Scotland Archives - Page 5 of 157

27Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Truthmachine – C-Arts Studio

There is something inherently unsettling about agreeing to take a lie detector test, particularly when the results are going to be shared with a room full of strangers. Australian company Counterpilot has built Truthmachine around precisely that proposition, using real biometric sensors and live voting technology in a thirty-minute immersive experiment. This was a new C Venues space for me, above Victoria Street. Two flights up, we were ushered into a darkened room dominated by a long table, six seats on either side, each equipped with headphones, microphone and voting panel. At one end sat our questioner; at the other, an ominous chair surrounded by the equipment into which one of us would eventually be plugged. It is an impressive set-up: clinical, mysterious and tech...

Of Mice And Men – Drawing Room at Assembly Rooms

26Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Of Mice And Men – Drawing Room at Assembly Rooms

If like myself you were forced to read the book: Of Mice And Men in school you will already know what tragedy awaits you, but if you are new to the story beware. John Steinbeck’s famous novella takes to the stage this fringe as a 2-man, 1 act play and truly succeeds in capturing the essence of its lead characters Lennie and George. From the get-go we know exactly who these two characters are: George is the man in charge, aggressive and fed up with his life and Lennie is the simpler of the two, a very tall man whose strength is not in his mentally but his unintentional brute. Actors Nigel Miles-Thomas and Michael Roy Andrew successfully bring the opening chapter of the book to life, capturing the harsh yet somewhat loving relationship between these two men. Out of all of the given play t...

26Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Fruit Flies – TheSpace on the Mile

Produced by Fast Snail Productions, Fruit Flies begins when Ollie’s best friend from home, Maddy, travels from Ayr to Edinburgh to stay at Ollie’s and see the Chappell Roan concert together. Problem is, Ollie’s flat mate Steph and Maddy on meeting despise each other. And to make matters worse, it turns out there are only two tickets for the concert, not three. Steph and Maddy have to fight it out and prove to Ollie that they deserve to be the chosen one. This seems like a simple enough premise, until you watch the show and are completely blindsided. It becomes completely surreal as we are taken into a liminal space full of clocks and gags. One person must be killed to sacrifice to the yassifying mirror. With a very loose plot and jokes we’ve hea...

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

26Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

It’s Apsaras Dance Company’s first time in Edinburgh and this was their first performance of Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee. Coming all the way from Singapore to share this beautiful piece of dance theatre with Scottish and International audiences. Agathi intends to destigmatise the refugee experience and calls for empathy and understanding. Inspired by the book of poems by refugee children as well as specific lived experiences, the show explores displacement, various people’s stories and the dangers refugees often have to deal with. Some of the Voice-overs and monologues are in English and during the songs in Tamil, surtitles of the translations are screened to make it fully understandable. The traditional Indian Bharatanatyam dance is choreographed beautifully and although the...

2 Guys, 3 Drams: The Ultimate Live Blues and Whiskey Experience – The Space Triplex

26Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

2 Guys, 3 Drams: The Ultimate Live Blues and Whiskey Experience – The Space Triplex

Let’s talk about the elephant first, the one fairly fundamental problem with 2 Guys, 3 Drams: the room. Big at theSpaceTriplex feels rather like a gym hall, with its high vaulted roof, glaring light and rows of plastic chairs laid flat across the floor. Sightlines aren't great and intimacy is in short supply. This is a show crying out for a basement dive, everyone lounging around in near darkness with a glass in hand. Remarkably, Felipe Schrieberg and Paul Archibald make something very good out of something very bad. Together they are The Rhythm and Booze Project, Schrieberg on vocals and lap steel guitar and Archibald providing drums and percussion. The musicianship is excellent. Schrieberg's vocals may not be the strongest element, but blues hardly demands vocal purity. It...

Trans People Are Awful – Bunker One at Pleasance Courtyard

26Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Trans People Are Awful – Bunker One at Pleasance Courtyard

Performing in the Bunker at Pleasance this Fringe, Ros Watt’s Trans People Are Awful couldn’t be placed in a more perfect venue. Set in the garage of a farm just past Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the cavernous dinge of the Bunker does emulate the feel of a serial killer’s hideout. We are witness to the crimes of a murderous young man as he dissects the bodies of men in a quest to find the perfect body parts. Boy, played by Watt, is videotaping every moment of his process in an act of explanation. He wants to undertake a self-surgery in which he attaches the member of one of his victims onto himself – he just hasn’t found the right fit yet. Rhythmic, voracious, and vigorous, Watt’s performance is electric. You feel completely absorbed in the character’s ...

The Woman in The Box – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

26Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

The Woman in The Box – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

Dim lighting and rumbling, auspicious music lure you into the auditorium. On stage, a simple contraption of scaffold poles resembles a glass box. Within it, a woman stands still and silent. The black box theatre of the modern Edinburgh Fringe is notoriously difficult to build any real atmosphere in, particularly when there is noise spill to contend with, but Fragments Theatre Group achieve a magical sense of ambience in the opening moments of this play. The first few minutes are exceptionally well designed theatre. Where the play is about to go next intrigues. The woman is the centerpiece of an art gallery. After the guests have left, she talks to the cleaner attending to the gallery. The glass is buffed but her internal fingerprints remain. Cue The Manager, a sterile characte...

Girlbosses & Billionaires – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

25Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

Girlbosses & Billionaires – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

Two decades ago, South Park mocked Paris Hilton mercilessly with an episode that has never lost a moment of relevance in the dialogue of celebrity and influencer culture. I live with high confidence, personal empowerment, and execute my daily routine with style and excellence. In other words, I’m part of the Gen Z ‘slay everyday era’ and that means when it comes to the adventures of the World’s latest Space tourists, the Pink Power Crew, I’m ready for the ride, just like a few real celebrities were on the Blue Origin spacecraft last year. Such is the pace of subculture, the space fad has already been replaced multiple times over, however, along with a packed theatre I’m the keen audience to three women, a man and the disembodied voice interviewing them. The PPC are destined for a qu...

The Golden Age of Hollywood – Usher Hall

25Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Golden Age of Hollywood – Usher Hall

Well, this was something special, what a sound! And I have a particular reason for loving the sound of an orchestra arriving beneath a musical. Having been involved in numerous amateur musical productions over the years, one of the moments our cast always looked forward to was band day. Usually sometime during the final week, because that was all we could afford, the musicians would finally arrive. Suddenly, the show we had rehearsed for months acquired another dimension. Everything lifted. The Golden Age of Hollywood was band day times ten! John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London make their Edinburgh International Festival debut at the Usher Hall with an evening devoted to the great Hollywood musical tradition, much of it reconstructed from original MGM orchestrations which Wils...

2050: A Manifesto – Greenside @ Riddles Court

25Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

2050: A Manifesto – Greenside @ Riddles Court

2050: A Manifesto promises a lot but fulfils very few of those promises. The show sounds exciting! Clowning, comedy, social criticism of tech-bros and the AI-centric futures they’re trying to sell us. Then why is it that most if it ended up being jokes about balls? The beginning was promising. We see a typical sci-fi inspired set and costume on writer and performer Alexander Hentrick. And to be fair, there was some decent comedic timing and deadpan humour that got a chuckle out of the audience. But it doesn’t go anywhere. The character doesn’t progress and more and more jokes were falling flat. It’s clear that he was trying to make fun of performantive men and tech-bros, but Hentrick just seems like one of them. Maybe if this was an actual clown persona or performed by a Drag King i...