Kathleen Mansfield, Author at North West End UK

Sheila’s Sister & Her Musical Cousins – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

11Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Sheila’s Sister & Her Musical Cousins – The Space @ Surgeons Hall

Improvised comedy isn’t easy when there’s a small audience. The form relies on audience participation. This team of three musicians and two actors, hailing from Chicago, kept the tempo up with a small gaggle of theatre goers. The married duo, Dana Allande O’Brien and Edmund O’Brien, last performed at the Gilded Balloon in 1995 to great acclaim. In between, they’ve been busy raising children, writing comedy games and scripts for TV. Suddenly, it’s 2023 and they’ve only just got back to The Toun. I enjoyed the flip piece. It was clever. And their opening piece was very entertaining. Of course, being impro, you probably won’t see those little gems when you come another day, but, no doubt, there’ll be other jewels to behold. Their publicity says it is suitable for 14+ but I ...

Gie’s Peace – Scottish Storytelling Centre

10Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Gie’s Peace – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Morna Burdon’s journey through the world of women who have stood against war and made a peaceful difference is not shouting for space in a busy Edinburgh festival. Yet, on this, her first day, she has a full house. The George Mackay Brown Library in the Scottish Storytelling Centre is an apt venue. Burdon has done her research. And she has chosen a tender and funny collection of songs to illustrate the power of peaceful protest. She began with Nancy Nicolson’s Last Carol which alternates between a melancholy chorus of mushroom clouds and heavy water and jaunty verses with the words, merrily, merrily. I instantly warmed to her and to the subject matter. At the end, the audience spontaneously joined her for We Will Overcome. It was very moving. Early on she included a teenager from...

Attenborough and His Animals – Gilded Balloon at the Museum

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Attenborough and His Animals – Gilded Balloon at the Museum

Jonathan Tilley and Jess Clough-Mcrae are a pair of talented physical mime artists and very entertaining. They both trained in Paris at the Jacques Lecoq clowning school and their skill shines through. When David Attenborough doesn’t turn up as expected they turn to improvisation to provide a show with a myriad different creatures and a commentary very like Sir Attenborough’s. It’s an interactive show. Clough-Mcrae is superb at acting out the animals and making eye contact with the audience. She picked out a family in the front row for special treatment and, honestly, those little ones have memories for life from that one hour. Their dad was singled out and they loved it! I loved the orangutan and the fish and the sloth and the lizard and the crab … okay, I thought it was all ...

Yuck Circus – Assembly George Square Gardens

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Yuck Circus – Assembly George Square Gardens

Appropriately titled, Yuck Circus’s all-female troupe of gymnasts and contortionists gives a thrilling display of strength and dexterity. Their premise is to show that women can be as strong and powerful as men. And to do a little man-bashing (and wimpy woman bashing) along the way … challenge stereotypes and talk openly about menstruation (noting the fact it begins with the syllable, MEN - how ironic). I liked their balls! And the woman beside me liked absolutely everything, including screeching with laughter into my ringing ear and yelling her approval as if she were part of the show and should be noticed. I liked that they weren’t ridiculously skinny. They were all shapes and sizes, as women are, yet still able to do a wondrous amount of physically demanding work. I was ...

Spontaneous Potter – The Stand’s New Theatre

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Spontaneous Potter – The Stand’s New Theatre

If you’re a fan of improvisation, you’ll enjoy Spontaneous Potter. As usual, the audience is asked to make suggestions and the suggestion with the loudest applause is the one that anchors the story. This time it was Harry Potter in Asbo Land. It worked. Jenny Laahs was a superb musical accompaniment to the action, sensing where things were headed and playing suitably emotionally laden music. Her contribution made a big difference. Stand up stalwart, Stu Murphy, took the reins to introduce the cast: Paul Connolly, Moira Jay and Emily. Just Emily. She was good! Between them they behaved in a silly way and carried the story forward smoothly. Stu Murphy seems to be the most experienced of the cast and he has a very sharp wit. His long hair is glossy and lush, his beard bristly and I thou...

Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder – Underbelly George Square

7Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Kathy and Stella Solve A Murder – Underbelly George Square

Get a ticket! You’ll laugh your socks off. My shoulders took on a life of their own as I smirked and giggled my way through this totally absurd storyline with larger-than-life characters all brilliantly played by a quality cast. The title tells you what to expect: it’s Enid Blyton on steroids. Best friends murder-mystery capers gone viral. Imelda Warren-Green is hilarious as Erica and you can’t fault Jodie Jacobs in her many incarnations of Felicia Taylor and her family. TJ Lloyd can move it and plays the morgue-happy Justin (plus others) with joyous enthusiasm and a sweetness which warms the heart. The two leads, Kathy (Bronté Barbé) and Stella (Rebekah Hinds) complement one another as opposites attracted through their misfit natures. Costumed to reflect this dichotomy by Cecilia Carey...

UPSTART! Shakespeare’s Rebel Daughter Judith – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

6Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

UPSTART! Shakespeare’s Rebel Daughter Judith – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose

The talented associate West End director, Alexandra Spencer-Jones (Action to the Word) is known for her physical theatre and musical productions such as Six and Clockwork Orange. So, when the American writer, Mary Jane Schaefer, approached her to direct Upstart! she was both surprised, flattered and a little fearful. It is a gentle play and a perfect play. One of a trilogy Schaefer, has created about the Shakespeare family, Upstart! will delight fans of the Bard. First given a reading at the National Arts Club in New York in 2014, the storyline explores the plight of women, then and now. There is no preaching. But there is a vivid awareness of the modes of suffering and paralysis caused by lack of education and confinement to the domestic domain, where dying children and intransige...

I Was on a Sitcom – The Gilded Balloon, Teviot – Turret

6Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

I Was on a Sitcom – The Gilded Balloon, Teviot – Turret

Eden Sher’s show, I Was on A Sitcom, is situated in The Turret at The Gilded Balloon Teviot. It is not easily accessible. The room is hot and Sher sweats her way through the act. It’s perfect … because the subject matter isn’t easily accessible and could bring on a sweat of embarrassment in less capable hands. But not in Sher’s hands. She is a raconteur who can turn anything to gold. Sher jokes, both verbally and physically, about the excruciating pain of giving birth to premature twins. Carrying her babies was an uphill struggle and the pregnancy culminated in a sweaty urgency. She cleverly links this life episode to her ten-year residency on the American sitcom, The Middle, explaining how she became, over time, half her character, Sue, and half herself, split from one egg, like he...

Gone to the Dogs – Gilded Balloon Teviot – Wine Bar

6Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Gone to the Dogs – Gilded Balloon Teviot – Wine Bar

Conceptually, I was intrigued by this piece. Britannia, written and played by Tsarzi, cut an attractive figure with her cheeky grin and mischievous eyes. The set was messy, stuff all over the place, and Britannia was dozing over her piano as the parody of a Radio 4 broadcast opened the show. The play explores the decay of the British Empire: the intransigence of the establishment and the older generation to let it go. A pertinent idea for the times. It is for this reason that the stage is scattered with remnants of a former glory. Even the sash worn by royalty on formal occasions is put on, taken off, held up instead of worn - it is an afterthought. Tsarzi sings us through a host of representations of our fading cultural heritage, mostly in refrains on repeat, including the church, the ...

Wee Seals and Selkies – Scottish Storytelling Centre

5Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Wee Seals and Selkies – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Wee Seals and Selkies is a magical warm hug from children’s author, Janis Mackay. Her velvet voice and adept physicality captures young imaginations from the outset. As we enter, she sits on the edge of the simple set while her musician companion, Donald Scott, warms the atmosphere with this fiddle. In this delightful family show, storytelling and music combine to create an enchanting performance, evoking the Scottish northern seashores. The Wee Seal is the true tale of a seal born in the storyteller’s garden, while The Selkie Girl is a retelling for children of the much-loved magical selkie myth. Based on two of Janis Mackay’s much-loved books; The Wee Seal, and The Selkie Girl (Floris Books), the sea and the seals are evoked both on stage and by the audience. The lighting, c...