Greg Holstead, Author at North West End UK

The Taming of the Shrew – Traquair House

2Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Taming of the Shrew – Traquair House

All the world's a stage, wrote Shakespeare, and nowhere does that feel truer than at Traquair. On a glorious Borders evening, with peacocks calling in the distance, goats grazing unconcernedly nearby, live musicians leading the audience from scene to scene, and performers appearing from every corner of Scotland's oldest inhabited house, Shakespeare's comedy becomes something far more than a play. It becomes an event. Director Kath Mansfield's production of The Taming of the Shrew is playful, joyful and bursting with life. Every corner of the estate is pressed into service, from formal gardens and winding pathways to the magnificent terraces in front of the house. Traquair itself becomes a cast member, its ancient walls, mature trees and carefully cultivated landscape providing a backdro...

2:22 A Ghost Story – Edinburgh Playhouse

27May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

2:22 A Ghost Story – Edinburgh Playhouse

The touring production of 2:22 A Ghost Story arrives at the Edinburgh Playhouse carrying a formidable reputation. Danny Robins’ supernatural thriller has already conquered the West End, toured internationally and become one of those modern stage phenomena where audiences arrive already primed, whispering theories before the lights even dim. The premise remains brilliantly simple, a dinner party with four friends descends into a late night argument about belief, scepticism and whatever may or may not arrive each night at precisely 2:22am. What elevates the evening beyond a standard jump scare ghost story is Robins himself. Already well known as the creator of the hugely successful BBC Sounds podcast series Uncanny, Robins has become something of Britain’s modern campfire s...

Baby Mash-Up: What on Earth Are You Doing? – Traverse Theatre

26May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Baby Mash-Up: What on Earth Are You Doing? – Traverse Theatre

Sally Hobson’s Baby Mash-Up, What On Earth Are You Doing? Is a bold, strange and undeniably ambitious new work that often resists easy interpretation even as it reaches towards moments of startling emotional beauty. Presented by stillpoint at the Traverse Theatre and directed with restless invention by Nicholas Bone, the production unfolds across a collage-like structure of some twenty-five scenes, veering wildly between absurdist comedy, philosophical speculation, domestic intimacy and moments of piercing lyrical reflection. At first, the play feels almost deliberately destabilising. The audience is bounced from one surreal encounter to another, unsure whether to laugh, think, analyse or simply surrender to the flow of ideas washing over them. Yet gradually, beneath the theatri...

18May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Guys and Dolls – Festival Theatre

Southern Light’s Guys and Dolls arrives at the Festival Theatre with all the confidence and swagger of a Broadway classic that knows it has survived generations. Frank Loesser’s score still sparkles, Damon Runyon’s world of gamblers and hustlers still charms, and Southern Light throw absolutely everything they have at it. This is a huge production, packed with colour, movement and musical ambition, with a cast of around seventy determined to fill one of Scotland’s biggest auditoriums. And for long stretches, they succeed. Directed by Andy Johnston, with musical direction by Fraser Hume and choreography by Janice Bruce, the production understands that Guys and Dolls lives or dies on energy. The Festival Theatre stage is enormous and unforgiving, capable of swallowing le...

Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil – Royal Lyceum Theatre

15May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil – Royal Lyceum Theatre

You could attend Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil at the Lyceum for Ricky Ross alone and leave entirely satisfied. Fortunately, this exquisitely produced new work gives us much more besides. Part gig theatre, part football odyssey, part meditation on grief and belonging, this is one of those deeply Scottish productions that somehow becomes universal precisely because it is so rooted in place. Cowdenbeath may be the setting, but emotionally this could be any town we have tried to escape and yet remain permanently tethered to. Adapted by Gary McNair from Ron Ferguson’s original story, the play follows Sally, played quite brilliantly, with warmth, intelligence and emotional precision by Dawn Steele. After leaving Cowdenbeath behind to build a new life in London as a solicito...

The Ballad of Johnny and June – Festival Theatre

1May

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Ballad of Johnny and June – Festival Theatre

There is a problem with telling a story everyone already knows. This story of Johnny and June understands the problem well enough, but the script never really finds an alternative solution. Instead, the music is left to speak for itself. The show opens with Jackson, the quintessential Johnny and June number, a confident, toe tapping start that promises energy and momentum. From there, the narrative is framed largely through the eyes of their son, John Carter Cash, offering a lens that suggests memory, subjectivity, and, crucially, that truth is never singular. When Johnny first meets June at the Ryman Auditorium and declares, with typical bravado, that he will one day marry her, we are reminded that this is only his version of events. It is a useful idea, that truth shifts depending on ...

16Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Gush – Traverse Theatre

There is something quietly exacting about a one person show. It is an island, really, a contained territory where there is nowhere to hide, no supporting architecture of cast to lean on. If it works, it approaches a kind of theatrical purity. If it does not, it is exposed within minutes. I admit, I am a sucker for the form.Gush, written by Jess Brodie and directed by Becky Hope Palmer, comes close to that sense of honed perfection.At its centre is a single performer, Jessica Hardwick, who carries the entire evening with considerable control and, at times, something approaching virtuosity. She moves deftly between roles, voices and emotional registers, and if there is a hierarchy within that, it is clear that her articulation of the female experience is where the piece truly finds its voice...

13Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Shooglenifty – Traverse Theatre

There are evenings where the relationship between performance and space becomes the story, and this is one of them. I’m at the Traverse Theatre watching Shooglenifty, a band whose entire raison d’être is to get people on their feet, and I’m sitting in the second row of a steeply raked, all seated auditorium that is doing everything in its power to keep me there.Shooglenifty have been around since 1990, and they play like it, in the best possible way. The musical evolution of the ‘Niftys’ is best described as a fusion of traditional ceilidh rhythms with global influences including Asian, Middle Eastern and contemporary sounds into a vibrant danceable whole. This is a band completely at ease with itself, driving hard, playing tight, and clearly enjoying the room, even if the room isn’t quite...

2Apr

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Lighthouse – Traverse Theatre

There is no question that The Light House, written and performed by Alys Williams and directed by Andrea Heaton, arrives in Edinburgh with a strong reputation and a well honed touring confidence. This is a piece that knows exactly what it is doing, and, judging by the reaction in the room, it does it rather effectively for a good number of people.The subject matter, a relationship tested by suicidal ideation, is handled with care and clarity, and the production leans heavily into a theatrical language of puppetry, physical theatre, and audience interaction to carry its emotional weight. It is, in many ways, a carefully constructed machine designed to move its audience.And move them it does. I see visible tears in the auditorium, and a palpable sense of emotional release at the curtain call...

18Mar

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Meursault – Traverse Theatre

There is something slightly incongruous about seeing Meursault at the Traverse Theatre. The venue is best known for drama rather than indie music, and that theatrical context inevitably shapes the experience. What might feel like a raw, emotional gig elsewhere becomes something closer to a performance piece here, with an audience inclined to listen politely rather than react. The evening opens with a generous half-hour set from Stefan Honig, the Cologne-based singer-songwriter. Performing solo with guitar, Honig delivers an intimate and understated opening to the night. His songs, which he admits he isn’t always entirely sure how to explain, lean towards reflective folk, delivered with quiet confidence. One highlight is For Those Lost at Sea (2012), which stands out for its...