Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

4Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Nessie – The Studio, Edinburgh

Produced by Capital Theatres & Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Nessie, is a family-orientated tale of friendship, set to music with nods towards global warming, climate change and clean energy production that plays out a bit like a tick-box exercise for the 21st Century. However, from the reactions, the ooos and awwws, of the younger audience members and their quiet attention for 80 minutes it certainly seems to hit its target. And that, as we all know, is no easy feat! The life-sized puppets of Otter, ‘Oggie’ played by Keith Macpherson and Grey Heron ‘Heather’, operated by Alison Orr play a big role and are certainly cute and cuddly. And star of the show Nessa operated by Eden Barrie has a gurgling prehensile presence and a clever operation which allows her to be handled and operated r...

Beauty and the Beast – Church Hill Theatre

2Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Beauty and the Beast – Church Hill Theatre

We all know that opening nights can go one of two ways; either a riot of mistakes ,technical blunders and missed lines or that rare perfect explosion of nervous energy which propels the production to new heights. I’m happy to say that tonight, on April Fool’s day, this is no blundering joke, instead it is one of those unique stunning, wonderful events. But this is no happy accident. Whether by stick or carrot, Director Louise Sables pulls off a masterclass of amateur direction and casting, to marshal the talented folks of EMT to tell a simple story with real emotion, humour and clarity, and at a pace that many a professional production would only dream of, whilst eking out a meagre budget in all the right places. Take the costumes for example: to open the programme and find that the ...

22Mar

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Death of a Salesman – Festival Theatre

Arthur Miller’s iconic treatise on the American Dream, often studied, but rarely performed, is brought to glorious life tonight on the Scotland’s biggest stage in front of a packed and almost reverential audience. It is a simple enough tale of an ordinary man, Willie Loman, who has worked all his life to live up to his, and America’s, idea of what a man should be; strong, dependable, financially stable and unexceptional – an automaton – A Salesman. We enter Willie’s world just as he seriously begins to question his life and whether it has been a success. He has begun to have lapses of concentration which might point towards the onset of dementia, which are now even affecting his ability to drive safely and ultimately be able to continue working. A life insurance policy of $20,000 feels ...

The Land That Never Was – The Studio, Edinburgh

17Mar

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Land That Never Was – The Studio, Edinburgh

Starting life as an idea broached on a Scratch night for budding theatre makers a year ago, Liam Rees brings a fascinating true story of financial fraud to fruition to a packed house tonight. Imagine a country so bountiful in flora and fauna, set in the warm rejuvenating waters of Central America, a tropical paradise, where you would be lord of all you surveyed. This is the dream that Stirling man (Sir) Gregor McGregor sold to over 300 Scots in 1820. The country was Poyais, it had its own currency, parliament, honours system and coat of arms, all described in loving detail in an illustrated 350-page guidebook. But the book, like the story was fake, as was the currency which padded the wallets of the hopeful on their long and perilous journey. The actual destination for the unfortunate S...

10Mar

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Piece of Work – Traverse Theatre

This is a one man show about suicide, but with much wit and good humour and a blizzard of Shakespearean soliloquies you would hardly think it. Till later. Unfolded on the floor are tattered maps of Britain, The World, Greater Manchester and the tiny village where James Rowland paddled in the river. Standing on or hovering over these, master storyteller Rowland unfolds himself, all hands and mouth and sparkling eyes, creased and tattered and a bit ragged at the edges but still intact. His purpose, by way of many a Bard quote is not just to lay out a road map of his own ‘little life’, sustained by chicken burgers, but also to make us seriously consider our own and the sometimes very tenuous line that tethers us all in place. To be or not to be, is indeed the question, but it is one whi...

Now That’s What I Call A Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

27Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Now That’s What I Call A Musical – Edinburgh Playhouse

It’s big, bold and cheesier than a Swiss Fondue, but if you can put up with the variably dodgy Brummie accents there is a lot to enjoy in this jukebox musical based on the best musical decade there ever was – the eighties of course! The story, set in Birmingham, follows two school chums Gemma and April and their friends and family between the year 1989 and a class reunion in 2009, and music is the elixir that never grows old – as powerful and evocative twenty years on as it was when they first heard it. It is certainly an interesting and well thought out concept for a musical and on the whole, it works, helped in no small part by a brilliant set which flips very cleverly from bar to lounge to park to video shop (remember those!). The clever and at times very funny script also skips alon...

International Shorts : On The Edge – The French Institute

17Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

International Shorts : On The Edge – The French Institute

As part of Manipulate Festival, and screened in the gorgeous interior of The French Institute, this is a series of short animated films mostly set in and around the Arctic and Sub-Arctic regions focusing on the Climate Emergency and the effects on the indigenous peoples and the animals that live there. Education is the key and short films like this are just perfect for delivering bite sized thought-provoking perspectives. Kicking us off is an enjoyable 14 minute documentary from the National Film Board of Canada, Three Thousand, by Asinnajaq. This mixes animation with archival footage to explore the cinematic representation of the Inuit. The format is light-touched but the implication is clear, this is a people whose days are numbered. In The Power Grid (2018) by Clara Boden, a grai...

16Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Law of Gravity – Traverse Theatre

Spell-binding, sublime performance by the the six-strong strings of the Scottish Ensemble, accompanied by the delicate puppetry skills of a quartet from Blind Summit, made this a night to savour at Traverse 1 tonight. Classical Music can take us places in our mind, it is surely part of the joy of the experience to close our eyes and float…. Is it wise to curate, lead or interpret that trip? Blind Summit, attempted to do that tonight, but was it a help or a hinderance, an unnecessary distraction? The jury will be pretty split on this one. There was no questioning the quality of the music from Philip Glass (Symphony No. 3(1995)) and Arnold Schoenberg (Transfigured Night(1899)) superbly, and effortlessly, led by Johnathan Morton which has the audience transfixed from note one. Iro...

These things aren’t mine (film) – Traverse Theatre

16Feb

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

These things aren’t mine (film) – Traverse Theatre

Gabbie Cook’s attempt to turn something rotten and corrosive from her childhood into something positive and creative, aided by director Barney White, finds form in this watchable short film at the subterranean Traverse 2 tonight. As part of the Manipulate festival, which has a deserved reputation for bringing the strange and downright absurd together, this abstract film follows the life of former gymnast turned circus artist Cook. High on imagery and low on dialogue it still manages to pack quite a punch, without perhaps finding the knock-out blow. As we now look back and grimace at the ick-inducing objectification of Miss-World or the sexism of Benny Hill or indeed the unchecked racism of Rigsby, we will undoubtedly look back in years to come and grimace at the dehumanising and brutal ...

30Jan

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Moments – The Studio

In the classic time-loop film Groundhog Day, tv reporter, Phil (Bill Murray) attempts over and over again to create the perfect day, a series of carefully choreographed ‘moments’, with his attractive producer Rita (Andie MacDowell), in an attempt to win her heart. Only to be thwarted, often at the last moment, hilariously, time and time again. Some fans calculate the time-loop at 12,403 days! Theatre Re bring their own, thankfully shorter, time-loop to The Studio tonight to wordlessly consider, and reconsider, the powerful bond between a father and a son, and the ‘casting off’ which marks the end of one generation and the beginning of the next. Twelve and a half years after Theatre Re, premiered their particular brand of thoughtful and thought provoking theatre at Pleasance Dome...