REVIEWS Archives - Page 47 of 548

15Aug

By Susan CohenNo Comments

Scotland

The Football Actress – C Venues

This one-woman show is billed as an autobiographical drama-comedy featuring Lucia Mallardi, a former semi-professional footballer who travelled as a street artist. The show’s advertising blurb claims that Lucia’s story is empowering, challenging boundaries, merging sports and theatre. Well, firstly – yes, this show is autobiographical. Very. The performer is telling the story of her own life. Undoubtedly bright and brave, she is performing in English, not her native language, with a smattering of rapid fire Italian and accents of languages picked up on her travels. However, just because you’ve chosen to live an unconventional life doesn’t mean that the recounting of some of it will add up to something which will hold an audience’s attention. After...

Benedetti & Sitkovitsky: Tribute to Menuhin – Usher Hall

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Benedetti & Sitkovitsky: Tribute to Menuhin – Usher Hall

Nicola Benedetti kicked off the evening with a warm welcome, telling us it was going to be “a lot about the violin” and a tribute to Yehudi Menuhin. She mentioned that in her early career she had often played second violin to Alexander Sitkovetsky, but tonight she certainly wasn’t playing second for long. The atmosphere was set, intimate, personal, and just a bit cheeky.The concert opened with Elgar’s Serenade for Strings, lush and romantic, a soft embrace of a piece that filled the hall with warmth and a gentle nostalgic glow. Its three movements flowed effortlessly, a perfect opener that drew the audience in with grace rather than bombast.Then, Alexander Sitkovetsky took the stage for Panufnik’s Violin Concerto, a deeply spiritual work written for Menuhin. It’s reflective, lyrical, and q...

14Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Note of Concern – theSpace on the Mile

In Note of Concern things take a turn for old school friends Scott (Will Evans) and Alec (Jordan Monks) when they get trapped in a classroom during their High School reunion. Secrets are uncovered, old feuds are rehashed, and the body of their old teacher Mrs Cruickshank is found in the supply cupboard. Produced by Fast Snail Productions and written by Evans and Monks, this show is a one act play that looks at growing up, growing apart, and the unseen turmoil people face alone. Both Evans and Monks seem to thrive in the realist and naturalistic style of the play - of course it does help that they themselves wrote it so have a greater understanding of the tonality of the piece. Stephanie Austin’s direction made for a snappy and fluid show, with the actors delivering re...

Mother, Maiden and Crone – theSpace @ Niddry St

14Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Mother, Maiden and Crone – theSpace @ Niddry St

Based upon the witches of Macbeth, Mother, Maiden and Crone retells this classic tale in the setting of Club Limbo (or should I say Limbo Bar and Kitchen) — a gay bar in which the witches work. Mother (Lewis Gemmell) is the bar’s only drag queen, Maiden (Ewan Burns) is the signature messy twink bartender, and Crone (Fin Watt) is the feral, nonconformist DJ. Together they face the horror that is a straight hen-do, who have booked into Limbo for the night. With gay-adjacent bridesmaid Brandi (Zara Kennedy) having booked the venue, the rest of the gaggle aren’t best pleased, so Mother, Maiden, and Crone have a little fun stirring the pot, leading to McBride’s (Erin McGivern) demise. Ewan Burns’ writing makes for a hilarious evening, with dialogue from Macbeth being campified and modern...

What If They Ate The Baby? – theSpace @ Niddrey Street

14Aug

By Gill LewisNo Comments

Scotland

What If They Ate The Baby? – theSpace @ Niddrey Street

An absurd blend of queer quirky clowning mashed with vaudeville style moves makes for an infatuating piece of physical theatre. We meet Shirley and Dotty who appear as 50s Stepford wives, with their airbrushed interactions they could have stepped straight off the pages of Good Housekeeping magazine. This happy well-kept housewife persona slowly comes apart at the seams and upon closer inspection, their pretty dresses are smeared with strange green smudges and garish clown make up, unmasking the reality of beauty standards put upon them. This is physical theatre at its finest, the precision in movement and attention to detail is a delight to watch. Peculiar and fast movements, like quirky tics, beautifully compliment the narrative which is interspersed with creepy, unnervin...

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Wild Thing! – Summerhall

A riotous eco-comedy that shape-shifts into a moving requiem for our planet’s vanishing creatures. Wild Thing! - Laugh Now, Cry Later! Summerhall’s TechCube 0 is already a bit of a womb for oddball creativity, and Wild Thing!, the latest creation from Tom Bailey’s Mechanimal, is like an ecological fever dream with a sense of humour. It’s part comedy, part requiem, and part, “what on earth did I just witness?”, in the best possible way. We enter the performance space together, the audience in single-file, like a school trip with no teacher. Bailey is already mid-flow, becoming a carousel of creatures, some endangered, some right on the edge of existence, some that sound like they’ve escaped from a Monty Python sketch. “Cheerful Pheasant,” “Fearful Owl,” “Polymorphic Rubber Frog...

14Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Youth in Flames – Zoo Playground

‘Youth in Flames’ is outstanding, a life-enhancing show full of theatrical magic. It’s beautifully written, pulsates with energy, is brilliantly performed and directed, and is enhanced by a highly skilled creative team. A sublime production. The play focusses on the protests which started in March 2019 in response to the Hong Kong Government’s proposal to allow criminal suspects to be extradited to mainland China. This outraged many in Hong Kong who feared that China would gain more influence and control, and that basic democratic rights would be eroded. Activists and journalists were particularly worried that they would be targeted. Hong Kong is a former British colony which was given back to China in 1997. The extradition bill was seen by many as a breach of the ‘Basic Law’ (agreed...

Brigadoon – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

14Aug

By Zain RussellNo Comments

London

Brigadoon – Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre

Set in the beautiful Scottish Highlands, Brigadoon is a timeless tale brought vividly to life in this revival. As someone who had never encountered the 1950s musical before, I found myself instantly swept into its world. From the music to the set design, everything evoked the feeling of a mid-century classic, and it was immediately clear why this story has endured for so long. The experience began before the first note. Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre is tucked away behind lush gardens in its own charming enclave, complete with bars and food stalls. The space feels like a small village within the city, and the outdoor setting is perfect for a warm summer evening. The intimate layout means every seat has a clear view of the stage, adding to the sense of connection between audience and per...

14Aug

By Susan CohenNo Comments

Scotland

Holly Street – theSpace on the Mile

This is a play produced by Long Face Theatre Company and New Celts Productions, set in a meeting room where five writers brainstorm the 35th anniversary episode of Holly Street, a soap opera. The writers plan, plot, squabble and tease until they inadvertently/magically slip into an alternate reality and in the process, they reveal to the audience who they really are behind their facades. So far, so interesting. It’s the magical whiteboard, y’see – whatever’s written on it comes true and that gradually dawns on the writers, who manage to bravely and noisily unite to confront and overcome the zombie attack out with the performance space and reach the crescendo of the piece - returning to the ‘stage’ triumphant, much to the audience’s noisy appreciation. Yep, this is a v...

14Aug

By Susan CohenNo Comments

Scotland

The Oberons – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

This is a show showcasing the talents of a couple called The Oberons – Marc, described as a master illusionist and Emily, described as a mind reader who also happens to be a classical singer. The show opens gently and fairly classically with the use of magic trick props, which I must confess seem all too familiar, but it soon starts to reach breakneck speed attempting to display an almost bewildering array of magic and mind reading in the time given, using song in its presentation. There is no doubt that there are elements of this show which are highly entertaining – particularly at the level of competence displayed by the charismatic Marc and Emily. Individually, they are charming. They engage the audience with olde worlde ease and experience, inviting them into thei...