Scotland Archives - Page 28 of 132

Rock of Ages – Sanctuary at Paradise in Augustines

4Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Rock of Ages – Sanctuary at Paradise in Augustines

Bare Productions is back at the Edinburgh Fringe with another smash-hit show - this time it’s Rock of Ages. Known for their consistently high-quality productions, Bare have once again sold out, quickly becoming a yearly Fringe staple. This high-energy, rocking, raunchy jukebox musical features hit classics such as Don’t Stop Believin’ and Can’t Fight This Feeling - so popular a film was made after it with stars such as Tom Cruise and Catherine Zeta-Jones starring in it. As someone who notoriously hates jukebox musicals, Rock of Ages really took me by surprise. Set in the Bourbon Room bar in 1984 Hollywood, we follow the love story of wannabe stars Sherrie (played by Georgia Brennan) and Drew (played by Joshua Scott) as the characters fight against the real estate de...

Me and My Year of Casual Monasticism – Greenside @ Riddles Court

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Me and My Year of Casual Monasticism – Greenside @ Riddles Court

When Mary (writer Emily Knutsson) becomes single at the same time as a student at Cambridge University, she decides to put one above the other and concentrate on her studies through a year of abstinence, or medieval Monasticism. The show's conceit begins right from the entrance music (a Medieval Bardcore version of Candy Shop – I know because the same recording amusingly has the same function in the Fringe show I had just come from doing), continuing through to the structuring around the sixth-century Rules of Saint Benedict, and the naming of characters and pseudonyms after religious figures, Christian (Mary, Joseph...) or otherwise (Pan, Poseidon...). The staging is simple, with Mary moving between the chair we meet her on to the table and the power-point presentation on the sc...

4Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Consumed – Traverse Theatre

Playwright Karis Kelly believes in challenging audiences even if that makes them feel uncomfortable. And she certainly does that in ‘Consumed’ which opens the lid on a dysfunctional family in Northern Ireland. Four generations of women gather in Bangor to celebrate the 90th birthday of Eileen who lives with Gilly, her 65 year old daughter. Gilly’s daughter, Jenny, aged 40, and her 14 year-old daughter, Muireann, fly over from London for the occasion. Eileen wears a party hat as the play starts, but there is tension in the air as Gilly returns from her last minute shopping. And things don’t get any better when Jenny and Muireann arrive. This is not an easy watch. Light moments are few and far between. And in fact what starts as a naturalistic kitchen sink drama develops into someth...

Darkfield Radio: Eternal – Summerhall, Old Lab

3Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Darkfield Radio: Eternal – Summerhall, Old Lab

A very welcome lie down in a darkened room in the middle of a blazing hot day on a very busy Fringe Sunday. I’ll take it! And the bed ….is oh so relaxing …and the earphones are, well, just… just a minor issue. I begin to drift off. But then! The sound is extraordinary, and I swear I feel the bed move and feel the air shift over my face. Things are moving close to me. Someone, something is lying beside me. Yes, I have a bedfellow who is acting in a very peculiar way, and yet his voice has a certain reassuring quality and timbre, which is not altogether unpleasant. I just wish he would lie in one place for a minute! To say any more would be to enter spoiler territory. As a previous guest of Fringes past I can testify that Darkfield are moving on, flooding the zones, getting m...

3Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Antigone – Institut Français Écosse

In this bold and dark retelling of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone, Edinburgh-based theatre company Mythography is led by French director Philomène Cheynet, bringing us an intense and shrouding take on this classic Greek tragedy to the Edinburgh Fringe. Featuring large plastic, opaque curtains hanging from the ceiling, masked figures and handheld light bars that highlight and shadow the characters on stage, this production focuses on all that is hidden in war and peace. Beginning the show with the cast standing backlit behind the opaque sheets and our narrator figure standing in front, we are immediately set up to receive both the aesthetic and thematic values of this play. Cheynet’s vision is strong and purposeful, holding value on the more experimental side of theatre as well a...

Ordinary Decent Criminal – Summerhall, Techcube

3Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Ordinary Decent Criminal – Summerhall, Techcube

Frankie is just your Ordinary Decent Criminal, who unfortunately got caught. Yes, he may have been convicted of importing drugs, but he isn’t a grass and he definitely ain’t no nonce. Unfortunately, though, he does lack a certain right hook, which means he definitely needs to keep on the right side of certain characters inside, and find friends, fast. Walking the tightrope between being too tough and not tough enough is a minefield as we discover in Mark Thomas’s memorable and hilarious monologue. One of Edinburgh Fringe’s best kept secrets, Mark Thomas once again teams up with longtime collaborator, playwright Ed Edwards where their brilliant England & Sons (Fringe First 2023) left off. A similar diamond geezer, but this time behind bars and at the mercy of Tony Blair’s New Lab...

3Aug

By Joe LangNo Comments

Scotland

Avenue Q – Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge

Avenue Q takes the squeaky-clean morals championed by Sesame Street and other puppet-driven entertainment from our childhood and subverts these lessons through a 21st-century lens, resulting in a satirical insight into the unspoken truths one only comes to learn when embracing adulthood. Although knowing about all of the praise and success it received when premiering in 2003, I went into this with the hindsight that it was written in a bygone era when humour could cut into topics much more outright than mainstream comedy allows today. Nevertheless, I was surprised by how the majority of the jokes still hold up, as the vulgar and pessimistic style of writing, performed with the optimism and gleefulness of the muppets, never failed to enhance the absurdity of the premise. Yet, there a...

Centre of the Universe – Techcube @ Summerhall

3Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Centre of the Universe – Techcube @ Summerhall

Gaia’s Brilliant and Hilarious Solo Show Centre of the Universe is wonderfully hilarious and appropriately candid solo comedy performance by Gaia, navigating the crazy inner life of a 15-year-old girl searching for the purpose of her life—without any particular talents standing out. This results in an hour of laugh-out-loud humour, biting social satire, and unrelenting energy that leaves the audience gripped until the very end. The movie starts as a TikTok social media influencer visits her school, setting off an overexcitement for manifestation techniques and the pursuit of having a perfectly curated life. Gaia satirically depicts the whirling activity of creating vision boards, gazing at them throughout the night, and waiting for signs of greatness from the universe. Her metaph...

How to Become a Movie Star – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

3Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

How to Become a Movie Star – theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

Stardom and Struggle: Maria Sara’s Honest Journey to the Spotlight In her energetic one-person show How to Become a Movie Star, Maria Sara takes the audience through a deeply personal, often humorous, and touching ride through the decades of her life — from childhood dreams to the tough-knocks realities of chasing stardom. Within 50 minutes, Maria's energy and sincerity own the stage as she glides easily through the decades of her life to demonstrate how each decade impacted her resolve and tenacity. The show is not just one of celebrity; it's a tribute to perseverance. Maria unveils the challenges, setbacks, and emotional price of chasing a dream, providing an insight into the unseen strife behind every victory. Her admiration for her hero, Gabriel Burns, is a unifying thread th...

Opening Concert: The Veil of the Temple – Usher Hall

3Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Opening Concert: The Veil of the Temple – Usher Hall

With its hushed reverence and cosmic scale, John Tavener’s The Veil of the Temple opens this year’s Edinburgh International Festival not with a bang, but with an invocation. Across eight immersive hours in the Usher Hall, Tavener’s vast and luminous work offers something rare: not simply music, but a spiritual experience—at once intimate and immense, ancient and disarmingly modern.First performed in 2003 as an all-night vigil in London’s Temple Church, The Veil has never been heard in its entirety in Scotland—until now. It is a demanding work, not only for the 250-strong ensemble of singers and instrumentalists, but for the audience as well. Beginning at 2:30 p.m. and ending at 10:15pm, this performance asked for attention, stillness, and patience. It gave, in return, something deeply movi...