Scotland Archives - Page 12 of 94

18Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Squidge – Pleasance Courtyard

‘Squidge’ is an absorbing one woman show about Daisy, a teaching assistant. It’s a heart-warming play about a young woman who makes life better for the children with ‘special educational needs’ she teaches. But it’s not just about life in the classroom. Daisy tells us about her love life, her relationship with her mother, and the recent bereavement that is gnawing at her soul. ‘Squidge’ is written and performed by Tiggy Bayley. She wrote it last year when she was still teaching, and this is her theatrical debut. It’s a beautiful script which crackles with energy, emotion and wit. This is a rollercoaster of a show which has plenty of laughs, but some heartbreaking moments, too. It reveals its secrets slowly and leaves us with hope. ‘Squidge’ is simply staged but it’s amazing what ...

18Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return – Summerhall

“16 years on this planet and it comes to this…” Sometimes at the Edinburgh Festival amidst all the half-conceived artistic debris, the broken dreams and the ill-informed attempts at theatre, sometimes you stumble across a gem, a highly polished and presented piece which shines out, head and shoulders above the rest - such as the case in “The Chaos That Has Been And Will No Doubt Return” at Summerhall which takes as its narratological background Luton - not the most inspiring of cities in the United Kingdom, but in the hands of Chalk Line theatre company it becomes a fascinating youthful and exuberant place in a production riddled with the joyous exuberance of youth and the concomitant chaos which follows. The play, by a gifted Sam Edmunds, has a vibrant energy that is both engagi...

Out of the Blue – Assembly George Square

18Aug

By Peter KinnockNo Comments

Scotland

Out of the Blue – Assembly George Square

Out of the Blue, as always and forever, parade a cacophony of happy harmonies, joyous jingles and merry melodies. They stem from Oxford university, and they’ve been coming annually year in, year out to the Edinburgh festival to raise money for their chosen charity. It is an explosion of joy and a wonderous, marvellous experience. 20 young guys with perfect harmonies, a great sense of joy, a great sense of fun and a vibrancy that makes the building shake. The tone, the attitude, the approach is irresistible, endearing and beguiling. These guys know what they're doing. They've been residents of the festival for years. I first saw them in 2007 and was blown away. It's simple. It's clean. It's family fun with joyous songs from across the years and a smorgasbord of music! And the voca...

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Show Pony – Summerhall Main Hall

What happens to a show pony when it gets old? Yep, bang!! Three ‘middle-aged’ ladies pull back the curtain for a behind the scenes view on what it’s like to be a circus performer your whole life, with your body slowly giving up, facing the existential question, what next? An entertaining hour, of high quality tricks and stunts, but also much humour and insight, which suggests this talented trio are not done yet, and are more than one-trick-ponies. Along the way, we get to delve into the earliest memories of the strong woman, the aerialist and the contortionist. It’s a fascinating and beautifully choreographed introduction, with old photos, flickering videos and tricks aplenty, which has all the charm and otherness of a Wes Anderson flick. They explain that the rules of circus ...

Sisters Three – Summerhall Anatomy Lecture Theatre

18Aug

By Ben PearsonNo Comments

Scotland

Sisters Three – Summerhall Anatomy Lecture Theatre

TheatreGoose’s Sisters Three is a highly accomplished piece of theatre that takes the audience on an enchanting, funny and often moving journey. The premise is relatively simple; the titular sisters from Chekov’s masterpiece, Irina, Masha and Olaga, are aware that they are in a play (don’t worry you don’t need to have read it). But when Irina wishes for the lives of any other sisters, in any other medium, the three are taken on a whirlwind journey ranging from Greek tragedy and Shakespeare to historical figures and the Sugababes. Writer and director Emma Howlett’s script manages to discuss a range of philosophical and academic questions, including the nature of happiness and freedom, and the place of women within literature, whilst remaining endlessly entertaining. Frequent movement...

18Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

#NoFilter – Greenside @ George Street

Based on real stories gathered from conversations and social media, new musical #NoFilter follows three duos and the effects social media has on their lives and relationships. One pair are friends, Sina (Jamie Douglas-Turner), who runs an OnlyFans, and Ember (Vincenzo Dipasquale), who links us with the next two couples, Pandora (Eva-Marie Blaire) & Candor (Sirus Desnoes), and Savannah (Natalie Gray) & King (Aaron Andrews). The former's relationship is defined by social media, having started on Tinder and seemingly fallen apart through Instagram, while the latter's was formed in person. Dipasquale's Ember is the glue of the show, linking not only the characters but also stories and numbers through his narration, and Dipasquale's likable performance helps paper over some narra...

18Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

A Knock On The Roof – Traverse Theatre

World Premier A Knock On The Roof, a brand new, and very current, one-person play written by and starring Khawla Ibraheem, which takes us to Gaza as young mother, Mariam, prepares for war along with her mother and 6-year-old son, Noor. The title refers to the, so-called, humanitarian practice of dropping small warning bombs on residential buildings in Gaza, giving civilian tenants five to fifteen minutes to evacuate before a much bigger rocket hits. Whether this happens in reality is anyone’s guess. The family live at the top of a seven-storey tower block, which is good and bad. Good because they will hear the knock on the roof first, but bad because they will have a long way to run to escape the carnage that is coming. Mariam decides to train for the possibility of this Knock...

17Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Keep Watching It – theSpace on The Mile

The new, independent company Kestrel Eye Productions brings their psycho-thriller to Edinburgh. With the scene set (it being close to eleven o’clock at night) I creeped my way into the black box theatre. The concept of the play was intriguing – a shunned celebrity scientist presents her latest experiment which she hopes will bring about her acceptance back into society. The experiment being the control of human emotions by taking Matrix-like red and blue pills - the scientist making a human-like, winged creature to test these pills. While in theory this piece could have made some very current and relevant observations and commentaries, it unfortunately missed the mark. It did do as it intended to – we saw the effects the pills had on the creature, but with a ...

Ariana vs Chomsky – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

17Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Ariana vs Chomsky – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

On 22nd May 2017 a terrorist bomb ripped through the Manchester Arena after a concert by the American pop singer, Ariana Grande. 22 people were killed, ten of them aged under 20. The youngest victim was an 8-year-old girl. More than a thousand were injured. ‘Ariana vs Chomsky’ is set against this tragic background. The play covers the relationship of Chloe and Mark over several years. In May 2017 they relocated from London to Manchester. They’re left wing and admire the works of Noam Chomsky, the American linguist, philosopher and political thinker. When Obama was President, Chomsky condemned Washington’s “global assassination campaign..the drone campaign” as “by far the worst terrorist campaign in the world”. He added: “And when you bomb a village in Yemen, say, and you kill somebod...

Murder at the Fringe – Hill Street Theatre

17Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Murder at the Fringe – Hill Street Theatre

Following up on their first instalment at this year’s Fringe (The Court), Edinburgh Little Theatre brings us another audience-forward crime puzzler. After introducing the murder case, we were given the evidence, suspects, and their testimonies. Having seen the cast perform in The Court it was wonderful to see the dynamic range of every actor – each person’s character was on the completely opposite side of the spectrum compared to their last – even if you had not seen The Court, the conviction of each actor is undeniable. I was particularly impressed by the “floozy” mistress, the bumbling butler, and the seedy financial advisor – all round authenticity. Delivering their alibis in a verbatim-esque style, the audience jotted down notes as each suspect spoke, then late...