REVIEWS Archives - Page 173 of 548

Sing Along With the Fairy Song – Scottish Storytelling Centre

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Sing Along With the Fairy Song – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Sing Along With the Fairy Song is Edinburgh Fringe for Early Years. An elegant wooden chair, a stool, two pedestals of white roses, a projection of frolicking fairies, bird song and the veteran storyteller for children, Janis Mackay, warmly welcome a select audience. Mackay is experienced with little ones and greets the fairy-winged and magic-wanded little people with charm and encouragement. This is an interactive piece and the young audience repeat the actions and songs with enthusiasm as they join Mackay in an imaginary hunt for fairies in the woods or hiding amid the flowers and maybe secretly living under miniature hillocks. It took a little time to teach the songs and draw out flower and tree names from the youngsters, but once over their shyness, three little girls did not...

Sheeps: The Giggle Bunch – Pleasance Courtyard

8Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Sheeps: The Giggle Bunch – Pleasance Courtyard

This 3 for 1 offer is for the most part good value. Sheeps with pedigree, Ladhood creator Liam Williams, Stath Lets Flats star Al Roberts and writer Daran Johnson. Former Fringe favourites return after a six year hiatus with a new suite of sketches which are in turn brilliant, tricksy, silly and just plain weird, in what they promise is their final Fringe run together (probably!). Given their already high-flying status, this is more of an excuse for the ‘boys’ to get together one last time, rather than a serious career or financial move. There’s an intriguing boy band dynamic and comedic palsy bickering throughout the show which is part of the show’s charm. The quality of the sketches is varied to say the least, the opening skit, possibly the high point of the show, features a...

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Please Right Back – The Studio

Please Right Back is awesome. Comics, film, animation and music are magically and seamlessly interwoven in this touching, visually addictive family tale. Join Mr E as he explains his absence through vividly imagined tall tales, swallowed whole by his loving offspring. A 1927 and Burgtheatre Vienna joint production, Please Right Back was written by Suzanne Andrade. This creation is based, loosely, on her own experience. The company, 1927, was founded in 2005 by co-artistic directors, Andrade (Writer and Director) and Paul Barritt (Film, Animation and Design). They work out of London and that not-to-be-forgotten seaside town of Margate in Kent with its sunshine, sand, funfair and ice cream cones. Known internationally for their repertoire in theatre and opera, this multi-award winni...

My Last Two Brain Cells – Underbelly Cowgate

8Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

My Last Two Brain Cells – Underbelly Cowgate

Joe Pike, Tom Hazleden and Hannah Tudge, all graduates of Fourth Monkey Drama School, Finsbury Park, return with My Last Two Brain Cells after their run-away success at the 2023 Edinburgh Fringe, where Chortle rated them the seventh highest comedy show of the Festival. “It’s a whacky, zany, chaotic hour of madness,” to quote Pike. The protagonists are the last two brain cells of a dying man called Gary Kane. In an effort to save him, the pair try all sorts of crazy shenanigans, drawing in the audience to help them. It is Hysterical. This is theatre of the absurd for the twenty-first century. And it has sold out for three of its five shows so far. Inspired by the pressure to develop a scratch play for their finals and the ever-popular humour of Sponge-Bob Square Pants, Pike ...

Mary Mary Quite Contrary – The Space On The Mile

8Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Mary Mary Quite Contrary – The Space On The Mile

Mary Mary Quite Contrary is a new comedy musical surrounding Mary Whitehouse and her prudish war against sex and sexuality being shown on the BBC. When Mary is told that her next job involves documenting swingers she is mortified, but as she learns why and how a swingers club works she begins to open up to the idea. After all every swingers club should end with a happy ending. The songs in this show are simple but enjoyable, the cast talented if a little nervous and the exclusivity is off the rails. Be prepared to learn something new about yourself and embrace the world of kink and self expression. We explore trans identity, a love of leather, obedience and dominance and that giving yourself over to pleasure is not in fact a fast track to the gates of hell. The show is witty and ...

Ania Magliano: Forgive Me Father – Pleasance Courtyard

8Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Ania Magliano: Forgive Me Father – Pleasance Courtyard

Magliano is moving up the roster at the Pleasance, last year she was in a container, today she is in a proper raked auditorium with 3x the capacity, and it is full. I see a real progression, a maturity, in her material, and her delivery. Last year she braided a lightweight tale about getting a haircut. This year she has knitted a gorgeous monologue, about life, forgiveness and moving on, as fine as the olive green waistcoat she wears: perhaps a bit baggy and saggy in places, but quirky, stylish and unique. Magliano’s fresh face and natural colour choices, down to her russet cords, have led some to assume she is a Vegan, but as she explains, she left that dietary choice behind 12 years ago when she came out as bi-sexual. She is not a fussy eater anymore! Magliano’s ‘nice girl’ who...

8Aug

By Marcelina KruczyńskaNo Comments

Scotland

(Dis)honest – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

(Dis)honest by St Catherine's School, Twickenham is an energetic and relatable play. This drama comedy would be especially appealing to fans of podcasts and true crime. This originally written piece poses many thought-provoking questions about honesty and identity in an enjoyable and lighthearted way. These concepts are challenged through the character Amy Bock and her not so honest life choices. Naturally, in true podcast fashion Amy’s crimes are discussed and dissected by various presenters and spokes persons that feature in the podcast. However, in an innovative way the play also includes the comments and views of the podcast’s audience. Although confusing at first, the audience and presenters' opinions merge like an endless conversation showing the connection they all share. ...

Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon – Pleasance Dome

7Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon – Pleasance Dome

Surreally great!! I have a theory that environment can create comedy, that some spaces are just inherently funnier than others. So here, upstairs at Pleasance Dome, where the equally brilliant Crizards stood last Fringe, rising star Lorna Rose Treen rises from the mound. It is a small space, hot ‘intimate’, as they say, and, unsurprisingly, it is full. Treen, emerges from a pile of laundry, reminiscent of a student’s bedroom. The ‘mound’ plays a central role for quick clothes changes, prop retrieval and another brilliant use, which will have you creased up - but no spoilers here!. Almost Pythonesque in her humour, she plays many characters in this quick-fire sketch show, but chief among them is the tough talking nine-year-old brownie, who appears several times, surely a cypher...

After Shakespeare: Richard III – the Space Triplex

7Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

After Shakespeare: Richard III – the Space Triplex

We have heard many tales of Richard III, not many of them are favourable, and Shakespeare wrote the play Richard III casting Richard in a bad light too. Theatre and film company Slade Wolfe Enterprises Ltd wish to look at Richard through a kinder lens, he had much to contend with, but was he the villain that he was made out to be by Shakespeare. This play analyses the period between 1464-1485 charting the period of boyhood, through to his death…he was only thirty-two years old when he died in 1485, when fighting as King, he died at the Battle of Bosworth Field. This period is history was remarkably busy for coronations, as the monarchy changed five times, Edward IV, Henry VI, Edward IV (again), Edward V and then Richard III himself. The War of the Roses ensur...

Witch? Women on Trial – Greenside @ Riddles Court

7Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Witch? Women on Trial – Greenside @ Riddles Court

The Edinburgh Storytellers tell the stories of our past, in this case, the witch trials in Scotland which began in the early 16th century. Our storyteller is Natalie, who enthusiastically draws us into the world of witches. Just to give you a taster of some of the material spoken about, Natalie told us about Janet Cock, who was sent to jail for drunken behaviour, but was then released due to her daughter’s efforts, but a couple of months later she was re-arrested on new charges and was convicted and sentenced to death for witchcraft. Between 1590-1662 executions took place for witchcraft, and many trumped up charges were used to suppress women’s vitality, to quieten those who were outspoken or would not conform. The prosecutors were men, and we see this theme...