REVIEWS Archives - Page 138 of 410

20Aug

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Wife Material – Camden People’s Theatre

Sophia and Heleana Blackwell are a married stand-up comedy and poetry duo. Two lesbians tell us about the trials, tribulations and satisfactions of marriage. There is poetry, improvised songs and duets. Sophia and Heleana share a vibrant chemistry of opposites attracting. They intersperse one another’s stories recollecting how they met, got married and tug of disagreements solely about duvet covers. The show, first performed at the RVT, returns to the Camden Fringe and is the love story we yearn for and deserve. In the onslaught of heteronormativity slapped at us across all media, the piece holds the quiet comfort of a warm cup of coffee with a friend. Sophia is a performance poet with three published poetry collections and one novel. For two years, she hosted the LGBT+ radio sho...

The Improv Musical – Gilded Balloon, Patter Hoose

20Aug

By Ben PearsonNo Comments

Scotland

The Improv Musical – Gilded Balloon, Patter Hoose

Music Theatre Warwick, from the University of Warwick, have made the impossible look easy in this entirely improvised musical. The audience chose the two lead characters, Sherlock Holmes and SpongeBob SquarePants, and the location: the Titanic. The musical was named ‘who lives in a monocle under the sea’, by a particularly witty band member, and the performers got straight into it. What followed was hilarious, ridiculous, and highly entertaining. I particularly enjoyed the short mid-way break, in which the audience decided the next plot point. In this case, that John Watson, who had been thrown overboard, would arrive back on the Titanic to declare his love to SpongeBob through an opera song. It was just as crazy and hysterical as it sounds. Throughout the show, I was...

20Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Adults – Traverse Theatre

Back to The Traverse Theatre, which can be relied upon for good quality shows with high production values, great tech and quality actors throughout the year, but really pulls out the stops come Fringe time. So, here comes my review number 4 for the ‘Trav’ this time round. Adults isa slightly awkward three-hander from Kieran Hurley which seeks to challenge our conception of what is sexually ‘normal’, whilst also trying to be a serious commentary on the economics of the sex work industry within the capitalist market economy, and a sex farce. Can it really be all these things? This starts so well and with a swarth of laughs in the first half, the audience lean in as Madam Zara (Dani Heron) realises that the latest customer to her tiny attic flat/brothel is none other than her old in...

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Speke Hall

20Aug

By Mark DavorenNo Comments

North West

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Speke Hall

In 1865 Lewis Carroll penned Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, followed six years later by its sequel, Through the Looking Glass, and here tonight at Speke Hall, one hundred and fifty plus years on, The Pantaloons served up madness and mayhem with this delightfully absurd interpretation of a children’s classic. As the saying goes, less is more, and never was this so true as our troupe of four performed in the garden of this almost five hundred year old building, with the latest of their three summer productions: whilst the first will be remembered for the fox and the second for excessive airplane disruption, tonight nature and aviation combined to give us several flocks of geese in perfect complement to the anarchic nonsense unfolding before us. You would never have known that three ...

TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] – EICC

20Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

TONY! [The Tony Blair Rock Opera] – EICC

Tony! The Tony Blair Rock Opera is a modern rock opera that sets out to tell the story of the ex-prime minister who modernised Labour and catapulted them to new heights with his ‘New Labour’ landslide election victory in 1997, ending 18 years of Conservative government. Like Tony Blair himself, this production has good points, and bad points. It is probably forgivable and understandable that this show steers clear of outright satire, after all, Blair is still alive and has very, very deep pockets. Some parts of the script actually make comic reference to this! Unfortunately, this lack of bite made for an enjoyable, but perhaps ultimately unedifying evening. More Spitting image than Question Time but then again what do you expect from writer Harry Hill! We start the evening, with a...

20Aug

By Amy HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Dazzling – theSpace @ Niddry Street

One-woman show ‘Dazzling’ is a drama exploring themes of love, addiction, and mental health through a queer lens. Sexuality and gender were naturally integrated into the storyline (especially the use of they/them pronouns for character Fi) which gave the show an innate inclusivity that felt naturally written and performed. I would like to see more fringe shows break social norms in this supportive way. Holly Sewel’s writing used poetic technique to convey emotion in a beautiful and thought-provoking way. The use of poetry was especially effective during the manic runs of monologue where Alix’s bounding speech created a sense of loss of control. The final metaphor of the putting a pillow in-between two people to create a boundary whilst also allowing them to lean upon each other was ...

Esther Manito: Hell Hath No Fury – Soho Theatre

19Aug

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

Esther Manito: Hell Hath No Fury – Soho Theatre

Kills, crushes and conquers. Esther Manito is a one-woman band crafting potions filled with laughing gas. She pulls a violin to tenderly pull strings of one’s heart and then pulls the trumpet out right the next second. Her physicality and character recreations are remarkable. The sixty minutes comedy set will have you laughing so much that you will be crying. She quips about the challenges women face in navigating life but serves it like a margarita. Shaken and not stirred and with salt. Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned goes the proverb telling us about a woman who has been rejected by a man who can be ferociously angry and vindictive. Esther Manito is a woman at the top of her form, she has been able to rise in power by her astute observations placing parallelly her lived expe...

The Arc: A Trilogy of New Jewish Plays – Soho Theatre

19Aug

By Anisha PucadyilNo Comments

London

The Arc: A Trilogy of New Jewish Plays – Soho Theatre

Emanate Productions has brought to the Soho stage brand-new plays by Amy Rosenthal, Alexis Zegerman and Ryan Craig. The trilogy packs a punch by looking at the universal themes of birth, marriage and death, each adding its twist and flowing very beautifully from one to another. The production has been successful in bringing together both established and emerging Jewish artists, in an attempt to bridge the gap between experience and to provide a safe environment to foster exciting and challenging work. The first play, ‘birth’ is set at the moment a gynaecologist is confronted by his patient about his choices at her birth. birth reflects on some of techniques millennials adopt to understand and reflect on their trauma while juxtaposing it with how elders tended to dust themselves...

Frighthouse Presents: The Wheel of Misfortune – theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

19Aug

By Marcelina KruczyńskaNo Comments

Scotland

Frighthouse Presents: The Wheel of Misfortune – theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

Filled with jarring and innovative ideas and plenty of clowntastic fun. This unique gameshowesque performance will make you laugh till your insides hurt and then laugh some more. Returning to the fringe, this multimedia horror-comedy anthology which was performed by local Edinburgh creatives and was inspired by The Twilight Zone and Creepshow is the perfect place to bring along friends. The energetic atmosphere and audience participation is the perfect recipe for a fun-filled night. With only two chairs and the wheel on stage the creators found an innovative story-telling solution to paint the picture of where they are. In only 45 minutes the cast manage to take you on a funny and grotesque journey through several stories that are selected through the wheel itself. In each story act...

Vote Macbeth! – The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall

19Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Vote Macbeth! – The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall

Part 4 of my Fringe of ’23, Macbeth marathon, sees another murder, this time set in the present day that boils and bubbles its way through a very dense script/lib to end with its own toils and troubles. The common theme in disappointing shows is that they inevitably try to do too much, and there could hardly be a better example than this one. From the singular hand of John Paul Liddell, writing, composing, directing, acting and singing (very nicely BTW I might add!) in the Macbeth lead role, there is no air at all left in this one by the end. A dense and wordy treatise on political power, where Macbeth is president, I assume of a post-Independent Scotland, set in the near future, the musical is comprised of 18 songs, which run non-stop, top to tail, with no dialogue in-between. N...