REVIEWS Archives - Page 10 of 612

A Trial: After an Enemy of the People — Lyceum Theatre

11Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

A Trial: After an Enemy of the People — Lyceum Theatre

Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy performs an open-surgery adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 classic, An Enemy of the People. Performed in Portuguese with English subtitles, the production combines pre-filmed inserts, video conferencing, and live video to create an unusual and immersive theatrical experience. The entire play is presented in a courtroom setting, where a jury of 12 members selected from the audience must decide whether Dr Thomas Stockmann is an “Enemy of the People” or not. The central conflict begins when Dr Stockmann discovers that the water supplying the town’s spa is dangerously polluted. Although he believes exposing the problem is the morally right thing to do, his decision threatens the town’s economy, creating a difficult conflict between public health and fina...

Burke & Hare Body Snatchers Serial Killers, Ulstermen – Pickle Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court

11Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Burke & Hare Body Snatchers Serial Killers, Ulstermen – Pickle Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court

Sometimes the bustle of the fringe can get a little much: all those loud sounds, bright lights and dance numbers, sometimes you just need a cosy little sit down where you can discuss serial killers…. well that’s my idea of a relaxing break anyway. Burke & Hare Body Snatchers Serial Killers, Ulstermen talks about the real history surrounding the infamous serial killers, starting way before their crimes. Historian Andrew Johnston takes the story from the point of view of an Irish man himself, stating that he wishes to “reclaim” the killers history for Ireland. We start with the Origins of Burke, Hare and their wives, delve into the lead up to the murders and the victims. We hear of the medical school’s struggles and role in the case, along with the verdict that would leave the pub...

I F*cked You In My Spaceship – King’s Arms

11Aug

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

I F*cked You In My Spaceship – King’s Arms

There may be barely a spaceship in sight in Louis Emmitt-Stern’s sharply witty Queer comedy-drama, but there’s certainly plenty of sex, relationships and increasingly blurred boundaries. Played in the round with no conventional set or props, the Kings Arms’ studio is transformed with a simple overhead rig of paper-lantern ‘planets’, star garlands and one solitary paper rocket. Bathed in pink and purple light as the strains of 2001: A Space Odyssey’s opening theme echoes around the room; we first eavesdrop on the romantic machinations of couple Leo (Ciarán Lockwood) and Dan (Ben Bradfield). As an attempt at alien role-play is hilariously undermined by asthma, we have our tone set for a play that places awkward, authentic conversations inside decidedly offbeat scenarios. In parallel, w...

Sarah Hester Ross: Serving C*nt – The Den at Gilded Balloon Teviot

11Aug

By Ross MackieNo Comments

Scotland

Sarah Hester Ross: Serving C*nt – The Den at Gilded Balloon Teviot

Sarah Hester Ross – Serving C*nt is bold, raw, gloriously unapologetic, and exactly the kind of show that thrives at the Edinburgh Fringe. From the moment Sarah steps into the room, she makes it clear that this is not going to be a quiet or cautious hour. Instead, she serves up a sharp, musical, and fiercely funny performance that celebrates confidence, womanhood, and the power of saying exactly what you mean. This is refreshing, but I have to say that I was feeling a little exposed as a man, I needn’t have, as Sarah put it, I was welcome if I was well behaved. I was. Playing at The Den at Gilded Balloon Teviot, the show has the feel of an intimate cabaret gig mixed with stand-up comedy and musical theatre. Sarah moves between comic songs, hilarious audience engagement, and punch...

Aufguss X The Waves – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

11Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Aufguss X The Waves – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

My God, this is refreshing. And at the Edinburgh Fringe, by the middle of the day I have walked several miles, watched several shows and hauled a bag full of chargers, notebooks and assorted electronic paraphernalia, refreshing is no small achievement. Sauna Theatre is Summerhall's latest experiment in what theatre might actually be. There is a little faff involved. Swimming trunks, flip flops and a couple of towels aren't normally essential reviewing equipment. But changing cubicles and lockers are provided, valuables disappear safely inside, water is handed out and soon a collection of strangers are standing around in varying degrees of undress waiting to see what happens next. What happens next is a sauna. A proper one. I like heat, so naturally I head for the top ben...

The Jolly Fisherman – Buttercup, Underbelly, George Square

11Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Jolly Fisherman – Buttercup, Underbelly, George Square

There is a certain irony in spending ten minutes wandering up and down George Square Gardens trying to find a play which turns out to be largely about our need to find a place to belong. The Jolly Fisherman isn't actually inside the Gardens at all. Eventually I discover it outside, beside the box office, housed in what looks remarkably like a Portakabin. Perhaps accidentally, it is the perfect introduction to John Dinneen's thoughtful new play about place, identity and what happens when the buildings we invest with meaning cease to be ours. At its centre are Alan and Amir, childhood friends growing up in a changing East London. The Jolly Fisherman pub becomes the physical point around which their lives, and eventually their differing ideas about belonging, revolve....

11Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Singer – Traverse Theatre

There is a lovely irony running through The Singer. This is a show fascinated by the importance of finding the flow in music, yet it is a production which repeatedly struggles to find its own. Perhaps that is entirely intentional. Life is messy. Creativity is messy. Relationships are certainly messy, and the relationship between Joe, a profoundly Deaf songwriter, and Andy, a musician whose own career has fallen apart, was never going to travel in a conveniently straight line. So perhaps the stops, starts and sudden changes of direction are part of Cora Bissett's design. But that raises another question. Is the mess what an audience actually wants, or do we still crave the simplicity of a story which knows where it is taking us? There is an enormous amount to admire here. J...

11Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

After Party – Traverse Theatre

Imagine inviting the family round for your 80th birthday, pouring the drinks, cutting the cake and then announcing that you intend to be dead tomorrow. That is the grenade Vivienne Blackwood throws into the celebrations in Morna Young’s After Party. A celebrated former actress, Vivienne has terminal cancer and has decided that she will determine the manner and timing of her own death. She wants her fractured family around her when she does it. You could hardly ask for a more combustible theatrical premise. What is surprising is how rarely After Party allows it to explode. This Traverse Theatre production, in association with Paines Plough and the Belgrade Theatre and directed by Katie Posner, initially treats the gathering remarkably broadly. The first half freq...

Safety – Daisy at Underbelly, Bristo Square

11Aug

By Ross MackieNo Comments

Scotland

Safety – Daisy at Underbelly, Bristo Square

Safety, the debut production from new Scottish theatre company Light Mends Carefully, is a darkly comic and quietly unnerving solo play about care, control and the stories we choose to believe. Written by Michael Reid, it follows Adam, a psychotherapist whose concern for a former client, Bill , draws him back into a relationship that should have remained firmly in the past. What begins as professional compassion gradually curdles into something far more complicated, as boundaries blur and power shifts in ways both subtle and alarming. Reid’s premise is immediately gripping because it resists easy moral certainty. Adam is not presented as a simple villain, nor as an uncomplicated victim of circumstance. Instead, Safety asks the audience to sit inside his version of events and notice,...

Murder on the Allotment: The Musical – The Cockpit

11Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Murder on the Allotment: The Musical – The Cockpit

‘Murder on the Allotment: The Musical’ arrives at Camden Fringe with an intriguing premise and worthwhile intentions, but unfortunately the resulting production falls considerably short of its ambitions. Elizabeth Wood’s story centres on Karwan, a 17-year-old asylum seeker who finds himself navigating the prejudices and petty territorial disputes of a provincial allotment. There is undoubtedly fertile planting ground here for satire, particularly around immigration, xenophobia and attitudes towards belonging. Yet despite positioning itself as funny and provocative, the production rarely achieves either. The principal problem is the score by Elizabeth Wood, Tess Adèle Glinert and Scarlet Billham. A mammoth eleven original songs are packed into an hour, yet few feel sufficiently devel...