Scotland Archives - Page 75 of 93

Murder, She Didn’t Write – Pleasance Courtyard

19Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Murder, She Didn’t Write – Pleasance Courtyard

Murder, She Didn’t Write is a quick, funny and well presented production. In this improvised show no one, not even the cast, knows what journey they will end up taking the audience on. I was struck immediately by the quality and careful design of the set, and I very much enjoyed that even as the audience were filing into the room we had our detective working on his notes and a pianist playing us in, it really set the scene and put you in right frame of mind for a murder mystery extravaganza. The show kicks off with some audience participation as one of the audience is chosen to help the detective in the investigation. The setting and the mystery are then set by the audience. The detective, played by Stephen Clements, had some great quips and jokes right off the bat, building up the e...

Comedy Night at the Museum – Gilded Balloon

19Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Comedy Night at the Museum – Gilded Balloon

Comedy Night at the Museum is a hilarious illuminating romp through a litany of exhibits at the National Museum of Scotland. We were guided through this adventure by a smart and witty host. There was some audience interaction and some sharp jokes right from the offset. The host invited a group of ‘professors‘ in the form of a variety of stand-up comedians to come on stage and review slides of museum exhibits and give their ‘academic’, ‘professional’ and …entirely incorrect opinions and interpretations of items from the museum leading to some absolutely absurd, side splitting, hysterical tangents and some bizarre outcomes. The narrative was pushed forward by some intellectual questioning from our host which only served to make these explanations become ever stranger and more ludicrou...

Things We (Never) Learned in Sex Ed – The Space On North Bridge

19Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Things We (Never) Learned in Sex Ed – The Space On North Bridge

You can probably guess what the show is about from the title, though a slight distinction must be made. As the show itself states, this isn't about covering the biology or, as it were, the ins and outs of the thing, as these things are the closest thing most education systems get to covering well. This show is more about the other stuff, like how puberty affects your (and other people's) relationships with your body, consent, pleasure, and many other non-penetrative aspects of sex. Though of course those, and other sexual acts, are also dealt with. This is done through songs, sketches, stories told directly to the audience and discussions between the creators/performers, Lindsay Spear and Lea Sheldone. It's a mix of the personal and the general, of the comedic and the educa...

Room – A Room of One’s Own – Pleasance Courtyard

19Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Room – A Room of One’s Own – Pleasance Courtyard

Room- A Room of One’s Own, written and performed by Heather Alexander, is a refined, intimate, and literary pleasure. A room for the soul, where one can meditate, reflect on contemporary reality, be enchanted by the beauty of prosody, and let oneself go with hope, not only in the future but also in an illustrious past that still lives within us. Everything, from the scenography to Dominique Gerrard's direction, is impeccable. With just a few props, Alexander moves around the stage in a monologue, almost a stream-of-consciousness, transporting the spectator to a very precise era, a very precise environment, and a very precise mind. We are in the early 1900s in the room, or instead at the desk, of Virginia Woolf, the author of One Room of One's Own, and the words, the reflections, and the...

What Broke David Lynch – Greenside @ Nicholson

18Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

What Broke David Lynch – Greenside @ Nicholson

Avast there. What, pray, is this: Julee Cruise plays as we enter the room and take in the bare, tastefully-lit stage. Where is HE? TWONKEY should be fiddling with and setting an array of props, muttering comfortingly to himself (and us) as we take our seats. Where is he, what’s he found to do that could possibly be more important than the famed bumbling pre-show preparations? Gently reeling from this initial shock it becomes clear there are (I trust you’re sitting down) other actors too (Miranda Shrapnell, Steven Vickers, Robert Atler) and, it transpires, they play real life people involved in the making of The Elephant Man in 1980. Mel Brooks, Anthony Hopkins, Sir John Gielgud, John Hurt, Dorothy Doughnut (Dunnett?) all feature and – lord preserve us – there is a visible structure to t...

18Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Dorian – Venue 21 C Arts

The Oscar Wilde sensation “The Picture of Dorian Gray” takes to stage once more with King’s College School’s performance of Dorian. This one-hour play uses physical theatre, choreography and some outstanding acting to bring to life one of Oscar Wilde’s darkest tales beautifully. Dorian Gray (played tremendously by Tom Conroy) finds himself on a journey of love, power and evil when Basil Hallwood (Sebastian Pavin) decides to paint a portrait that will encapsulate Gray’s beauty forever. Little known to artist or subject, a powerful force of evil would make Gray’s wish of staying youthful and beautiful a reality. Egged on by Lord Henry Wotton (Roemer Lips) and the forces of this dark magic, Gray transforms from a naive hopeless romantic to a monster with little regard for love or the lives...

Val from Anfield – Greenside @ Infirmary Street

17Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Val from Anfield – Greenside @ Infirmary Street

‘Everyone’s gettin’ pregnant,’ says our Kayleigh, ‘must be sumthin’ in the air round ‘ere?’ ‘Just your legs,’ says Val. Val is every bit the modern-day Liver Bird, but with one over-riding problem; one of the biggest football clubs in the world is just around the corner and needs to expand its stadium complex… and now they’re building more student flats. She’s been fighting a long campaign against her (and her neighbours’) eviction as the developers seek to demolish the old streets of L4 but finally the day has come and she sits surrounded by boxes awaiting the move to sister Pauline’s. Her demeanour makes one think straightaway of ‘Our Lucian’, except instead of rabbits Val has a cat (Bowie) and a hamster (Queenie). Dressed in Queen t-shirt and leopard-skin leggings (matching a disc...

Hey, That’s My Wife! – Hill Street Theatre

17Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Hey, That’s My Wife! – Hill Street Theatre

Hey That’s My Wife! is a satire of 1950s Americana starring Joey DeFilippis, Matthew Ferrara, Espi Rivadeneira, Caroline Hanes and Ryan O’Toole, as two advertising executives, their wives and their boss. Together and apart they navigate work issues, a demanding boss, and the challenges of marriage. The play is a comedic spin on the works of Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller. However, the mix of cigarette smoke, scotch, and conflicts revolving landing The Big Account, the boss coming over for dinner, and cheating partners contain enough general 50s and dramatic tropes to make sure the show can still land with people who might not be able to name 5 works by either of those authors. And on top of that there are the jokes on human nature which, perhaps unfortunately, never age, as we...

Velvet Determination – Greenside @ Nicolson Square

17Aug

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

Velvet Determination – Greenside @ Nicolson Square

Velvet Determination is an autobiographical performance about, and starring, Cynthia Shaw, detailing her experience as a pianist growing up in Colorado with aspirations of making it to New York. Despite being the only performer on stage throughout the piece, Shaw retains the audience's attention from the get-go through both her dialogue and live piano playing. Dressed in a bright, floral dress, Shaw’s costume matches her warm, friendly personality, helping the audience to tune in to her story. Shaw is not an actor - but this is not a piece of theatre. Velvet Determination is a real story and Shaw is able to be genuine and vulnerable in such an intimate setting, something even the finest of actors struggles to get right at times. Throughout the piece, Shaw ensures to look each ...

Half Empty Glasses – Roundabout @ Summerhall

17Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Half Empty Glasses – Roundabout @ Summerhall

After the success of Patricia Gets Ready, Kaleya Baxe returns to direct in collaboration with playwright Baruwa-Etti for a story of friendship, anger and courage where nothing is completely black or white. Half Empty Glasses is a coming-of-age story that explores what it means to step into a world of possibility and begin to see its injustices, deformities and annihilating inequalities, coming face to face with one's own powerlessness for the first time. Hovering between the possibility of a radiant future and a bleak present, overshadowed by his father's degenerative illness, Toye (Samuel Tracy), the true dramatic focus of the play, is filled with a blind rage, toxic even, for those close to him, especially his friends Remi (Princess Khumalo) and Asha (Sara Hazemi). A play that aim...