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Pussy Riot: Riot Days – Summerhall, Dissection Room

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Pussy Riot: Riot Days – Summerhall, Dissection Room

Political theatre turned punk gig turned call to arms, Pussy Riot’s Riot Days is an unflinching blast of protest art. At Summerhall’s Dissection Room, the Russian collective fire off pounding beats, stark captions, and unapologetic political fury. It’s powerful, messy, and confrontational, from the raw delivery to the deliberately provocative splashes of water into the crowd. You might not like every tactic, but you’ll leave knowing you’ve been in the same room as the real thing. There are protest gigs, and then there’s Pussy Riot. The Russian art-punk collective’s Riot Days tour has been roaring through cities worldwide, bringing their mix of punk gig, political rally, and theatre piece to stages that can barely contain them. At Summerhall’s Dissection Room, it’s all on top of you:...

16Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Echoes – C ARTS

Founded in 1947, China Coal Mine Art Troupe is a national arts group which combines a range of artistic modes, from rap to physical theatre. At this year's Fringe, CCMAT brings their multi-medium show Echoes to Edinburgh audiences. Echoes tells the tale of the Seven Sages of the Bamboo Forest - a group of scholars who fled to the mountains due to the suppressive political climate of the time, instead following the beliefs of Daoism. The group’s leader, Ji Kang has disappeared from the lives of the sages after being executed. Echoes explores the sage's search for fulfilment now that Ji Kang is gone, through dance, poetry, wine and music. Music plays a large, symbolic role in Echoes, with Ji Kang being known as a master of the guqin, a traditional Chinese...

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads it First – theSpace @ Niddry Street

16Aug

By Paul WilcoxNo Comments

Scotland

A Letter to Lyndon B Johnson or God: Whoever Reads it First – theSpace @ Niddry Street

Xhloe Rice and Natasha Roland are bringing their award-winning comedy back to Edinburgh this year with a reprise of ‘A Letter to LBJ….’ which is playing to sold-out houses on Niddry St this month. This is the first opportunity for me to witness their Absurdist clowning in the flesh, and I confess I was completely charmed and blown away by this moving take on the idealised 1960s American childhood. Ace and Grasshopper are two young Scouts, covered in mud and badges and on a self-proclaimed mission to see President LBJ’s train as it whistles through their town. Ostensibly this is a simple tale of boyhood, camaraderie and adventure but the setting of the timeframe in early 1960s America foreshadows the boys' later involvement in the Vietnam War and the horrors of Southeast Asia for the...

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Pleasance

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lorna Rose Treen: 24 Hour Diner People – Pleasance

Well, don’t make the same mistake I made by queuing like an idiot at Below instead of Beneath. I should have figured when I was the only one waiting in line! Lorna Rose Treen follows up last year’s Skin Pigeon with a more cohesive, diner-themed hour that’s still packed with the absurdity and oddball characters she’s known for. From a long-armed trucker to a teenage orthodontic nightmare, it’s silly, self-aware, and frequently hilarious, even when it knowingly “fails” at its own stated mission. If you enjoyed Skin Pigeon last year, you will love this. Here, the whole thing revolves around an American diner, albeit a diner as seen through Treen’s surreal lens, and also around her tongue-in-cheek mission statement: having allegedly “broken comedy” in 2023 with her Dave’s Funniest Jo...

Poe – Theatre 2 theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

16Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Poe – Theatre 2 theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall

Edgar Allan Poe's death remains mysterious to this day. He was found delirious and ill in a tavern on 3rd October 1849 and was dead 4 days of later, of what has been suggested to have been anything from illness, suicide, murder, or even non-consensual electoral fraud gone wrong. Devised by Leon Witcomb, (who also plays Shape 2 / Fortunato / Old Man / Doctor) Michael Ward (Shape 1/Servant/Policeman/Dr Moran) and Chris Bedford (Poe) uses Poe's unusual final moments as a starting point, interspersing his final moments in with adaptations of several of his most famous tales. Versions of The Raven, The Cask of Amontillado, The Tell-Tale Heart, Murders In The Rue Morge and The Pit and the Pendulum become a collage of delirious memories, augmented by lights (strobe warning to the photosens...

16Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Ohio – Assembly Roxy

One of the hottest tickets on the Fringe, maybe the hottest, from the producers that brought you Fleabag and Baby Reindeer. Sold out for most of the run before the Fringe even started, but if you are willing to hang around the ticket booth at exactly two hours before showtime you might just be lucky enough to snag the odd seat. This one’s going to tour, and it deserves to.The Bengsons, husband and wife, Shaun and Abigail, call Ohio an “ecstatic grief concert,” which sounds like something dreamed up by a marketing intern on too much kombucha. But within about thirty seconds you realise they mean it, every word. This is part gig, part confession, part secular revival meeting, and part science lecture for people who didn’t know they wanted to learn about the inner ear.Shaun Bengson, bespectac...

16Aug

By Charles PipeNo Comments

Scotland

Go West! – theSpace @ Niddry Street

An entertaining and stimulating piece of absurdist theatre, steeped in Americana and dripping with atmosphere. This skilfully performed and expertly directed two-hander oozes professionalism and confidence from the very start. As the audience enter, the sound design – “white-noise” radio static – and performer Amy Scollard’s onstage presence, tapping a foot impatiently, force the audience to quieten down and settle into the ambience. A handful of props adorn the stage – crates, maps, notebooks, etc – alongside a single cactus. Every element of visual design – props, costumes, set, lighting – share a uniform, monochrome, muted beige palette. This aesthetic mirrors the desolate setting of the play, while also acting as a blank canvas upon which the performers and script paint a vivid ...

Consumption – Paradise in Augustines (The Studio)

16Aug

By Gill LewisNo Comments

Scotland

Consumption – Paradise in Augustines (The Studio)

Something out of the ordinary is being cooked up, with the right ingredients this dark comedy drama could be a tasty satisfying dish. Consumption has real promise and potential with its premise providing the opportunity for plenty of unsettling humour, and delicious farcical opportunities. Unfortunately, this production by Beware of the Theatre doesn’t gather the momentum with severe pacing issues which makes the production feel laboured, reducing the urgency of the situation. We meet Charlie and Vic, an allusive but endearing pair who keep themselves to themselves. They happily live quietly on a protein rich diet, with Vic or the Hillstead Huntsman as he’s more commonly known, arranging regular ‘shopping trips’ to pick up the meat, so to speak. They’re living in w...

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Anthem For Dissatisfaction – Summerhall

A loud, brash, and unapologetically political coming-of-age tale set to a killer soundtrack of working-class anthems, Oasis, Reverend and the Makers, the Manics, Springsteen. Anthem for Dissatisfaction bursts with energy and heart, but in Summerhall’s small Red Lecture Theatre it sometimes plays like it’s still aiming too big. Big performances, big music, big feelings, and just a bit too much of all three. It starts strong, with Jamie talking about his big sister, Sarah, his “own personal NME”, and their shared love of music and the first record they owned from 2008: The State of Things by Reverend and the Makers. From there, we’re into austerity Britain (and Northern Ireland), and a 12-year-old’s question: “What the hell are we spending our money on?” When there’s no lavish lifesty...

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Venue 45 at theSpace

15Aug

By Marcelina KruczyńskaNo Comments

Scotland

A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Venue 45 at theSpace

Who would have thought that the modern TV show Love Island and Midsummer Night’s Dream would have anything in common. One’s a Shakespearian play that despite being a comedy still has Shakespear’s characteristically difficult lines which one could argue often deters modern audiences. While the other is a modern reality TV dating show, which features day to day lingo which makes it relatable. Naturally, one would never pair these two sources of entertainment together and yet New Stagers did just that. Not only did New Stagers connect the dots between these two vastly different means of entertainment but they also managed to mesh them together in their unique adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, the result? An overwhelmingly positive response from the audience packed theatre. The p...