Scotland Archives - Page 9 of 61

And…And…And – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

8Oct

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

And…And…And – Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

Isla Cowan’s beautifully written new play is a gem. It focusses on the relationship between two young women in their last year at school whose lives are overshadowed by the climate emergency. The play opens on a beach where the two seventeen year olds are collecting litter (including a lot of plastic items). Their characters are brought to life by Caroline McKeown (Cassie) and Tiana Milne-Wilson (Claire). Those two very talented actors are totally convincing as the best friends. They have a very relaxed natural rapport but as the play develops and they seem to be growing apart, their emotionally charged scenes are perfecting pitched, and engrossing. Two wonderful performances. Cassie and Claire are both concerned by the climate crisis, but it is Cassie who is the activist. She wants...

Group Portrait In A Summer Landscape – Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

6Oct

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Group Portrait In A Summer Landscape – Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

It is a brave playwright who describes his play as “Scottish Chekhov”, but Peter Arnott’s magnificent new play does not disappoint. It’s an exhilarating tour-de-force which deals with huge issues while zooming in on the complex human relationships of a group of privileged and talented people. It’s hugely entertaining, thought-provoking, and witty, but not always an easy watch. The first night audience was often shrieking with laughter, but sometimes stunned into shocked silence. It’s set in the summer of 2014 in the heady days leading up to the Scottish Independence Referendum. But although that’s discussed, it’s not a play about Independence. Nor is it about the climate emergency, although that issue features, too. And it’s not really about God though the Deity is important to some...

Sister Act – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

5Oct

By H.S. BakerNo Comments

Scotland

Sister Act – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Born from the Whoopie Goldberg film of the same name, this musical is a ballsy, rollicking joyride from start to finish. With music by Alan Menken, lyrics by Glenn Slater and book by Cheri and Bill Steinkellner, Sister Act tells the story of Deloris Van Cartier (Landi Oshinowo), a nightclub singer with dreams of fame, fortune and a white fox fur, who goes into hiding after witnessing a gangster killing in Philadelphia. She enlists the help of her old school friend Steady Eddie Souther (Alfie Parker), a Philly cop, who arranges for her to lie low in a local convent until the trial is over. World weary Mother Superior (Lesley Joseph) is less than happy about this arrangement but puts Deloris in charge of the choir, which certainly needs some knocking into shape. ...

3Oct

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

One of Two – Traverse Theatre

Jack Hunter tells the story of his Scottish childhood, with pre-recorded content from his tenacious twin sister, Bec. Jack and Bec both have cerebral palsy, and Bec, in particular, has really had to fight to make her way in life. Jack is a multi-talented performer: an actor, a writer, and a poet. His humour is playful and acerbic, but there is also a deep anger and a determination to change things. Cerebral palsy affects every person differently. Jack walks with a limp and can’t tie his shoelaces; Bec is a full-time wheelchair user. At high school, they were forced to seek refuge from the other kids in the Base, a dingy “bunker” full of dilapidated furniture decorated with “ancient phallic hieroglyphs”. The playground was not a safe place for them. A teacher rages at Bec fo...

2:22 A Ghost Story – Festival Theatre Edinburgh

27Sep

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

2:22 A Ghost Story – Festival Theatre Edinburgh

2:22 A Ghost Story hits a little different to all the other ghost related plays you see on stage these days, there no Victorian costumes or creepy lantern lit faces in the darkness, instead just 4 people in an ordinary looking house and a baby monitor. Instead of giving us an eerie back story of lost lovers or vengeful spirits we are left with a scenario that’s even more terrifying, something that could happen in our very own homes. With an incredibly well written script 2:22 offers its audience the thrills and jump scares that they seek, but also incredible logic on ghost stories themselves. When Jenny (Louisa Lytton) becomes fearful of her new house, husband Sam (Nathaniel Curtis) is far from the comforting type insisting there is no such thing as ghosts. In a bid to make him believe...

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet – Festival Theatre

20Sep

By Nazaret RaneaNo Comments

Scotland

Matthew Bourne’s Romeo & Juliet – Festival Theatre

On its opening night, Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre came alive with the revival of Matthew Bourne's "Romeo & Juliet." Often regarded as a master of family-friendly productions, Bourne's latest interpretation delves deeper into the suppressed passions simmering beneath the surface, offering a fresh perspective on Shakespeare's timeless tragedy. The stage is transformed into the Verona Institute, an institution akin to an asylum for troubled youth, masterfully designed by Lez Brotherston. Its stark, white surfaces, imposing barred doors, and staircases leading to nowhere symbolize the suffocating conformity that envelopes its inhabitants. Yet, within these confines, the characters, clad in white, strive to break free with subtle acts of rebellion—flicks of the head, twitches of the ar...

Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning – Theatre Royal Glasgow

15Sep

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Dracula: Mina’s Reckoning – Theatre Royal Glasgow

It seems to be, for no particular reason, a big year for Dracula. It isn't the anniversary of its first publication, of the author's birth, the author's death, or of any of its most famous adaptations - apologies, uberfans of The Satanic Rites of Dracula, happy 50th to you - and yet this year we have seen two cinematic depictions of Dracula (the Nicholases Hoult and Cage film Renfield and the adaptation of a single chapter of the original novel with The Last Voyage of the Demeter), with another remake of Nosferatu also being shot this year (and also starring Nicholas Hoult). And of course, latest but not leastest, there is Dracula: Mina's Reckoning, from the National Theatre of Scotland and Aberdeen Performing Arts, in association with Belgrade Theatre, Coventry. As its title clearly s...

13Sep

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The King and I – Edinburgh Playhouse

A show originally performed in 1956, It would be easy to write this off as old, irrelevant, dull, an anachronism, a three-hour yawn fest? How wrong you would be! It is the very opposite on all counts and has to be one of the most opulent and lavish and thoroughly entertaining touring productions I have ever seen at The Edinburgh Playhouse. Not only that, it also has themes which are extremely relevant and pertinent to our times. At its centre, the role of women, particularly in Asian society and the tensions between East and West, which are probably even more extreme and concerning now than they ever were when this was written. Anna Leonowens, played brilliantly by Annalene Beechey, is the headstrong school mistress travelling to Bangkok in Siam (now Thailand) to teach the King’s (Bria...

Keepers of the Light – The Studio, Edinburgh

12Sep

By H.S. BakerNo Comments

Scotland

Keepers of the Light – The Studio, Edinburgh

Written and directed by Izzy Gray this tells the intriguing true story of three lighthouse keepers who disappeared without trace from the Flannan Isle Lighthouse in the Outer Hebrides in 1900. When the boat bringing the relief keepers arrives at the rock eleven days later, the light is out, the clocks have stopped and there is no sign of any of the men. The captain of the relief boat searches in vain, growing ever more disturbed by the eerie emptiness. There is a single oilskin coat left hanging in the mess, seeming to indicate that one of the men left in a hurry. What catastrophe could have happened to cause all three keepers to vanish? A freak wave? Or something more sinister? Today there are no lighthouse keepers, all...

Hi, I’m Zoë… – Laughing Horse @ Eastside

29Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Hi, I’m Zoë… – Laughing Horse @ Eastside

It's challenging to write about Hi, I’m Zoë, this one-woman show that attempts to be a satire of the world of online dating but ends up feeling like mundane barroom chatter, devoid of wit and bite. Anyone in the audience could have something more interesting to say about their personal life than Zoë, who also lacks any significant stage presence. The show's crux is meant to revolve around Tinder (already a tired and overused topic these days) and the absurd cast of characters one encounters online. However, there's hardly anything grotesque or genuinely amusing about it. In Hi, I’m Zoë, everything feels like a parade of clichés that have been seen and heard before, lined up like a shopping list without any narrative construction or structure. It is an hour that's difficult to en...