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Oedipus Rex – National Museum of Scotland

13Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Oedipus Rex – National Museum of Scotland

Set in the National Museum of Scotland with the full Scottish Opera orchestra, this one-hour Stravinski/Cocteau spectacular soared to fill the great dome of the beautiful Museum Hall. Conductor, Stuart Stratford, must have gone home buzzing along with his musicians. The instrumentalists were fabulous, as were the vocals. This is the first time, to my knowledge, that an opera has been staged in the Museum. It is a great space and allowed the audience to choose whether to watch from above, along with the ornately costumed gods, or mingle with the chorus below and feel part of the production. It is theatre in the round and that brings benefits and difficulties. You feel closer to the action but then again, you might miss bits. I looked down from “the gods” but would want to go again to ...

13Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Coleridge -Taylor of Freetown – C Arts

Taylor Aluko, a former Liverpool architect, is originally from Nigeria. He is an intelligent, politically and socially conscious individual. He also has a good voice. His morning show at The Quaker House, Coleridge-Taylor of Freetown, is a bid to bring to the light the recent history of Sierra Leone’s oppressive regime. He depicts the former cowardly diplomat, George Coleridge-Taylor, whose uncle was the renowned early twentieth century composer who lived in Croydon, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. In so doing, he uses some of the latter’s music, played live by Kristin Wong and he sings powerfully to the room. The pianist is part of the staging and therefore part of the visual landscape which tells the story. Because of the technical requirements of reading music, Wong’s intense concent...

13Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Cyrano – Traverse Theatre

European Premier Virginia Gay writes and stars in this acclaimed Aussie deconstruction of the classic romance. Portrayed as a gen-Z, gender-flipped take on Edmond Rostand’s classic story of a shy poet who lends his words to a handsome young man to woo Roxanne, the object of both their desires. The first act of this play promises much, as the chorus, a hilarious double act of Tessa Wong and David Tarkenter, play their unnamed roles like an attentive PA and an aging thespian on his way to a King Lear rehearsal, to a tee. The talented and versatile Tanvi Virmani also wanders onto the stage at one point like a deer in the headlights. The trio are highly amusing as they never leave the stage and query what they are doing in this play, bickering continuously or offering unhelpful advi...

13Aug

By Zoё MeeresNo Comments

London

When It Happens To You – Park Theatre

Firstly, a trigger warning - When It Happens To You deals with issues of sexual assault and violence from the outset and throughout, and there’s nowhere to hide from it in this gutturally raw and confronting 90 minute performance. But Tawni O’Dell’s tale of a family dealing with the aftermath of tragedy is a tale of compassion, of surviving, and ultimately of love. Told through a series of monologues interspersed with conversation, Amanda Abbingdon is our focal point as a mother struggling to support her daughter and her family in the wake of a terrible assault. The action unfolds from Abbingdon’s point of view, with her heartfelt performance moving the narrative from the night of the attack. Abbingdon is arresting - she has the audience hanging on her every word as she wrestles with he...

13Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Sound Inside – Traverse Theatre

Bookish brilliance! The new Dead Poets Society. Nominated for six Tony Awards, this UK premiere of Adam Rapp’s spellbinding play stars Merchant Ivory’s Madeleine Potter and The Kite Runner’s (Broadway) Eric Sirakian. From director of Psychodrama Matt Wilkinson. Beverley Baird is the unmarried and childless, cat lady, Yale creative writing professor, who tells her students to write with economy and let the reader’s imagination do the heavy lifting. Writing that your character has the ‘eyes of a star-faced mole’, or ‘a mean mouth, like a half-healed axe scar’, will tell your reader more than a page and a half full of flowery description. In reality, she is resigned to the fact that creative writing is all but dead and that her students are more interested in social media than Dostoe...

13Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Sessions – Zoo Playground

What should we do with violent young men? Lock them up and ‘throw away the key’? Or try to rehabilitate them? ‘Sessions’ is the story of 17-year-old George, a violent offender, who is fortunate to avoid a prison sentence. Instead he is given community service and ordered to attend weekly sessions with a social worker. This timely play comes amidst a longstanding concern about violence amongst disaffected youth. The show starts with the sound of news bulletins about youth crime, austerity cuts including a reduction in youth services, and the links between those spending cuts and crime. Our incarceration rate is higher than that of most other European countries. The new Labour Government is releasing offenders early because of a shortage of prison places. What’s the solu...

Barbara (and Kenneth) — Greenside @ George Street

13Aug

By Olivia CoxNo Comments

Scotland

Barbara (and Kenneth) — Greenside @ George Street

She’s the blonde, bold, pink-loving doll who needs no introduction: Barbara (not known by her other name in this show due to trademark reasons). But she also has an absolutely stacked CV, with more than 100 different jobs under her brightly coloured belt ranging from Olympic gymnast to presidential candidate, so why isn’t that what people choose to talk about? Now, she’s putting on a one-woman musical show to tell us all about her fight to prove women can do or be anything they set their mind to — oh, and her best accessory/boyfriend Kenneth will also pop along to say hello. Deanna Giulietti stars as the titular life-sized doll, and she’s an absolute revelation. Telling us stories of her rich career tapestry, while also weaving in real-life examples of historical injustices...

12Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

So Young – Traverse Theatre

World Premier From the celebrated writer of Decky Does a Bronco and I Can Go Anywhere, Douglas Maxwell’s So Young is an often hilarious, but equally pathos-tinged coming-of-middle-age tale. 40-somethings Davie, Liane, Milo and Helen were once inseparable, three of them studied at teacher training together, but that all changed when Helen died from COVID. Set up as a classic sitcom, like a latter-day kilted Abigail’s Party, nicely constructed traditional sets transport us, with the swish of a curtain, from the bedroom of long-time married couple Liane (Luciano McEvoy) and Dave (Andy Clark) to the faux-chic lounge of recently bereaved pal Milo (Nicholas Karimi) and his new, much younger, girlfriend Greta (Yang Harris). The cliché of the older man’s ch...

11Aug

By Susan CohenNo Comments

Scotland

At Least I’m Not Bald – C Arts, C alto

This is a show by the Ukrainian writer-performer, Valery Reva and it really is quite a show, delivered with considerable force, with real impact. Reva tells her own real life story by the use of a complex, beautifully written narrative, accompanied by subtle, effective sound and the unusually creative use of simple props. She begins to open up about her experience in an understated, matter-of-fact way – should she choose to pay exorbitant dental fees in London or travel 28 hours home to war torn Ukraine to have her teeth tended there? For her, it was a no brainer. She made the decision to undertake the long journey and ultimately headed to downtown Kiev where, after reuniting and partying with friends before having dental treatment, a routine health ...

11Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

VL – Roundabout @ Summerhall

Hilariously parochial! VL stands for Virgin Lips, a label that no teenager wants to be saddled with. When Max and Stevie, two wee Scottish F…., oops lads, miss the bus to the end of year 2 school disco at the local ice rink, they are in two minds to just go home to watch telly instead. After all, Robin Hood Prince Of Thievesis on! But no, they have to go, because at least one of them is a VL and this might just be his last chance to pop that cherry. And if your still a VL after tonight, before you go into 3rd year, you just might be a VL forever! Seasoned comedy writers and performers, Kieran Hurley and Gary McNair play it just about perfect as the day-glow-clad youngsters trying to navigate romance in the hormonal pressure cooker of Hammersten High School. Stevie has, tech...