Roger Jacobs, Author at North West End UK

Love The Sinner – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

18May

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Love The Sinner – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

The Seven Deadly Sins are sometimes known as capital vices and it’s appropriate that writer and performer Imogen Stirling chooses a fever dreamscape of Glasgow as a backdrop. She says it’s ‘Glasgow-but-not-quite’ but two key components of the play are a big river and an awful lot of rain. It’s a landscape reminiscent of Alasdair Grey’s Lanark, each sinner - it might be said - redolent of the characters in David Keenan’s ‘This Is Memorial Device’ set just down the road in Coatbridge and Airdrie. Officially North Lanark. They each employ their own strategies to deal with life’s perceived flaws, but the stars of Stirling’s second book of poetry, Sloth, Envy, Greed, Gluttony, Pride, Lust and Wrath, share something in common in that they are all, apparently, isolated. It’s no surprise to learn ...

31Mar

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

How Not To Drown – Traverse Theatre

This might not be the best production one sees this calendar year but it’s a shining example of why theatre itself, companies like ThickSkin and venues like The Traverse are so important. Having said that, the village and/or town halls of middle England might benefit from a tour, the front five rows reserved for Daily Mail readers. It’d be nice to think this ninety minutes would prove more nourishing than the three-word-slogan diet they’ve been addicted to for the last seven years. For amongst the complexities of what constitutes home or how essential the family is, the key message here is that conditions and circumstances exist in some countries of which plenty have no concept. It explains, at the very end, why Dritan’s father took the shocking decision to send his 11-year-old son on a ha...

10Mar

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

You Bury Me – Edinburgh Royal Lyceum

‘‘to’-bor-ni’, states author Ahlam’s notes, ‘a saying in Levantine Arabic used to express affection and love. ‘May you bury me’ is a declaration that one does not want to live without a loved one (or loved thing).’ As do the characters in this story, be it each other or the city of Cairo. It’s set in 2015 as the optimism generated by the ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 (naively reported by many major news agencies worldwide) finally evaporated, authoritarian rule reasserting itself, extinguishing the joy of a younger generation believing they might finally have the freedom to express themselves as themselves… rather than as a product of their family, religion or politics. The action hurtled along pell mell, representing the vibrancy and volatility of Cairo but an occasional drop in tempo migh...

16Feb

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Bring It On – Pleasance Courtyard

Setting the tone, pennants representing the rival schools of the story (Truman and Jackson) adorned the walls of this hallowed hall. But one sported a shamrock and the word ‘Leprechauns’. The penny dropped in humorous fashion later… Before it did, we were treated to a show of energy, conviction and commitment that belied the fact it was a - on paper - non-professional production. The Edinburgh Footlights is clearly blessed with talent, Amy Stinton (Director) excellently harnessing the many elements of a musical but leaving room for it to flourish. One wouldn’t have guessed some of these characters were studying things like Maths, Politics or Economics (despite the close relationship between politics and acting). A swift pre-show peruse of the programme read like the introduction to ...

<strong>Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh</strong>

22Dec

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Like an unruly bottle of Christmas fizz this Panto popped and sparkled in all the right places. And plenty of the wrong ones. The sentence ‘Macbiehill – watch yer bags everyone’ is not a sentence you’ll hear very often. Of Champagne Moments there were plenty: Nurse May’s (Alan Stewart) Prawn & Crab joke may be an old one but the punchline neatly utilised the richness of the local dialect, steamin’ and reekin’ being interchangeable for one who’s drunk, or just plain smelly… Lucifer’s (Grant Stott) song, nay, homage, to the Edinburgh Tram works was a release for those inconvenienced - meaning everyone in Edinburgh - for the last no-one-knows-how-many-years… the shirt-sleeves routine… the riotous 12 Days Of Xmas caper… Muddles’ (Jordan Young) précis of the entire show up to halfway… but n...

<strong>Witch Hunt – Traverse Theatre</strong>

17Nov

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Witch Hunt – Traverse Theatre

One could happily have stayed seated and watched this show all over again. Straight away, not tomorrow night (the second and last night in Edinburgh and, sadly, of the entire tour). It had almost everything; music, dance, poetry, slapstick, puppetry, magic, limericks, puns, double-entendre, songs, nudity, but above all… laughter. Abigail Dooley & Emma Edwards did not name their company ‘A & E Comedy’ half-heartedly. There was even some of the most genuine audience participation yet witnessed though in this day and age it’s pretty cathartic to join in with the refrain ‘It’s a shitshow, an asshole rodeo’. A one-woman show with a twist this Ricket and Rattled along from the opening scene - featuring some ill-fitting dentures and malfunctioning hands - through to the last. There’s H...

Max Fosh: Zocial Butterfly – Underbelly Bristo Square

20Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Max Fosh: Zocial Butterfly – Underbelly Bristo Square

Ah, so that’s why he spells it with a ‘Z’… The other half of the title is no mystery at all as Max flits and flutters about the stage, cramming in a baker’s dozen’s-worth of material on top of what he borrows from his considerable canon of YouTube adventures. Lazy, he isn’t, and his genuine enthusiasm heads off a certain strain of criticism at the pass. It’s apt to hear many teenagers these days refer uncharitably to Radio’s Three and/or Four as ‘Radio Tory’, and yet they (1.34 million subscribers) love Harrow-educated Max and it’s probably because in the first place he doesn’t try to hide his background and second, he’s authentically interested in what he’s doing. Which means not everything he does is interesting or amusing to everybody, but his hit-versus-miss ratio is pretty decent, ...

What Broke David Lynch – Greenside @ Nicholson

18Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

What Broke David Lynch – Greenside @ Nicholson

Avast there. What, pray, is this: Julee Cruise plays as we enter the room and take in the bare, tastefully-lit stage. Where is HE? TWONKEY should be fiddling with and setting an array of props, muttering comfortingly to himself (and us) as we take our seats. Where is he, what’s he found to do that could possibly be more important than the famed bumbling pre-show preparations? Gently reeling from this initial shock it becomes clear there are (I trust you’re sitting down) other actors too (Miranda Shrapnell, Steven Vickers, Robert Atler) and, it transpires, they play real life people involved in the making of The Elephant Man in 1980. Mel Brooks, Anthony Hopkins, Sir John Gielgud, John Hurt, Dorothy Doughnut (Dunnett?) all feature and – lord preserve us – there is a visible structure to t...

Val from Anfield – Greenside @ Infirmary Street

17Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Val from Anfield – Greenside @ Infirmary Street

‘Everyone’s gettin’ pregnant,’ says our Kayleigh, ‘must be sumthin’ in the air round ‘ere?’ ‘Just your legs,’ says Val. Val is every bit the modern-day Liver Bird, but with one over-riding problem; one of the biggest football clubs in the world is just around the corner and needs to expand its stadium complex… and now they’re building more student flats. She’s been fighting a long campaign against her (and her neighbours’) eviction as the developers seek to demolish the old streets of L4 but finally the day has come and she sits surrounded by boxes awaiting the move to sister Pauline’s. Her demeanour makes one think straightaway of ‘Our Lucian’, except instead of rabbits Val has a cat (Bowie) and a hamster (Queenie). Dressed in Queen t-shirt and leopard-skin leggings (matching a disc...

Matt Forde: Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right – Pleasance Courtyard

16Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Matt Forde: Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right – Pleasance Courtyard

This is NOT what The Fringe is about. This was neither odd, unpredictable, nor strange or thought-provoking. This was bold, polished, glossy, mainstream entertainment featuring an already established star. Big venue, big star, big prices, this was not the ‘fringe’ of anything. If you want to talk haircuts this was the City Worker’s £120 bespoke side-parting or the Sunday League Footballer’s Peaky Blinder. If Mullets were still a thing it would’ve made more sense because Matt’s clearly a Viz fan. Thank heavens for the Laughing Horse and PBH’s Free Fringe et al for it’s via these channels that all the whacky, shambolic, disturbing, unsettling, inspiring delights still slip through, it’s where the fascination associated with the Fringe can still be found in 2022. Polemic over. Matt For...