Latest Articles - Page 14 of 724

21Aug

By Stewart Who?No Comments

London

Earworm – Camden People’s Theatre

Earworm by Gur Arie Piepskovitz is pitched as an ‘anti-rom-com’ and certainly succeeds in presenting the contemporary queer relationship as a prospect of conflict, contradiction and angst. The story concerns alternative cabaret singer Guy (Avihud Tidhar), who is dating queer academic John (Brodie Bass). They are motivated by distinctly varying ambitions and have different needs in their relationship, which is obviously heading towards collapse. In a bold, post-modern meta move, Earworm opens with Guy (Tidhar) directly addressing the audience, as he tries to select a song to open the show. Waylon Jacobs and Reece Lewis sit either side of Guy, acting as an arch, critical chorus, analysing the emotional manipulations of theatrical conventions. The pair savage Guy’s efforts in real time...

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Come From Away – Assembly Ballroom

There are some shows you admire and others that catch you rather more unexpectedly. Captivate Theatre's Come From Away did both. I saw it with my daughter, and remarkably it was the first time either of us had encountered the musical. Sharing that first experience became one of my highlights of this year's Fringe. Irene Sankoff and David Hein's musical takes us to Gander, Newfoundland, where 38 aircraft carrying almost 7,000 passengers were diverted following the attacks of 11 September 2001. It hardly sounds like the starting point for an uplifting musical, yet the extraordinary generosity of the local community provides exactly that. Getting the balance right is crucial. There must be laughter amongst the darkness and Captivate finds it beautifully. A moose appearing ...

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much – Pleasance Courtyard

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much – Pleasance Courtyard

Voloz Collective have two propositions at this year's Fringe and having already seen their newer REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up, I found myself watching The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much rather unusually, seeing the company's evolution backwards. Set in 1963, it follows Roger Clement, played by Paul Lofferon, a French advertising executive in New York who’s meticulously ordered existence is disrupted when being late for work saves him from an explosion. What follows is an increasingly improbable international chase, delivered through Voloz's trademark combination of physical theatre, object work, comedy and live music. Lofferon is joined by Voloz co-artistic directors Olivia Zerphy, Emily Wheatman and Sam Rayner, all four having trained at L'...

Half a Sixpence – Frinton Summer Theatre

21Aug

By Samantha CollettNo Comments

South East

Half a Sixpence – Frinton Summer Theatre

I will confess I’d never heard of ‘Half a Sixpence’ but I know Clive Brill always brings a rip-roaring musical to the Big Top tent on the Greensward, and I’m delighted to say: I was thoroughly delighted! This is a five-star production which had me smiling all the way through – and laughing the hardest I ever have at a show. But before we dig into the details, I feel I have to share the huge seating improvements brought in this year. Regular attendees will know you used to need a cushion for the hard seating. This is no longer a requirement because the set-up has changed and it’s all for the better! Brand new seats have been brought in which are comfy and wide, plus you now have oodles of leg room (perfect for all that toe-tapping!) and the viewing angles are superb. I even think t...

21Aug

By Alan Stuart MalinNo Comments

London

The Waiting – Riverside Studios

Written and performed by Nina-Lou Bricard, ‘The Waiting’ is an intense, uncompromising and frequently traumatic one-woman show. Developed from a one-minute monologue, it takes the polished exterior of beauty, modelling, success and glamour and tears violently through its surface. Bricard plays a former French supermodel who abandons her wedding, quite literally a runaway bride, providing the starting point for a turbulent examination of identity, relationships, trauma and the experiences that have shaped her. What follows is certainly not comfortable theatre. The material is raw and deeply personal in its presentation, with some experiences depicted graphically and without attempting to soften their impact. Bricard delivers it with extraordinary commitment and passion. Her performanc...

Edinburgh Days – Auditorium at St Bride’s Community Centre

21Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Edinburgh Days – Auditorium at St Bride’s Community Centre

Set in the early 1800’s, Edinburgh Days is the story of life in Edinburgh during Britain’s war with France, and focuses on life around the docks of Leith, and the shores of Portobello. Written by composer Brian Spence, he teamed up with Bob Tomson as a creative director, whom he has worked with previously, and Caroline Inglis (Director) who has worked on Edinburgh Days in a previous iteration and directed this version of the show. The beginning of the show sets the scene at the White Hart Inn, where MacGregor (Laurence Aitkin) admits that he has lusted after Jean (Jaydean Cramb), his friend Robbie’s (Michael MacDuff) partner for a long time, but she has always rejected him and stayed true to Robbie, and their son Davie (Elodie Enoch-Thorburn [young Davie], Noah Young [older Davie]...

Linus Karp Was Hit With an Umbrella – Underbelly Bristo Sq

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Linus Karp Was Hit With an Umbrella – Underbelly Bristo Sq

Linus Karp has put his own name very prominently on the poster this time. After Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story and Gwyneth Goes Skiing, perhaps this is someone increasingly comfortable with the limelight. More importantly, however, this is his own story. Shortly before the 2024 Fringe, Karp was walking through Soho with his partner Joseph Martin when he was subjected to a homophobic attack and struck across the head with an umbrella. Karp specifically points out that the couple weren't holding hands, kissing or even touching at the time. From that distinctly unfunny starting point, he has somehow constructed a surprisingly funny, thoughtful piece of theatre. This is recognisably an Awkward Prods show. Two monitors flank the stage, providing locations, news reports,...

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, ...