A New Life (A Mini Musical) at the Traverse every lunchtime this week is certainly not ‘mini’ in its emotional scope or its ambition.
‘Spine tingling’: CHICAGO – Edinburgh Playhouse (UK Tour) ★★★★
Chicago’s tale of murder, greed, corruption, violence, exploitation, adultery and treachery whispers back into the Edinburgh Playhouse with a thrum of double bass, a twitching off-beat on the drums and a haunting moan of muted trumpet.
‘Definitely picks up the spirit of the era’: WARHOL: BULLET KARMA – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
Garry Roost’s play Warhol: Bullet Karma focuses on the events around his shooting by Valerie Solanas (this ground was covered from a more feminist perspective in Femme Fatale).
‘Proves to be as entertaining as it can be’: SYD – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
Arthur Smith pays homage to his (extra) ordinary Dad in Syd which premiered at 2018’s Fringe and is now an online show recorded at Falmouth and being streamed via the Pleasance.
‘Thoroughly gruesome but mesmerising’: UNDER THE FLOORBOARDS – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
The real life figure of Ed Gein looms large in horror films and literature. Most famously he was the direct inspiration for Norman Bates in Psycho and his terrible influence can also be found haunting The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Silence Of the Lambs. But I’m not sure his real story has been told quite so directly as it is in Under The Floorboards which played live at the Edinburgh Fringe and has now emerged as an online performance film at this year’s Festival.
‘Takes care to balance the comical & tragical with flair’: LOST IN LOVE – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
Lost in Love is a new play presented by Flow Stage Productions. A brash and funny lady, Emily (Rachel Pryde) has something to tell about her life and the men in it.
‘Perfect timings’: IT ALL – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★
What does it mean to have “It All?” I am not sure the answer to that question can ever be answered as it means something different to everyone. Cameron Cook raises this point several times throughout his debut solo show It All.
‘A strong performance in a play which will entertain film buffs’: Bette Davis Ain’t For Sissies – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
Bette Davis Ain’t For Sissies (the title refers to a Davis quote of some years later about old age) references the women’s lot in the Golden Age of Hollywood – exploitative auditions, unequal pay (a topic still current in movies in the 21st century), a string of love affairs, the expectation to look ‘just so’.
‘A good balance of humour & compassion’: TILL LOVE DO US PART – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review) ★★★★
Till Love Do Us Part isn’t one of the flashiest productions on the digital fringe in terms of its technical style, but the writing carries it through.
‘Inventive & funny’: PLANET OF THE GRAPES – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
Over on the ZOOTV platform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, you’ll find Planet of the Grapes, a delicious livestream performed live in New York City. I’m told that on Sunday the city was being battered by a hurricane, but it didn’t seem to cast a shadow on the show.
‘An absolute pleasure to watch’: ROSSETTI’S WOMEN – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★★
Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s raunchy, eccentric and outrageous sex life has been written and brought to the stage by writer and director Joan Greening in Rossetti’s Women.
‘A celebration of human indomitability’: LOOK, NO HANDS – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
A warm and entertaining solo play, Lila Clements’ Look, No Hands has some distinctive features which marks it out from many other confessional shows of a similar type.
‘Leaves an uplifting note embracing some serious girl power’: LOVEFOOL – Edinburgh Fringe
Written and performed by Rachel E. Thorn, Lovefool makes nostalgia a fun treat for those who can take hints involving pop music lyrics and a magazine’s cringe sections. If that’s you, this show will tell you what you want, what you really really want.
‘One the most powerful performances I have ever watched’: 1902 – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★★
The atmospheric setting for 1902 has been set in a disused arches space in an industrial area of Leith. It’s a bit off the Fringe beaten track but I can assure you it’s well worth the trip.
‘A place of comedy & heart-warming friendship’: MADHOUSE – Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Welcome to the Madhouse, a place of chaos and confusion, typical of student house-sharing. A group of six friends gives a bittersweet glimpse of early adulthood, a path as messy as the kitchen table around which they party, study, and share their stories.
‘Taking off in an unexpected direction’: The Little Glass Slipper As Performed By The Queen of France & Her Friends / Metamorphosis – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review)
Two well known tales with a twist: The Little Glass Slipper As Performed By The Queen of France And Her Friends and Metamorphosis. The second piece now tops my personal Edinburgh Fringe online chart.
‘Accomplished & memorable’: Suffragettes – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review) ★★★★★
Nuworks Theatre, from Australia, bring their lively and passionate musical (written, directed and designed by David Dunn, with choreography by Meg Dunn) about the fight for women’s suffrage to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and Suffragettes is an impressive addition to the work around this topic (see also, Sylvia, a musical WIP which ran at the Old Vic a few years ago).
’It’s the humanity which counts’: AFTERPARTY – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★
Packed with expletives and off-colour observations, Afterparty from New Celts Productions and F-Bomb Theatre at theSpace’s Triplex theatre pulls no punches in its humorous but bitter-sweet story set in small town Scotland.
‘Satirical ridicule on familiar faces’: THUNDERJAB 3 – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★
If you are looking to end the day with an abundance of laughter then definitely go and check out Eric Robinson in Thunderjab 3 at the Bevan Theatre in The Surgeons Hall Space.
‘Shrewd, sensitive & sad’: CALL ME ELIZABETH – Edinburgh Fringe (Online review) ★★★★
In Call Me Elizabeth Kayla Boye takes on the difficult task of writing about, and portraying the icon which was Elizabeth Taylor (1932-2011). Just like Marilyn Monroe, you feel you already know everything about her; the marriages, the child star turned child woman in the Hollywood machine, her constant health battles, the diamonds, her activism.