Kathleen Mansfield, Author at North West End UK

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits – Pleasance at EICC

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits – Pleasance at EICC

Seventy minutes with an 83-year-old who’s got all her marbles and oodles of talent besides was one brilliant way to spend a rainy afternoon in Edinburgh. Playing to a full house of 1200 capacity, Miriam Margolyes’ fan-base is younger than her which, of course, didn’t matter a jot to this outspoken and wonderfully entertaining woman. She had the crowd in the palm of her hand right from the get-go. There were Margolyes followers in their twenties upwards, the younger members presumably fans of her outings in the Harry Potter series of films. My favourite Margolyes performance was the fabulous Italian nurse she played in Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet. She was deliciously nuanced and funny in that role, bringing it to life as I’d never seen it before or since. We listened to Sachmo...

Craig Hill: I’ve Been Sitting on This For a While – Just The Tonic Nucleus

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Craig Hill: I’ve Been Sitting on This For a While – Just The Tonic Nucleus

This wis sae, sae funny! Seriously. It wis hilarious. I wasnae sure tae begin wi’. I thought it might be humour at others’ expense, but nah, nah, ye ken, it wis pure dead magic. Unlike my current attempt at a Scottish accent. I cannae dae it, hailing frae Essex, as I do. But Craig Hill can. He can take whatever the audience offers and make a comedic feast from the smallest offering. He can mimic accents and tonality with ease and create a personalised skit based on you alone. For some it is thrilling, for others maybe not so much, but this man knows his stuff and he’s not about to crucify anyone who’s not up for it. He’s got discernment. That’s what happens when you’ve garnered 25 years of Edinburgh Fringe shows under your belt and you’ve been blessed with a quick wit. He’s never...

Sing Along With the Fairy Song – Scottish Storytelling Centre

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Sing Along With the Fairy Song – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Sing Along With the Fairy Song is Edinburgh Fringe for Early Years. An elegant wooden chair, a stool, two pedestals of white roses, a projection of frolicking fairies, bird song and the veteran storyteller for children, Janis Mackay, warmly welcome a select audience. Mackay is experienced with little ones and greets the fairy-winged and magic-wanded little people with charm and encouragement. This is an interactive piece and the young audience repeat the actions and songs with enthusiasm as they join Mackay in an imaginary hunt for fairies in the woods or hiding amid the flowers and maybe secretly living under miniature hillocks. It took a little time to teach the songs and draw out flower and tree names from the youngsters, but once over their shyness, three little girls did not...

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Please Right Back – The Studio

Please Right Back is awesome. Comics, film, animation and music are magically and seamlessly interwoven in this touching, visually addictive family tale. Join Mr E as he explains his absence through vividly imagined tall tales, swallowed whole by his loving offspring. A 1927 and Burgtheatre Vienna joint production, Please Right Back was written by Suzanne Andrade. This creation is based, loosely, on her own experience. The company, 1927, was founded in 2005 by co-artistic directors, Andrade (Writer and Director) and Paul Barritt (Film, Animation and Design). They work out of London and that not-to-be-forgotten seaside town of Margate in Kent with its sunshine, sand, funfair and ice cream cones. Known internationally for their repertoire in theatre and opera, this multi-award winni...

My Last Two Brain Cells – Underbelly Cowgate

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

My Last Two Brain Cells – Underbelly Cowgate

Joe Pike, Tom Hazleden and Hannah Tudge, all graduates of Fourth Monkey Drama School, Finsbury Park, return with My Last Two Brain Cells after their run-away success at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, where Chortle rated them the seventh highest comedy show of the Festival. “It’s a whacky, zany, chaotic hour of madness,” to quote Pike. The protagonists are the last two brain cells of a dying man called Gary Kane. In an effort to save him, the pair try all sorts of crazy shenanigans, drawing in the audience to help them. It is Hysterical. This is theatre of the absurd for the twenty-first century. And it has sold out for three of its five shows so far. Inspired by the pressure to develop a scratch play for their finals and the ever-popular humour of Sponge-Bob Square Pants, Pike ...

Lies where It Falls – Quaker Meeting House

5Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Lies where It Falls – Quaker Meeting House

Written and performed by Ruairi Conaghan, Lies Where it Falls is heartfelt and full of love. Conaghan (an ensemble actor with major shows such as Downton Abbey under his belt) takes us on an autobiographical, topical and socially important journey through the impact of growing up in Derry. It explores the lasting personal reverberations of The Troubles in Northern Ireland. And not in a Derry Girls kind of way. Conaghan’s uncle, the Catholic Judge Rory Conaghan, was shot and killed by the IRA as he held his young daughter’s hand on his own doorstep in 1974. Conaghan was just eight at the time. And, sure, everyone gets on with life as best they can under the circumstances. When Conaghan later took flight from Northern Ireland to study drama in Liverpool, he thought he’d escaped. Bu...

Frankenstein (On a Budget) – Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome)

5Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Frankenstein (On a Budget) – Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome)

Lamphouse Theatre returns to Edinburgh with a variation on its winning theme. Frankenstein (On a Budget) follows hot on the heels of their highly successful War of the Worlds (On a Budget). As the title suggests, there’s no fancy set or fancy props or even fancy costumes. What you will find is oodles of creativity and playfulness galore. Tom Fox and Becky Owen-Fisher clearly enjoy their work and their enthusiasm and silliness transfers to the audience whose shoulders shake with laughter. It is a very happy hour of nonsense with a Becky-fan or two in the audience. Fox is our performer, Owen-Fisher the narrator. The show involves a lot of costume changes at speed and more than a handful of home-made props. Fortunately, Fox is multi-talented and can sing and do voices with ease. Owen-Fi...

5Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Carmen – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Bizet’s Carmen was first performed on March 3rd, 1875 at the Opéra-Comique, Paris. Now the very same company brings a modern, super-sensual version to Edinburgh from 4th – 8th August, co-produced by Opernhaus Zürich. On Opening Night in 1875, several morning papers published vitriolic letters. One claimed: "Carmen presents most unsavory characters, in such bad taste that the work might very well be ill-advised." Yet, go ahead it did, to healthy box office takings. Bizet, unfortunately, died of a heart attack at the very moment the curtain fell on the 32nd performance on June 3, 1875. Soon after it was closed in Paris, but it was soon to be a hit in Vienna and Brussels. When you go to see a world class, flamboyant and colourful opera like Carmen, you expect (and take for granted) that...

3Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Doped – Hill Street Theatre

Debuting at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a brand-new three-hander providing 55-minutes of ultimate Scottish patter. Xander Cowan (Buzz), Keiran Lee-Hamilton (Faolan) and Sam Stuart Fraser (Tinny) invite the audience into the front room for an hour of paranoia, rage and an alternative take on friendship and greed. Written by Sam Stuart Fraser (trained at Glasgow Clyde College and a repeat performer with Reconnect Theatres) and Sean Fullwood, this new perspective on the life of the stoner is hilarious and very Scottish. Fraser tells us: “The story of “Doped” is an idea myself and Sean had for a long time. We show what can happen to young men left on the outskirts of society - left to fend for themselves. Although Doped is a comedy, the emotions and struggles these character...

3Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Legally Blonde – Saint Stephens Theatre

Sound Events Scotland returns to the Fringe for a second year with their successful musical, Legally Blonde. Elle Wood (Taylor Crum, 19) totters her way to authenticity and love as she outsmarts the self-righteous Harvard elite and her ex-boyfriend, Warner (Aaron Hastings), in a high-octane, chirpy tale of a girl coming into her power through her wits and not her tits. Crum is currently in her third year of musical theatre at Hamilton Theatre Arts, Glasgow. She sings and dances, balancing effortlessly on six-inch stilettoes. She has more to offer and will be a fully rounded professional performer when she finds her ultimate groove and dives deep into characterisation. Musical Theatre is a demanding genre, if you can crack the full spectrum and include detailed characterisation, the ...