Pleasance Dome Archives - North West End UK

21Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Bebe Cave: Swoon – Pleasance Dome

You have to marvel at the sheer industry of Bebe Cave. Swoon is not simply an hour of character comedy. Cave appears to have swallowed a substantial chunk of Victorian art history, constructed a beautifully gilded Pre-Raphaelite world of curtains, frames and tableaux, assembled an armoury of hats and costumes, and then decided to perform all of the people inhabiting it herself. The result is extremely funny and occasionally almost impossible to keep up with. Cave's starting point is John Everett Millais's Ophelia and Elizabeth Siddal, the woman who modelled for one of the most recognisable paintings in British art. From there, through the fictional Bertrude Siddal, she charges headlong into Rossetti, Millais, Holman Hunt, Victorian womanhood, beauty, madness, mu...

A Ghost Among the Living – Queen Dome at Pleasance Dome

18Aug

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

A Ghost Among the Living – Queen Dome at Pleasance Dome

Box Tale Soup are back at it again with another spine-tingling creation. A Ghost Among the Living takes us into the dark and timeless tales of Edgar Allan Poe, exploring themes of horror, murder and consumption. With a cast of two well synchronized performers, this is a masterclass in visual theatre and never scrimps on the finer details. Set within the Pleasance Queen Dome, our actors have very few places to hide on this round thrust stage, however with every movement choreographed and thoughtfully directed, neither performer drops their compelling performance for even a second. A moving set is constructed out of boxes and arches, all hand made by the company and all multifunctional. The cast effectively use their set to transport us to labyrinth like catacombs, lavish parties and ...

15Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Spencer Jones (Dogs) – Pleasance Dome

‘You off to work Dad?’ ‘Yeah son, I’m off to work.’ Observing the prop-strewn set one can only speculate on who has the tidiest room in the Jones household. It definitely won’t be a dull place. The title of tonight’s show is ‘Dogs’ and it’s not so much a theme as a frame on which to hang each chaotic episode. Brilliant, illuminated chaos, the set a physical representation of our performer’s unruly, hilariously distracted mind. Surreal, and fascinating, too. Surveying this as we take our seats a geezer we’ve all encountered in the night-time economy blunders into our midst, apologising, ‘I’m a man with three pints’, cranking up the anxiety with the plea ‘I need a wee.’ With the fourth wall in ruins and the tone established, Jones arrives at his set, removes his ‘big heid’ an...

REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up – Pleasance Dome

15Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up – Pleasance Dome

Sometimes reviewing at the Fringe is difficult. Sometimes you spend half the walk home wondering what on earth you have just seen and how you are going to write about it. And sometimes they make it very easy for you. REDACTED: The Cover,Up of a Cover,Up of a Cover,Up is brilliant. There is something here that reminds me of the extraordinary Foley work I enjoyed in Fly, You Fools! at the Pleasance Courtyard last year. Voloz Collective take that idea and turn it into something approaching live cinematic Foley, four actors creating an entire visual world while musician Jonny Venvell, tucked into the corner with percussion and strings, does much of the heavy lifting in establishing its sound. The integration is beautiful. Music, movement, sound effects and physical theatre...

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...