REVIEWS Archives - Page 399 of 548

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood – Assembly Rooms

14Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Looking For Me Friend: The Music of Victoria Wood – Assembly Rooms

Victoria Wood is one of those northern comedians whose expressions find a way into your life, without you really even knowing it. ‘Seventy-two baps Connie, you slice, I’ll spread,’ her joke on how the British deal with the funeral of a loved one. She had a way of looking at life and finding the humour in people’s day-to-day existence. Even though it is six years since she died, she still has a loyal following, and her sense of humour runs through people like the message in a stick of Blackpool rock. As a northern lass and fan of the late Victoria Wood, I went along to spend an hour in the company of other fans who appreciated her and to enjoy reminiscing about her very funny material, but also the amazing skill she had in creating these amusing tunes. Paulus is a fe...

Troy Hawke: Sigmund Troy’d – Underbelly Bristo Square

14Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Troy Hawke: Sigmund Troy’d – Underbelly Bristo Square

What would Jan Molby do? For those too young to know, Jan Molby was a Football Colossus who played for Liverpool, represented Denmark internationally (33 times), and artfully opened up opposition teams with passes defying accepted physics. All without ever moving more than a few yards from the centre-spot, pre-dating the Work-From-Home ethic. For ‘Football’, substitute ‘Comedy’ and you’ve Troy Hawke, the nattily-attired squadron heartthrob from 1930’s Biggin Hill, the chief contrast being he takes us on a voyage covering distances that would’ve given Jan digestive issues. Quite how he took us from a disgruntled online fast-food customer in Sidcup to Sigmund Freud’s exploitation of the Coca plant via Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bernard Arnault, Gucci, and an exploration of imposter syndrome is d...

14Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Pauline – Pleasance Courtyard

Pauline is a pure example of storytelling where the words, voices and testimonies of three generations of women meet and confront each other in what turns out to be a moving and necessary memoir for all contemporary women. An all-female story, with a strong feminist character that always remains intimate and never aggressive. A veritable exposé of human nature, of what it means to be a woman, of weaknesses, insecurities, sins even, and of the great moral strength that such a gender role seems to bring with it, the play lays bare three characters, three women who are different but bound together by blood and art, by a love of storytelling and telling. An excavation in the memory of the actress, alone and unique in this one-woman show, who seems to want to cling with all her might to what sh...

14Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

West Midlands

Les Misérables – Birmingham Hippodrome

Theatre critics can sometimes be very useful. Take Sheridan Morley, for instance, who, in the mid eighties, was almost the only voice amidst a tsunami of naysayers to have something nice to say about Les Misérables. Nearly every other critic slammed it with lines like "a witless and synthetic entertainment”. The show proved them wrong and continues to prove them wrong and at 38 years it is undoubtedly one of the most successful theatrical achievements in world history. I hadn’t seen the show since 1986 but it has been with me ever since so reuniting with it last night at the Birmingham Hippodrome was like meeting a long lost friend and a long lost friend who looks and sounds a lot brighter and vibrant than the passing years would suggest. It really is a stunning price of work. The plot tri...

14Aug

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

London

Dolls & Guys – Camden People’s Theatre

Part of the Camden Fringe festival which marks its 16th year, Dolls & Guys explores a dystopian world where women in a shop wait to be picked by the one and live happily ever after. Directed by Julia Sudzinsky and written by Sabean Bea and Alanna Flynn, the story focuses on five characters, Juliet, Lucy, Soraya, Maggie and Billie and explores their struggles to navigate love, life and dating. As we see the group break up and reunite as male customers (all played by Nicholas Pople) come through the door, one thing that remains the same are their friendships. We see how the characters bond over their shared experiences when the men are not around and was undoubtedly the highlight of the show. The awkward but intelligent Juliet (Sabean Bea) and her heart-warming interactions with tombo...

Fiji – Pleasance Upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard

14Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Fiji – Pleasance Upstairs at the Pleasance Courtyard

After reading the press release, this is one of those plays that you walk-in to the theatre, not knowing what to expect. Co-written by Eddie Loodmer-Elliott, Pedro Leandro and Evan Lordan, the inspiration of the play (scarily), came from real-life events. Omnibus Theatre have joined forces with Clay Party and Conflicted Theatre to produce an alarming, disturbing play that revolves around the theme of cannibalism. For most of us, (hopefully), this will be a subject that does not feature in your daily life, and one wonders what inspired this delving into the culinary skills of a cannibal. The play begins with Sam (Sam Henderson) arriving at Nick’s place (Eddie Loodmer-Elliott) with his suitcase. Sam is nervous and it becomes clear that Sam and Nick have never met before but have chatte...

14Aug

By Louise BalaguerNo Comments

Scotland

Mary, Chris, Mars – Summerhall

If you’re in search of a family friendly show this Fringe, or even if you just want to enjoy a heart-warming and playful performance by yourself, look no further – Mary, Chris, Mars has you covered. And if you happen to be a Korean learner, you can take in the delight of experiencing a performance in both Korean and English (with English captioning) – and if you’re not, the same statement still applies. I reckon it only adds to the enjoyment of the play. Part of the Korean Showcase – presented by the Korean Cultural Centre UK (KCCUK) – Trunk Theatre Project’s Mary, Chris, Mars (played respectively by Cho Yeeun, Ryu Wonjun, and Park Hyeon) takes us on a colourful journey through space, as Mary and Chris are brought together by chance and spend a rather unusual Christmas Day on Mars. Punc...

Mischief Movie Night – Pleasance at the EICC

14Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Mischief Movie Night – Pleasance at the EICC

Mischief return to the Edinburgh Fringe with Mischief Movie Night, an improvised film night, complete with lively discussion of the genre and title to be chosen. Thankfully your host (Jonathan Sayer) has every film ever made, as well as tenuously related documentaries, bonus features, and over a half-dozen actors Rhyanna Alexander-Davis, Josh Elliott, Sue Harrion, Harry Kershaw, Henry Lewis, Dave Hearn, Charlie Russell and Henry Shields) and musicians (Ed Zanders, Oliver Izod, Christopher Ash, and Dylan Towney) to star in it. Improvisation is tricky genre, and in many cases one wonders if the audience would react half as well to the jokes if they didn't think they were entirely spontaneous and unpredictable and that they had played an important role in them. But this was not the case he...

Shame On You! – Summerhall Demonstration Room

14Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Shame On You! – Summerhall Demonstration Room

This is what The Fringe is about. Amongst all the comedy, cabaret, theatre and musicals you stumble upon something so strange, other-worldly and weird, almost spectacular in its conceit that it’ll work. And it does. Shame, it seems, is something no-one on the planet can entirely escape. Embarrassment likewise but as an emotion shame is likely to linger longer in one’s system. Trixa Arnold and Ilja Komarov began collating stories from all members of society in Switzerland on the topic before expanding their net to include Russia, Pakistan and The Netherlands, building up an archive of over 450 ‘stories’, some a couple of paragraphs long, others simple one-liners. In an intimate setting, in front of an audience just shy of twenty Ilja begins by simply reading some of these out, the inside...

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much – Pleasance Dome

14Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much – Pleasance Dome

An intoxicating vortex that for an hour sucks you in, leaving you breathless, captures your senses with its live music and virtuoso acrobatics, and ravishes your mind in an excess of incidents, accents, jokes and twists. Everything is perfect in this little gem of visual storytelling, a rare example of physical theatre where the theatrical action surpasses in suspense, action and acrobatics the speed and pace of a cinematic experience. A genre parody, the play retains the tone of a 1960s comedy and the suspense typical of Hitchcock, of which it is a satire without ever descending into exaggerated grotesquery. Rather than farce, in fact, the show claims the self-deprecating, light-hearted tones of some 1960s comedy-thrillers, such as Charades, where the grimaces and impressive facial exp...