REVIEWS Archives - Page 43 of 548

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Underbelly, McEwan Hall

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Underbelly, McEwan Hall

One actor drunk, the rest soberly soldiering on through Shakespeare. It’s a crowd-pleasing premise, and the chaos is real. But if you don’t know your Midsummer Night’s Dream inside out, a lot of the humour sails past. Funny? Yes, at times. Insightful? Not so much. On paper, this sounds like a perfect Fringe mash-up: take a cast of classically trained Shakespearean actors, lace one of them with enough booze to make Falstaff blush, then watch the Bard’s poetry get sideswiped by slurred asides, physical stumbles, and improvised derailments. In theory, it’s both a homage to the rough and ready theatrical tradition and a sharp parody of Shakespearean reverence. The night I saw it, the chosen drunk was Lysander, who gradually morphed into “the crazy little Greek kid who gap-yeared in R...

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Book of Mountains and Seas – The Lyceum

Huang Ruo’s Book of Mountains and Seas promises mythic spectacle, and at times it delivers with imagery that sears itself into memory. Basil Twist’s staging conjures a world of elemental forces and shifting forms, with large, raw chunks of timber manipulated onstage to create figures of striking presence. One of the most arresting moments comes early, as these timber elements are assembled into a vast face, complete with glowing light spheres for eyes. These orbs lift away into the theatre’s airspace, casting an uncanny glow across the auditorium. From the sockets pour huge silk-like sheets, unfurling in great waves that transform into a billowing sea. Later, with a deft reconfiguration of the timber, the form becomes a hulking, almost golem-like figure, looming over the action. In the ...

17Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Collapse – Riverside Studios

Allison Moore’s ‘Collapse’ takes a familiar domestic setup and detonates it in spectacularly funny fashion. Hannah’s carefully maintained and tightly controlled life, already visibly fraying under the strain of infertility, financial uncertainty, threat of unemployment, and a husband adrift, tips into complete chaos when her rebellious (and hilariously funny) sister arrives with a mysterious package she has agreed to deliver to a guy called “Bulldog”. What follows is a darkly comic unravelling where love, fear, and survival collide. Emma Haines delivers a commanding central turn as Hannah, balancing brittle control with flashes of honest vulnerability. She moves seamlessly between sharp, fast-paced exchanges with her co-performers, and quieter solitary moments that land with unexpected ...

How Not to Fund a Honeymoon – Studio @ theSpaceTriplex

17Aug

By Charles PipeNo Comments

Scotland

How Not to Fund a Honeymoon – Studio @ theSpaceTriplex

In only 45 minutes, How Not to Fund a Honeymoon delivers on just about everything you could want or expect from the crime-comedy caper genre. Like a Quentin Tarantino or Guy Ritchie movie, the plot unfolds non-linearly. Action skips back and forth between the aftermath of and the buildup to a failed heist, orchestrated by fiancés Gwen (Ausette Anderies) and Charlie (Claire Feuille). Their plan is to break into the house of Gwen’s wealthy aunt - Aunt Robyn (played by Stephanie Greenwood, who also wrote the play) - and steal her valuables in order to pay for their honeymoon to the Maldives. The plan does not work out well for Gwen and Charlie. Most of the comedy stems from the fact that Gwen and Charlie are a perfectly normal couple, who find themselves in abnormal circumstances. T...

17Aug

By Juliette PepinNo Comments

Scotland

Girl Pop! – Gilded Balloon

Shite Productions' Girl Pop! is a lively, glittery Spice Girls-esque girl band come to life with sparkly costumes, catchy numbers and gossip galore. 'Girl Pop' take to the stage for their first reunion in years, facing eager eyes of their devoted fanbase the ‘Poppers’. We are taken through a play-by-play of the reasons for their split, including relationship dramas and media clashes. The high energy of the cast is radiant as the girls riff off each other, completely in sync. Each has their own personality and reputation; we meet fan and media favourite Hazel, songwriter Ruby, side-lined backing singer Zoe, and competitive Arabella. Jade Leanne is particularly vulnerable as Zoe, reflecting on her sudden grief at the BRIT awards being transformed into a press-fuelled narrative of s...

17Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

Feminine Rage – Courtyard Theatre

Part of this year’s Camden Fringe, Feminine Rage tackles one of the most urgent and devastating issues in modern Europe: the wave of femicides in Greece. Writer Venice Billia weaves a concept of striking potency, imagining victims of male violence gathering in the afterlife to build a fragile sanctuary for themselves. It is an idea that resonates deeply; these women deserve voice, presence, and dignity, and the framing offers a space to mourn and reflect on a crisis too often pushed aside. The script carries weight, particularly when it edges toward naming and acknowledging the silenced women. Yet, the production struggles to match the gravity of its subject. The set is stark to the point of looking unfinished, reminiscent of a school-level staging rather than a professional platfor...

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Fly, You Fools – Pleasance

One does not simply walk into the Pleasance, buy a ticket for Fly, You Fools! and watch a brilliant parody. Or do they? Well, yes, they probably do. Although, if you can arrange a giant eagle, that might be even quicker. Recent Cutbacks lovingly absurd retelling of The Fellowship of the Ring manages to cram an entire epic into a single, glorious, hour of physical comedy, shadow play, live Foley, and a flurry of blink and you miss them references. This is the sort of show that rewards a second viewing, there are so many visual and verbal easter eggs for Tolkien fans that you will spot new gags each time. The cast of three, Nick Abeel, Kyle Schaefer, and Regan Sims, handle an impossible number of roles with effortless dexterity. Gandalf, played full height while everyone else shuff...

17Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

AI: The Waiting Room – C Arts

Fringe marketing copy loves to promise “something you have never experienced before.” Most of the time that means you will get another monologue about someone’s bad break up or a quirky sketch with a ukulele. But AI: The Waiting Room genuinely delivers something unique, a personalised theatrical encounter where the story is built for you, in real time, by an AI. I did not do it in the show’s advertised venue at C Arts. Instead, I was set up at theSpace by the two co-creators themselves, who very kindly let me take part using my own phone. It is not a performance in the usual sense. You start by answering a handful of questions, some of them surprisingly personal. My advice, be honest. You will get more out of it if you drop the polite small talk and actually reveal something about y...

Merrily We Roll Along – EUSOG @ St Augustine

17Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

Merrily We Roll Along – EUSOG @ St Augustine

At the beginning of 2024 I was as fortunate enough to be in New York to see the Broadway production of ‘Merrily We Roll Along’ which eventually won 4 Tony awards, including Best Revival of a Musical. Now Broadway comes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe with an excellent student rendition of this poignant commentary on the nature of friendship from EUSOG at Edinburgh University. On its initial run in 1981, ‘Merrily’ closed after just two weeks and was a commercial disaster for Sondheim and co-writer George Furth, critics at the time found the storyline confusing and the characters unsympathetic and audiences agreed. But, as with many Sondheim productions, a reassessment has happened in the intervening four decades and helped by significant changes in subsequent productions, modern audienc...

17Aug

By Eleanor HallNo Comments

London

On the Nose – Courtyard Theatre

‘On the Nose’ is a feel-good flounce between the friendships of two working clowns, Buddy and Dorothy. Directed by Izzy Ponsford, the clown world presented in the play tested our sense of belonging - not without generous helpings of metatheatrical references! With some fruitful audience interactions and echoes of familiar gags, these birthday clowns sprinkled silly all over. That is, until the friendship of this co-working duo is threatened by Buddy’s sudden desire to become an actor. There was an implicit interrogation of queer actors’ exclusion from particular acting roles by the ‘high brows’ of theatre. The career-changing plight gave way to Buddy not being ‘straight enough’ to be an effective understudy for a catapult. Similarly, the strain on the pair’s friendship allowed fo...