REVIEWS Archives - Page 267 of 418

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 E...

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 For...

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 to...

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 am...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

OCD Me – Hill Street Theatre

A fine collaborative effort between writer and director, Aisling Smith and actress Laura Whelan, and with the timely help of an award from the Irish Arts Council – all come together here to create a beautifully constructed and at times scary insight into the debilitating fear of fear itself. Set within the very appropriate claustrophobic airless confines of a tight 60-seater black box theatre, a small but rapt audience are treated to a thankfully short view into the world of OCD, a condition that perhaps 2% of us suffer from. The other 98% should be damn grateful they don’t! We are told OCD does NOT stand for Obsessive, Christmas, Cleaning or Chocolate Disorder, as some comedians might have us believe. Nor is saying, I’m a little bit OCD acceptable, it’s not. This is no laughing matter....

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

9 Circles – Assembly George Square

To a comfortable lecture theatre of Edinburgh University, comes the uncomfortable truths of war, and war crimes, orchestrated under the very capable hands of Director, Guy Masterton. The 9 circles, refers to the nine rings of Dantes inferno. The interesting set and lighting design features a five metre wide light ring on the floor and a similar large light ring behind the stage. Rings that the central character can never escape, perhaps representing the truth of the past and the punishment of the future. The play is based on the true story of Texan Stephen Dale Green, a US army private who went on a rampage in Iraq, murdering an Iraqi family and raping then burning the 14 year old daughter. Playwright, Bill Cain, explores the justifications for Green’s actions through the nine ci...

15Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Vermin – Gilded Balloon Teviot

Rats in your home - instantly this subject creates a feeling of uneasiness, uncleanliness, thoughts of scratching noises, thoughts of them nibbling your food in your store cupboards. This play uses this uneasiness and builds upon it. I will explain… Bill (Benny Ainsworth) and Rachel (Sally Paffett) met on a train journey, in which they both witnessed a dramatic event. From this initial acquaintance grew a relationship which ended in wedding bells, but there ends any form of normality. After moving into their new home, the couple found out that Rachel was pregnant, but also realised that their new home was infested with rats. They heard them scratching, the smell was awful, and Bill began the process of attempting to exterminate them. Rats are cleve...

Anna Clifford: I See Dead(ly) People – Gilded Balloon Teviot (Balcony)

15Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Anna Clifford: I See Dead(ly) People – Gilded Balloon Teviot (Balcony)

As anyone who’s ever spent any time in Ireland knows, when something is referred to as ‘deadly’ (or ‘savage’) it generally means ‘good’. Likewise, and not altogether obvious, is that ‘brutal’ just means ‘bad’ and to illustrate it Anna uses the example of a ‘brutal’ murder; it doesn’t mean merciless, it just means whoever committed the felony made a botch of it, one of those Friday afternoon/Monday morning homicides. This is a high-octane performance from a sparky player with a huge presence and the wise-cracks persist throughout as we learn about her family, relationships and hatred of the mood music employed in waxing parlours. The show pivots around events in March 2020 (a month we’ll all probably still be talking about in fifty years’ time) as Anna returns home to see her boyfriend only...