✭✭✭✭✩ Traumatic honesty:
A refreshing look at the human consequences of war is taken by newcomers, Contemporary Theatre of Scotland, who aren’t afraid to tell us what they really think.
WOJTEK THE BEAR – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✭✩ Love and regret
Theatre Objektiv brings alive a story of love and hope born from the abject trauma of war. While heart-warming, there’s also something unnerving in their telling of the tale.
ADA – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✭✩ Educational and enchanting:
The student run Edinburgh University Theatre Company deliver an intriguing insight into the life of Ada Lovelace, but it might just be a little too clever for its own good.
THE ROCKING HORSE WINNER – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✭✩ Unsettling:
At 30 minutes long, The Rocking Horse Winner from Bracket Productions might only be a bitesized fringe show, but it definitely has some teeth.
AUSTENSIBILITY – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✩✩ Celebratory:
The Mercators are back at the Fringe this year with Austensibility; an engaging dramatised reading celebrating the life and works of Jane Austen.
KEVIN McMAHON: QUANTUM MAGIC – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✩✩ Tricky:
Kevin McMahon entertains as a magician in his Quantum Magic at the Gilded Balloon, but ultimately there’s an sense of deception that doesn’t come from his tricks.
A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✭✩ Swift & dynamic:
An energetic and effervescent force runs through Gin and Tonic Productions take on one of Shakespeare’s most imaginative and delightful comedies.
THE RAVEN – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✭✭ Perfect madness:
Searching for perfection, the Bawsoot Theatre Company gets pretty close in its cleverly crafted production of The Raven.
DEATH AND THE MAIDEN – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✭✭✩ Painfully poignant:
Emotionally charged, Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group’s production of Death and a Maiden is poignant, gripping and full of pain.
THE WITCH OF EDMONTON – Edinburgh Fringe
✭✭✩✩✩ Tragically complex:
Based on a Jacobean play written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621, the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group’s production of The Witch of Edmonton is a curious and intense tragi-comedy that confuses as much as it entertains.
HEARTLANDS – Edinburgh Fringe
In a multi-layered and engaging performance, Urban Fox Theatre Company deliver a wonderfully warm and intimate insight into modern life and modern relationships.
We’re constantly connecting every hour of every day craving that real connection, but are often left facing a void. In Dave Fargnoli’s new play, Heartlands, Charlie Souter and Mari Klee take us on a journey of self discovery. We span their lives in an all too short hour and they show us what might just be the meaning of life.
THE BOOKBINDER – Edinburgh Fringe
There’s something that seems to be missing from modern fairytales. They’re often seen as moral codes, where good always triumphs and the hero always wins the day. And that’s often still the case, but in an increasingly cartoonised world, they’ve become a little too nice, they’ve become a little too safe.
THE BOOKBINDER – Edinburgh Fringe
There’s something that seems to be missing from modern fairytales. They’re often seen as moral codes, where good always triumphs and the hero always wins the day. And that’s often still the case, but in an increasingly cartoonised world, they’ve become a little too nice, they’ve become a little too safe.
SPRING AWAKENING – King’s Theatre, Edinburgh
Based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 German play about repressed sexuality and its manifestations, Spring Awakening gets a a surprisingly refreshing production from MGA that mixes 19th century Germany with rock music. And does so exceptionally well.
CAROUSEL – Touring
Opera North’s production of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Carousel is a curious combination of drama, dance and song that on occasion both hits and misses the mark.
Meant to be a story about love, loss and redemption, this version feels more like a story about anger, resentment and possibly the glorification of domestic abuse.
Opening on a busy fairground scene, we meet the protagonists of the tale: fairground barker Billy Bigelow played by Keith Higham and millworker Julie Jordon, played by Gillene Butterfield. Among the magic of the carousel – and it really is a magical and stunningly visual set designed by Anthony Ward – Billy and Julie seemingly fall in love, losing both of their jobs in the process.
IL TROVATORE – Scottish Opera
✭✭✭✭✩ Weighty drama:
Darkness and light are so intertwined, it is impossible to have one without the other. In SO’s Il Trovatore, love, hope and light burn even stronger when through the darker elements of humanity.
L’elisir d’amore – Edinburgh Grand Opera
✭✭✭✩✩ Intoxicating talent:
Edinburgh Grand Opera’s version of L’elisir d’amore is a reduced arrangement, it’s cut in places and designed to suit the intimate Church Hill Theatre. That doesn’t mean that it cuts out any of the drama.
A View From The Bridge
✭✭✭✩✩ Honourable:
A strange and mysterious 1950s New York is explored in the Consortium Theatre Company’s take on Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, but the production fails to completely convince.
The Woman in Black
There’s a terrifying tale waiting to be told. The Woman in Black, the 1987 stage production that inspired the 2012 film of the same name, shows just how a ghost story ought to be told – delivering two hours of conflict, action and suspense.
- Page 2 of 2
- 1
- 2