Oliver Giggins, Author at North West End UK

15Nov

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Brenda Line – Traverse Theatre

Inspired by the lesser-known history of the Samaritans in the 1970s and ’80s, The Brenda Line is about Karen (Charlotte Grayson) and Anne (Fiona Bruce), a new-start and an old-hand during their first Samaritans nightshift together. Both are there to answer the phone and help callers (voiced here by Colin McCrodie, Eden Barrie, and Ali Watt), with Karen also hoping to get inspiration for a book out of them. However, reality and experience don't always live up with ideals, not least of which through the existence of the Brenda Line, the Samaritans philanthropic sex-line. Grayson and Bruce effectively anchor the show through their performances, with Bruce in particular conveying well the earthy weariness of reality against Grayson's two-dimensional idealism and imagination. Harry Mould...

23Aug

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Scotland

Ring That Bell! – theSpace on The Mile

Fallen angels Lucy (Grace Baker) and Bubs (Eleanor Tate) are here to direct you, dead person so in denial you think you might be at a Fringe show, to your assigned circle of Hell, which might be the ring of (actual) fire, the billionaire ball pit, the circle jerk or the cone of shame. But as the presentation unfolds, Lucy and Bubs' mutual resentment bub-bles (geddit) to the surface as they confront their conflicting views on the events of their fall, not to mention the soul that they let turn into goo that they almost definitely shouldn't have. Part of playwright Kira Mason's inspiration for the show was about responding to heteronormative models of paradise and about the focus on punishing and excluding those we categorise as unworthy, and the play definitely has a Miltonian ...

20Aug

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Scotland

Conspiracy – Hill Street Theatre

Conspiracy is the story of the 1942 Wannsee Conference, the secret 90 minute-meeting chaired by the SS which put in place the Final Solution, responsible for the deaths of at least 6 million Jews (as well as some other groups). This stage version by Strawmoddie and RFT, a remount of their 2018 production, was adapted from the 2001 TV film of the same name, itself adapting the authentic script taken from the only surviving transcript from the meeting. Following in the steps of the HBO film is no mean feat. Its cast included Colin Firth, David Threlfall, Kenneth Branagh, and Stanley Tucci, the latter two of which won a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award respectively. However the point of the story is to put you into the room of the most evil "this could have been an email" ...

We Forgive You, Patina Pataznik – Gilded Balloon Patter House

19Aug

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Scotland

We Forgive You, Patina Pataznik – Gilded Balloon Patter House

Jake (Jake Glanc) and Liv (Olivia McLeod) go to their High School Reunion maybe partly, totally not entirely, because of Patina Pataznik, the popular, totally gorgeous girl from their year who totally ruined their lives by doing one socially embarrassing thing when they were 13. So when they time travel back to that day, it's obvious what they have to do: get a gun and kill Patina Pataznik. While this may seem a camp time-travel horror-comedy, the plot is really a roadmap the show has no issue detouring from for various wacky sketches. While this might seem a waste of a good (albeit more filmic than theatrical) premise, McLeod and Jake's campy delivery and absurd sense of humour (as well as some handy and inventive props, the over-the-top sound and lighting design) keep this a ...

18Aug

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Scotland

#NoFilter – Greenside @ George Street

Based on real stories gathered from conversations and social media, new musical #NoFilter follows three duos and the effects social media has on their lives and relationships. One pair are friends, Sina (Jamie Douglas-Turner), who runs an OnlyFans, and Ember (Vincenzo Dipasquale), who links us with the next two couples, Pandora (Eva-Marie Blaire) & Candor (Sirus Desnoes), and Savannah (Natalie Gray) & King (Aaron Andrews). The former's relationship is defined by social media, having started on Tinder and seemingly fallen apart through Instagram, while the latter's was formed in person. Dipasquale's Ember is the glue of the show, linking not only the characters but also stories and numbers through his narration, and Dipasquale's likable performance helps paper over some narra...

Dusk: A Bite-Size Celebration – Greenside @ George Street

17Aug

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Scotland

Dusk: A Bite-Size Celebration – Greenside @ George Street

2023's Fringe sell-out Twilight parody, Dusk: A Bite-Size Love Story, returns in a shorter one-hour format as the "roasting of Edwin and Bea", a collection of highlights from the 2023 show (and, by extension, of the most famous moments from the Twilight franchise), linked together by the couple's daughter Regina (or Renesmee in the Sacred Texts). To anyone not still living the green-tinged mouth-breathing life, this might be a little confusing as the show definitely expects you to know who everyone is - or rather, who everyone is replacing - but clearly this was not an issue for the audience of (mostly) twilight fans, who were howling with laughter throughout. All the more well-known aspects get skewered. One Bea's performance (there is more than one: we all need stunt doubles) i...

James Whale: Beyond Frankenstein – Zoo Southside

17Aug

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Scotland

James Whale: Beyond Frankenstein – Zoo Southside

James Whale is remembered today - if he is remembered at all in the mainstream - as the director of the two best classic Universal Frankenstein films Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935), as well as The Invisible Man (1933) and, if we're feeling really fancy, The Old Dark House (1933). However, these were only part of a much longer career, one which saw a small-town English boy become a major Hollywood director in a time in which his homosexuality was illegal and his themes increasingly scrutinised under the Hayes Code. Written and performed by Tim Larkfield, this one-man show eschews the straightforward approach of having Whale be that one man, telling his own life story, in favour of a series of snapshots from the perspectives of a collection of professional and pe...

The Red Room – Greenside @ Riddles Court

15Aug

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Scotland

The Red Room – Greenside @ Riddles Court

The infamous red room of Lorraine Castle is said to be haunted and has seen the deaths of several people. But our protagonist (Ellie Ball) is a sceptic and, despite the warnings from the 3 castle inhabitants, has decided to spend the night in the room, alone. Or is she...? The Red Room was adapted from a story by HG Wells (writer of The War of The Worlds, The Invisible Man, and The Time Machine, amongst others) by the performer's sister Charlotte Ball. It's told entirely from the point of view of the protagonist and on that single night (with a few semi-flashbacks through tellings of what happened to previous occupants), with only the performer, a torch and a covered mirror in the corner. Ball is an energetic and likable performer, bringing both urgency and the occasional moment ...

Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

14Aug

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Scotland

Elizabeth I: In Her Own Words – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

Created with Elizabeth I writer/scholar, Doctor Carole Levin and starring Tammy Meneghini as the titular queen, this show invites you into a private evening audience with Queen Elizabeth I. Near the end of her reign, she reflects upon its major events and the people she was closest to, told through "her own words", from documented letters, speeches, passages from her own hand, though these are very much augmented by others' words, including letters from Mary Queen of Scots and the Spanish Ambassador, and multiple speeches from the plays of William Shakespeare. This makes sense in the context of the creation of the piece, ie to accompany a visiting exhibit of Shakespeare's First Folio to the campus of the University of Colorado Boulder, though it might lead the casual viewer to...

The Picture of Dorian Gray – the Space On The Mile

10Aug

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Scotland

The Picture of Dorian Gray – the Space On The Mile

Oscar Wilde's famous novel (commissioned 125 years ago this month as it happens, during the same dinner that brought back Sherlock Holmes for his second novel) is, in case you didn't know, about a man who gives up his soul to have his portrait age instead of him. It is presented here in a new adaptation curtesy of ETC Theatre Company, promising "a fast-paced adaptation featuring music, slapstick and plenty of Wildean wit". While I'm not sure I'd agree with the last part of that description outside of the lines plucked straight from the novel - can anything be called Wildean when it includes dancing to Abba and Robbie Williams? - the first two are indeed here in buckets and the show is a joyously silly farce from beginning to end which had its audience laughing throughout. Playing...