Oliver Giggins, Author at North West End UK

6Oct

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

War Horse – Festival Theatre

Based on the 1982 novel by Michael Morpurgo which was later adapted into a film by Steven Spielberg in 2011, the show was adapted for the stage back in 2007, on which it has been more or less ever since (factoring in for Covid). The eponymous War Horse is Joey, young farmer Albert’s beloved equine companion, who gets sold to the Cavalry and shipped to France in 1914 during mobilisation. Soon he and Albert who, despite being too young, followed him into war a few months, are caught up in enemy fire in No Man’s Land. Despite having followed Joey explicitly to find him, there seems little hope of reuniting, or even surviving the War that was meant to be over by Christmas. Featuring life-sized horses by South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company and projection on a tear-like screen by Nico...

Poe – Theatre 2 theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

16Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Poe – Theatre 2 theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

Edgar Allan Poe's death remains mysterious to this day. He was found delirious and ill in a tavern on 3rd October 1849 and was dead 4 days of later, of what has been suggested to have been anything from illness, suicide, murder, or even non-consensual electoral fraud gone wrong. Devised by Leon Witcomb, (who also plays Shape 2 / Fortunato / Old Man / Doctor) Michael Ward (Shape 1/Servant/Policeman/Dr Moran) and Chris Bedford (Poe) uses Poe's unusual final moments as a starting point, interspersing his final moments in with adaptations of several of his most famous tales. Versions of The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, Murders In The Rue Morge and The Pit and the Pendulum become a collage of delirious memories, augmented by lights (strobe warning to the photosens...

The Real Housewives of The Zombie Apocalypse – Greenside Riddles Court

10Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Real Housewives of The Zombie Apocalypse – Greenside Riddles Court

Clydebuilt Theatre Company's follow-up to their successful debut original musical, Vote Macbeth! from the 2022 and 2023 Fringes, The Real Housewives of The Zombie Apocalypse mixes the bitchy arguments and self-promotional soap-opera of trash TV in with a good dose of undead, end-of-the-world shenanigans. When a zombie outbreak makes it into the House, our seven Housewives must deal with each other (well... maybe try to limit the infighting) to potentially save themselves, their sponsorship deals and, if they have time, discover what is going on. Complete with zombie outbreaks, bites, turns, cures, and conspiracy, the references to the classics of the genre most notably include The Evil Dead, with Sam Raimi getting name-checked several times and an appearance by Ash's chainsaw hand. ...

I Was A Teenage She-Devil – theSpace @ Niddry Street

10Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

I Was A Teenage She-Devil – theSpace @ Niddry Street

Nancy Nelson (Faith Pasch) is the classic unattractive high-school loser (ie, girl with glasses), with unpopular friends Debbie (Lee Beka Harper) and Doobie (Matt Bader, filled in for by a producer on the night we attended) and persecuted by the popular kids: Heather (Charis Stockton) and Big Rod (Louis Hearsay) and their leader, Tiffani (Caitlin Anderson). Until one day when they take their humiliation too far and the Devil (Sean Arkless) offers Nancy a deal, a makeover and an opportunity for revenge... It is, in short, the classic American high-school setup combined with horror elements, in this case the Faustian pact, and an 80s setting. All three aspects are archetypes in their own right and, to different degrees, also combined; with high-school horror stories like Carrie and Fa...

7Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

007 Voices of Bond – theSpace Triple X

Celebrating 60+ years of Bond themes, 007 Voices of Bond features Maia Elsey and the Night Owl band performing, mostly chronologically, just under a dozen songs from the film series' history, sometimes accompanied by a guest performer for some duets, and by a projected “M” character for extra links and humour (as well as some inaccurate facts: Moonraker was made before For Your Eyes Only). Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Craig era dominates, with all but one of his five themes making the show (Sam Smith's proud first draft “The Writing's On The Wall” is a wise omission), compared to two each for Connery and Moore's longer runs (who get more than Dalton, who gets more than Brosnan). While this may result in disappointing omissions at least for some older fans – this is a Fringe-length show o...

Frankenstein Afterglow – theSpace on the Mile

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Frankenstein Afterglow – theSpace on the Mile

Frankenstein: Afterglow is a neon-gothic mixture of poetry and puppetry set after Frankenstein and the Monster's final book confrontation in the Arctic. However, in this version neither died there, with the Monster instead subduing Frankenstein and bringing him back to his home in Switzerland. Set entirely within the room of Frankenstein's home in which the Monster keeps him imprisoned, the show is light on plot and strong on character, and its reverence for the book – bar a couple of twists on the material – may be an advantage for those who don't know the story well, or know and love it like a fan hearing a favourite song at a concert. Because of the subjective nature of these points, whether these two factors are criticisms or recommendations will therefore have to be left to the...

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Devil’s Point – theSpace on the Mile

In this folk horror play from Cutty Sark Theatre, Ailsa (Laura Milton) and Sean (Logan Rodgers) are a young couple on a hiking trip up the mountain known as Devil's Point. But all is not well in paradise. And the clear tension between them from events in the recent past isn't helped by the stories of the previous travellers to have climbed the Devil's Point, not to mention the voices heard there that whisper your name... Devil's Point is a highly effective horror story from Director Eve Miller and writer Laura Milton. Very atmospheric in its sound (the music is by Oliver Armstrong, and the sound & lighting design is by Mia Renaldi) and shadow puppetry, like many of the best horror plays, it knows that horror and comedy are not opposites but partners. Rodgers and Milton deliver w...

Shirley: A Ghost Story – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Shirley: A Ghost Story – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

Inspired by the life of Shirley Jackson and the ghost stories of M.R. James, Shirley: A Ghost Story is a one-person play performed by Jasmin Gleeson and written by Josh King, together as Moon Rabbit Theatre. The play jumps between two settings, one past and one present, both equally haunted: in the past there is a young girl version of Shirley and a story her older self is desperate to tell, and in the present there is a husband profiting from her writing and trying to tell his own, rather cliched, ghost story. Unlike Shirley's husband's story, this is an atypical ghost-story, and Gleeson jumps ably between the two time-lines, juggling not just different settings and ages but also characters (including the buffonish and controlling husband) with humour and subtlety, aided by King's ...

Saint Dymphna’s Ward – Greenside @ Riddles Court

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Saint Dymphna’s Ward – Greenside @ Riddles Court

Astride two time periods (modern day and the Victorian era), two women experience Saint Dymphna’s Ward. Justine (Angelina Miller) is falsely held in the abusive Victorian Asylum for the Insane by Dr Ribiere (Kody Mitchell, also playing Margot's friend Lucas), while Margot (playwright, producer, & director Honoria Lawton Flatters) struggles to accept help in the modern-day Center for Psychiatric Care, including from fellow-patient Oliver (Taylor Fernandez, also playing Justine's husband and Dr Frederickson) after checking in voluntarily for depression, delusions, and suicidal thoughts. Highlighting the changes in treatment for mental illness, this play deals in some heavy themes, including sexual and physical abuse, the loss of a child, self-harm and attempted suicide (though the...

Me and My Year of Casual Monasticism – Greenside @ Riddles Court

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Me and My Year of Casual Monasticism – Greenside @ Riddles Court

When Mary (writer Emily Knutsson) becomes single at the same time as a student at Cambridge University, she decides to put one above the other and concentrate on her studies through a year of abstinence, or medieval Monasticism. The show's conceit begins right from the entrance music (a Medieval Bardcore version of Candy Shop – I know because the same recording amusingly has the same function in the Fringe show I had just come from doing), continuing through to the structuring around the sixth-century Rules of Saint Benedict, and the naming of characters and pseudonyms after religious figures, Christian (Mary, Joseph...) or otherwise (Pan, Poseidon...). The staging is simple, with Mary moving between the chair we meet her on to the table and the power-point presentation on the sc...