Pleasance Courtyard Archives - North West End UK

A Pebble In The Road – Pleasance Courtyard

21Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

A Pebble In The Road – Pleasance Courtyard

It was an absolute delight to spend an hour and ten minutes in the company of Ingeborga Dapkunaite, to hear her story of three generations of women, and their experiences living in Lithuania. This is storytelling in its purest form, one person on a stage with no props other than a chair, and with Dapkunaite wearing plain black clothes so that nothing will distract us from the tale of these incredible women. The play moves between locations but is predominately set in the family’s home in Lithuania. We join them on Christmas eve, Dapkunaite shows us the layout of the downstairs of the house, and we learn that they will dine on twelve different dishes with the family sitting around a table with a white tablecloth. Like every family, they have their own traditions at ...

21Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

Drone – Pleasance Courtyard

I have taken time to mull over this show before writing my thoughts. I call it a show and not a play, because it is multi-faceted and it has been very cleverly devised. For the most part I applaud its uniqueness, it challenges convention. But I will discuss what I perceive as a basic need in theatre – storytelling, and did this play get the balance right between being inventive, and telling its story? I had done a little research before heading into the theatre, so I felt reasonably confident in understanding the premise of the show. The organisers very wisely gave out a handout as we walked in, which set out the back story, and the basics of the scenes. For those who had not done some research before going in, this would have helped to ease their mind ...

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much – Pleasance Courtyard

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much – Pleasance Courtyard

Voloz Collective have two propositions at this year's Fringe and having already seen their newer REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up, I found myself watching The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much rather unusually, seeing the company's evolution backwards. Set in 1963, it follows Roger Clement, played by Paul Lofferon, a French advertising executive in New York who’s meticulously ordered existence is disrupted when being late for work saves him from an explosion. What follows is an increasingly improbable international chase, delivered through Voloz's trademark combination of physical theatre, object work, comedy and live music. Lofferon is joined by Voloz co-artistic directors Olivia Zerphy, Emily Wheatman and Sam Rayner, all four having trained at L'...

19Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

A Better Memory – Pleasance Courtyard

There can hardly be two more different approaches to AI and bereavement at this year's Fringe than An Echo in the Void and A Better Memory. Intriguingly, you can see them almost back to back, and as a theatrical double bill they make fascinating companions. Where An Echo in the Void throws us headlong into the Matrix, asking us to grapple with neural networks, alternative realities and a future where 1.5 billion people have effectively disappeared inside an artificial world, A Better Memory brings everything back home. Literally. Ihsan Kerr's new play is less psychological thriller than homespun domestic drama. Eleanor, played by Lubna Kerr, is a widow living with an Alexa-like device containing an AI reconstruction of her dead husband Harold, pla...

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...

Temi Wilkey (Lover Girl) – Pleasance Courtyard (Upstairs)

12Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Temi Wilkey (Lover Girl) – Pleasance Courtyard (Upstairs)

Well… the fact our Lover Girl has Daddy issues explains a bit. She also has Mummy issues, which explains a whole lot more. That’s w-h-o-l-e, with a ‘w’. Having caught something on a poster or flyer predicting ‘low-brow content with high-brow delivery’, no-one will be disappointed with this show. But this wasn’t low brow; it was just open, honest, brave… and funny. And due to the ‘high-brow delivery’ even the double entendres elicited a healthy reaction where usually there would have been only groans. As the hour progresses it turns out this was just the aperitif to some more thought-provoking passages. Temi is single and perplexed. She’s an excellent singer and dancer, taking the audience with her as she rails upon her situation with righteous, frustrated – and comic - indignation. ...

Kevin!!!!! – Forth at Pleasance Courtyard

9Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Kevin!!!!! – Forth at Pleasance Courtyard

Last year Recent Cutbacks gave me one of my picks of the Fringe. Fly, You Fools! was gloriously inventive, while Hold On To Your Butts proved equally adept at turning a much loved blockbuster into breathless, brilliantly silly theatre. So, I arrived at KEVIN!!!!! expecting another hit. Instead, they have given me Christmas in August. This Home Alone parody may be described as something wildly different from the company’s other Fringe offerings, but there is an irony here. KEVIN!!!!! was originally developed around ten years ago and, having seen what Recent Cutbacks have subsequently become, this feels less like progression and more like a retro step too far. The approach is predominantly puppet led, with handmade miniature s...

Kanpur: 1857 – Above at Pleasance Courtyard

9Aug

By Ella BeckleyNo Comments

Scotland

Kanpur: 1857 – Above at Pleasance Courtyard

The Fringe First-winning production follows true events of Indian uprisings against British colonisers, told from the perspective of both the coloniser and the rebel. The siege of Kanpur, formally anglicised as Cawnpore, was a major event of the Indian rebellion of 1857 in which several hundred British were slaughtered by rebels on the banks of the River Ganges. British women and children were held captive in a house named Bibi Ghar where all 200 of them were brutally murdered. In retaliation, British troops captured and executed rebel soldiers by hanging, and on occasion would tie them to a live canon, with an audience of onlookers. &n...

Colin Cloud: Hoax – Pleasance Courtyard Grand

9Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Colin Cloud: Hoax – Pleasance Courtyard Grand

If illusions and magic are your thing or you just fancy a good mind-boggle, Colin Cloud has you covered. From guessing the names and dates of people’s first kisses to getting an audience member to read the audiences’ minds, this show is sure to have you leaving more confused than you started. Cloud has an incredible stage presents: Funny, trustworthy and somewhat other worldly. He is incredible skilled at what he does and despite there being 700 plus people in the room, he made sure to make the whole room feel included. Now I don’t want to spoil too much so the tricks themselves will remain a secret, but the show is well paced and has you on the edge of your seat throughout. Audience participation is guaranteed with a large number of audience being chosen for set tricks or ...

Youth in Flames – Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker 1

6Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Youth in Flames – Pleasance Courtyard, Bunker 1

‘Youth in Flames’ makes a triumphant return to Edinburgh following a sell-out run in New York. Last year, Mimi Martin’s brilliant life-enhancing play garnered a Scotsman Fringe First and a hatful of 5 star reviews. The play tells the story of a British teenager, Millie, coming of age as protests erupt in 2019 against the Hong Kong Government’s proposal to extradite criminal suspects to mainland China. Mimi Martin has written a sparkling script which elicits a mesmerising performance from the playwright herself. She grabs our attention from the very first moment as a strong-willed, sometimes rebellious, schoolgirl venting her feelings about her teachers, peers and parents. There are plenty of light moments in the early scenes but things take a serious turn when Jesse, Millie’s clo...