Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

Failure Project – Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Failure Project – Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre

A new play by BAFTA nominee Yolanda Mercy (Quarter Life Crisis), in which Mercy plays Ade Adeyami, a young British-Nigerian playwright and actor who is still riding the wave of her first play, which has become an unexpected Fringe hit. With this success, and the realisation that she might even be able to make a living from her dream, comes an unexpected problem - a hierarchy of editors, agents and publicists who are there to help, nay manipulate, her. Ade’s second play, Day Girl, about a working-class black kid at a private school, has been commissioned, and paid for, and Ade finds she must now dance to her new masters’ tune. Before she knows it a B-list, minor celebrity influencer with no acting experience is cast in the lead instead of Ade, worst still she want to be ‘collabora...

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me – Summerhall, Dissection Room

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me – Summerhall, Dissection Room

Performed cabaret style with tables and chairs, it’s well worth arriving a little before the stated ticket start time, with drinks in hand, to snag the best viewpoint. Early birds also get the significant bonus of a personal welcome from writer/performer Charlene Boyd, sashaying between tables humming tunes and chatting in American drawl like a hospitable Texas mam. Boyd has come a long way from the seeds of an idea, germinated during the lockdown-years, recently divorced mum of two, in her very unglamorous Glasgow high-rise! As the hamster wheel stopped for many of us, Boyd showed that it’s amazing what you can achieve when you have time on your hands! But Boyd always knew she was better placed than almost anyone to write the story of June Carter, having sung for the last 14 yea...

Flesh – Mackenzie Building, Old Assembly Close, Edinburgh

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Flesh – Mackenzie Building, Old Assembly Close, Edinburgh

Performed down a close off the Royal Mile, this is a nicely site specific interpretation of the classic Edinburgh Burke and Hare story, and is sure to appeal to a good section of tourists on the lookout for a historical re-enactment. That this is also set to music comes as a sort of added bonus. This was surely the mindset of those who set off to dig up this absolute monstrosity from the annals of Edinburgh musical theatre history. In the battle royale that is Edinburgh in August there is no place for niceties or pally nepotism. This show may not be the worst I’ve seen but it looks under- rehearsed and amateurish compared to many of the shows out there. That’s not to say that it is all horrible. There are some good turns; Jeremy Fraser’s Burke is particularly well delivered, t...

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Arcade – Summerhall Terrace

Set within a fully sealed and completely dark and sound-proofed container outside Summerhall, as a half-hour filler I have no problem with this at all. Personally, I might prefer a recumbent half-hour with a yoga track, but as a decompression from the sometimes over-whelming sights and sounds of the Fringe, this works either way. You certainly have more agency than previous container experiences I have had, you have a button to make choices yes or no, you have a token (use it wisely!) and a slot to put it in. Of course, there are multiple ways the storyline can twist and turn and for hardened arcade fans this might need multiple outings. The audible experience is excellent as is the haptic feedback. At one point, when your partner is wasted right beside you, you experience a s...

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

I’m Almost There – Summerhall Main Hall

This might just be the best day I’ve ever had at the Edinburgh Fringe. I’ve just come from Every Brilliant Thing, and now this! It is one thing to see the ubiquitous posters of Todd Almond running with his yellow umbrella (which seem burned into my retina!), it is entirely another to see and hear him in the flesh. Like an alabaster statue come to life, this David with his piercing blue eyes (I was lucky enough to sit in the front row!) has the audience transfixed from note one. Almond, the toast of New York, seated at piano for most of the performance, with a lazy laconic boredom reminisces over a modern queer love story. It’s dreamy, probably because I’ve been reviewing and writing my five-a-day for the last five days, but also because it’s just dreamy! Accompanied by Erin Hi...

Every Brilliant Thing – Roundabout @ Summerhall

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Every Brilliant Thing – Roundabout @ Summerhall

Every Brilliant Thing, by Duncan MacMillan and Jonny Donahue is back and goes straight in at number one on my list of brilliant things. And with Donahue himself performing it, this is better than ice cream. Like a prodigal son returning from distant shores, the womb-like space that is The Roundhouse, at Summerhall, welcomes back, Every Brilliant Thing, a play that has globe trotted after it’s first showing here in 2014. And the public cannot get enough of it, it is completely sold out, with two additional dates already added (sold out) but surely more to follow. (Check the Fringe web site, every five minutes!) It’s one of those shows that it’s best to know nothing about before you see it. I am therefore going for the mysterious, enigmatic vibe on this one. Lets just say it is the...

Sh!t Theatre: Or What’s Left Of Us – Summerhall Tech Cube

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Sh!t Theatre: Or What’s Left Of Us – Summerhall Tech Cube

Like a pair of iconic Midsommer maidens, in mediaeval garb, replete with silly Wicker Man – style animal head hats Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole prove that It is possible to be desperately sad and have fun at the same time. Incredibly brave to have put this on at all, set against the tragically young death of Adam Brace, the duo’s long time director (and Rebecca’s partner), this is a rollercoaster of a show full of laughs but also barely held tears, that leaves you admiring, nay loving, this duo even more. Along the way, we discover that badgers enter a torpic state, which is quite different to hibernation! We sing about John Barleycorn, some even drink the drink of John Barleycorn, but remember, There are rules! Much of the show focuses on their new found love of Folk...

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lynn Faces – Summerhall Main Hall

It’s odd. Very odd! Following on from Laura Horton’s 2022 near perfect, sensitively written award-winning Breathless which focussed on mental illness and hoarding and which transferred successfully to off-Broadway, we have something of a hand-brake turn into her latest vehicle, Lynn Faces. The story follows almost-40 Leah, wannabe lead singer of newly assembled punk band Lynn Faces. We join them as they are about to play their opening gig.They wear masks of Lynn, the eponymous long-suffering, snazzy-cardigan-wearing assistant to fictional comedian Alan Partridge. Problems are racking up: firstly, none of them can really play any musical instruments (with the exception of an excellent grade 3 recorder solo!), oh, and the drummer hasn’t turned up. But, who cares, the show must g...

8Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Nation – Roundabout @ Summerhall

Within the womb-like space that is The Roundhouse, at Summerhall, one of my favs in the scrum that is the Fringe, magic can happen. Nation might have been written for this space, and this time. It may not be the kind of launch pad writer and performer Sam Ward would have wanted, but the spate of xenophobic far-right riots sweeping the UK makes this story chilling pertinent. Ward welcomes us into the tent and asks us to exist in the moment, right now you are an audience listening to a storyteller. Right now, I’m a postman, on a High Street of an ordinary town. We are asked to imagine the ordinary town, not too big, not too small, and the ordinary people that inhabit it. The Butcher, the Baker, the Pilates Instructor, Ward points at people in the audience, assigning identities, ...

Sheeps: The Giggle Bunch – Pleasance Courtyard

8Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Sheeps: The Giggle Bunch – Pleasance Courtyard

This 3 for 1 offer is for the most part good value. Sheeps with pedigree, Ladhood creator Liam Williams, Stath Lets Flats star Al Roberts and writer Daran Johnson. Former Fringe favourites return after a six year hiatus with a new suite of sketches which are in turn brilliant, tricksy, silly and just plain weird, in what they promise is their final Fringe run together (probably!). Given their already high-flying status, this is more of an excuse for the ‘boys’ to get together one last time, rather than a serious career or financial move. There’s an intriguing boy band dynamic and comedic palsy bickering throughout the show which is part of the show’s charm. The quality of the sketches is varied to say the least, the opening skit, possibly the high point of the show, features a...