Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)

Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of)

Pride and Prejudice* (*sort of) This is a stunning, joyous, rapture to watch. It is a total riot of fun from start to finish. Jan Austen’s iconic and timeless classic is given a funny, feminist reboot, with a cast of six sassy young women on stage, playing each and every role, female and male, with…

Read More

Viv Groskop: Vivalicious

Viv Groskop: Vivalicious

A show about self-help in the coming age of President Oprah Winfrey. Everything seems to be about reinvention, and Viv Groskop wants to be the best possible version of herself. So why is that so hard? Does there come a time when you should just give up and accept you are not that great a…

Read More

Jo Caulfield: Killing Time

Jo Caulfield Edinburgh Festival 2018

Jo Caulfield walks on to stage, sizes up the audience in moments, and proceeds to question, mock and taunt them. The venue offers a welcoming bar at the side of the room, and is packed out even this early on in the run – early booking would definitely be prudent to make sure you catch…

Read More

More Moira Monologues

Alan Bissett as Moira Bell in More Moira Monologues

Bisset, male, author. Plays Moira, female, cleaner. Completely straight. And she’s a foul mouthed, deeply funny, chain-smoking delight. It’s easy to see why this show won a Fringe First in 2017. This is deeply confessional, but still light as a meringue, and all at the same time, covers acres, hectares of difficult, sensitive and tricky…

Read More

The Moira Monologues

Alan Bissett as Moira Bell in The Moira Monologues

Falkirk. Or tae be mair exact, Fawkirk. This is a sheer classic, and is both theatre and comedy, making a welcome return 8 years after its first appearance at the Fringe in 2010. And it’s still fast, fresh and very funny. The language is explicit lowland Scots, Fawkirk variety, and Bisset plays Moira Bell, a…

Read More

The Belle’s Stratagem

(L-R) John Ramage, Nicola Roy, Grant O'Rourke, Helen Mackay, Richard Conlon, John Kielty in The Belle's Stratagem. Photo credit Mihaela

Oh, this is a gem. A pure, brilliant sparkling gem! This is glorious and hugely enjoyable. The Lyceum has restored a toweringly funny and important comedy to the stage, and it is something you must witness. The term ‘restoration comedy’ has been rewritten here to cement the reputation of along-neglected playwright Hannah Cowley and that…

Read More

My Audience reviewed by Jo Caulfield

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 More

Can I Stop You There?

Can I stop you there?

In this show, the compères interrupt the comedians. Several times over. And every night, it’s a new set of comedians and a new set of interruptions. Add to this the fact you’re in an intimate venue, it’s after 11pm, and many of the audience are ‘quite receptive to laughter’ or ‘a wee bit drunk’ and…

Read More

Jo Caulfield – Awkward Conversations

Well this is awkward… Jo Caulfield picked me out of the audience and lampooned my lovable, hangdog Humphrey Bogart / Droopy good looks. And then got other people to pick on me. And only later as I left did I whisper that I was reviewing her show. Awkward! But then, that’s what happens when you…

Read More

Tiffany Stevenson: Mad Man

Tiffany Stevenson - Mad Man

  God help you if one day Tiffany Stevenson decides to mock you. Her voice, whether it’s making Jack Daniels disappear the less acceptable aspects of the Deep South, it’s imitating Australian hipsters, or it’s mocking Jennifer Lopez’s ass-poking video antics, she absolutely nails the intonation, timing and tone. She appears onstage in a shocking…

Read More