Scotland Archives - Page 7 of 154

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bebe Cave: Swoon – Pleasance Dome

You have to marvel at the sheer industry of Bebe Cave. Swoon is not simply an hour of character comedy. Cave appears to have swallowed a substantial chunk of Victorian art history, constructed a beautifully gilded Pre-Raphaelite world of curtains, frames and tableaux, assembled an armoury of hats and costumes, and then decided to perform all of the people inhabiting it herself. The result is extremely funny and occasionally almost impossible to keep up with. Cave's starting point is John Everett Millais's Ophelia and Elizabeth Siddal, the woman who modelled for one of the most recognisable paintings in British art. From there, through the fictional Bertrude Siddal, she charges headlong into Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt, Victorian womanhood, beauty, madness, mu...

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Tell Me – Summerhall Dissection Room

The Dissection Room at Summerhall is a fascinating space, double height and voluminous, and Tell Me certainly knows how to celebrate that verticality. At its centre stands a giant open metal cube. Inside that sits another, and another, a Russian doll of skeletal geometry which performers Sadiq Ali, Phoebe Knight and Jonah Russell climb through, hang from, rotate and send tumbling across its different surfaces. There is something of the rolling of dice about it too. During the AIDS crisis, whether you received that positive diagnosis could seem like the biggest roll of the dice imaginable. Tell Me moves between that crisis and our contemporary understanding of HIV. The dramaturgy is often beautifully handled. Radio announcements report the emergence of this frigh...

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Penelope – Underbelly Belly Button

Grace McLean's hands deserve a review of their own. In Penelope, they become almost another piece of stage machinery. A picture on a bedside table is conjured between her fingers, suddenly forming something resembling a tiny Grecian image. Later, as Penelope describes working at her loom, McLean's hands weave invisible landscapes, seascapes and portraits in the air before methodically undoing them again. It is mesmerising physical storytelling. Penelope has promised that she will marry one of her suitors when her weaving is finished. Her solution is beautifully simple: create by day, unpick by night, and keep waiting for Odysseus. And she has been waiting a very long time. There is initially something almost Liza Minnelli-like about McLean's performance, ...

Little Animals – Traverse @ Lyceum Studio

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Little Animals – Traverse @ Lyceum Studio

Paul Ready is a familiar face to television audiences, notably as the wonderfully beleaguered Kevin in Motherland and the considerably more sinister Lee in Utopia, alongside an extensive stage career including work at the National Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe. Perhaps those credentials are part of the draw behind the sell-out interest in Little Animals. The question is what happens when Ready strips almost everything away and stands alone in a room with a story to tell. Conceived, written and performed by Ready, and directed by Caroline Steinbeis, Little Animals is ostensibly about his best friend Richard. Ready tells us almost immediately that Richard is dead. He is no longer here. Dead. From that stark beginning, he starts piecing together the life of ...

The Tale of The Original Jekyll and Hyde (Told by a Mad Hatter from Stockport) – Greenside @ Riddles Court

20Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Tale of The Original Jekyll and Hyde (Told by a Mad Hatter from Stockport) – Greenside @ Riddles Court

The tale of Deacon Brodie is one rarely known by those outside of Edinburgh: A corrupt member of the City Chambers who used his skills as a Wright (in this case cabinet maker and locksmith), to steal from the wealthy folk of Edinburgh. The tale however has been known somewhat in another form: as the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde (although that can be held to some debate). The Tale of The Original Jekyll and Hyde (Told by a Mad Hatter from Stockport) lures us in with the promise of hearing Brodie’s tale…. although we end up hearing more about the writer’s fictional character Stanley instead. As a local historian I was pretty excited about the prospect of hearing the tale delivered through a character of the time. There’s something charming about having history ...

Rosco McClelland: The Bones – Monkey Barrel Comedy

20Aug

By Ella BeckleyNo Comments

Scotland

Rosco McClelland: The Bones – Monkey Barrel Comedy

In the midst of Old Town, Cabaret Voltaire’s arched basement under Blair Street is full of a crowd eagerly watching Rosco McClelland, spotlit on stage. You could hear a pin drop with the patient wait for the punch line. McClelland is a storyteller, every joke recounts a guilty pleasure, an embarrassing story or even identifying the man who apparently wants him dead. Convoluted stories of his marriage complete with heartwarming moments and arguments both had the audience listening attentively, all for the reward of one-line laughs. McClelland’s charisma and charm keep the audience hooked on his line, reeling them in with an assortment of confessions and an open ‘this is me, bones and all’ kind of attitude with the audienc...

This Is Not Hansel & Gretel – Banshee Labyrinth

19Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

This Is Not Hansel & Gretel – Banshee Labyrinth

If you think you know the old German tale of Hansel and Gretel, think again! Christian Hege challenges us to rethink the tale, providing more detail than ever before and asking us to question who the real villain in the tale is. The tale begins with poverty, famine and too much rain for any crop to survive. A widowed man marries a new woman, welcoming her into his impoverished home with his two young children. As time passes and food proves scarce, the new wife decides enough is enough and the children must go. Luring them into the woods to fend for themselves, the children must learn to keep their wits about them, following their own path home and eventually ending up in the home of a witch. The rest you’ll have to attend the show to hear. Hege is a wonderful storyteller, compel...

Daughter Of Sweden – That One Princess Who Drunk With Lizzie I and Thrown Out of England – The Space@ Surgeons Hall

19Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Daughter Of Sweden – That One Princess Who Drunk With Lizzie I and Thrown Out of England – The Space@ Surgeons Hall

Very few people can say that they’ve: been a princess, drank with Elizabeth I, caused one of the biggest Swedish sex scandals in history and become a pirate! But for Princess Cecilia Vasa of Sweden this strange and exciting (although at times upsetting) reality was the case. Daughter Of Sweden- That One Princess Who Drunk With Lizzie I and Thrown Out of England, takes a look at a young princess whose life fell apart after engaging in an affair at the age of 19. With her reputation as a pure young lady in tatters, left to the conservatorship of which ever man in her family ended up in charge, she begins to dream of a life where she can be free. Taking a look at the constraints of being a woman of noble status in Sweden during the rule of famously single Elizabeth I, we see how rebell...

Titanic: The Last Hero and The Last Coward – Church Sanctuary at Palmerston Place Church

19Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Titanic: The Last Hero and The Last Coward – Church Sanctuary at Palmerston Place Church

The titular “Last Hero” and “Last Coward” are Scottish pastor John Harper and White Star Line director Joseph Bruce Ismay. Both were passengers on the Titanic and acquired their own legend from it. Harper, the story goes, was the courageous man of faith who apparently converted people even in the freezing water; and Ismay the coward who sank the ship with his desire to make the ship famous for her speed, surviving only by taking a place in a lifeboat that didn't belong to him. The truth is obviously more complicated, and Searchlight Theatre's show (one of eight they are putting on this Fringe) brings the two men together rather than in juxtaposition, as men navigating (pardon the pun) family, society and each other. Ismay is not judged for his actions, and Harper is not made a stick to ...

An Immigrant’s Comedy Show – Hoots @ Nicolson Square

19Aug

By David NicaudieNo Comments

Scotland

An Immigrant’s Comedy Show – Hoots @ Nicolson Square

Like the demographic of Edinburgh itself, An Immigrant’s Comedy Show brings together a colourful mix of comedians from across the world, alongside some home-grown talent. The premise is straightforward: to provide a platform for immigrant comedians to perform alongside one another. While the title accurately reflects the backgrounds of many of the performers, I did not feel this was particularly reflected in the material, as the jokes were rarely specific to the immigrant experience. The show fittingly takes place at the Methodist Church on Nicholson Square, an intimate venue in the cultural heart of Edinburgh. The relatively small space is well suited to comedy, creating an environment where performers can easily engage with the audience. It seemed particularly appropriate for a sh...