The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall Archives

Operation Market Garden – The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall

21Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Operation Market Garden – The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall

Taken mostly verbatim from Welsh paratrooper Neville Neads' wartime diary and letters to his fiancée, Operation Market Garden was adapted by his great-granddaughter Izzy Lane (who also produces, assistant-directs and acts in the show), directed by Izzy Driscol, and produced by This Inspired Theatre Company. The show's title is somewhat a misnomer, as the disastrous titular Operation Market Garden (specifically the Battle of Arnhem) really only takes up the first ten or so minutes of the show, with the rest covering the 200+ days Neads (played by Macsen Llewelyn) and his battalion spent as POWs life in consequence of its failure. Lane divides up her great-grandfather's recollections between Neads and his fellow paratroopers, which works well in most places, except with Neads' frie...

Witches Corner – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

19Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Witches Corner – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

Walking into the space to see Witches Corner, the audience is welcomed with a soft song being performed as they settle into their seats, perfectly setting up the tone of the show. Blending the stories of real women convicted as witches with modern women’s struggles, Eilidh Smith’s play is a lesson in Scottish history and a feminist rallying cry packaged into a 50 minute music theatre production. Stepping into the accused women’s shoes, it is incredible how contemporary their pleas for justice sound even though we like to tell ourselves that the world has changed since the witch hunts. And unfortunately the men’s points of view for convincing these witches isn’t unfamiliar either. Similar points of view can easily be found on the manosphere side of TikTok. But it makes sense. After a...

Suggestions of the Unexpected – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

10Aug

By Oliver GigginsNo Comments

Scotland

Suggestions of the Unexpected – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

The creators of Any Suggestions, Doctor? The Improvised Doctor Who Parody (who are also called Any Suggestions) return after a limited 2023 Fringe run with their improvised anthology in the style of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror, or whatever that Roald Dahl TV series was called. With three tales mixing the supernatural and the morality tale - always with humour of course - there is much variety on show, and being a show that changes every night, this is one of the rare occasions when I can illustrate my point without fear of spoilers. On the night I attended, the stories we saw involved an AI (kind of) taking over the world, witchcraft to win a tiddlywinks championship, and a pheasant infestation in an ancestral manor, all based on answers to questions asked of the audience by the...

5Aug

By Caroline WorswickNo Comments

Scotland

After Troy – the Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

Following the battle of Troy, what was left for the survivors? Homeless and suffering the loss of loved ones, the women of Troy grieved on the past, and faced uncertainty about their future. Based upon the tragedy ‘Trojan Women’ written by Euripides which was first performed in Athens in 415 BC, this exploration into the aftermath of the defeat of the Trojans following ten years of war, tells the tale of the women who were left behind to pick up the pieces. Presented by Badminton School, the story is weaved with actual threads, each character has her own thread, and when they share their experiences, they weave another part of life’s tapestry. Andromache is grieving over the loss of her husband; the Trojan prince Hector, she must now face the loss of her chil...

Dreams of Anne Frank – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

11Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

Dreams of Anne Frank – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

This is a gripping production about the experiences of Amsterdam teenager, Anne Frank, who was forced into hiding from the Nazis in 1942. The young actors from Zenith Youth Theatre in Bath are to be congratulated on an assured production. It’s a tragic tale but Bernard Kops’s play, loosely based on Anne Frank’s famous diary, provides plenty of amusing moments. Anne, along with her parents and older sister, Margot, hide in a ‘secret annexe’ of a warehouse because, as a Jewish family, they fear for their lives when the German army enters Amsterdam. They have to share the cramped living accommodation with another Jewish family, Mr and Mrs Van Daan and their son, Peter. And also, with Mr Dussel, a dentist. They live in the annexe for more than two years and unsurprisingly ...

Before The Drugs Kick In – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

9Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

Before The Drugs Kick In – The Space @ Surgeon’s Hall

‘Three months ago I cut my wrists in front of my two children.’ No, this wasn’t an easy watch. Maria DeCotis plays 62-year-old Lynn T Walsh, a woman deemed a danger to those around her, isolated from her family for 20 years in a mental asylum in America. She’s given very little help but lots of ‘medicine’. Pretty much treated as a criminal, she points out the ridiculous double-standards at work given the behaviour of certain well-known film and TV people. Her ‘crime’; an almost subconscious emotional reaction to the stresses associated with bringing up a family more or less singlehandedly in a suburban setting where the simple act of going out for a walk attracts the wrong sort of comments. Incarcerated she may be but in her mind she becomes a 28-year-old stand-up and humorous...