For the opening production of the Lyceum’s 50th anniversary season, outgoing artistic director Mark Thomson has assembled a suitably celebratory cast, with Bill Paterson and Brian Cox in the roles of the two men killing time in the countryside waiting for the mysterious Godot in a play where supposedly ‘nothing happens – twice’.
THE DRIVER’S SEAT – Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh
The National Theatre of Scotland’s adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Driver’s Seat has a righteous fury, combined with a drive born out of cleverly harnessed technology and a tight ensemble. However, it does not always seem sure of itself and as a result is a curiosity rather than a convincing piece of theatre. Taking a stress-induced holiday from her job in an unspecified ‘North’, Lise travels to Naples, apparently seeking romance. It is not much of a spoiler to say she will end up murdered, as we are told this very early on. Instead the focus is on how and why this will happen.
Artistic director Mark Thomson to leave Lyceum, Edinburgh
“New adventure” for Lyceum’s AD:
Mark Thomson is to step down as artistic director of the Lyceum next May, 2016, at the end of the theatre’s 50th anniversary season.
The Venetian Twins
✭✭✭✭✩ Double the fun:
Broad, finely honed and never afraid of a corny joke, The Venetian Twins is a huge, rip-roaring thing. It is all rather silly, but is none the worse for that.