REVIEWS Archives - Page 56 of 563

19Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Unseen Truth: Sarah Lewis – The Hub

Sarah Lewis takes to The Hub stage at this year's Edinburgh International Festival, analysing the power of culture as a means of justice rather than by law in her talk The Unseen Truth. Lewis is an art historian and Associate Professor of the Humanities and African American studies at Harvard University, leading the popular course, Vision and Justice: The Art of Race and American Citizenship. Discussing ideas from her book of the same title (The Unseen Truth: When Race Changed Sight in America) Lewis delves into the historical misrepresentation of people of colour in America and focuses on those who combated this misrepresentation, most notably the work of abolitionist Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) and photographer Dorothea Lange (1895-1965). Lewis explores Dougla...

Drama Girls – theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre)

19Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Drama Girls – theSpaceUK @ Symposium Hall (Annexe Theatre)

For Lisa, Dani and Jen the financial pressures of drama school reign supreme. The showcase was everything but as the event looms, it’s importance fades. The minutiae of tuition delivered under scrutiny and constant criticism is exposed. The overbearing voice of the tutor snipes through the speakers. Unseen but damning the actor’s lives are made or broken by the instruction given. The bubble of performance can be a petty one. Tilly Woof’s play captures this essence; however, the actors themselves aren’t always given enough raw material to demonstrate the respective talents they clearly possess. This is ironic as the exact flaw of a showcase revolves around its inability to adequately sell performers. Woof’s play circles around the quips, bitching and petty arguments that fire back an...

Up Late with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Hub

19Aug

By Danielle FarrowNo Comments

Scotland

Up Late with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – The Hub

Against the backdrop of an ornately carved wooden pulpit and screen, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith communes with her audience through her music, with Persian rugs below her black modern-tech-laden table, and colourful rib vaulting arching high above her in The Hub’s Main Hall, originally a Church of Scotland debating chamber. This juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary creations is a suitable setting for her distinctive voice and compositions. Smith uses Buchla synthesizers, whose original creator Don Buchla apparently intended his instruments to make new sounds, rather than simply imitating existing instruments and sounds. This marries very well with Smith’s pioneering work, which draws on classical training and a type of synesthesia in which sounds form physical sensations for her. Wat...

Orpheus and Eurydice – Edinburgh Playhouse

18Aug

By Danielle FarrowNo Comments

Scotland

Orpheus and Eurydice – Edinburgh Playhouse

From the lone woman in red descending during the overture to the final full stage that yet starkly reflects the beginning, this multi-company production of the Gluck & Calzabigi Orfeo ed Euridice presents stunning spectacle. Does something so visually focused serve opera? The original 1762 production was part of a reformation of opera which challenged elaborate action and technique centred “extreme sport” opera, as noted in the programme, which also includes Gluck’s own striving for music’s “true office of serving poetry by means of expression and by following the situations of the story, without interrupting the action or stifling it with a useless superfluity or ornaments.” The original opera still included dance, and, for the most part, Yaron Lifschitz - director and set desig...

Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make – Jersey at Underbelly

18Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make – Jersey at Underbelly

Produced by Big Sofa Theatre and Counterminers, Eggs Aren’t That Easy to Make follows the friendship of Claire (Rachel Andrews) and Dan (Thomas Kingman) through the years, starting with a drunken off-handed promise in university that Dan would be the sperm donor if Claire ever got into a lesbian relationship—unlikely, right? Well, a few years down the line, Claire is in a lesbian relationship and ready to have a baby when Dan reminds her of her promise. The problem is Dan is a little… overbearing, so Claire and her partner Lou (Esther Carr) must assert agency, set up boundaries, and prepare for their pregnancy, all while trying not to upset Dan. Written by Maria Telnikoff, this play tells an endearing story with queer joy at its heart. Charming, funny, and light, I could watch this ...

18Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

It’s Gonna Blow – Pleasance Dome

It’s 24th August 79 C.E. and Mount Vesuvius is about to blow destroying the whole of Pompeii… or is it? Our City Mayor seems to be saying otherwise, it’s just a little…. “grey hail” is all, absolutely nothing to worry ourselves with. Fishing4chips are back at the fringe with a whole new play about Pompeii, armed with a team of just 4 actors multi-rolling for their lives, they have produced a very funny and very fast paced show. Greeted by the town crier (Sean Wareing), we are led into a local meeting to discuss the current state of affairs within Pompeii and given plenty of opportunity to voice our opinions (warning this show is heavily reliant on audience participation). Once the meeting has begun, we are introduced to many a strange and wonderful character, including those in t...

18Aug

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Foolish – Courtyard Theatre

Foolish by Kate-Lynn Du Plessis looks at the pitfalls and commercial consequences of attempting to navigate a romance under the brutal and often chaotic lens of social media. The couple in question are introduced to us in the opening of the play, when Kiera (Kate-Lynn Du Plessis) invites Xander (Kelvin Ade) back to her flat for the first time. The fumbling, passionate, highly charged energy of this encounter was portrayed with such enthusiasm and skill that it almost felt intrusive to witness. It’s extremely challenging to convey credible sexual attraction on stage. Movies have the advantage of editing, body doubles, prosthetics, CGI and the fact that viewers aren’t actually in the room with the fornicating couple. There’s nowhere to hide on the stage. An audience can feel fakery, r...

Black to My Roots: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart – C ARTS

18Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Black to My Roots: African American Tales from the Head and the Heart – C ARTS

Black to my Roots is an exploration and celebration of African American hair, looking at the stigma, the joys and the tribulations that come with it. The Seattle based company returns to the Edinburgh Fringe after winning a Fringe First award in 2002, this time also bringing their sister show, Hair’s Breath to the stage. Using a series of monologues, poems, and songs written by Kathya Alexander and Renescia Brown, we are transported to the salon, to school, and to our mother’s house, experiencing all the huge ways in which hair impacts African American women in every context of life. Brown and Alexander’s work includes a number of humorous monologues, with moments that are all too relatable, yet are carrying a heaviness beneath the surface. We have multiple monologues set from ...

Will Rowland: Sunshine By Candelight – Banshee Labyrinth

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Will Rowland: Sunshine By Candelight – Banshee Labyrinth

Part comic, part philosophiser, part literary critic, Will Rowland returns to the Fringe with a solo hour that proves he’s more than just the funny man from Crizards. Alone in the Banshee Labyrinth, he blends sharp stand-up with musings on literature, philosophy, and the strangeness of modern life. Rowland’s “dimpled cavalier” presence makes him instantly likeable, but beneath the charm is a restless, analytical brain. He begins with friendships that have shifted from reminiscing on old times to marathons and wild swimming, joking that maybe people are running not for fitness but from life’s lack of meaning. Delivered with irony and sincerity, it sets the tone for a set that veers between profound and playful. One thread sees him praising Wordsworth’s genius wh...

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Because You Never Asked – Summerhall

Because You Never Asked is a clever, at times mesmerising performance by Montréal-based collective We All Fall Down. Conceived by Roger White and choreographer Helen Simard, the work draws on the recorded memories of White’s grandmother, Marianna Clark (née Goldmann), a Jewish teenager in 1930s Germany who eventually escaped to Edinburgh just before the start of WW2. It’s an emotionally charged blend of dance, music, and archived testimony, and its effect is quietly profound. The cast comprises four dancers, three women and one man, whose presence is physically stunning and emotionally evocative. Émile de Vasconcelos-Taillefer and Maxine Segalowitz set the tone with intense, expressive sequences early on, while Lina Namts delivers a haunting spoken passage before folding seaml...