REVIEWS Archives - Page 171 of 545

7Aug

By Susan CohenNo Comments

Scotland

Girlhood – Greenside @ Riddles Court

Over the course of a New Year’s Eve, this play portrays how three women confront their ideas and perceptions of motherhood and shows how their relationships with their mothers have defined most of their lives. With sharp use of dialogue, space and movement, three vignettes unfold on stage at the same time and we observe how an unrealistic obsession with a perfect future contrasts with an unplanned single pregnancy and a resistance to being pressurised into motherhood. Tiegan Byrne, a new playwright, has created a complex play here which touches upon manipulation and vulnerability, fear and expectation and raises that all-important question, why do we women feel the way we do? Her answer is clear – we are the daughters of our mothers. Or is it that strai...

Fanny’s Burning! – Frinton Summer Theatre

7Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Fanny’s Burning! – Frinton Summer Theatre

Fanny Cradock was before my time, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t heard the name. I know she’s synonymous with cooking, I think most younger people would say the same. The ballgown wearing was a new one (love it! ordered one!), but more importantly – and what this World Premiere of Anton Burge’s new play displays: she was a female pioneer. Opening onto Fanny’s (Brenda Longman) cooking studio, you at once feel like you’re part of a television audience. Fanny’s assistant, Carol (Phoebe-Loveday Raymond) who was apparently silent during the real filming, is given a voice. We are also introduced to Johnnie (Sam Cox) who from the outset, is clearly the love of Fanny’s life and the backbone to her indomitable spirit. As recipes unfold, so does the story of Fanny’s life. Through the cut away...

7Aug

By Ben PearsonNo Comments

Scotland

Beach Babe – Paradise in the Vault

Beach Babe is an entertaining, thought-provoking dark comedy about love, grief, and the afterlife. A young couple find themselves stranded on a rubbish-filled beach in Wales with no recollection of how they got there and no way of leaving. The young ‘woman’, played wonderfully by Julia Tidmas Goodall, is heavily pregnant but, due to the nature of their situation, is never able to give birth. Her partner, ‘man’, tries to inject optimism into their predicament, even if he does not feel it himself. The Starving Creatives’ media pack described ‘man’ as ‘the human embodiment of a golden retriever.’ An apt description, and one Nicholas Holloway channels expertly in his performance. Throughout the play, more information about the reality of the situation and the nature of the beach is revealed. I...

Aidan Sadler: Melody – The Voodoo Rooms, The Ballroom

7Aug

By Torya HughesNo Comments

Scotland

Aidan Sadler: Melody – The Voodoo Rooms, The Ballroom

Variously described as “an absolute tornado” and a “demonic David Bowie”, cabaret performer, musician and comedian Aidan Sadler brings their show “Melody” back to the Edinburgh Fringe. Billed as a collection of “top steps to surviving the apocalypse”, this show doesn’t quite deliver on that promise. However it does provide an entertaining hour of 80s inspired synth music, original songs, and masterful crowd work. Sadler attacks the stage with energy, clad in a two-piece ruffled costume which apparently cost more than a month’s rent in London, and a pair of chunky platform boots. They are faced with a small but perfectly formed audience, all of whom are immediately on side. The best comedians can make crowd work look easy. Trying to perform a set which Aidan admits is built on audien...

Charles Dickens: The Hanged Man’s Bride – Space @ Symposium Hall

6Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Charles Dickens: The Hanged Man’s Bride – Space @ Symposium Hall

Blue Orange Arts brings the well-known Charles Dickens play: The Hanged Man’s Bride to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe in the form of one-man story telling play. After a man travels to stop in a hotel in Leicester, he hears the tale of cruel man who has been hung for murdering his wife some years back with arsenic, an intriguing tale but it is not one that provokes any real reaction from our main man. It’s not until he enters his room, the clock strikes 8 and a strange staff member appears that story is truly delved into in its horrid entirety. The play starts off rather slowly, our main character is a rather unlikable soul who’s only worry in life is when he should officially leave his wife for his teenage lover. This is the classic flawed main character with a lesson or two to ...

Come Dine With Me: The Musical – Underbelly Bistro Square

6Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Come Dine With Me: The Musical – Underbelly Bistro Square

What if Come Dine With Me was a musical? Well, that question finally has an answer, however this musical focuses more on the behind the camera team than it does the wacky contestants themselves. Our producer Mary (Danielle Coombe) is looking to film a new episode of Come Dine With Me, but with views dropping she’s going to need this episode to be a little more spicey. It seems she gets what she’s asked for when acts of sabotage come into question and our contestants seem to be as cookie and weird as can be. Despite the onscreen action being a little suspicious, it seem the real drama is behind the camera as sound man Teddy (Harry Chandler) is having his own existential crisis. There will be love, there will be “I want” ballads and there will be food. Come Dine With Me: The Mus...

The Daughters of Róisín – Pleasance Courtyard: Bunker 1

6Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Daughters of Róisín – Pleasance Courtyard: Bunker 1

Taking a difficult subject and balancing the harsh reality whilst still including comedy is a hard task, but The Daughters Of Roisin have done this masterfully. Taking a look into the hidden and darker history of Ireland, this one woman show tells us the truth about how the young pregnant women were often treated. It tells of women being locked up for 9 months in their homes without being seen as to hide the disgrace and “sickness”, and the powers the church held over its people. This is a difficult watch as one may expect, you should as an audience feel uncomfortable. But what this play does masterfully is weave the horror and hard to swallow truth amongst song this is in no way a cheesy musical) and lighter humour. Our Lead actress (Aoibh Johnson) and writer divides the story i...

Casting The Runes – Pleasance Courtyard Above

6Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Casting The Runes – Pleasance Courtyard Above

It seems one should be careful when disregarding another person’s theories and methods, especially when those methods surround the paranormal. Box Tale Soup have brought their own two-man production of Casting the Ruins to this year’s fringe, and it is certainly an intriguing treat. We follow the story of scholar Edward Dunning, a man who does not believe in the supernatural. When rejecting a thesis from writer Mr Karswell, he finds himself following in the footsteps a dead man before him, Karswell’s last victim. Through seemingly magic runes, it’s up to Dunning and the mysterious woman he has just met to stop whatever nasty magical creature that has begun it’s decent on the professor, all the while forcing Dunning to truly question if the paranormal could truly exist. Visuall...

6Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Arturo Brachetti: SOLO – EICC

Being a reviewer has its pluses. When promoters, The Pleasance, provided an extra ticket especially so that my daughter could accompany me to this one, they created a beautiful father/daughter moment which will outlast me! A magical hour of entertainment, by one of the true masters. Italian national treasure, Arturo Brachetti, is in town with several truck loads, a circus-full if you will, of props, costumes and surprises, the sheer scale of which will take your breath away. Regarded by many as the greatest, The Guinness Book of World Records lists Brachetti as the world’s fastest and most prolific quick change artist, having achieved a staggering 250,000 costume changes throughout his career. Some of the props are a bit ragged at the edges, but then so is Arturo. It kinda add...

6Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Antigone – the Space @ Niddry Street

Written by Sophocles, and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus in 414 BC, Antigone is a popular Ancient Greek play and is one of the favourites of the ancient cannon to be performed and studied in schools and universities. Performed by Crook and Ivy, the show has an all-female cast, and is staged in the round. The story is set in Thebes, a city in Ancient Greece, and the new King, Creon (Martha Barratt) is imposing new laws, which will affect Antigone (Isabella Williamson) and her sister, Ismene (Ella Searl). Antigone and Ismene are the only members of her family to survive a battle for the throne of Thebes. The sister’s two brothers who fought over the throne and were both killed. Eteocles was granted a normal burial with all funeral rights, but King ...