board from the very first note as lead man Rory Bridgeman launched into Freddie’s, One Vision, quickly followed by Coverdale’s, Fool For Your Loving. A cracking start! The quality of the vocals and musical accompaniment point towards a well-oiled and well drilled ma...

24May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Mama’s Broke – Traverse Theatre Bar

Kicking off their first show in a five week tour of the UK, the Bar at Traverse Theatre proved an ideal intimate setting for a spell-binding performance by Canadian Folk duo, Mamma’s Broke, which had everyone leaning in and, at times, tapping along. Hailing from Nova Scotia, Edinburgh has been a regular destination for the pair, since their first Edinburgh Fringe foray eleven years ago, where they resorted to busking on the streets to survive. They have come a long way since then. Known for their haunting harmonies and genre-defying compositions, the 30-something pair served up a beautiful mixture of songs from their previous two albums, Count The Wicked (2017) and Narrow Line (2022), along with some new material heading into the recording studio later this year. The venue’s simpl...

19May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Keli – Royal Lyceum Theatre

Keli is writer and composer, Martin Green’s response to his adopted community and its music. The writer moved to a small mining town in the South of Scotland and became fascinated by the relationship between the brass band and the pit. The mines were of course long gone, but the music remained and had become an emblem of continuity and resilience, where ‘the band is the toon, and the toon is the band’. At the centre of life Green’s a fictitious small mining town is Keli, a troubled and foul-mouthed young lady with few prospects, an anxiety-ridden mother and a dead-end job stacking shelves. The one good thing in her life is the band, and when she picks up the tenor horn, she becomes a different person, somehow empowered and necessary. When she blows those few inches of air it is the one ...

Scottish Ballet: The Crucible – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

5May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Scottish Ballet: The Crucible – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Excelling in pretty much every aspect of theatrical performance, this revival of Scottish Ballet’s 2019 adaptation of Arthur Miller’s iconic play is a cast-iron cross-over hit full of exquisite movement, sublime sound, theatrical storytelling, ethereal lighting and brilliant set design, magical, darkly complex and supernaturally good. I say cross-over because this does not feel, or indeed sound like any ballet I have ever witnessed before. There is so much modern dance and passionate movement mixed in here with storytelling and set to a scintillating modern score by Peter Salem it feels like something completely new, different and exciting. The giant stage of The Festival Theatre can be daunting, some productions just get swallowed up here. But not this one. In Emma Kingsbury and Dav...

Soundhouse: A New International – Traverse Theatre

29Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Soundhouse: A New International – Traverse Theatre

What a joy this was! Returning to the Traverse for the first time since 2019, 8-piece Glasgow New Romantic band A New International kick up a storm in front of an appreciative packed house performing hits from their first three albums, a generous few from the soon to be released fourth (later this year) and a couple from the mythical fifth. As a newcomer to their music, it was certainly an eye opener! I enjoyed hearing their early back catalogue particularly History Will Be Ours, the wonderfully toe-tapping, Necrapolitan and the hilarious Trump love song New American, but it was their latest songs, particularly The Girls Sing Country Blue, (dedicated to Auntie Rita) and Flicker, Flicker Firelight, which hit me the hardest and show that this band is still very much on an upward trajector...

Donald Grant and The Scottish Ensemble: Thuit an Oidhche Oirnn (The Night Overtook Us) – Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

15Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Donald Grant and The Scottish Ensemble: Thuit an Oidhche Oirnn (The Night Overtook Us) – Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh

A foot tapping and thought provoking night from one of Scotland’s finest fiddle players accompanied by the tartan security blanket of the Scottish Ensemble, who together created something of a sonic explosion at The Queen’s Hall. Following on from their puppet based space Odyssey The Law of Gravity which I loved at The Traverse earlier this year, The Scottish Ensemble, champions of classical Scottish string, led by Artistic Director, and 1st violin Jonathan Morton head back to their native roots, but with many a twist along the Highland track. Before Donald Grant takes to the stage we are treated to the Ensemble’s remarkable rendition of Touch and In Memorium, by Martin Suckling, like a murmuration of starlings, swooping and wheeling seemingly defying logic (or melody) and yet still ...