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Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron – Gilded Ballon Patter Hoose

6Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron – Gilded Ballon Patter Hoose

Theatre Fideri Fidera is an Anglo-Swiss theatre company, and their production of Will Tell and the Big Bad Baron aims to shed a UK limelight onto the famous European character, Wilhelm Tell, the “Swiss Robin Hood”, probably most famous to laypeople for shooting an apple off a child's head with a crossbow. This children's play refocuses the story around his daughter, Wilhelmina Tell (Natasha Granger) who disguises herself as a night and embarks on a quest against the evil Baron Boris von Bummelkrachenhofer (Jack Faires) to rescue her father and the Baron's daughter Edeltraut (Jack Faires) from the evil man and his crow (Jack Faires). Image: Chloe Nelkin Consulting The workmanlike script is elevated by Colin Granger's direction, and the enthusiastically over-the-top performances by ...

The Importance of Being… Earnest? – Pleasance Courtyard

6Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

The Importance of Being… Earnest? – Pleasance Courtyard

“A show goes wrong” is a theatre staple (see Noises Off, The Real Inspector Hound) and, coupled with the equally popular genre of improv-comedy, nowhere is the resulting sub-genre more popular than at the Edinburgh Fringe. Here, it seems, one cannot throw a stick without hitting a shit-faced Shakespeare, musical, or a show that was supposed to run normally until somebody threw a stick at them. To this “[Insert IP] but it goes wrong” genre comes The Importance of Being... Earnest?, as the “Oscar Wilde But It Goes Wrong Show”. And it's a lot of fun, both in how it uses its audience members and how it gives its own actors characters, arcs and jokes to play with through-out the show. It's not every improv related show designed to be different every night that has through-lines and gags ...

6Aug

By Dylan MooneyNo Comments

Scotland

This is Paradise – Traverse Theatre

Michael John O’Neill’s This is Paradise takes place in 1998 in Belfast, just as the Good Friday Agreement is signed bringing supposed peace to the nation. However, away from the political turmoil, O’Neill’s play explores the life of Kate, swapping countrywide tragedy for that of the personal kind. The one-woman monologue follows Kate, played by Amy Molloy, a woman entering her thirties, who is thrust back into the life of an ex-partner after a phone call regarding concerns for his welfare. O’Neill’s beautifully crafted text allows Kate’s story to unravel, exploring the various relationships that still haunt her. Undertones of the impact of the IRA and Orange Order are subtly placed throughout the story, certainly adding to it but not overshadowing it, instead allowing Kate’s own struggl...

Receptionists – Summerhall Old Lab, Edinburgh

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Receptionists – Summerhall Old Lab, Edinburgh

Kallo Collective's physical comedy Receptionists appears in the Fringe as part of Start To Finnish, an annual showcase since 2011 to promote Finnish performing arts at the Edinburgh Fringe. Clowns and (show creators) Inga Bjorn and Kristiina Tammisalo star as two receptionists in a five-star hotel for whom every day actions, such as waiting for customers or answering the phone, quickly escalate into huge physical challenges and situations. Taking a simple situation and wringing every ounce of physically comedic potential over an extended period of time is an art, and a difficult one. For proof of that, one need not look any further than Rowan Atkinson, a lifelong fan of comedians such as Jacques Tati, whose past classics such as Mr Bean haven't stopped him more recently faltering with N...

Something In The Water – Summerhall, Edinburgh

5Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Something In The Water – Summerhall, Edinburgh

The appropriately named Scantily Glad Theatre company presents Something In The Water, starring Grumms, a person who transforms from a normal girl into a squid monster. The show describes itself as Creature from the Black Lagoon meets The Muppets. Personally, I'd say it's like a child who hasn't seen The Shape of Water snorted a bunch of coke and then tried to explain the story using whatever they had in their bedroom. But in a very good way, unlike a child doing hardcore drugs. Both descriptions cover the important roles within the show played by plastic Barbie and Ken dolls, as representatives of what is “normal”, and the squid puppet, as the “monster”, with the sets being made from a hand-drawn picture book, a projector and a fish tank, the combination being simultaneously quite soph...

5Aug

By Robert BartleyNo Comments

London

South Pacific – Sadler’s Wells

For those who missed out on the Chichester Festival Theatre run in 2021, or those who loved it so much they need to see it again, its production of ‘South Pacific’ is back in London until the end of August, prior to a 3-month tour. Assembling the same highly acclaimed cast as last year, the Rodgers & Hammerstein classic sees US Ensign Nellie Forbush falling for French plantation owner Emile de Becque on an island in the South Pacific island during World War 2. Their happiness seems set despite the ongoing threat of war going on around them, while at the same time, young lieutenant Joseph Cable arrives on the island having been sent on a spy mission but is quickly distracted by his attraction to a local girl. Love may be in the Pacific Ocean air for both couples, bu...

4Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

National Youth Theatre of Wales and Theatr Clwyd present, a brand-new comedy as part of exciting partnership

National Youth Theatre of Wales and Theatr Clwyd are co-producing their first full length production together, The In-Between. The show will open at Theatr Clwyd before heading to The Sherman Theatre, Cardiff. This brand-new comedy has been written by one of Wales’ leading playwrights Gary Owen (Iphigenia in Splott) and BAFTA-nominated actress and writer, Alexandria Riley (Pembrokshire Murderers, In My Skin). A new comedy about growing up. Fay is finished. Her tutors at the music college are telling her she’s failing. She’s giving everything she can - and it’s not enough. Fay’s not going to fail. She’s going to do the mature, grown-up thing. She’s going to quit. All she has to do is walk to college, hand in her letter and she’s free from the struggle and the worry. ...

Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical announces West End closing

4Aug

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical announces West End closing

Producers have announced that the hit production Get Up Stand Up! The Bob Marley Musical which received its world premiere performance at the Lyric Theatre, Shaftesbury Avenue on 1st October 2021, will play its final performance in London’s West End on 8th January 2023. The critically acclaimed show has been playing to ecstatic crowds since October 2021 at the Lyric Theatre Shaftesbury Avenue and it was nominated for 4 Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical winning the award for best orchestrations. Following the West End, the production will embark on a UK-wide tour with full details to be announced soon. The production is also planning multiple international engagements, with discussions underway in Europe, North and South America. A cast recording featuring the original cast i...

PASH – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

PASH – Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Edinburgh

Seemingly Wholesome Productions PASH is about the bisexual, Max (Olivia McLeod). She is turning twenty-five in a week and, thanks partly to her own idealised and Hollywood-inspired notion of what A First Kiss would feel like, she hasn't had one yet. So, she embarks on a quest to change that before her big quarter-century anniversary, punctuating her chronicles with anecdotes of her friends’ (much earlier) first kisses. The show is parked somewhere between a stand-up set and a monopolylogue, the former because of the “relatable” blurring between character, performer and audience and the latter through its structure, props and use of space, sound and lighting. Because of this, it rests almost entirely on the shoulders of creator / performer Olivia McLeod, who rises to the challenge...

Jeremy Sassoon’s Mojo: Musicians of Jewish Origin – Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh

4Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Jeremy Sassoon’s Mojo: Musicians of Jewish Origin – Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh

Following a one week run in the 2021 Fringe, Jeremy Sassoon's Mojo returns this year for a full run. The show tells the story of a 100 years of Jewish songwriting in 75 minutes, from Irving Berlin to Amy Winehouse and beyond, through covers (and anecdotes) of the most iconic of these songs, with vocals and piano by Sassoon; double bass, electric bass, and vocals Nicola Farnon; and drums by Phil Johnson. To a gentile such as myself, it's an eye-opening experience. Even for the artists whose religion one already knows, this isn't necessarily the lens one is used to view them through, and when grouped together their collective impact is impressive, as Sassoon's medley of classic Christmas songs alone plainly demonstrates. The show also fits into a larger narrative, charting the evoluti...