Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Book of Mountains and Seas – The Lyceum

Huang Ruo’s Book of Mountains and Seas promises mythic spectacle, and at times it delivers with imagery that sears itself into memory. Basil Twist’s staging conjures a world of elemental forces and shifting forms, with large, raw chunks of timber manipulated onstage to create figures of striking presence. One of the most arresting moments comes early, as these timber elements are assembled into a vast face, complete with glowing light spheres for eyes. These orbs lift away into the theatre’s airspace, casting an uncanny glow across the auditorium. From the sockets pour huge silk-like sheets, unfurling in great waves that transform into a billowing sea. Later, with a deft reconfiguration of the timber, the form becomes a hulking, almost golem-like figure, looming over the action. In the ...

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Fly, You Fools – Pleasance

One does not simply walk into the Pleasance, buy a ticket for Fly, You Fools! and watch a brilliant parody. Or do they? Well, yes, they probably do. Although, if you can arrange a giant eagle, that might be even quicker. Recent Cutbacks lovingly absurd retelling of The Fellowship of the Ring manages to cram an entire epic into a single, glorious, hour of physical comedy, shadow play, live Foley, and a flurry of blink and you miss them references. This is the sort of show that rewards a second viewing, there are so many visual and verbal easter eggs for Tolkien fans that you will spot new gags each time. The cast of three, Nick Abeel, Kyle Schaefer, and Regan Sims, handle an impossible number of roles with effortless dexterity. Gandalf, played full height while everyone else shuff...

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

AI: The Waiting Room – C Arts

Fringe marketing copy loves to promise “something you have never experienced before.” Most of the time that means you will get another monologue about someone’s bad break up or a quirky sketch with a ukulele. But AI: The Waiting Room genuinely delivers something unique, a personalised theatrical encounter where the story is built for you, in real time, by an AI. I did not do it in the show’s advertised venue at C Arts. Instead, I was set up at theSpace by the two co-creators themselves, who very kindly let me take part using my own phone. It is not a performance in the usual sense. You start by answering a handful of questions, some of them surprisingly personal. My advice, be honest. You will get more out of it if you drop the polite small talk and actually reveal something about y...

Mary, Queen of Rock! – Underbelly, Cowbarn

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Mary, Queen of Rock! – Underbelly, Cowbarn

Mary, Queen of Rock! reimagines Scotland’s most famous monarch as a leather-clad rock rebel, taking on John Knox in a battle of the bands. The cast delivers strong vocals, with Mhairi McCall in the lead role commanding the stage and Rebecca Williamson as Queen Elizabeth I, who brings plenty of ‘tude and sly wit and a fine voice to boot! The songs, especially Loud Women, deserve to shake the walls, but the volume is only half what it should be. With more punch in the sound and sharper tech, this could be a killer rock gig. I’m at the Underbelly’s Cowbarn, and the lights come up on Mary, Queen of Rock! Unfortunately, this nicely proportioned and comfortably seated raked venue is less than half full. In this version of history, Mary returns from France in 1561 to find John Knox running...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Garry Starr – Underbelly, George Square

Some Fringe shows are clever. Some are chaotic. And some, like Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, gleefully throw themselves off the rails and somehow land in a place of dazzling, ridiculous beauty. Damien Warren Smith’s alter ego, Garry Starr, attempts to perform every Penguin Classic novel in the space of 70 minutes. Dressed in the publisher’s signature flippers and not much else, in fact, absolutely nothing else for most of the show, he cycles through Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, Little Women, Of Mice and Men and dozens more at a breakneck pace, each rendered in his distinctive cocktail of physical clowning, improvisation, and subversive silliness. Yes, he’s naked. The first thing an audience member needs to know is that this isn’t a fleeting gimmick, it’s the performance unif...

A Monty Python Cabaret Singalong Circus – St. Mark’s Church

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

A Monty Python Cabaret Singalong Circus – St. Mark’s Church

There’s something deliciously wrong about sitting in an 1835 Unitarian church while a cheerful Australian pianist invites me to sing “Sit on My Face and Tell Me That You Love Me.” St Mark’s, designed by David Bryce, is a handsome bit of early Victorian stonework, high ceilings, clear acoustics, stained glass filtering the light, more accustomed to hymns than to songs about spam, lumberjacks, or finding myself in Finland for no apparent reason. Still, this is the Fringe, and in August the sacred and the silly often share a pew. The show is the brainchild of Antony “Dr H” Hubmayer, an award winning music educator from Adelaide who, if his own jokes are to be believed, never wants to be a cabaret pianist anyway. He wants to be a lumberjack. Obviously. He has the sort of avuncular charm...

Pussy Riot: Riot Days – Summerhall, Dissection Room

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Pussy Riot: Riot Days – Summerhall, Dissection Room

Political theatre turned punk gig turned call to arms, Pussy Riot’s Riot Days is an unflinching blast of protest art. At Summerhall’s Dissection Room, the Russian collective fire off pounding beats, stark captions, and unapologetic political fury. It’s powerful, messy, and confrontational, from the raw delivery to the deliberately provocative splashes of water into the crowd. You might not like every tactic, but you’ll leave knowing you’ve been in the same room as the real thing. There are protest gigs, and then there’s Pussy Riot. The Russian art-punk collective’s Riot Days tour has been roaring through cities worldwide, bringing their mix of punk gig, political rally, and theatre piece to stages that can barely contain them. At Summerhall’s Dissection Room, it’s all on top of you:...

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Pleasance

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Pleasance

Well, don’t make the same mistake I made by queuing like an idiot at Below instead of Beneath. I should have figured when I was the only one waiting in line! Lorna Rose Treen follows up last year’s Skin Pigeon with a more cohesive, diner-themed hour that’s still packed with the absurdity and oddball characters she’s known for. From a long-armed trucker to a teenage orthodontic nightmare, it’s silly, self-aware, and frequently hilarious, even when it knowingly “fails” at its own stated mission. If you enjoyed Skin Pigeon last year, you will love this. Here, the whole thing revolves around an American diner, albeit a diner as seen through Treen’s surreal lens, and also around her tongue-in-cheek mission statement: having allegedly “broken comedy” in 2023 with her Dave’s Funniest Jo...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Ohio – Assembly Roxy

One of the hottest tickets on the Fringe, maybe the hottest, from the producers that brought you Fleabag and Baby Reindeer. Sold out for most of the run before the Fringe even started, but if you are willing to hang around the ticket booth at exactly two hours before showtime you might just be lucky enough to snag the odd seat. This one’s going to tour, and it deserves to.The Bengsons, husband and wife, Shaun and Abigail, call Ohio an “ecstatic grief concert,” which sounds like something dreamed up by a marketing intern on too much kombucha. But within about thirty seconds you realise they mean it, every word. This is part gig, part confession, part secular revival meeting, and part science lecture for people who didn’t know they wanted to learn about the inner ear.Shaun Bengson, bespectac...

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Anthem For Dissatisfaction – Summerhall

A loud, brash, and unapologetically political coming-of-age tale set to a killer soundtrack of working-class anthems, Oasis, Reverend and the Makers, the Manics, Springsteen. Anthem for Dissatisfaction bursts with energy and heart, but in Summerhall’s small Red Lecture Theatre it sometimes plays like it’s still aiming too big. Big performances, big music, big feelings, and just a bit too much of all three. It starts strong, with Jamie talking about his big sister, Sarah, his “own personal NME”, and their shared love of music and the first record they owned from 2008: The State of Things by Reverend and the Makers. From there, we’re into austerity Britain (and Northern Ireland), and a 12-year-old’s question: “What the hell are we spending our money on?” When there’s no lavish lifesty...