REVIEWS Archives - Page 170 of 548

Failure Project – Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Failure Project – Summerhall, Anatomy Lecture Theatre

A new play by BAFTA nominee Yolanda Mercy (Quarter Life Crisis), in which Mercy plays Ade Adeyami, a young British-Nigerian playwright and actor who is still riding the wave of her first play, which has become an unexpected Fringe hit. With this success, and the realisation that she might even be able to make a living from her dream, comes an unexpected problem - a hierarchy of editors, agents and publicists who are there to help, nay manipulate, her. Ade’s second play, Day Girl, about a working-class black kid at a private school, has been commissioned, and paid for, and Ade finds she must now dance to her new masters’ tune. Before she knows it a B-list, minor celebrity influencer with no acting experience is cast in the lead instead of Ade, worst still she want to be ‘collabora...

Sleeping With The Yemeni: Mike Eshaq – Just The Tonic Legends

10Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Sleeping With The Yemeni: Mike Eshaq – Just The Tonic Legends

Mike Eshaq is an American Muslim on Yemeni descent, who has served in the US marines and loves bacon. In other words, he has plenty to talk about. He comes from Detroit, which used to be America’s murder capital. But the city has been colonised by hipsters and now, even Eshaq’s old friends use words like “delectable”. It is Eshaq’s first time in Scotland, and apparently we are hard to understand. In particular, Eshaq’s GPS does not like the Old Town. “Have you ever found a show.. and then found that you were above the show?” That’s my pet peeve about Edinburgh (my home city) too! Eshaq travels extensively, doing shows in all sorts of exotic locations - but the weirdest is Oklahoma. He is keen to learn about Scotland and what makes us tick. One joke falls flat due to the cultural ...

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me – Summerhall, Dissection Room

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me – Summerhall, Dissection Room

Performed cabaret style with tables and chairs, it’s well worth arriving a little before the stated ticket start time, with drinks in hand, to snag the best viewpoint. Early birds also get the significant bonus of a personal welcome from writer/performer Charlene Boyd, sashaying between tables humming tunes and chatting in American drawl like a hospitable Texas mam. Boyd has come a long way from the seeds of an idea, germinated during the lockdown-years, recently divorced mum of two, in her very unglamorous Glasgow high-rise! As the hamster wheel stopped for many of us, Boyd showed that it’s amazing what you can achieve when you have time on your hands! But Boyd always knew she was better placed than almost anyone to write the story of June Carter, having sung for the last 14 yea...

Maria Telnikoff: All The Men Are Going To Hate Me — Underbelly, Bristo Square

10Aug

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

Scotland

Maria Telnikoff: All The Men Are Going To Hate Me — Underbelly, Bristo Square

As soon as Maria Telnikoff bursts onto the Buttercup stage at Underbelly Bristo Square in a frenetic, gyrating dance to Charli xcx’s ‘Guess’, she totally commands the space with her charisma and physical comedy skills. It’s an energetic start, and she maintains this electric energy throughout her 60-minute show All The Men Are Going To Hate Me. After she’s got that dance out of her system, Telnikoff introduces us to the concept of the show: she wants to write the next great work of literature — about all the men she’s slept with. It’s a simple but clever framework that allows her to break up and act out each of these stories as individual ‘chapters’, which she punctuates with a series of placards. As she takes us through the journey of her sexual history, we’re introduced t...

10Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Birdwatching – The Space @ Venue 45

Black Bright Theatre has hit it out of the park once again with their latest fringe production. The company is no stranger to the horror genre – a notoriously difficult style to actualise on stage. However, Black Bright Theatre always manages to hit the nail on the head – this time with a meta twist. Conceptually so well considered - what seems to be a classic coming of age story, becomes a fourth-wall-breaking, psychologically-thrilling powerhouse. The three actors (Ellen Trevaskiss, Maddie Farnhill, and Mimi Millmore) were exceptional – uniting a playful naturality, and a harrowed, tormented feel into their performances. Their ability to cut through to an audience in such a striking way, both comedically and dramatically, has for me, been unmatched at...

Is The WiFi Good In Hell? — Underbelly Cowgate, Iron Belly

10Aug

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

Scotland

Is The WiFi Good In Hell? — Underbelly Cowgate, Iron Belly

Meet Dev: a young, queer boy growing up in the seaside town of Margate in 2008 who is absolutely itching to escape. Is The WiFi Good In Hell?, written by and starring Lyndon Chapman, is a richly detailed and beautifully touching coming-of-age story supported by an electrifying solo performance. We’re first introduced to Dev at the age of 12, where he spends most of his time hanging out on a derelict with his best mate, imagining his life when he leaves the so-called “dystopian wasteland” of Margate for a thriving life in London. In the 60-minute show, we follow Dev as he navigates school, university, and post-graduate life while discovering who he is in a world where he never quite fits in. Chapman is an absolute tour-de-force in this show, weaving the intricate web of Dev’...

Flesh – Mackenzie Building, Old Assembly Close, Edinburgh

10Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Flesh – Mackenzie Building, Old Assembly Close, Edinburgh

Performed down a close off the Royal Mile, this is a nicely site specific interpretation of the classic Edinburgh Burke and Hare story, and is sure to appeal to a good section of tourists on the lookout for a historical re-enactment. That this is also set to music comes as a sort of added bonus. This was surely the mindset of those who set off to dig up this absolute monstrosity from the annals of Edinburgh musical theatre history. In the battle royale that is Edinburgh in August there is no place for niceties or pally nepotism. This show may not be the worst I’ve seen but it looks under- rehearsed and amateurish compared to many of the shows out there. That’s not to say that it is all horrible. There are some good turns; Jeremy Fraser’s Burke is particularly well delivered, t...

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...