Art is everything a high-profile touring show should be – a carefully thought out, well-directed production of a hit play featuring a big-name cast at the top of their game.
‘If it never convinces, it is always intriguing’: ANTHROPOCENE – Touring ★★★
Anthropocene, from Scottish Opera at the King’s, is a work that is constantly shifting its ground both dramatically and musically; while it is absorbing it never entirely solidifies.
‘Arresting & at times truly astonishing’: TOUCHING THE VOID – Touring ★★★★
There is a depth and grit to Touching The Void at the Lyceum that threatens to carry all before it.
‘Remains a thing of considerable beauty’: CINDERELLA – Edinburgh ★★★★
Scottish Ballet’s Cinderella, back at the Festival Theatre this Christmas, is still a festive treat. Christopher Hampson’s celebrated production of Prokofiev’s ballet, originally seen in New Zealand and first presented in Europe by the company in 2015, has huge reserves of charm and elegance.
‘Tantalises rather than delivers’: MOUTHPIECE – Edinburgh ★★★
There is much to admire about the staging of Mouthpiece at the Traverse, and even more about how it is acted. In the end, however, the play tantalises rather than delivers.
‘Achieves an excellent balance between old & new’: Wendy & Peter Pan – Edinburgh ★★★★
Old and new collide in Wendy & Peter Pan, a beautifully staged Lyceum Christmas production that combines originality with fidelity to the spirit of a much-loved classic.
‘High-octane, utterly feel-good show’: NATIVITY! THE MUSICAL – Touring ★★★★
All Edinburgh Theatre’s Hugh Simpson went along to the Festival Theatre, Edinburgh to catch Nativity! The Musical.
‘Just experience the production as something elusive & unknowable’: RAMBERT: LIFE IS A DREAM – Touring ★★★
Rambert’s Life is a Dream is a peculiar, poetic piece that suffers from pulling in too many directions at once.
‘Genuinely joyous’: MOTOWN THE MUSICAL – Touring ★★★★
Motown The Musical has a strangely conceived storyline but is carried along on a wave of wonderful music.
‘A constant fascination to it all’: THE LAST DAYS OF MANKIND – Edinburgh ★★★★
The Last Days of Mankind, an international co-production at the reborn Leith Theatre, is an exasperating but ultimately worthwhile exploration of the horrors of the 1914-1918 war. Both resolutely adult and appealingly childish, it convinces and confounds almost equally.
‘Extremely seductive’: SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE – Touring ★★★★
Top-notch comic performances and a production that purrs like a Rolls-Royce mean that the touring production of Shakespeare In Love from Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Theatre Royal Bath is extremely seductive.
‘Neither as funny nor as clever as the audience desperately want it to be’: VULCAN 7 – Touring ★★★
There are some brilliantly imaginative elements to the touring production of Vulcan 7 at the King’s. Unfortunately, none of them are in Adrian Edmondson and Nigel Planer’s script.
‘Unashamedly crowd-scaring’: DRACULA – Touring ★★★
Noisy fun is to be had in the touring Dracula at the King’s, in a production that lacks depth but is unashamedly crowd-pleasing, not to say crowd-scaring.
‘There is nothing new being said here’: MACBETH – Touring ★★★
There is a peculiar absence of majesty at the heart of the National Theatre’s touring production of Macbeth.
‘Riotous, joyous expression of the human spirit’: CYRANO DE BERGERAC – Edinburgh ★★★★★
Visually and verbally intoxicating, Cyrano de Bergerac at the Lyceum, Edinburgh is a riotous, joyous expression of the human spirit.
‘Never going to catch fire’: REBUS: LONG SHADOWS – Touring ★★★
Despite boasting the talents of two of Scotland’s greatest writers and a more than adequate cast, Rebus: Long Shadows is nowhere near as compelling as the stage debut of Edinburgh’s most celebrated fictional policeman should be.
‘An outstanding display of craft & commitment from Sharon Small’: STILL ALICE – Touring ★★★
The portrayal of early-onset Alzheimer’s in Still Alice, touring to the King’s all week, will certainly resonate with many, thanks largely to Sharon Small’s magnetic central performance.
‘There is a woozy melancholy at this production’s heart’: TWELTH NIGHT – Edinburgh ★★★★
Shifting emotions are filtered through autumnal sunlight in the Lyceum’s Twelfth Night, with as much defiant sadness on view as happy resolution.
‘Intriguingly promising piece’: LUCILLE & CECILIA – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★
Gleeful physical comedy features in Lucille & Cecilia, a patchy but intriguingly promising piece from new company Bang Average Theatre at C Aquila. (Picture: © Bang Average)
‘Fairly crackles with fun & excitement’: A GOOD ENOUGH GIRL? – Edinburgh Fringe ★★★★
Scene Change Productions, Greenwich Theatre and Nutshell Theatre’s co-production A Good Enough Girl? is enjoyable, involving and deceptively important production.