REVIEWS Archives - Page 184 of 335

Velvet Determination – Greenside @ Nicolson Square

17Aug

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

Velvet Determination – Greenside @ Nicolson Square

Velvet Determination is an autobiographical performance about, and starring, Cynthia Shaw, detailing her experience as a pianist growing up in Colorado with aspirations of making it to New York. Despite being the only performer on stage throughout the piece, Shaw retains the audience's attention from the get-go through both her dialogue and live piano playing. Dressed in a bright, floral dress, Shaw’s costume matches her warm, friendly personality, helping the audience to tune in to her story. Shaw is not an actor - but this is not a piece of theatre. Velvet Determination is a real story and Shaw is able to be genuine and vulnerable in such an intimate setting, something even the finest of actors struggles to get right at times. Throughout the piece, Shaw ensures to look each...

Half Empty Glasses – Roundabout @ Summerhall

17Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Half Empty Glasses – Roundabout @ Summerhall

After the success of Patricia Gets Ready, Kaleya Baxe returns to direct in collaboration with playwright Baruwa-Etti for a story of friendship, anger and courage where nothing is completely black or white. Half Empty Glasses is a coming-of-age story that explores what it means to step into a world of possibility and begin to see its injustices, deformities and annihilating inequalities, coming face to face with one's own powerlessness for the first time. Hovering between the possibility of a radiant future and a bleak present, overshadowed by his father's degenerative illness, Toye (Samuel Tracy), the true dramatic focus of the play, is filled with a blind rage, toxic even, for those close to him, especially his friends Remi (Princess Khumalo) and Asha (Sara Hazemi). A play that ai...

Dog/Actor – Greenside at Infirmary Street

17Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Dog/Actor – Greenside at Infirmary Street

From the pen of Steven Berkoff, these two short plays offer two vastly different stories, and a chance for ThreeDumb Theatre to show off their flexibility. ThreeDumb was formed in 2015, by LIPA graduates who have since gone on to produce plays such as Am I Happy Yet which received an OffComm Award, and their multiple award-winning digital offering Edgar Allan Poe’s The Black Cat, and One Man Poe. Dog follows the relationship of a graffiti spraying, racist football hooligan who is devoted to his dog, Roy. The two are inseparable and Roy accompanies his devoted owner wherever he goes, even eating pies at the pub with him. It is fair to say that Roy the pit-bull, is not the friendliest of dogs, savaging anyone who crosses his path, but he is a friend to his skinhead owne...

Bring Me To Light – theSpace @ Niddry St

17Aug

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

Bring Me To Light – theSpace @ Niddry St

Bring me to Light from the Chloe Kastner Dance Company is a contemporary, artsy dance performance that is advertised as exploring themes of addiction, heartbreak and mental illness within the 40-minute performance which will ‘leave audiences hopeful for a better tomorrow.’ The company, led and choreographed by Chloe Kastner, comprises six dancers. All six appear in the opening piece which begins in the blackout. After consideration, this may have been a technical error as the lighting was inconsistent and appeared unrehearsed in many areas. There were times when the lighting choice lacked purpose and motivation, simply increasing in intensity for a moment and decreasing again, quickly becoming very distracting. All sound/music cues appeared on time except one or two that seemed ...

A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain – Roundabout @ Summerhall

17Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

A Sudden Violent Burst of Rain – Roundabout @ Summerhall

Sami Ibrahim plays with the fable element to try to give new depth and strength to the old theme of immigration and British imperialism, creating a play that is surreal and cruelly realistic at the same time. The young London playwright tries to add levity and hope to the tale of a precarious, exhausting and irretrievably broken life and to make the injustice of a cruel and impersonal system even more evident through the strong contrast with the fairy-tale element. The play is indeed well written and superbly acted by the three cast members, Sara Hazemi, Princess Khumalo and Samuel Tracy, but at times verbose and unmoving. Ibrahim gets lost in metaphors, double meanings and symbols, and forgets to give us the human element, the only one that can really touch the audience. The story of ...

16Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Still Floating – Summerhall Old Lab

A surreal, evasive and whimsical play that captivates with its sweetness, fantasy and gentle humour, with its characters at once sweet and grotesque and its fairy-tale dimension. In taking up the famous 2006 play, Floating, and the character of Hugh Hughes, Welsh artist Shôn Dale-Jones seems to want to build a bridge between past and present and investigate how the former can still speak to the latter. The performer, in fact, wants to deal with a theme that is as topical as ever, to speak to an uprooted generation, of young people who, by choice or lack thereof, have found themselves living with a suitcase in hand, constantly on the move in a world without borders. It is a theme that acquires new meanings for the post-Brexit Anglo-Saxon people who now identify with that Hugh Hughes who...

Matt Forde: Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right – Pleasance Courtyard

16Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Matt Forde: Clowns To The Left Of Me, Jokers To The Right – Pleasance Courtyard

This is NOT what The Fringe is about. This was neither odd, unpredictable, nor strange or thought-provoking. This was bold, polished, glossy, mainstream entertainment featuring an already established star. Big venue, big star, big prices, this was not the ‘fringe’ of anything. If you want to talk haircuts this was the City Worker’s £120 bespoke side-parting or the Sunday League Footballer’s Peaky Blinder. If Mullets were still a thing it would’ve made more sense because Matt’s clearly a Viz fan. Thank heavens for the Laughing Horse and PBH’s Free Fringe et al for it’s via these channels that all the whacky, shambolic, disturbing, unsettling, inspiring delights still slip through, it’s where the fascination associated with the Fringe can still be found in 2022. Polemic over. Matt Fo...

Rachel Fairburn: Can I be Awful? – Monkey Barrel Comedy

16Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Rachel Fairburn: Can I be Awful? – Monkey Barrel Comedy

Can I be awful? is hilarious. This is quick, sharp, biting comedy at its finest. Rachel Fairburn has artfully crafted an absolute laugh- riot of a show. I can honestly say I don’t remember laughing this much at a comedy show, period. She skilfully leads us through a well-timed, laugh a minute, adventure that pokes fun where it belongs. The show has a strong theme of class disparity and attitudes and stereotypes towards working class people. Rachel Fairburn has a savagely funny sense of humour and healthy dose of dark, crude, and near the mark banter. The show was presented in conversational and chatty manner that put the audience at ease. This is a comfortable and confident comedian who knows how to build a story in layers. There were some hilarious impressions of trust -fund...

Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Home Truths – Monkey Barrel Comedy

16Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Home Truths – Monkey Barrel Comedy

This is a funny, relatable, current and well crafted show. Kiri Pritchard- McLean is a master of blending self-deprecating humour, near the mark jokes and honesty to take the audience on a side splitting journey. Right out of the gate she bounced off the energy from the audience with quick wit and funny comments. Aside from the adept and confident comedy this Welsh comedian gave us an education. This show felt like a breath of fresh air with some genuinely thought provoking moments. She wasn’t afraid to stand up for what she believes in and talk about hard - hitting and uncomfortable topics, highlighting the fact that the venue had only employed white acts for the festival and bringing white privilege and anti-racism to the forefront of people’s minds where it needs t...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Changing The Sheets – Assembly Rooms

A long thin room with raked seating to both sides cascades to a bare stage with two floor-mounted LED multi-coloured strip lights. These are the sheets (of light) between which the two actors, Adam and Eve, if you will, play out the age-old mating ritual. In this retelling it is Adam who bites the apple and Eve who kicks him out of Eden (her dad’s flat). For those of us of a certain age, think When Harry Meets Sally meets Groundhog Day. Or, if you have never heard of these classics (Oh dear!) maybe think Normal People meets Lena Dunham’s Girls. Let’s just say there is a lot of ooing and ahhing on stage. This is intimacy without the mess (thank god!) In a show which is light on production, not a Par Cam or Birdie in sight, my hope is that the script and acting are on point. Happily, I a...