Tuesday, September 22

Latest Articles

Tap Out! (Or I’ll Hit You Again) – Gilded Balloon Patter House
19Aug By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
Scotland

Tap Out! (Or I’ll Hit You Again) – Gilded Balloon Patter House

The stage is adorned with a punchbag which gives you a clue as soon as you enter.  Now, just to make things clear, this is not a play about boxing, but it is used during the play – the play is so much more!  Written by Conor Dye, the play follows a man (Matt Ackermann) who at the beginning of the play is handcuffed to a hospital bed, and it is the playwright’s job to write his story.  And, what a story it is!  Tired of his everyday existence, and getting gradually more and more frustrated, man (as I am going to call him) decides that he is going to take out his frustration on anyone who annoys him, which is just about everyone!  As he picks his targets, he stumbles upon a homeless man who he conducts a quick moral evaluation on before he decides punch him, b...
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Witches Corner – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall
19Aug By Christina SchmidtNo Comments
Scotland

Witches Corner – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

Walking into the space to see Witches Corner, the audience is welcomed with a soft song being performed as they settle into their seats, perfectly setting up the tone of the show. Blending the stories of real women convicted as witches with modern women’s struggles, Eilidh Smith’s play is a lesson in Scottish history and a feminist rallying cry packaged into a 50 minute music theatre production. Stepping into the accused women’s shoes, it is incredible how contemporary their pleas for justice sound even though we like to tell ourselves that the world has changed since the witch hunts. And unfortunately the men’s points of view for convincing these witches isn’t unfamiliar either. Similar points of view can easily be found on the manosphere side of TikTok. But it makes sense. After a...
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Love’s Labour’s Found – Greenside Riddles Court
18Aug By Oliver GigginsNo Comments
Scotland

Love’s Labour’s Found – Greenside Riddles Court

To avoid being fired, modern poetry lecturers Jackie and Kate tell their employers they discovered a long-lost play by William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Found. The lie quickly spirals out of control when they’re invited to perform the “new” work at the 45th Shakespearean History International Teaching Conference (notice the acronym) the next day, aided and thwarter by a collection of zany characters such as one of their mothers, an actor, their boss and the dean, who is called Dean. Written and performed by members of the Newcastle University Theatre Society, the ensuing farce has its moments but unfortunately lacks the internal reality to properly build from. To properly spiral, one must have a centre to start from (or finish with), and Love's Labour's Found, which chose its tit...
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The Palestinian Circus: Step and a Half – Underbelly Circus Hub
18Aug By Ella BeckleyNo Comments
Scotland

The Palestinian Circus: Step and a Half – Underbelly Circus Hub

Palestinian Circus artists are taking Edinburgh Fringe by storm with their awe-inspiring, heart wrenching show ‘Step and a Half’.                                                                                          'Joy is an act of resistance’. These words are voiced over the Lafayette in a moment of stillness and echo throughout the show, this sentiment is at the heart of the Palestinian Circus. As a non-profit organisation, they spread connection and hope across Palestine through performance art and community outreach programmes. The group have persevered through unthinkable challenges to reach the stage they are on today, and their resilience seeps into every moment of contagiously unfiltered joy.                           Before the show begins the crew skip, dance and sprin...
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With The Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln –Greenside @ George Street
18Aug By Caroline WorswickNo Comments
Scotland

With The Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln –Greenside @ George Street

2026 – we are experiencing a change in the world order.  The United States of America were always thought of as the good guys, joining with their allies to promote democracy, and fighting against regimes who bring terror to our shores.  In 2016, Donald J Trump won the election to be President of the US, and it would be fair to say that the thought that he would become President was unexpected.  Most people laughed it off as being absurd, but here we are in 2026, two years into his second Presidency, and the absurd is now the world’s normal. The idea for the play came to writer David Chocron from the lips of Donald Trump himself.  During his battle to win a second term in 2020, at a press conference Trump said, ‘I’ve done more for Black Americans than anybody, wit...
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Lorna Rose Treen: Now that’s What I Call Characters – Pleasance Courtyard
18Aug By Greg HolsteadNo Comments
Scotland

Lorna Rose Treen: Now that’s What I Call Characters – Pleasance Courtyard

I have reviewed Lorna Rose Treen a few times over the years, through Skin Pigeon and 24 Hour Diner People, so Now That’s What I Call Characters presents something of a dilemma. This is essentially Treen’s greatest hits album, and I already own most of the records. All the favourites are here. The man with guns for hands, the extraordinarily long-armed trucker, the spy and femme fatale, and the Girl Guide proudly displaying the special badge she earned for killing Bin Laden, her terrorist assassination badge, naturally. I particularly enjoy the girl with braces, who keeps popping up throughout the evening. Treen herself remains immensely likeable. Her comedy has always had a bumbling, stumbling quality. Lines occasionally trip over themselves, characters threat...
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Dracula: Lucy’s Dream – Pleasance at EICC
18Aug By Greg HolsteadNo Comments
Scotland

Dracula: Lucy’s Dream – Pleasance at EICC

Dracula: Lucy’s Dream is certainly different. As I approach the 50-show mark at this year’s Fringe, I have seen nothing quite like this unusual, wordless proposition from Plexus Polaire. It is highly visual theatre, driven by a tremendous score of evocative, purposeful music that carries you along. But does it ultimately carry you anywhere? That is perhaps the difficulty with wordless theatre. Getting from A to B while signalling precisely what is happening along the way requires absolute visual clarity. At its best, Lucy’s Dream is mesmerising, hypnotic and genuinely dreamlike, with human performers and puppets inhabiting an increasingly uncertain world. At other times, it becomes repetitive. There is, it has to be said, quite a lot of Lucy lying on a bed. The ...
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The Shocking Truth About Flat Earth – Pleasance Queen Dome
18Aug By Greg HolsteadNo Comments
Scotland

The Shocking Truth About Flat Earth – Pleasance Queen Dome

The Shocking Truth About Flat Earth sounds like the sort of title somebody might invent at two in the morning during the Fringe. Instead, this new musical from writers Alex Moneypenny and Adam Tuffrey is a remarkably smart, accomplished proposition that may have considerably further to travel. First, a word about the room. The Queen Dome at Pleasance Dome is a beautiful little theatre, nicely proportioned and with really no bad seats. Its onboard lighting and sound kit is among the best I have encountered at the Fringe, and certainly the sound here, in my experience, is never bad and frequently excellent. For a change I sat in the front row, and on this occasion that was probably a mistake. Much of the action spills into the wings and around the front of the audience, meanin...
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On Some Far Shore – Greenside George Street
18Aug By Greg HolsteadNo Comments
Scotland

On Some Far Shore – Greenside George Street

Sometimes the architecture tells you almost as much about a Fringe show as the programme. On Some Far Shore plays in a tiny space, perhaps 40 square metres, with audience on two sides and a playing area barely three metres by three in one corner. This is theatre in your front room, exposing for the performers and with absolutely nowhere to hide. Written by Louis Benneyworth, with book by Benneyworth and Madi Bouchta, this new musical follows Euan, played by Thomas Perry, struggling to write the eulogy for his mother Helen, Nicole Palka, while his girlfriend Isla, Francesca Knoop, attempts to help. It is a piece about grief, memory, storytelling and the people we leave behind. The three performances are strong, vocally and emotionally, but On Some Far Shore nee...
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A Ghost Among the Living – Queen Dome at Pleasance Dome
18Aug By Beth EltringhamNo Comments
Scotland

A Ghost Among the Living – Queen Dome at Pleasance Dome

Box Tale Soup are back at it again with another spine-tingling creation. A Ghost Among the Living takes us into the dark and timeless tales of Edgar Allan Poe, exploring themes of horror, murder and consumption. With a cast of two well synchronized performers, this is a masterclass in visual theatre and never scrimps on the finer details. Set within the Pleasance Queen Dome, our actors have very few places to hide on this round thrust stage, however with every movement choreographed and thoughtfully directed, neither performer drops their compelling performance for even a second. A moving set is constructed out of boxes and arches, all hand made by the company and all multifunctional. The cast effectively use their set to transport us to labyrinth like catacombs, lavish parties and ...
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