Posts Tagged ‘review’
Mr Blue Sky
Mr Blue Sky is a piece of stunning, vibrant and life-affirming theatre that had me horrified, aching, and laughing, and by the end, I felt like simply getting up and dancing. The raw (and sometimes dark) humour coming from the stage was like a bolt of electricity. Mr Blue Sky. Photograph by Andy Catlin. Image…
Read MoreThe Belle’s Stratagem
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 MoreThe Lover
Brevity can aid clarity. The Lover was a short book, this is a relatively short theatre / dance performance, and this is a relatively short review. The Lover is beautiful: visually sparse but still both epic and intimate, with stunning physical moves and choreographed interaction, and a soundtrack that has has you aching to get…
Read MoreThe Arabian Nights
Christmas: Children. Stories. Magic. Farting Dogs. Chess Playing Monkeys. The Arabian Nights has it all, and it’s a delightful, beautiful and thoroughly enjoyable bit of theatre for all the family. The staging and scenery (and even some of the magical scenery changes) are quite spectacular, and the dialogue is fast, funny and spellbinding. It has all the…
Read MoreLa 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…
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