REVIEWS Archives - Page 167 of 545

10Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Pericles – Swan Theatre

We all have our off days and I think, amongst learned academics, we can safely agree Shakespeare was having one when he wrote “Pericles”. Not only is it a ramshackled, riotous romp of a plot with some unfathomable coincidences, it also seems Bill is not the only name on the poster. George Wilkins, who I’m sure I don't need to remind you, was a victualler, panderer (Google it), dramatist and pamphleteer, who dripped his quill in the ink pot, too. People better informed then I seem to think the Bard was responsible for the first half before handing over his parchment. Rarely is the play performed, so it’s a gamely director who’ll have a stab at it and the director on this occasion is new RSC co-AD, Tamara Harvey who, eighteen years after the previous production, clearly thought it was time t...

Darren McGarvey: Trauma Industrial Complex – Trauma and Oversharing in the Age of Lived Experience – Stand Comedy Club

10Aug

By Triona ScullyNo Comments

Scotland

Darren McGarvey: Trauma Industrial Complex – Trauma and Oversharing in the Age of Lived Experience – Stand Comedy Club

With a different guest each day, award-winning author and journalist Darren McGarvey explores trauma, and the risks associated with sharing personal stories. Friday’s guest, Jenny Lindsay, is all too familiar with the subject, having faced the full force of cancel culture after tweeting a political opinion rooted in personal experience in 2019. Lindsay’s detractors label her a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist) because she advocates for single-sex spaces, believing them to be vital resources for women, particularly those who have experienced sexual violence. 'Having been raped as a teenager, Lindsay reflected, years later, that should she have sought support services, they would have had to have been single sex. Her introduction to feminist teachings cemented this opinion. H...

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

The Last Laugh – Assembly George Square

A standing ovation at a Fringe show speaks volumes. Paul Hendy's (writer and director) The Last Laugh deserves loud applause and whoops of appreciation. It is funny and touching. The set is perfect, the lighting spot on and the performers are wonderful. Bob Golding as Eric Morecambe has that lovely little bounce perfected; Damien Williams channels the late Tommy Cooper brilliantly and Simon Cartwright’s Bob Monkhouse looks and sounds just like the man himself, right down to the mahogany tan. The warm-up music is a sound bath of Bernard Cribbins, which my neighbour joyously sang along with. Songs about a man digging a hole or Ernie and his horse and cart … there are few silly comedy songs these days, if any. Aimed at a predominantly baby boomer audience with money to spare and...

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Breathe – Pleasance Dome

The creative ingenuity in this show is outstanding. The staging is slick; the voices beautifully melded and the music is perfectly crafted, demonstrating terrific inventive scope for blending human creativity with clever technology in an open and transparent way. I was enamored of the clicking fingers that translated into rainfall so that the fungi danced to the drum of nature. It was a transition evoking a touch of pixie dust! Louisa Ashton (co-founder of Sparkle and Dark Theatre Company) is an adept puppeteer and, together with Darcey O'Rourke and Peter Morton, they front this accessible, intelligent and astonishing work. Breathe is an intriguing journey with a sleepy acorn seed who has to survive the winter. It is full of imagination, multifunctional models and storytelling...

9Aug

By H.S. BakerNo Comments

Scotland

Through The Mud – Summerhall Main Hall

Opening to screened news footage of the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, a mixed race student (Tinashe Warikandwa) is moved to join the protests and become a fierce advocate in the Black Lives Matter movement. 42 years earlier Assata Shakur, as a member of the Black Panther Party is violently involved with the civil rights movement, leading to a conviction for the killing of a State Trooper on the New Jersey Turnpike. Shakur (played by Apphia Campbell) later escaped prison and fled to Cuba, where she still lives and remains on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. The two women share the stage with Shakur as a sort of ghost mentor, reliving her own fight, as the student becomes ever more embroiled in the 2014 escalating violence, following one of the main prot...

Richard Cobb: Running Joke – Laughing Horse @ Raging Bull

9Aug

By Ben PearsonNo Comments

Scotland

Richard Cobb: Running Joke – Laughing Horse @ Raging Bull

Richard Cobb’s Running Joke is an entertaining hour of stand-up comedy, perfect for passing the time in the early evening. Performing in an intimate venue, Cobb’s natural delivery creates a friendly atmosphere almost akin to a chat at the pub. The show centres around various challenges Cobb had to overcome before he faced the challenge from which the show derives its name: running the Edinburgh marathon. It’s a relatable premise, allowing the audience to empathise with his journey and feel present in the stories he told. This isn’t an absurdist, existentialist or political stand-up. Rather, Cobb derives humour from real situations that happen to real people (mostly himself). He was perhaps a little nervous at the beginning and spoke very fast as a result. Unfortunately, this meant ...

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre

9Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre

I am afraid of drawing. I don’t know why. This play is set in a drawing class, and the audience is invited to sketch and doodle throughout. Now is the time to embrace my phobia. I am welcomed by The Artist (Leo MacNeill), a reassuring presence. “We are all artists”, he says. I am given paper and pencils, but no eraser. Every mark we make remains on the page. Estelle (Maria MacDonell, who also wrote the piece) cuts through The Artist’s whimsy with a shard of cynicism, at least to begin with. She thinks he’s pretentious. The Artist helps Estelle open up, and she tells us about her life, her hopes and regrets, her love of graveyards and her career as an artist’s model. Estelle tells her story through the medium of folk tales. Afterwards, MacDonnell tells me that Estelle is so damage...

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Arcade – Summerhall Terrace

Set within a fully sealed and completely dark and sound-proofed container outside Summerhall, as a half-hour filler I have no problem with this at all. Personally, I might prefer a recumbent half-hour with a yoga track, but as a decompression from the sometimes over-whelming sights and sounds of the Fringe, this works either way. You certainly have more agency than previous container experiences I have had, you have a button to make choices yes or no, you have a token (use it wisely!) and a slot to put it in. Of course, there are multiple ways the storyline can twist and turn and for hardened arcade fans this might need multiple outings. The audible experience is excellent as is the haptic feedback. At one point, when your partner is wasted right beside you, you experience a s...

The Faustus Project – C Arts, Alto Studio

9Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Faustus Project – C Arts, Alto Studio

Doctor Faustus is universally known as the man who sold his soul to the devil, and that basically sums up the play by Christopher Marlowe. Remembered as a scholar and a rebel, Marlowe's play is actually quite reactionary, very much boiling down to, between patriotic swipes at the papacy, "I want knowledge, consequences be banned! "No, don't have knowledge, you'll be damned!", "oh no I had knowledge but now I'm damned!', like the College Humour Ye Old Black Mirror sketch played straight. As such, it seems a good frame to riff off of, which Half Trick Theatre have done by casting a new actor in the main role each night with no knowledge of the show, with all the comedic opportunities for embarrassment and confusion that offers. The secret to all these shows is the cast themselves, ...

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits – Pleasance at EICC

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits – Pleasance at EICC

Seventy minutes with an 83-year-old who’s got all her marbles and oodles of talent besides was one brilliant way to spend a rainy afternoon in Edinburgh. Playing to a full house of 1200 capacity, Miriam Margolyes’ fan-base is younger than her which, of course, didn’t matter a jot to this outspoken and wonderfully entertaining woman. She had the crowd in the palm of her hand right from the get-go. There were Margolyes followers in their twenties upwards, the younger members presumably fans of her outings in the Harry Potter series of films. My favourite Margolyes performance was the fabulous Italian nurse she played in Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet. She was deliciously nuanced and funny in that role, bringing it to life as I’d never seen it before or since. We listened to Sachmo...