Scotland Archives - Page 14 of 127

1 King, 2 Princes and Shakespeare’s Lie – theSpace @ Symposium Hall

15Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

1 King, 2 Princes and Shakespeare’s Lie – theSpace @ Symposium Hall

‘History is written by the victors’, an aphorism ascribed to many political figures, has never been more apt than in the shaping of the narrative around Richard III, the last Plantagenet king of England. Now Slade Wolfe Productions give Richard the opportunity to set the record straight in this entertaining and informative hour which will leave you questioning your perception of the ‘Hunchback King’ Andrew Slade is the eponymous King, entering cloaked and crooked backed as in popular conception before subverting expectations to reveal himself as a handsome and erudite nobleman. Over the course of the next hour, Richard proceeds to debunk the mythology created around his reign - chiefly created by the arch Tudor propagandist William Shakespeare - who defamed poor Richard to shore up ...

Hold On To Your Butts – The Pleasance Courtyard (Forth)

15Aug

By Gill LewisNo Comments

Scotland

Hold On To Your Butts – The Pleasance Courtyard (Forth)

Ingenious and hilarious! Who needs special effects and CGI when you have Recent Cutbacks, who are back at the Fringe with a playful retelling of the biggest prehistoric hit movie ever made. Fresh from a critically acclaimed UK tour, a West End debut, and a sell-out run at Fringe 2024, Hold On To Your Butts is a frantic, non-stop whistle stop parody of 1993’s Jurassic Park. Iconic moments and shots are recreated in such hysterical and imaginative ways you’ll wonder why Spielberg bothered with the animatronics. Two actors and a Foley artist hustle their way through the entire film, conjuring up dinosaurs, and drama providing an enjoyable retelling. This creative parody delivers as much spectacle and ‘special affects’ as the Blockbuster it’s based on. Scene for scene, the cast na...

The Big Bite Size Breakfast Show – The Pleasance Courtyard

15Aug

By Gill LewisNo Comments

Scotland

The Big Bite Size Breakfast Show – The Pleasance Courtyard

A clever carousel of laugh out loud comedy, and one of the fringe’s stand out shows which will leave you with a belly full of laughs and a big bite of the funnies. White Room Theatre is taking its 19th run at the Fringe with The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show. Serving up three all-new, rotating menus of perfectly portioned 10 – 15-minute mini plays providing comedy drama, and delightfully clever twists and turns. With complimentary strawberries, tea or coffee, and a delicious fresh croissant we take our seats ready for today’s Menu 2, if the other menus are anything like today’s serving you are in for a real treat. A strong ensemble of 5 versatile actors multi role, not only serving your morning refreshments but also taking on the wide variety of colourful and quirky chara...

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...