Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Saturday, April 12

Tag: Scottish Storytelling Centre

Ensemble Teams – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

Ensemble Teams – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Throughout you could feel both Ensemble Teams slowly guide you into the unpredictable and often unhinged nature of improvisation. Coached by Deborah Tarica and Alison Thea-Skot the two teams after one day of preparation took to the stage. Both teams were comprised of eight people. Interestingly despite all eight people standing on stage throughout the performance, once the scene started, they faded into the background and only became noticeable again once they entered centre stage or wherever the main action took place. Tarica’s and Thea-Skot's influence was clear since there were similar methods employed by both groups. For example, both employed the same method to enter or finish a scene. Multiple times actors communicated through a tap on the shoulder or someone yelling “scene” which en...
Kolliflower & Stupid & Favourite Cousin – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

Kolliflower & Stupid & Favourite Cousin – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Irresistibly funny, completely bonkers and chaotically out of pocket is the best way in which Kolliflower & Stupid & Favourite Cousin can be described. The three acts playing sequentially one after the other managed to keep the audience entertained with their improvised madness. Thanks to the tiered seating the view of the stage was impeccably clear meaning the audience could dedicate more of their attention to the acts themselves rather than on trying to avoid heads that may have been obscuring the view. Kolliflower kicked off the performance in their 80s styled fits. The usual duo consists of Kimi and Holly however on this occasion Jiavani stepped in to cover for Holly. The duo interacted with the audience asking for a word and the ever so eager crowd provided them with on...
All-Star Armando – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

All-Star Armando – Scottish Storytelling Centre

After a weekend full of improv for the participants of The Edinburgh International Improv Festival, in came the All-Star Armando team to finish the festival off with a bang! Consisting of performers: Keiko Agena, Alex Berg, Lilan Bowden, Todd Fasen, Alex Fernie and Jiavani along with a couple of invited guests from other productions within the festival. As with any improv show there can be a fine line between creating a priceable show and producing something that can be compared to a bunch of performers playing warm up games. A structure is needed but not so much that the show is scripted, something to work from and ground the performers without losing the audience's trust. In this case the cast’s structure came in the form of a chosen word from the audience and a guest actor spouting a...
Raintown and Bumnotes – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

Raintown and Bumnotes – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Never in my life did I expect to see grown men pretending to be raccoons, or see the bible rewritten to be about jelly babies instead of Jesus, but I suppose that’s the fun of the Edinburgh International Improv Festival.  In the penultimate double bill of Saturday night at the Scottish Storytelling Centre we saw the Irish musical improv group Bumnotes belt out show tunes completely off the cuff, with Glasgow-based group Raintown performing right afterwards. Musical improv is becoming increasingly popular and after watching Bumnotes’ performance I have no questions as to why.  Funnily enough the suggested word was ‘garbageman’ which was a reference to an earlier performance done by The Imposters - clearly the audience are enjoying the improvisation as they are coming back f...
ImprompTwo & Nice Things & Hog – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

ImprompTwo & Nice Things & Hog – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Three for the price of one. A busy hour flashed by, we’ll try to remember... First up were ImprompTwo (Kathy and Joe Rinaldi from across the pond) illustrating several comic aspects of a New York apartment block; the Deli on the ground floor where debates on sandwich fillings leads to a customer’s ejection, a couple’s upstairs apartment where debates concerning  the title of a podcast (is it Love or Romance?) lead to some testy exchanges, and a further debate about what to do when an unwanted guest threatens a visit. Funny, entertaining, slick, with snappy dialogue, but was it improvised? Next up were Nice Things (Charles Dundas and Steven Millar) who took the audience input and ran with it, kicking off with bus drivers Terry and Terence and the surreal suggestion that a sma...
The Imposters and Funfdollar – Edinburgh International Improv Festival
Scotland

The Imposters and Funfdollar – Edinburgh International Improv Festival

Hosted by the Scottish Storytelling centre, the Edinburgh International Improv Festival hit us with three full nights of improv by actors from all across the globe.  In this double bill we saw The Imposters from Shetland tell a tale fit for a soap opera, followed by Funfdollar all the way from Berlin who left us in stitches with their dry, quick-witted humour. Kicking things off with The Imposters, this group took the word ‘dragon’ from the audience.  How this improvisation transpired from the word dragon I am unsure as the only reference to the source word was a clever remark from one of the players, with him saying “this is dragging on.” Get it?  To begin with it did seem that the team was struggling a little for inspiration but once they found the basis of their im...
An American Love Letter to Edinburgh – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

An American Love Letter to Edinburgh – Scottish Storytelling Centre

This is a delightful, often hilarious, show beautifully performed by Rick Conte. It will appeal not just to lovers of Edinburgh and history buffs but to anyone who loves a good yarn. Written by Conte and Matt Rudkin, and directed by Andy Cannon, this is the fascinating story of two visits made to Edinburgh in 1759 and 1771 by Benjamin Franklin. ‘Renaissance Man’ Franklin wrote a book on electricity, but is of course most famous as one of the Founding Fathers of the USA. He edited and was one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Franklin had initially been sent over from Philadelphia to London to try to persuade the sons of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, to pay tax. While in London he met several fellow intellectuals including Sir John Pringl...
LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre

I am afraid of drawing. I don’t know why. This play is set in a drawing class, and the audience is invited to sketch and doodle throughout. Now is the time to embrace my phobia. I am welcomed by The Artist (Leo MacNeill), a reassuring presence. “We are all artists”, he says. I am given paper and pencils, but no eraser. Every mark we make remains on the page. Estelle (Maria MacDonell, who also wrote the piece) cuts through The Artist’s whimsy with a shard of cynicism, at least to begin with. She thinks he’s pretentious. The Artist helps Estelle open up, and she tells us about her life, her hopes and regrets, her love of graveyards and her career as an artist’s model. Estelle tells her story through the medium of folk tales. Afterwards, MacDonnell tells me that Estelle is so damage...
Sing Along With the Fairy Song – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

Sing Along With the Fairy Song – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Sing Along With the Fairy Song is Edinburgh Fringe for Early Years. An elegant wooden chair, a stool, two pedestals of white roses, a projection of frolicking fairies, bird song and the veteran storyteller for children, Janis Mackay, warmly welcome a select audience. Mackay is experienced with little ones and greets the fairy-winged and magic-wanded little people with charm and encouragement. This is an interactive piece and the young audience repeat the actions and songs with enthusiasm as they join Mackay in an imaginary hunt for fairies in the woods or hiding amid the flowers and maybe secretly living under miniature hillocks. It took a little time to teach the songs and draw out flower and tree names from the youngsters, but once over their shyness, three little girls did not...
Elliot Bibby – The Best of Bibby – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Scotland

Elliot Bibby – The Best of Bibby – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Perhaps more than any other performer at Edinburgh’s Magicfest 2023, Elliot Bibby is unashamedly a comedian and entertainer first and a magician second. There is certainly no shortage of laugh-out-loud moments from this cheeky and charming magic man which make it quite different to all the others I’ve reviewed so far on the programme. Of course, comedy within magic is nothing new. Add a funny hat to the tall, dark Bibby and the Cooperesque comparison would be inescapable. No more so than when Bibby carries out the hilarious Bottle Glass, Glass bottle routine, which was one of Tommy’s absolute highlights. A lady behind me was in total hysterics during this sketch as bottle after bottle appeared on the ever diminishing table! Whilst comedy, can, of course, be a strength when combined ...