REVIEWS Archives - Page 36 of 548

Figures in Extinction – Festival Theatre

23Aug

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Figures in Extinction – Festival Theatre

The Edinburgh International Festival continues to prove how committed it is to bringing the finest examples of the arts to the city every year, and this time it could not have been otherwise. Figures in Extinction is one of the most elevated ballets I have ever seen, both in terms of technique, concept and production design. Crystal Pite proves herself to be one of the finest choreographers currently working in Europe. What sets her apart is her willingness to look directly at the world around her and to translate difficult, often painful subjects into movement that feels alive, urgent and deeply human. In Figures in Extinction, a trilogy created with Simon McBurney of Complicité and performed by the extraordinary dancers of Nederlands Dans Theater, she turns her attention to the climate c...

23Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Bernstein and Stravinsky – Usher Hall

The Edinburgh International Festival welcomed the return of conductor Karina Canellakis, who lit up Usher Hall with her energetic presence on the podium. Following her stunning debut at the closing concert of the 2023 Festival, her comeback was highly anticipated – and she more than lived up to expectations. BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Edinburgh Festival Chorus director James Grossmith created an evening of music that was both dazzling and deeply emotional. The 95-minute piece, performed with one interval, started with the vulnerability of the violin voice, expanding incrementally out to the full forces of the orchestra before the chorus entered. The uncomplicated layering of massed choral voices over instruments gave an intimacy merged with something divine. The performance con...

23Aug

By Paul AckroydNo Comments

London

Every Brilliant Thing – Soho Place

Every Brilliant Thing was created by Duncan Macmillan and Johnny Donahoe and was first performed at the Edinburgh fringe in 2014 and has since been performed by many artists in 80 countries around the world. This is the first time that it has had a performance in London’s West End. It still has the feel of a fringe performance with a solo actor performing with no set dressing and largely without props and involving the audience in the performance. It works well in the intimate theatre in the round auditorium at Sohoplace. Another feature of this production is that it is to be performed by five different actors on different nights during its run. At Press Night it was the turn of Johnny Donahoe, who has performed it many times and his familiarity with the material...

The Three Maria’s – Greenside @ George Street

23Aug

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

Scotland

The Three Maria’s – Greenside @ George Street

This play is centred around the dictatorship of Salazar and his regime known as the Estado Novo; it was an authoritarian and anti-parliamentary government in Portugal that continued over many years from 1933 to 1974. A time when women were censored and subordinate to men. Any sign of female independence was severely punished. The Three Maria’s “inspired by Maria de Fatima Velho da Costa, Maria Isabel Barreno, and Maria Teresa Horta are the authors of the New Portuguese Letters”. A book written by the Maria’s to celebrate their womanhood, sexuality and defiance in an opposing system that saw men holding primary power and privilege. Stoic feminists with a voice, open to opportunity, and penned their writings of poetry, essays and short prose to challenge their oppression. They risked prison ...

23Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Forget-Me-Nots – theSpace on The Mile

A couple finds themselves in some kind of liminal space with no memory of their life in the real world and no idea how to get back. Even with no recollection of their history together, they still gravitate towards each other, falling in love all over again, frozen in time together. Produced by Raiser Theatre and written and performed by Isla Hall, Forget-Me-Nots is a portrait of connection - with no distinct plot and no end in sight, like the couple, we are frozen in one moment, watching as the relationship unfolds and develops. At times the story felt a little cliché, although the dialogue and performance was believable. The two actors worked well together, creating an authentic and sweet, if quite sappy, relationship. Although Hall does refer to her partner...

VOTE: The Musical – Paradise in Augustines, Studio

23Aug

By Juliette PepinNo Comments

Scotland

VOTE: The Musical – Paradise in Augustines, Studio

1928 marked a landmark turning point for women’s rights, but the bloody and tireless battle of the suffragettes to achieve this milestone tends to be overlooked. Phoebe Perry’s original musical VOTE gives a voice to the suffragette soldiers and their bravery in the face of violent oppression that cannot be overstated, paying homage to the women who battled without bowing down to pave the way for women's rights as we take them for granted today. The cast is incredibly powerful in its entirety. The entire group of suffragettes embody this unwavering sisterhood and connection that lifts them up when fighting for a common goal. Lexi Lott is hauntingly powerful in her portrayal of Elizabeth; in her solo ballad 'Wings' we see the effects of her systematic marital abuse, and her release an...

Bake-Off: The Great British Pantomime – Greenside @ George Street

23Aug

By Triona ScullyNo Comments

Scotland

Bake-Off: The Great British Pantomime – Greenside @ George Street

“Join our crew as they band together to defeat the world’s greatest evil: Ratt Lucas. Using the power of friendship and a predictable parody (or two), will they succeed in the endeavour? Or will there be egg on their faces?” Their publicity promised plenty of bad puns, and this young, vibrant, fun-loving theatre company delivered. What they lacked in experience they more than made up for in enthusiasm and really bad puns. From the get go this musical theatre show was high energy and funny in that dad-joke way pantomime is humorous. Carefully weaving their pantomime plot into the familiar format of the Bake-Off Semi Final – Pastry Week, the cast danced and sung their way through a series of challenges, with familiar tunes and numbers such as "Every cake you bake," "Winner bakes it...

23Aug

By Joe LangNo Comments

Scotland

Fish – Greenside @ George Street

FISH is far more than you might expect from a show promoted as a one-woman clown performance. Without giving too much away, what starts as a flawless piece of slapstick comedy evolves into a question about the human experience, leaving you feeling more connected and hopeful than ever. Funmi gives a sensational performance as a humanoid fish-clown woman who is both enamoured by humanity and seemingly exhausted by it - quite a reflection of how we all feel, I must add. The first 40 minutes are filled with non-stop laughs; Funmi certainly knows how to interact with the audience and is extremely skilled at creating moments that keep you enthralled in both the madness and genius of the comedy. Each second will have you anticipating what direction she’ll take the performance next, creatin...

Cameron Sinclair Harris: PLANETS!!! – Assembly Rooms

23Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

Cameron Sinclair Harris: PLANETS!!! – Assembly Rooms

What would a planet say if they could speak? For millennia, we have identified extraterrestrial bodies with gods, but maybe it's time to let them speak for themselves. Fortunately for all of us, Cameron Sinclair Harris has travelled extensively throughout our solar system, and they are here at the fringe to present their findings by embodying each planet in turn. Spoiler alert: all the planets are completely insane. Harris smokes a kazoo and wears a bowler hat with a feather in it. “Do you want to be in my band?” they ask. One audience member is given a rattle. Another is instructed to shout out “Boom” whenever Harris points at him. We all sing along to Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra (a.k.a. the theme tune from 2001: A Space Odyssey), with booming sounds provided by ou...

22Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Frat – theSpaceUK @ Surgeon’s Hall

A pledge is ushered into the initiation process of a college fraternity. ‘Scrotal Recall’ is labelled and subjected to intense humiliation and objectification. The process is repeated and its ceremony furthered at various points throughout the production. As dark vignettes these are noisy, brutal and unnerving moments but they serve the system. There is authority, there is violence and there is threat. There is also the necessity for absolute submission. Without completing the tasks presented to them, the pledge has no chance of becoming a ‘brother’ - a fully fledged member of the fraternity. Frat’s dissection of American college life is informed. National Lampoon gave us Animal House decades ago, but this examined college life in the 1960s. In 2000, The Skulls exaggerated the...