Posts Tagged ‘edinburgh’
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 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 MoreThe Artist as Explorer
When I last met Richard Demarco, he was talking about retiring, stepping back from the gesamtkunstwerk which is his life and persona. He said ‘…there were no more five year plans.’ Of course this was a rueful reflection on his unique contribution, not only to to the arts in Edinburgh, but his advocacy of the…
Read MoreOlder Wiser Smarter Meaner
Hilarious, witty and intelligent Jo Caulfield keeps the audience laughing throughout her whole show, with her charismatic sense of humour and priceless stories about friends. This will make you remember all of your friends’ annoying habits and personality traits. The show flows so smoothly, without a moment of hesitation, as Jo never fails to make…
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 MoreLocker Room Talk
[This is a #TwoReviews™ Review – Two different reviews of the same performance] #TwoReviews is a literary creation owned by EdinburghFestival.org Locker Room Talk by Catherine Carnie Locker Room Talk by James O’Brien The slimy, self satisfied and sexually soaked voice of our current President of the Free World – which booms at the beginning…
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…
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