Scotland Archives - Page 92 of 94

17Aug

By Nicky LambertNo Comments

Scotland

The Clones – Edinburgh Fringe Festival

“The Clones” are Lloydie James Lloyd and Liam Webber. They take an audience suggestion and weave a whole play around it, totally improvised and on the spot. With no set (except two chairs) and no idea of what the audience are going to suggest, this is the stuff of nightmares as far as I’m concerned, and I do think you must have to be some kind of masochist to want to perform improvised theatre. Tonight’s audience suggestion for the location was the International Space Station. I had assumed there would be other requested suggestions as to a vague storyline, characters etc but it was just the location. It took a little while to get going and there were a few long(ish) stretches of silence to start with, and I felt they struggled initially to get it off the ground. However, the pers...

17Aug

By Donna M DayNo Comments

Scotland

Call Me Elizabeth – Edinburgh Fringe

Call Me Elizabeth, written and performed by Kayla Boye, is a sumptuous look at the life of Elizabeth Taylor shortly after she received her Oscar for Butterfield 8 and recovered from a bout the pneumonia which nearly killed her. A solo performance based around Taylor’s real-life conversations with biographer, Max Lerner, director Erin Kraft has created a piece of theatre which is both intimate and carefully guarded. Opening with a view of Taylor’s luxurious dressing table, the glamour and opulence which she exuded in public is made clearly a part of her persona even at this early point in her career. Stacks of gossip magazines with her face on the cover litter the coffee table and Boye elegantly stands, in a classic little black dress, with sparkling diamonds adorning her ears, before de...

Warhol: Bullet Karma – Edinburgh Fringe Festival

17Aug

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

Scotland

Warhol: Bullet Karma – Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Garry Roost’s one-man performance of Andy Warhol starts at the point where he survived a murderous attempt on his life by Valerie Solanas, who was convinced that he wanted to steal her script. From there on Roost gives a breathless and sometimes overly hectic account of Warhol’s creative and emotional life. The screen is split into four smaller screens all in day glow primary colours to give the effect of Warhol’s iconic pop art structure and I must say it actually works very well indeed. The set is minimal and keeps to the pop art theme Warhol: Bullet Karma is so well written and researched throughout and Roost’s outstanding impersonations of that Warhol era are quite remarkable but on reflection I did feel it was a touch rambling in some parts and although it would definitely a...

Under The Floorboards – Edinburgh Fringe Festival

17Aug

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

Scotland

Under The Floorboards – Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Simon Shaw’s unsettling one man horror show based on the infamous serial killer Ed Gein is one very intense ride. Gein (Shaw), who was mother dominated for most of his life, was the influence for Alfred Hitchcock’s classic movie Psycho and also inspiration for many horror films since then. As you would probably expect, this show is not for the faint hearted and Shaw pulls out all the stops in his powerful performance. During the course of the show Shaw’s character moves through many transitions and the attention to detail in Shaw’s well-judged performance is excellent throughout. This is totally gruesome stuff and quite unrelenting. If you are a horror fan (which I am) you’ll be morbidly fascinated by his “conversations” with his persistently screaming and angry mother as we begi...

Corona Cutie: A Digital Quest for Love – Edinburgh Fringe

14Aug

By Gemma PrinceNo Comments

Scotland

Corona Cutie: A Digital Quest for Love – Edinburgh Fringe

Part of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe, Corona Cutie tells the story of Claire who longs to be part of a fictional reality she cannot have and believes her problems can be solved by love. Claire is a hopeless romantic living in New York City who dreams of finding someone during the COVID-19 pandemic and decides to try online dating. Written and composed by Lucy Gellar, the songs are funny, catchy and entertaining. Annika Hoseth delivers a relatable yet sweet performance as the slightly awkward Claire as she attempts virtual dating whilst on a journey of self-discovery. Hoseth portrayal of the aimlessness and frustration of online dating during the pandemic through Claire is certainly relatable especially in “Whatever I Say” which delves into the pressure of creating the perfect bio. Ri...

14Aug

By Kiefer WilliamsNo Comments

Scotland

My Left Nut – Edinburgh Fringe

Based on a true story, this is a beautifully constructed and life affirming coming of age monologue set in Northern Ireland. Michael (performed and co-written by Michael Patrick) gives a magnetic and warm performance as a teenager who discovers that he has an enlarged left testicle. Having lost his father, he finds it difficult to explain his condition to his mother and even more so with his school mates. Michael’s story, even with its underlying health scare scenario, is both charming and significant. It’s basically a story about masculinity and the on-going battle to face up to personal trauma whilst still manoeuvring through those tricky and often awkward teenage years. Production shots by Peter Murray Director and co-writer Oisin Kearney gets a great physical performance fr...

Angela – Royal Lyceum Theatre/Pitlochry Festival Theatre online

28Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

Angela – Royal Lyceum Theatre/Pitlochry Festival Theatre online

Mark Ravenhill has taken us to some dark places over the years but none more so than with this unflinching account of his beloved mother Angela’s final dementia journey. But this debut audio collaboration between the Royal Lyceum Theatre and Pitlochry Festival Theatre is as much about class, thwarted ambition and shared memories as it is about a condition that affects nearly a million people across the UK. From the moment the young Angela – subtly played by Matti Houghton – changes her name from the too ‘common’ Rita to Angela you sense this is an intelligent working class woman with artistic ambitions. Her short am dram career is cut short by marriage to engineer Ted, and any ambition to take it further disappears. A pertinent point when the acting profession is increasingly posh an...

Hansel and Gretel – Scottish Opera on Screen

14Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

Hansel and Gretel – Scottish Opera on Screen

Take your favourite childhood story but turn it into an opera. Sounds strange, doesn’t it? Well, I believe that the ‘Scottish opera’ took these two worlds and fused them together perfectly for any age to enjoy. Indulge in the breathtaking vocals and you might just find some darkness hidden behind the innocent sugar-coated façade. A mother tired of her son and her daughter misbehaving sends them off into the forest to pick berries, not knowing the dangers lurking within. Hansel and Gretel were taught to never speak to strangers. Although who could blame them for giving into the temptation of endless marshmallows, lollipops and pies galore! If only that wasn’t followed by getting kidnapped by a witch... The cast is made up of nine actors, four of them making up the ‘ensemble’ of the pe...

Janey Godley’s Big Burns Supper – Live Stream

27Jan

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

Janey Godley’s Big Burns Supper – Live Stream

As Janey herself said at the end, ‘Ah’m knackert.’ This was as crammed a 90 minutes as one could wish for in celebration of Scotland’s famous poet. His global appeal was reflected in the comments box overflowing with a never-ending stream of greetings and toasts, viewers logging in from every conceivable time-zone. In this Covid-enforced YouTube version of the extravaganza - that usually takes place each year in the town of Dumfries - performances came in from far and wide. KT Tunstall beamed in a performance of ‘Everything Has Its Shape’ from Los Angeles, Donovan a rogue-ish version of ‘Sunshine Superman’ from Cork, Camille O’Sullivan’s rendition of Nick Cave’s ‘The Ship Song’ reached us from a beach near Dublin and Dervish performed ‘The Ploughman’ from a beautifully candle-lit room i...

20Dec

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

Scotland

Cosi fan Tutte – Scottish Opera

Mozart’s Cosi fan Tutte is an ideal opera to be performed in today’s climate. A small leading cast, and a relatively light-hearted plot, Scottish Opera’s production, directed by Roxana Haines with musical direction by Stuart Stratford, brings the comedy into the modern world in a socially distanced performance exploiting the world of reality TV. The piece opens with exuberant music played by a masked orchestra behind screens, as the Chorus sit in the theatre’s boxes, making up the various audience members of the reality show which our couples find themselves competing in. The Chorus revel in their roles throughout the piece, creating some excellent emotional reactions from wistfulness, to excitement, to boredom, creating a real sense of a live studio audience to the television show we a...