Scotland Archives - Page 19 of 154

Pirates: You Wouldn’t Steal a Boat – Gilded Balloon Patter House

7Aug

By Ross MackieNo Comments

Scotland

Pirates: You Wouldn’t Steal a Boat – Gilded Balloon Patter House

Pirates: You Wouldn't Steal a Boat is a fast-paced comedy that embraces piracy on the high seas from the start and never comes in to port. A production from Spruce Moose Comedy, the show takes audiences on an “action-packed” pirate adventure. There is “nautical nonsense” galore. The journey is filled with treasure hunts, intriguing characters, and a Caribbean storm full of pirate genre. While the story itself is well trodden, a betrayed pirate setting out to reclaim treasure from his former captain, the production takes this repetition and turns it into something unique and magical. The story follows Sharkbait Mulligan and his loyal intern Louie after they are betrayed by the double-crossing Captain Codpiece. Sharkbait and Louie set out beat their former captain to the valuabl...

Sara Pascoe: For One Night Only – Underbelly Bristo Square

6Aug

By Ella BeckleyNo Comments

Scotland

Sara Pascoe: For One Night Only – Underbelly Bristo Square

Award winning Actor, Comedian and Writer Sara Pascoe graced the stage of Edinburgh University’s McEwan Hall with her sell-out show for, that’s right, one night only. It’s the first night of Fringe 2026 and there’s a hum of excitement bouncing around Bristo Square, where an anticipating queue snakes around the iconic McEwan Hall, ready to have a laugh. Pints in hand, jackets clutched closely as the sharp Edinburgh breeze whizzes through them. &nbs...

Youth in Flames – Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker 1

6Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Youth in Flames – Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker 1

‘Youth in Flames’ makes a triumphant return to Edinburgh following a sell-out run in New York. Last year, Mimi Martin’s brilliant life-enhancing play garnered a Scotsman Fringe First and a hatful of 5 star reviews. The play tells the story of a British teenager, Millie, coming of age as protests erupt in 2019 against the Hong Kong Government’s proposal to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China. Mimi Martin has written a sparkling script which elicits a mesmerising performance from the playwright herself. She grabs our attention from the very first moment as a strong-willed, sometimes rebellious, schoolgirl venting her feelings about her teachers, peers and parents. There are plenty of light moments in the early scenes but things take a serious turn when Jesse, Millie’s clo...

Ordinary Elephant – Edinburgh Traverse Bar

28Jul

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Ordinary Elephant – Edinburgh Traverse Bar

There are Banjo jokes too numerous – and withering – but after an evening with Ordinary Elephant, in the apt setting of the Traverse bar, erstwhile gag-writers might be forced to revise their material. In the hands of Pete Damore are revealed hitherto unknown sensitivities and tasteful textures, a perfect complement to the soaring vocals and gentle guitar strumming of Crystal Hariu-Damore. It’s atmospheric and dreamy yet with an edge courtesy of insightful, well-observed lyrics, reminding one instantly of The Delines. ‘…born to be a bigot… don’t mean that I am one…’ from ‘Scars We Keep’ appears to hit home with every member of the audience. And the thing one quickly forgets is that it’s just them, husband and wife, with lushly matched vocals and a stringed instrument each. There’s nothing ...

Spamalot – Portobello Town Hall, Edinburgh

12Jul

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Spamalot – Portobello Town Hall, Edinburgh

There are some shows where you spend your time analysing every directorial choice, every dramatic beat and every performance. Then there are shows like Spamalot, where after about ten minutes you simply surrender to the sheer joy of it all. Happy Sad Productions' latest musical is exactly that kind of evening. Based on the classic Monty Python and the Holy Grail, the musical lovingly embraces absurdity, gleefully mocking both the original film and the conventions of musical theatre itself. It's a show that positively encourages performers to throw caution to the wind, and this company responds with infectious enthusiasm. One of the production's greatest strengths is its scale. A large ensemble fills the stage with energy throughout, ensuring that even the smallest roles have ...

The Burns Project – Royal Lyceum Theatre

7Jul

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Burns Project – Royal Lyceum Theatre

There can be few figures in Scottish history as difficult to bring to the stage as Robert Burns. Poet, radical, celebrity, serial womaniser and national icon, he remains a figure whose mythology is almost as powerful as the man himself. The Burns Project, now returning to the Royal Lyceum following a successful Fringe run and subsequent touring, sets itself the ambitious task of stripping away that mythology to present Burns as a complex human being. It succeeds in many respects, but ultimately falls short where it matters most. Presented in the intimate surroundings of the Lyceum's Henry Irving Room, the audience gathers around a large dining table while Burns moves through the space, his life unfolding chronologically from humble beginnings to his premature death. Live music, performe...

2Jul

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Twelfth Night – Bard in the Botanics

Bard in the Botanics remains one of the most prominent Shakespeare-forward festivals in Scotland having performed 25 Summers in the beautiful Glasgow Botanic Gardens. Their well-established reputation and years of experience are clear as they present us with a schedule of both Shakespearean works and more contemporary classics such as Jane Austen’s Emma. Using the gardens to their advantage, there is both an open-air main stage, and a separate performance space within the Kibble Palace glasshouse. This time around I saw Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night at the main stage, directed by Jennifer Dick and it's safe to say I would happily rush back to see it again. This season of Bard in the Botanics is titled Lovers & Madmen and really is there a difference? Of course...

Catriona Macdonald & Annbjorg Lien – Traverse Theatre

2Jul

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Catriona Macdonald & Annbjorg Lien – Traverse Theatre

It was, as one might expect, a famously fiddly evening at the Traverse Theatre, as Shetland’s Catriona Macdonald and Norway’s Annbjørg Lien brought together a programme rich in Scandinavian and Shetland tunes, shared history and extraordinary musicianship. Presented as the final concert in this season’s Soundhouse series, the evening was built around the musical relationship between two players who first met when they were barely teenagers. That history mattered. This was not simply a meeting of two virtuosos, impressive though both undoubtedly are, but a conversation between traditions, between islands and sea routes, and between generations of musicians passing music from one hand to the next. Macdonald was open, warm and generous throughout, speaking movingly about returning h...

Love and Friendship – St Augustine United Church

30Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Love and Friendship – St Augustine United Church

There is no shortage of ambition in Edinburgh Rep’s latest production, an affectionate parody of Jane Austen’s youthful novella Love and Friendship, adapted and directed by Oliver Giggins. Packed with heightened Regency melodrama, broad physical comedy and moments of gleeful absurdity, the production showcases a company with obvious talent and infectious enthusiasm, even if the material itself doesn’t always provide the strongest framework for that talent to flourish. Rather than adapting one of Austen’s familiar novels, the production draws on one of her earliest works, written when she was still a teenager. The story follows the young Marianne persuading her Aunt Laura to reveal the astonishing tale of her youth, a tale involving doomed romances, improbable revelations of parenta...

26Jun

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Table – Traverse Theatre

Community theatre often faces a challenge that professional theatre rarely has to confront. The desire to include everyone can sometimes come at the expense of dramatic momentum. Large casts, varied abilities and an understandable determination to give every participant their moment in the spotlight can result in productions with enormous heart but limited theatrical drive.The Table, a collaboration between Curious Seed, Lung Ha Theatre Company and Lyra, tackles that challenge head on and comes remarkably close to overcoming it.Directed by Christine Devaney, Maria Oller and Jo Timmins, this ambitious and highly inclusive production brings together professional performers, young people, disabled and non-disabled artists in a work that sits somewhere between dance theatre, live music event a...