Scotland Archives - Page 71 of 91

24Aug

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

I am Gavrilo Princip – Army @ Fringe

I am Gavrilo Princip follows the true story of the infamous, or forgotten, assassin responsible for the death of Austrian Archduke Franz Ferdinand and the beginning of the First World War. A war where between 15 and 22 million people lost their lives. This play puts Princip in purgatory asking if he was really as bad as history makes him out to be. The production features two live musicians, a guitarist and a trumpet player, who, at various points, looked as bored as the audience felt. Both musicians underscore the piece, often playing far too loudly meaning writer and actor, Oliver Yellop, cannot be heard. In addition, sometimes the music is used in a very cartoonish style, such as the guitar mimicking gunfire, which detracts from the more serious themes explored in the play. Ye...

Absurd: A Live Cabaret Panel Show – PBH’s Free Fringe @ Roti

24Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Absurd: A Live Cabaret Panel Show – PBH’s Free Fringe @ Roti

Absurd: A Live Cabaret Show was good, old-fashioned, silly fun! The show sprang into action right out of the gate and began with a good helping of audience participation! There were plenty of lighthearted, good humoured jokes about finding high quality cabaret in the basement of a restaurant. This variety show was an upbeat romp through a wide variety of acts. We had magic, stand- up comedy, sketches and singing (sort of) all loosely held together by the semblance of a TV panel show. There were heaps of audience participation with games and gentle ribbing of those chosen for various antics. The acts were random and varied either the standouts were Nira Tal who was a very funny lady and Aaron Jones was very enjoyable to watch with his mix of humour, jokes and magic and of course hi...

Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch – Underbelly, George Square

21Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Unfortunate: The Untold Story of Ursula the Sea Witch – Underbelly, George Square

Can I give this show 6 stars?! Unfortunate is a phenomenal, intelligent, filthy, satirical extravaganza! Every part of this camp, queer, raunchy retelling of the little mermaid from the perspective of Ursula, the sea witch, was on point. The cast were an extremely gifted group of individuals. Ursula, played in this performance by Robyn Grant, was absolutely magnetic and had a voice that was pure electricity. Nearly the entire cast played multiple characters and their portrayals were so unique and different it really felt like watching an entirely different person each change. This is an extremely talented group of performers who have honed their craft to near flawless. The duets between Triton (George Whitty) and Ursula were exhilarating and every song in the show was performed wi...

21Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Muse by FLIP Fabrique – Assembly Hall

Muse is an empowering, magical and witty show like no other that explores gender and social pressures in which we put on ourselves and others. Football or Ballet? Two sport industries designed for all, but gender assigned by the masses. What happens when a girl wants to play football? A man wants to be a ballerina? Or neither fancy either path? Delve into these topics with the use of acrobatics, circus skills and song (although for the most part the music is in French). The show carries throughout the symbol of the apple, the first sin. But to look in to the first sin is to decide if it was indeed a sin or just a woman making a choice. Muse urges you to take the apple like eve, break the rules and be who you really are. Despite little speech the whole performance is innovative and mo...

The Failure Cabaret – Underbelly, Cowgate

20Aug

By Natalie LewisNo Comments

Scotland

The Failure Cabaret – Underbelly, Cowgate

Stephanie Dodd and Justin Badger’s ‘Failure Cabaret’ was a misguided attempt at comedy which indulged in the standard of American humour with a non-American audience. The pair discuss their life together from meeting in New York to accidentally moving to a middle-class white haven to somewhat turbulent and abusive fights they’ve been having (unclear whether this is said in jest or in sincerity). The music was lively and well written. Their voices: very pleasant to listen to, making it certainly a feel-good show and very easily listening. However, this was subverted by the inelegant humor surrounding abusive within the relationship of the characters, ultimately put down to bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder, ultimately leading to deep depressive episodes ap...

Bareback: Horseplay – Underbelly, Cowgate

20Aug

By Natalie LewisNo Comments

Scotland

Bareback: Horseplay – Underbelly, Cowgate

PBJ’s ‘Bareback: Horseplay” was a torrent and a torment of absurdity lacking any semblance of grounding or substance which would facilitate such an outlandish production, resulting in an unmelodic raucous of a sketch show and wasting the extraordinary talent of the actors involved. The premise itself is turbulent: sketch comedy show bouncing from social satire to philosophical inanity, resulting in an audience exhaustingly attempting to keep up with a fast moving, unexplained (unexplainable?) parade of celebrity caricatures, genitalia, aged talk show hosts, homosexual Irish children and slam poetry. The duo were dressed in nude bodysuits which did facilitate fast movements from one character to the next, impressively taking on the roles. The actors’ ranges of accents and characte...

The Lovely Boys – Just The Tonic at The Caves

20Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

The Lovely Boys – Just The Tonic at The Caves

It’s very rare that a reviewer is left speechless after a comedy show but hours later, I’m still not sure what I had actually watched. The lovely boys are not your average stand-up comedy duo, in fact the show could better be described as a strange psychedelic dream crammed into a nightmare-ish underground vault. This is not a comedy style that would fit the masses, but then Mr Bean became famous because of his clowning antics, why couldn’t these two. The show is described by the duo as “one big hour of chaos glory” and they certainly aren’t wrong on the chaos part. Strange and disturbing character sketches had the audience wildly laughing almost as much as the two men had been laughing at themselves. Our primary characters “our two lovely boys” were the funniest part of the show...

Stop The World We’re Getting Off – The Space, Venue 45

20Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Stop The World We’re Getting Off – The Space, Venue 45

Stop The World We’re Getting Off takes a different approach to the concept of “the apocalypse”, no zombies, no nuke war, just the results of the damage that we the human race are currently doing to the world. The play takes place in a not-so-distant future when the world is no longer inhabitable due to a thick smog that has taken over as a result of the human races’ lack of care for the planet. 5 Survivors find themselves living their day to day lives hiding away in a bunker, however 5 is soon to become 6 when Ava (Georgie Cunningham) falls pregnant and dark secrets are revealed. With oxygen running low and so little time before the baby can arrive, it’s up to the team to work together to find an improbable solution. Tenderfoot Theatre Company are a global activist group specializing...

20Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Intelligence – Assembly Roxy

Inside the basement of the US State Department, two young Foreign Officers Paige (Sarah Street) and Lee (Joy Sunday) are reluctantly assisting Special Envoy Sarah MacIntyre (Laura Jordan), recently returned from a top-secret and personal mission to a volatile foreign country. MacIntyre needs to prepare a report to convince the president, or the repercussions could mean death for many… if she’s right. But is she? The exact region the situation is happening in is kept purposefully vague, the reason given being that the junior officials Paige and Lee aren't cleared for the specifics of this operation, which is itself tied into an attempt by their superiors and other departments to ensure MacIntyre's initiative fails. This haziness works, mostly, as it doesn't tie the show down to a specifi...

The Diary of a Nobody – The Space on The Mile

20Aug

By Melissa JonesNo Comments

Scotland

The Diary of a Nobody – The Space on The Mile

This production is perfect for a die-hard fan of the novel that has never been out of print despite its humble beginnings. It’s interesting to note that while this novel has been adapted for stage and screen, it’s most well-known adaptions have been for radio with previous portrayals performed by Stephen Tomkinson and Johnny Vegas- and in these productions Mrs Pooter was present. These names were also mentioned in the programme I was handed and seemed like rather bad practice because I couldn’t help but bring these professionals to light while watching the production. Blue Fire Productions should revel in their individuality and embrace their own approach. This evening’s slim line production stars Andy Smith as Mr Pooter, the nobody of the title, firmly situated in the 1892 of its or...