Posts by David Petherick
La traviata – Scottish Opera
From the rambunctious drinking songs to the pathos of its tragic arias, the staging, costumes and pure flair of the performers in Verdi’s classic La traviata are a treat for the eyes and ears. This is a stunning, vibrant and gloriously staged performance that had Edinburgh’s opening night audience at the Festival Theatre in rapture…
Read MorePreview: Talk Show – Cockpit
Lyceum Theatre – Saturday 28th October 2017, 5pm Free Entry with Donations welcomed Book Tickets Here Talk Show is an exciting new addition to The Lyceum programme, in which artists, authors, and thinkers are invited to come and watch a performance before taking to the stage themselves to share their response to the themes of…
Read MoreLove Song to Lavender Menace
The 1980s were definitely analogue. A bulky cassette player is prominent on the sparse but inventive set, and from time to time cassettes are thrown in, and we hit the play button. The story that unfolds is about the birth, life and ultimate death of a bookshop in the 1980s. On paper, it may sound…
Read MoreCockpit
Walking across the stage to get to my seat, I pass a man holding his shaven head in his hands, who appears unwell. Sitting down to look at an unfamiliar view of the Lyceum – the auditorium slowly filling up seen from onstage, there are ladders leading off stage and up to the circle, and…
Read More(More) Moira Monologues
Ye dinnae huv to be fae Fawkirk to pish your pants at this yin. If you don’t get that sentence, you could struggle with the dialect in this show. But not much. It’s Lowland Scots, Falkirkus Hallglenia Vulgaris variety. But there were Canadians in the audience who, although they admitted it took them a while…
Read MoreMy Audience reviewed by Jo Caulfield
This is a review of the audience watching Jo Caulfield’s performance by Jo Caulfield. First impressions are very important in comedy. The accepted wisdom being, the audience have 2 minutes before the comedian makes up their mind about them. With that in mind, this audience lost me in the first 30 seconds. Does no-one dress…
Read MoreThe Darling Monologues
You’re not likely to meet three much more different women in 50 minutes than Lily, Sadie and Ruby, but all are revealed in acute detail and vivid characterisation by Angela Jackson, until now better known as a writer than an actress. The main character of the Darling Monologues is male – Mark Darling. The clever…
Read MoreGlory on Earth
[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text] A vibrant, youthful and feisty Mary Stuart duels verbally with a dark, dour and determined John Knox. But when you suddenly realise that the harp playing on stage is actually rendering Party Fears Two, an ’80s Associates song, you realise that this play is here to remind us that history can still…
Read MoreHay Fever
Noel Coward was, and still is known for his fast wit, and for snappy dialogue in his writing, and Hay Fever is one of his most enduring works. But it’s difficult to follow a conversation when the dialogue is too fast. Unfortunately, that’s what’s taking place on stage right from the start. The actors playing…
Read MoreThe Winter’s Tale
If ever you wanted to know just how joyous and vibrant Shakespeare can be, come see this production. But don’t expect the cast to be leaping around in tights and cod-pieces. The shift of costume is to the 21st century, and to a very Scottish place – it also has a shift of language and…
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