Pleasance Dome Archives - North West End UK

18Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

It’s Gonna Blow – Pleasance Dome

It’s 24th August 79 C.E. and Mount Vesuvius is about to blow destroying the whole of Pompeii… or is it? Our City Mayor seems to be saying otherwise, it’s just a little…. “grey hail” is all, absolutely nothing to worry ourselves with. Fishing4chips are back at the fringe with a whole new play about Pompeii, armed with a team of just 4 actors multi-rolling for their lives, they have produced a very funny and very fast paced show. Greeted by the town crier (Sean Wareing), we are led into a local meeting to discuss the current state of affairs within Pompeii and given plenty of opportunity to voice our opinions (warning this show is heavily reliant on audience participation). Once the meeting has begun, we are introduced to many a strange and wonderful character, including those in t...

20Aug

By Saira KunjuvalappilNo Comments

Scotland

Vir Das: The Fool – Pleasance Dome

Vir Das’s The Fool is a masterclass in comedy that brilliantly blends humour with sharp social commentary. As an Emmy Award winner for Best Comedy Series on Netflix, Vir Das sets high expectations—and more than delivers. From the moment he steps on stage, the energy is electric, with the audience erupting in laughter throughout his set. In The Fool, Das tackles topics like racism, religion, and social media, all with his signature wit and humour. One particularly hilarious bit involves him taking his nephew to an art exhibition. The punchline? The child is disappointed because the paintings don’t fit vertically on his phone. Das then launches into a side-splitting riff on how Instagram has made the world vertical, even joking that when he dies, he’ll die vertically so people can tak...

44 Sex Acts in One Week – Pleasance Dome

16Aug

By Gill LewisNo Comments

Scotland

44 Sex Acts in One Week – Pleasance Dome

Hilariously bonkers and face aching funny. A squelchy take on the classic radio play. There’s no room for blushes in this deliciously naughty apocalyptic rom-com. Smutty sex guru Malaine Guttierez suggests that she may be in the possession of some seriously strong pelvic floor muscles by recommending that we ‘grab life by the clunge’, and have as much sex as we possibly can, all we need to do is buy her new book, ‘The 44 Sex Acts that will change your life!’. We’re sold! Guttierez’s hardcopy ends up on the desk of budding journalist Celina, working at the magazine ‘She Squad, and fed up of writing mindless clickbait articles (including a hologram baby announcing its own death). Struggling to pay her rent, and with her precious ‘serious’ writing held to ransom by her dominee...

9Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Breathe – Pleasance Dome

The creative ingenuity in this show is outstanding. The staging is slick; the voices beautifully melded and the music is perfectly crafted, demonstrating terrific inventive scope for blending human creativity with clever technology in an open and transparent way. I was enamored of the clicking fingers that translated into rainfall so that the fungi danced to the drum of nature. It was a transition evoking a touch of pixie dust! Louisa Ashton (co-founder of Sparkle and Dark Theatre Company) is an adept puppeteer and, together with Darcey O'Rourke and Peter Morton, they front this accessible, intelligent and astonishing work. Breathe is an intriguing journey with a sleepy acorn seed who has to survive the winter. It is full of imagination, multifunctional models and storytelling...

Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon – Pleasance Dome

7Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Lorna Rose Treen: Skin Pigeon – Pleasance Dome

Surreally great!! I have a theory that environment can create comedy, that some spaces are just inherently funnier than others. So here, upstairs at Pleasance Dome, where the equally brilliant Crizards stood last Fringe, rising star Lorna Rose Treen rises from the mound. It is a small space, hot ‘intimate’, as they say, and, unsurprisingly, it is full. Treen, emerges from a pile of laundry, reminiscent of a student’s bedroom. The ‘mound’ plays a central role for quick clothes changes, prop retrieval and another brilliant use, which will have you creased up - but no spoilers here!. Almost Pythonesque in her humour, she plays many characters in this quick-fire sketch show, but chief among them is the tough talking nine-year-old brownie, who appears several times, surely a cypher...

Frankenstein (On a Budget) – Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome)

5Aug

By Kathleen MansfieldNo Comments

Scotland

Frankenstein (On a Budget) – Pleasance Dome (Jack Dome)

Lamphouse Theatre returns to Edinburgh with a variation on its winning theme. Frankenstein (On a Budget) follows hot on the heels of their highly successful War of the Worlds (On a Budget). As the title suggests, there’s no fancy set or fancy props or even fancy costumes. What you will find is oodles of creativity and playfulness galore. Tom Fox and Becky Owen-Fisher clearly enjoy their work and their enthusiasm and silliness transfers to the audience whose shoulders shake with laughter. It is a very happy hour of nonsense with a Becky-fan or two in the audience. Fox is our performer, Owen-Fisher the narrator. The show involves a lot of costume changes at speed and more than a handful of home-made props. Fortunately, Fox is multi-talented and can sing and do voices with ease. Owen-Fi...

FLIGHT – Pleasance Dome, Potterrow Plaza, Container 1

1Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

FLIGHT – Pleasance Dome, Potterrow Plaza, Container 1

Ever wanted to sit in a shipping container and play plane passenger in the dark? Well now you can, but you may find this experience to be all the more terrifying than what you’d expect. Not only are you in the dark left with your own imagination, but you are also facing a whole new sensory experience through sound and sensory effects. This is one plane ride that you may need to remind yourself is not real or else face your worst fears and pray that you land safely. I was surprised to find that despite the experience taking place almost entirely in the dark the setting is completely believable as a plane. You step into a big white container, but on the inside, you find a full plane interior completely with windows, rows of actual plane seats and safety brochures. A small screen displays ...

Burning Down The Horse – Pleasance Dome, Queen Dome

1Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

Burning Down The Horse – Pleasance Dome, Queen Dome

If you haven’t heard of the Trojan Horse before then this will be an eye opening and hilarious introduction. As Greek leader Odysseus leads his men (and in this case women too) to war in a giant wooden horse the soldiers are starting to have second thoughts about how safe their plan is. They are also beginning to have doubts about their leader. Will the attack go to plan or is there a fair few limitations to storming a city in a giant flammable wooden horse? Fishing4Chips have put together a brilliantly well-rounded historical comedy centering around the famous Greek mythology. This highly immersive show is sure to make you laugh as well as to incite the “power of the people” into you. We as an audience are the soldiers, we are being marched to battle and we are being yelled at to stay ...

29Aug

By Anna ChiariNo Comments

Scotland

Beautiful Evil Things – Pleasance Dome

Deborah Pugh’s one-woman performance, presented by Ad Infinitum Theatre Company, a co-creation between Deborah Pugh and George Mann, draws inspiration from Greek myths, channelling their epic power through a contemporary feminist lens. Beautiful Evil Things revolves around Medusa and her story. As she recounts the events that led to her head adorning Athena’s shield, she captivates the audience with tales of three Greek heroines: the fearless Amazonian queen, Penthesilea, engaged in a captivating duel with Achilles during the Trojan War; the prophetic Cassandra, cursed with the gift of foresight but doomed to be unheard; and the vengeful mother Clytemnestra, who seeks justice for her slain child. With its grand storytelling and potent script, the performance envelops us with the ...

12Aug

By Stephanie DunkNo Comments

Scotland

Cowboys and Lesbians – Pleasance Dome

As I stepped into the theatre, the twang of country music surrounded me, setting the tone for the story that was about to be told. Each backdrop on the stage meticulously hand-painted, setting the scene for a world waiting to be explored, with this a ladder and a simple box, unassuming yet intriguing, overall, a very charming and well crafted set The audience buzzed, it was clear that this was a full house, ready for what we were about to see. The show started and we were transported into the lives of ordinary teenagers, casually chatting about crushes on teachers, which was nostalgic and familiar to most. The play developed into a coming-of-age narrative; a story that resonated with experiences many LGBT people have all shared. The transitions were accompanied by music that p...