REVIEWS Archives - Page 5 of 611

15Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Spencer Jones (Dogs) – Pleasance Dome

‘You off to work Dad?’ ‘Yeah son, I’m off to work.’ Observing the prop-strewn set one can only speculate on who has the tidiest room in the Jones household. It definitely won’t be a dull place. The title of tonight’s show is ‘Dogs’ and it’s not so much a theme as a frame on which to hang each chaotic episode. Brilliant, illuminated chaos, the set a physical representation of our performer’s unruly, hilariously distracted mind. Surreal, and fascinating, too. Surveying this as we take our seats a geezer we’ve all encountered in the night-time economy blunders into our midst, apologising, ‘I’m a man with three pints’, cranking up the anxiety with the plea ‘I need a wee.’ With the fourth wall in ruins and the tone established, Jones arrives at his set, removes his ‘big heid’ an...

Andrew White (What A Life) – Edinburgh Cab Vol 2

15Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Andrew White (What A Life) – Edinburgh Cab Vol 2

Wasn’t he lovely? Just ask Phil the celebrant. But seriously, he was. OK, funnily, he was. Very Funnily as it happens, nicely illustrating how to compose an hour of laughs with few swear words or much fabricated controversy in sight. But he didn’t neglect dark. There was plenty about death and what’s one to expect when you were reared by a mother obsessed with murder documentaries and the idea that bad things (death, chiefly) come in threes? Or insisting that any track from the radio meeting approval be added to the ‘I want that at my funeral’ list. In this potted account of his life Andrew’s inspirational Mum took top billing, co-stars being his partner, sundry friends and mentors from teenage years when White’s social circle consisted of 60-year-olds. Precocious, him? Johnathan...

REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up – Pleasance Dome

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up – Pleasance Dome

Sometimes reviewing at the Fringe is difficult. Sometimes you spend half the walk home wondering what on earth you have just seen and how you are going to write about it. And sometimes they make it very easy for you. REDACTED: The Cover,Up of a Cover,Up of a Cover,Up is brilliant. There is something here that reminds me of the extraordinary Foley work I enjoyed in Fly, You Fools! at the Pleasance Courtyard last year. Voloz Collective take that idea and turn it into something approaching live cinematic Foley, four actors creating an entire visual world while musician Jonny Venvell, tucked into the corner with percussion and strings, does much of the heavy lifting in establishing its sound. The integration is beautiful. Music, movement, sound effects and physical theatre...

Morning Sauna Rave – Sauna Theatre Summerhall

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Morning Sauna Rave – Sauna Theatre Summerhall

There is something slightly perverse about setting an alarm to go to a rave. Admittedly, Morning Sauna Rave does not start until 10.30am, but during the Edinburgh Fringe that still feels positively dawn-like. A sunny walk across Edinburgh past Arthur’s Seat certainly helps, and by the time I am stripped down to swimwear and heading into the heat, the prospect of starting the day with music, steam and a cold plunge seems increasingly sensible. This is my latest visit to Sauna Theatre, the extraordinary temporary structure occupying Summerhall’s rear courtyard, on the very spot where Paines Plough’s Roundabout was launched in 2014. Designed for 80 people, it is both the UK’s largest sauna and its first purpose-built sauna arts centre. Having visited before, I remain im...

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

This Shining Night – Usher Hall

The concert begins and ends beneath the same shining night, Samuel Barber first contemplating James Agee’s stars, Morten Lauridsen returning us to them at the conclusion. Much has happened in the darkness between. This Shining Night, part of the Edinburgh International Festival’s celebration of choral music, brings the Edinburgh Festival Chorus to the Usher Hall under conductor Sofi Jeannin for a journey through American choral music. It is an intelligently constructed programme; one whose dramatic shape only becomes fully apparent as the evening unfolds. It starts quietly enough. Barber’s Sure on This Shining Night, his 1938 setting of Agee’s poetry, establishes the idea which will eventually bring us full circle. There are beauty and restraint here, but initially I find my...

Dan Rath: Help Me Please – Monkey Barrel Comedy

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Dan Rath: Help Me Please – Monkey Barrel Comedy

I descended a labyrinth of stairs into the sub-basement of Cabaret Voltaire to find Dan Rath. Red and blue LEDs light the way through a grungy, stone-arched room, while great lengths of aluminium ventilation snake overhead. It is a fascinating venue, dark, subterranean and atmospheric. No windows here, folks. And, on this occasion, not really much of a window into Dan Rath either. I had been looking forward to this. Rath’s I’m Not Doing Well, Folks is hilarious, a gloriously peculiar, rapid-fire excursion through a mind that seems permanently several steps ahead of its owner. Help Me Please, however, feels surprisingly tired. Perhaps that is simply Rath’s demeanour, but tonight the delivery seems slower, the jokes flatter and the whole thing rather scattergun. There...

Sexy Circus Sideshow 3.0 – Piccolo Assembly George Square

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Sexy Circus Sideshow 3.0 – Piccolo Assembly George Square

Having been rather underwhelmed by my previous excursion into burlesque at this year's Fringe, I am pleased to report that Sexy Circus Sideshow 3.0 is a considerable improvement. Perhaps the clue is in the title. This is less a burlesque show with circus attached than a late night circus and variety show which happens to have rather fewer clothes than usual. And that distinction matters. The International Fringe Burlesque Festival is new to Edinburgh this year, bringing more than 100 international artists together across five daily shows. Sexy Circus Sideshow 3.0, playing at the Piccolo tent in George Square Gardens, is its most ambitious offering, and certainly the most entertaining I have encountered so far. What works is that the entertainment comes first....

Kahi: The Inner Us (Explore The Soul) – Studio at Alba Flamenca

15Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Kahi: The Inner Us (Explore The Soul) – Studio at Alba Flamenca

The Inner Us is a beautiful and deeply expressive piece of storytelling brought to life through the graceful and powerful language of Kathak, the North Indian classical dance form known for its intricate footwork, rhythmic patterns, expressive gestures, and mesmerising spins. More than just a dance performance, Kahi feels like an intimate journey through memory, relationships, artistic devotion, and the different stages of a woman’s life. At the heart of the production is Kahi, whose story unfolds through childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. The audience is taken through her memories and her evolving relationship with her mother and with dance. Beneath this personal story lies a deeper exploration of an artist’s relationship with her own soul—the dedication, discipline, and surrender ...

Detective Blank: A One-Man Noir – Temple at C ARTS, C aquila

15Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Detective Blank: A One-Man Noir – Temple at C ARTS, C aquila

A dark and dingy detective’s office, on a dark and dingy street, in a dark and dingy city, you know the type. This one-man noir show has everything you’d expect from the classic detective noir story: a far too relaxed and sharp detective, an untrustworthy femme fatale and a whole load of dodgy crooks. One may assume from the title of the show that this is going to be a multi rolling piece; one man throwing on mustaches and hats, adapting accents galore, but this show takes a much cleverer approach. Our main man (unfortunately I was unable to find the actor’s name) plays the title role of Detective Blank, using lighting and prerecorded voice overs to play the other roles, voice recordings made by the same actor and all very impressively different. The actor’s talented performan...

14Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Dreamgirl – Zoo Southside

Of the 30-odd shows I've had the pleasure of seeing so far this Fringe, Dreamgirl is certainly the sweetest. To look into the eyes of Norwegian clown and theatre-maker Karen Houge is to look upon someone searching, perhaps even pleading, for a safer, more open and friendlier world. Right now, that particular voice sometimes seems in danger of disappearing into the void. Houge originally intended to make a clown-burlesque show, and indeed first appears in the feathers and glitter of the costume intended for it. I'm rather glad she changed direction. Instead, Dreamgirl grew from her experiences during the 2015 refugee crisis, when she travelled alongside Syrian refugees making their way through Europe. What follows isn't really a play and certainly isn't a le...