Scotland Archives - Page 11 of 129

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...

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...

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Hot Mess – Pleasance

The Fringe thrives on bold ideas, and Hot Mess, the new pop rom-com musical from Jack Godfrey and Ellie Coote, delivers one of the festival’s cleverest conceits. Earth and Humanity meet, date, fight, fall in and out of love, and in the process chart the fate of the planet itself. It’s a relationship comedy where the stakes couldn’t be higher. The show is anchored by two knockout performances. Danielle Steers (best known for SIX: The Musical and Bat Out of Hell), as Earth, has the kind of vocal power that can fill a West End house, let alone a Pleasance studio. She moves effortlessly from the low, smoky tones of conversational numbers to full-on belt, with songs like The Next Big Thing and Better With Time (appearing early and reprised later with even greater punch) setting the...

Nowhere – Here and Now – Traverse Theatre

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Nowhere – Here and Now – Traverse Theatre

The Traverse has always been a home for ambitious, politically charged theatre, and Nowhere – Here & Now sits firmly in that tradition. Created and performed by Khalid Abdalla, the show is an urgent, deeply personal exploration of revolution, displacement, and identity. It is at once sweeping in scope and intimate in detail, and though its ambitions sometimes spill over into excess, the experience is powerful and memorable. From the outset, Abdalla frames the performance with haunting questions: “This nowhere is safe. But there are places in the world where nowhere is safe. And when the unfathomable becomes persistent, where do you go?” That sense of uncertainty and statelessness runs through the performance, which draws heavily on his own experiences during the Egyptian u...

A Covert Affair – Venue 39 at theSpace on the Mile

18Aug

By Marcelina KruczyńskaNo Comments

Scotland

A Covert Affair – Venue 39 at theSpace on the Mile

A Covert Affair is brought to this year’s Edinburgh Fringe by Belvedere Productions. This new play written by Alex Macfarlane and co-written by Charlie Turner explores a potentially romantic connection between two agents from opposing states. A Covert Affair is a flirty and fantastic and very well constructed play. Before hitting the Fringe, A Covert Affair had its first run at a scratch night where the play’s first scene was performed. Now at the Fringe, Belvedere Productions have pulled all the stops to deliver a professional quality play. Great attention was put into the set, sound and lighting. The room was packed to the max which was great to see however only from the front row and from certain spaces off the sides could the full effect of the stage be appreciated. Noneth...

AI: Save Our Souls – Greenside at George Street

18Aug

By Joe LangNo Comments

Scotland

AI: Save Our Souls – Greenside at George Street

With all the current fears surrounding artificial intelligence, it was certainly refreshing to see an inventively lighthearted and fun take on the impending doom that many of us feel is either here or on its way regarding the state of A.I. Whilst not offering a truly prophetic insight into what may become of it in relation to humanity, it certainly scratches the surface of this topic and does so while providing nonstop laughs and catchy songs directed by Victoria Klipova. The cast all brought a unique energy to this piece and constructed their characters in almost cartoonish ways, helping the performances stick in your mind long after watching it. Major props go to the protagonist Steve, played by Patrick Kelly, who had a great leading man quality and perfectly bounced off the rest ...

18Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Mary, Queen of Scots – Festival Theatre

Scottish Ballet presented their contribution to the Edinburgh International Festival this year with the brooding portrayal of the historical Mary, Queen of Scots. Co-created by choreographer Sophie Laplane and director James Bonas, this is a bold show with outstanding production design and provocative content, contrasting a dark grungy tragedy with moments of ludicrous humour and cyber-punk neons. Bringing modernity to tradition, Scottish Ballet embraces evolution, focusing not only on choreographic motifs but also a heavy-handed stylism that focuses on the way in which the design and story are represented. With Soutra Gilmour’s set and costume design, this is a completely elevated ballet featuring moving walls, a clown dressed in bright lime, and a giant farthingdale-like c...

Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin – Pleasance

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin – Pleasance

If you want big budget spectacle, this is not the show for you. If you want to spend an hour wedged into a tiny basement with less than 50 people while laughing at the genius of Charlie Chaplin brought to life, then you have come to the right place. The Pleasance Below is a tiny venue, just a few rows of tightly packed raked seating, and when I was there, it was full. This is theatre in its most intimate form, no one more than a couple of metres from the performer, and absolutely nowhere to hide if you are picked for a bit of audience interaction. Marcel Cole, who both wrote and performs Smile, takes on the impossible task of distilling Chaplin’s life and art into a single hour, and somehow makes it feel both complete and personal. The show mixes physical comedy, mime, and a light s...