Pleasance at EICC Archives - North West End UK

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 ...

17Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Endgame – Pleasance at EICC

Probably Samuel Beckett's second most famous work after Waiting For Godot, Endgame is, perhaps not coincidentally, a much bleaker play than the one famously known as the play in which nothing happens (and twice). The play's mix of the absurd and the nihilistic are not for everyone. This material is not relatable or made of easily defined punchlines, and anyone coming in purely off the name of a famous comedy writer or the MCU team-up could be in for a shock. Set in a houser in a post-apocalyptic landscape, the play follows Hamm (director Henry Maynard), his servant Clov (Simon Gleave) and Hamm's two dustbin-bound parents, Nagg (Derek Elwood) and Nell (Annabel Arden). Maynard brings a Shakespearan gravitas to the seat-bound and petty Hamm, while Elwood and Arden in their bins a...

Disenchanted! The Hit Musical – Pleasance at EICC

8Aug

By Torya HughesNo Comments

Scotland

Disenchanted! The Hit Musical – Pleasance at EICC

The phrase “Disney princess” immediately brings to mind some well-known stereotypes: breathy voices, ultra feminine demeanour, and a desire to live happily ever after with a handsome prince. The cast of “Disenchanted!” manage to debunk all of this in their opening number, led by a punky Snow White who is not inclined to be anyone’s fairytale bride. “Disenchanted!” began over a decade ago as an off-Broadway production but only premiered earlier this year in the UK. Times have changed in recent years, and female characters in children’s films are much better represented overall. However, the original princesses are so well known that this parody still works effectively. What doesn’t always work is the structure of the musical – effectively a song cycle with a mixture of solos and grou...

Sh!tFaced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing – Pleasance at EICC

17Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Sh!tFaced Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing – Pleasance at EICC

Shakespeare is already a dramatic affair, especially when it comes to Much Ado About Nothing, but what happens when one of the play's leads is drunk? Sh!t Faced Shakespeare takes a cast of professionally trained Shakespearean actors and then gets one of them drunk leading to what can only be described as beautifully brilliant chaos. The cast must then attempt to perform a shortened performance of the chosen Shakespeare text whilst putting up with the drunken adlibs of their inebriated cast mate. To make things more interesting a different cast member will take on the role of the drunk each night along with a different character in the show, you are guaranteed that the show will be different every night of the run. The show is safe enough with the drunk being supervised at all ...

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits – Pleasance at EICC

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Margolyes & Dickens: The Best Bits – Pleasance at EICC

Seventy minutes with an 83-year-old who’s got all her marbles and oodles of talent besides was one brilliant way to spend a rainy afternoon in Edinburgh. Playing to a full house of 1200 capacity, Miriam Margolyes’ fan-base is younger than her which, of course, didn’t matter a jot to this outspoken and wonderfully entertaining woman. She had the crowd in the palm of her hand right from the get-go. There were Margolyes followers in their twenties upwards, the younger members presumably fans of her outings in the Harry Potter series of films. My favourite Margolyes performance was the fabulous Italian nurse she played in Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo and Juliet. She was deliciously nuanced and funny in that role, bringing it to life as I’d never seen it before or since. We listened to Sachmo...

6Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Arturo Brachetti: SOLO – EICC

Being a reviewer has its pluses. When promoters, The Pleasance, provided an extra ticket especially so that my daughter could accompany me to this one, they created a beautiful father/daughter moment which will outlast me! A magical hour of entertainment, by one of the true masters. Italian national treasure, Arturo Brachetti, is in town with several truck loads, a circus-full if you will, of props, costumes and surprises, the sheer scale of which will take your breath away. Regarded by many as the greatest, The Guinness Book of World Records lists Brachetti as the world’s fastest and most prolific quick change artist, having achieved a staggering 250,000 costume changes throughout his career. Some of the props are a bit ragged at the edges, but then so is Arturo. It kinda add...

11Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Iain Dale: All Talk with Nicola Sturgeon MSP – Pleasance at EICC

Nicola Sturgeon received a rapturous reception when she walked onto the stage. The audience was overwhelmingly on her side with regular outbursts of applause in response to her comments. This was her first extended interview since she stepped down as Scotland’s First Minister five months ago. Her interviewer was the broadcaster, Iain Dale, who is also interviewing other politicians at the Festival Fringe. Although a Conservative, you cannot tell from Dale’s questions. His approach is conversational, not confrontational. Dale has a good rapport with Sturgeon who he’s interviewed twice before. It’s a wide-ranging interview on a host of subjects including some very personal questions. Dale reminds Sturgeon that at the start of the year she said she had ‘plenty left in the tank’ so wh...

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet – Pleasance at EICC

10Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Sh!t-faced Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet – Pleasance at EICC

Two households, both alike in dignity In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unlean, And booze makes one of the lovers rather quite mean! Shit-faced Shakespeare are at it again, turning another Shakespeare classic into comedy gold as one of our leads is absolutely bladdered. We join a cast of incredible, traditionally trained actors as they put on a condensed version of the well known play Romeo and Juliet, or at least they attempt to do so. Each night a different cast member will increase the difficulty of both their job and their peers by getting drunk, and if the audience doesn’t think them drunk enough more alcohol will simply be provided leaving you with a version of Romeo and Juliet like y...

Are You Being Murdered? – Pleasance at EICC

9Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Are You Being Murdered? – Pleasance at EICC

What would happen if Agatha Christie met Father Brown? This seems to be asked by David Semple, the acclaimed writer of the famous series branded BBC ONE, in bringing to the stage the one man shows entitled "Are You Being Murdered?" A show focused exclusively on the talents of "Allo Allo" actor Arthur Bostrom, capable of bringing together comedy and mystery, suspense and social satire. Set in the golden age of old BBC sitcoms, the show proves to be marked by a glossy nostalgia that winks at a specific generation and targets that generation specifically. Although with its lively monologue and ready wit, the show seems to take up, like a dress worn out by too much use, certain stereotypes of a genre unable to speak to a contemporary audience with sharper and more irreverent tastes. The...

8Aug

By Kat CliffordNo Comments

Scotland

Buffy: Revamped – Pleasance at EICC

As a long-time fan of Buffy, I had high hopes for this show, and I was not disappointed. This show is a rip-roaring ride through 90’s nostalgia. Brendan Murphy is like a one-man time machine pulling in jokes and references from all branches of the fruitful 90’s tree. He is an amazing storyteller, and you can feel his passion for Buffy speak for itself through his energetic performance. This is a well-crafted piece of theatre that uses all manner of media to set the scene, songs, video clips, theatre, props, poems, audience participation, lighting, sound effects and stand up, this show has it all! This show leans hard into the cult, campy fun of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and gives it a silly, original update for the 2020’s , Buffy: Revamped is a very self-aware show that manages to poke f...