REVIEWS Archives - Page 18 of 623

Unexplained Live – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Unexplained Live – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

I interviewed Richard MacLean Smith earlier in the Fringe and was intrigued by the trajectory of a man who started the Unexplained podcast in 2016 and has since turned our fascination with things we cannot quite explain into something of a phenomenon, including a book based on the series. I was particularly interested in whether Unexplained Live might represent another step along that trajectory. Danny Robins has travelled similar paranormal territory, ultimately taking 2:22 A Ghost Story onto major stages around the world. Could MacLean Smith eventually follow him? On the evidence here, he may well. For his first Fringe incarnation of Unexplained, MacLean Smith takes us to the remote Flannan Isles in December 1900. Three lighthouse keepers a...

Around the World in 80 Days – St Paul’s Church Covent Garden

14Aug

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Around the World in 80 Days – St Paul’s Church Covent Garden

Around the World in 80 Days is a new production inspired by Jules Verne’s classic tale. This summer, it is being performed at St Paul’s Church in Covent Garden, with the grounds outside the church transformed into a secret open-air theatre tucked away between the surrounding buildings. With benches for seating, bunting decorating the space and fairy lights glistening along the path, it is a beautiful setting for an evening performance. The rustic wooden stage and outdoor atmosphere help transport you to another time period and make the setting feel particularly charming. The production itself, however, felt somewhat too ambitious for the space and format. With a small cast playing multiple characters, constantly switching between roles, breaking the fourth wall and occasionally stepping...

Are you there, Mother? – Etcetera Theatre

14Aug

By Carole GordonNo Comments

London

Are you there, Mother? – Etcetera Theatre

A dying mother, a grieving daughter and a jobbing actor/stand-up/drag artist come together in this dark, witty comedy written and performed by Thomas Carruthers. Lured by the possibility of actually making some money, Vincent agrees to pass Martha's daughter a message after her death. Martha, a strong-willed and persuasive woman, plays on his emotions using the fact of her imminent death, until Vincent reluctantly agrees to do this as an act of kindness to bring the daughter peace at her mother's passing. After Martha dies, Vincent feigns psychic abilities to "channel" Martha and pass on the message. Rather than being a one-off event, Vincent is increasingly drawn into the daughter's manipulations in her desire to keep the supposed connection with her mother. The deception continu...

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Galloping Cure – Festival Theatre

Oh my God. What just happened to opera? Missy Mazzoli’s The Galloping Cure absolutely blew me away in its first half. Not merely as opera, but as theatre, music and visual spectacle colliding in something that felt, genuinely, like a tipping point. If this is what modern opera is going to be, it has a wonderful life ahead of it. Everything begins relatively straight. The music, the characters, the world. Then gradually it starts to contort. The familiar bends out of shape and suddenly we are somewhere else entirely. There are echoes of The Music Man, flashes of Carousel, and then we seem to tumble headlong into The Matrix, vertical lines of light streaming through the Festival Theatre stage as though we are stepping between realities. At the centre are ...

The Wreck – Edinburgh Summerhall (Old Lab)

14Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

The Wreck – Edinburgh Summerhall (Old Lab)

An oft-overlooked aspect of many theatre productions is the music/soundtrack/sound design(er), call it what you will… but this (Faye James) was the foundation of this show; dreamy, fragile, melancholic but beautiful, reflected in the dialogue between the two siblings, Eddie (Morgan Beale) and Ira (Camilla Anvar). What’s more, aside from the tech and beats mastery on display, it started with an accordion. The brother and sister have convened in a faded seaside town following the demise of their parents and some context is lightly sketched in as they gently bicker. Their parents had a club ‘The Dancer’ and it’s fallen upon hard times, the chief patrons being two local, rival societies, one keen on whales, the other on bones in general. Ira knows this because she stayed while Eddie lef...

Reuben Kaye: Hard to Swallow – Assembly George Square

14Aug

By Torya HughesNo Comments

Scotland

Reuben Kaye: Hard to Swallow – Assembly George Square

Cabaret superstar Reuben Kaye returns to the Fringe with his new show, a whirlwind of political comedy, powerhouse vocals and glittery costumes. Previous shows have experienced sell-out runs and award wins, and this year seems to be no different, with the Palais du Variete packed out on a Wednesday evening. Kaye tells the story of how he was hospitalised with exhaustion after almost 300 performances as King Herod in an Australian tour of Jesus Christ Superstar, but there is no sign of this on stage. He commands the room, knowing exactly when to pause for effect or wait for a joke to land. There are several moments where he flutters his false lashes and enjoys the ripples of laughter, in total control of the energy in the theatre. Kaye’s style of comedy cabaret is famously outrageous...

Rachel Fairburn (Vexy Beasts) – Edinburgh O’Neill’s/Tron

14Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Rachel Fairburn (Vexy Beasts) – Edinburgh O’Neill’s/Tron

At first sight this seems and sounds very Merton and Manning but don’t be fooled as Fairburn quickly progresses beyond these Mancunian comparisons. Even if the mercy-free, quickfire delivery echoes that of the nearby (now defunct) Embassy Club. She doesn’t so much entertain us for fifty minutes as paint a vivid portrait of a rapidly gentrifying Harpurhey. Or Harpur ‘Vale’ as it seems to be known these days. At least you can’t accuse the local estate agents of being idle. She does it with the help of several local personalities; her rival Julie Noone, mayor of Harpur Vale and (only just) runner-up in Miss Harpur Vale 2019… Aunt Cheryl who has a burgeoning social media channel (Cheryl’s Chats) exploiting her friendships with the great, good, rich and famous… Lady ‘Literally’ who’s jus...

Bubble Schmeisis (remixed) – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bubble Schmeisis (remixed) – Sauna Theatre, Summerhall

Of all this year’s Sauna Theatre propositions at Summerhall, Bubble Schmeisis (Remixed) perhaps feels the most like theatre. There is good reason for that. Nick Cassenbaum’s one-man show was already a sell-out Fringe and international success long before anybody decided to put the audience into swimsuits and turn up the heat. Ten years on, it has found what feels like its natural home. This is not simply an old stage show squeezed into a sauna. It feels like a genuine evolution of the piece, with Nick now performing the story inside the very environment he has spent years describing. And the experience begins before we even get there. Live klezmer music, created for the show by Daniel Gouly and Josh Middleton, accompanies us as we wait to enter and continues inside, becom...

Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story – Pleasance Queen Dome

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story – Pleasance Queen Dome

I have always been a fan of the one-man show. There seem fewer of them at the Fringe this year, with the two-hander apparently enjoying something of a resurgence. But there is something about the singularity of the form that appeals to me. One performer, complete control, nobody else required to feed the next line. Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Story demonstrates just how powerful that control can be. Written and directed by Tom Foreman, the play takes us into one of the most familiar disasters in history, but from a very different direction. Here we are below decks with Frederick Barrett and the men who kept Titanic alive. This is not the world of evening dress, champagne and sweeping staircases. This is dirt under the fingernails, sweat on the skin, coal dust, heat, steam and...

13Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Blackbox – Underbelly Cowgate

This is the true story of Henry "Box" Brown, the enslaved African-American who, in 1849, mailed himself to freedom in the North in a wooden box measuring just 3 feet by 2.5, in which he had to remain quietly, and not always right side up, for 27 hours. This adaptation by Rickerby Hinds (who also directs) draws on Brown's own autobiographical writings, published as Narrative of the Life of Henry Box Brown Written by Himself, to tell his story. As such, it is mostly monologue form (performed by Josiah Alpher as Brown, with Jada Evelyn Ramsey as Spirit and chorus) combined with partially live gospel soundscapes and, reflecting Brown's later career, stage magic. Though the play starts and ends with the box which is so central to this show (not to mention the man's name), it is really...