Amy Hanson - Page 4

The Odyssey is one of the most iconic stories of all time, telling the tale of Odysseus' long and epic journey home from the Trojan War.  This engaging take on it from Dutch company Patchwork Theatre offers the chance to see the Greek tale in several new ways.

Few years in recent memory have included such a host of dramatic events, so it is perhaps no surprise that the turbulent time that was 2016 has been chosen as the subject of this new musical from Evolution Theatre.

Starring Richard Oliver, Robert Picardo and Sylvester McCoy, A Joke depicts three men meeting in a void and attempting to figure out who they are and what has brought them together.  They swiftly realise that they are apparently the set up for an archetypal joke, and attempt to understand the nature of their existence.  The result is something akin to Waiting for Godot crossed with Six Characters in Search of An Author.

American theatre company Squeaky Wheelz Productions have brought a new play to Edinburgh set after a nuclear apocalypse has wiped out the United States.  The topic is certainly relevant considering current political rhetoric, though the play does not dwell on events leading up to the cataclysm, focusing instead on a small group of survivors.  Three cautious young people sharing carefully rationed food in an underground shelter are joined first by a young couple with a baby on the way, then by a pair of siblings.  Characters' stories develop and conflict occurs within this 45 minute drama by Freddie Fulton and Matthew Consalvo.

Joe's NYC Bar is a show that really understands the Celtic concept of "craic" - the great pleasure of good company and good conversation.  Bringing a touch of Brooklyn to Edinburgh this August, the production is an immersive and often improvisational experience set in the eponymous New York watering hole and featuring its staff and patrons, as well as audience members who are very much encouraged to get involved.

Edges is the first musical from Pasek and Paul, now better known for La La Land and Dear Evan Hansen.  More of a song cycle, it is a collection of numbers on the theme of coming of age, from growing apart from siblings via dating and breakups to parenthood.

How would you get through your day without being able to sing a full song, read a poem aloud or even debate at length which Fringe show to see? That's the premise behind Sam Steiner's award-winning play Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons , which returns to the Fringe this year in the lovely Roundabout venue at Summerhall. Focusing on the importance of communication and language, it depicts snapshots in the relationship of musician Oliver (Euan Kitson) and lawyer Bernadette (Beth Holmes) before and after the implementation of a 'Hush Law'. Under this law, individuals are limited to using only 140 words in a day.

Long before the Delorean or the TARDIS ever graced our screens, the story of The Time Machine fascinated the public with the idea of travelling in the fourth dimension. This new musical based on the H.G. Wells masterpiece is not a straight adaptation of the novel, adding in a neat framing device. Set at Radio Woking in the 1950s, this production features Carrie (Lindsay Sharman), a station producer in the finest cut-glass BBC English mould, and George (Laurence Owen), the writer and performer of a radio musical version of the sci-fi classic.

We have several months to wait to see Peter Capaldi regenerate into Jodie Whittaker, but for those needing a Fringe fix of their favourite Gallifreyan, Any Suggestions, Doctor? An Improvised Adventure in Space and Time is offering up a brand new unofficial episode almost every day of the festival.

The ability of plays from over two millennia ago to seem relevant to the contemporary world. speaking across the centuries of never-ending truisms of the human experience, never ceases to amaze.  Indeed, The Suppliant Women is the second oldest surviving play in existence and this new production clearly demonstrates its ongoing relevance with some shockingly contemporary analogues.  This is the opening play of David Greig's first season as artistic director at the Lyceum, and is adapted by Greig himself from the original by Aeschylus.

 Four teenagers experience love, family tribulations, and impending exam results together at the eponymous wall, the hang-out spot for the young people of Stewarton.

Stephen Sondheim's Assassins is a fascinating exploration of the dark side of the American dream, taking as its subject nine of the men and women who have tried to kill Presidents of the United States.

Soddin' Flodden presents the life of King James the 4th, from his youth right up to his death in one of the most important battles in Scottish history.

The Surge is a new play from The King's Players of King's College London inspired by contemporary British politics.  A new MP gets involved in a student campaign, as protests she speaks at turn to violence and the media accuse her of supporting riotous behaviour.  She is then forced to consider whether she is able to make any sort of worthwhile change in a dismissive, uncaring Parliament.

Our House is a jukebox musical based on the hits of Madness.  On the night of his sixteenth birthday, Camden lad Joe Casey breaks into a block of flats with his girlfriend.  When the police arrive on the scene, the narrative splits, in the style of Sliding Doors, between the Joe that ran from the police and the Joe that stayed to face the music, before the two plots eventually converge in a dramatic finale.  The score features a host of recognisable Madness hits, though the band's discography does not seem to have a truly adequate emotional range for a musical with much depth.

Scottish writer Ali Smith is best known for her short stories and novels, including three books shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.  Her 2005 play for Shell Connections, Just, offers a delightful example of Theatre of the Absurd that certainly deserves to be as well known as her other literary endeavours.  In this delicious satire, a young woman discovers a dead body behind a bus stop, stabbed in the back with an umbrella.  Moving to take a closer look, she is accosted by a police officer who accuses her of the murder.  Soon enough, she is condemned by the local townspeople, and the sinister Mrs Wright, the blindfolded arbiter of justice, as the story begins to take on a darker turn.

New musical No Horizon has been garnering a good deal of attention, with airings on Elaine Paige's radio show, and Chris Evans dubbing it 'the Yorkshire Les Mis'.  It would perhaps be fairer to say it is in the vein of The Theory of Everything, only with added Yorkshire charm.  Based on a true story, No Horizon depicts the life of Nicholas Saunderson, a young Yorkshireman who was blinded by smallpox as a baby.  Despite his humble origins and disability in a time before the invention of braille, his incredible mind leads him to success at Cambridge, where he becomes the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics, a post held by the likes of Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking.  

Last Dream (On Earth) makes fascinating use of digital technologies and exquisitely paralleled stories to create a unique and moving experience.   A tribute to the bravery of those who dare to take the first steps on a journey beyond our comprehension, it is an experience not to be missed.

Set in a dystopian future where English refugees have flocked to an independent Scotland, 2044's concept created expectations of a focus on UK politics.  Instead, it neatly drew parallels with the rise of Donald Trump in America, and resulting issues of racism and the dangers of national exceptionalism.  

After the Flood, a devised piece performed by a young cast from Sundial Theatre, is a futuristic drama set in a post-apocalyptic dystopia.  In the world of the play, civilisation has been all but wiped out by a great flood; the consequence of climate change it is hinted.  One tribe of teenagers survive the new world by diving into abandoned buildings for food, taking their lives in their hands for the odd tin of peaches or pot noodle.  Trapped by weather with diminishing food supplies on one such voyage into an abandoned hotel, conflicts begin to split the group, exacerbated by the appearance of a boy apparently left behind by Welsh raiders.