Mary Baillie - Page 2

In a world where theatre often conforms to traditional actors and spectators, Off with your Head is a breath of fresh air - a delightful fusion of art, comedy, choose-your-own-adventure and interactive gaming that redefines the boundaries of live performance. 

Fringe royalty 'The Black Blues Brothers' have a lengthy list of achievements. They've appeared at the Royal Variety Performance, Monte Carlo Festival, Moulin Rouge... now they return to the Edinburgh Fringe, performing for the fully-packed Music Hall at Assembly Rooms. All 670 seats were filled with joyful laughs, gasps and ongoing cheers. 

Stephen Sondheim's 'A Little Night Music' is one of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland's two performances at the Fringe this year. The 1973 musical unfolds in Sweden, where romantic entanglements and taboo desires spark shocking revelations.

Adopting Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey's original stage version, the production deviates from the famous movie starring John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. Here we see subversive, sex-driven working-class teenagers among industrial Chicago instead of beachy California. Sandy Olsson is now Sandy Dumbrowski (reflecting the '50s influx of Polish immigrants), the infamous T-birds are the Burger Palace Boys. There is an undertone of gang warfare as the rebellious group often push against authority getting in trouble with the police - it's giving West Side Story.

Labeled the most important piece of contemporary Scottish literature, Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 1932 novel Sunset Song is an ongoing frontrunner of nationwide school curricula. Now this haunting coming-of-age narrative returns, reimagined beautifully for live theatre.

Porno lives up to its opening line: sequels are never as good as the original. Edinburgh's infamous pack of misfits (Renton, Bigbie, Sick Boy and Spud) reunite ten years after their appearances in the award-winning Trainspotting. They're all grown up, and surpisingly still alive.

Ten years after his award-winning memoir, Damian Barr revisits his past onstage with the National Theatre of Scotland in Maggie & Me. This brave piece recounts growing up gay in the straight world of Margaret Thatcher's working class Britain... among the Ravenscraig steelworks of Motherwell. Barr explores touching and timeless themes, but suffers slightly from a long-winded exposition.

Cross-dressing, guns, psychiatry, politics, incest, adultery and accidental overdoses interlace in Joe Orton's final and most subversive play. Unfortunately to a modern audience it feels dated.

After spellbinding success in the Edinburgh Fringe, the not-safe-for-work musical parody Unfortunate dives into Glasgow to stage a revolutionary queerification of Disney's 1989 movie The Little Mermaid. 

This divine revival of the iconic movie follows nightclub singer Deloris van Cartier (Landi Oshinowo), whose life takes an unlikely turn after she witnesses a mobster murder. Seeking refuge in a holy convent, she poses as a nun revamping the sisters' struggling choir... despite protests from the austere Mother Superior (Coronation Street's Sue Cleaver). 

Adam Kay is the doctor-turned-comic who secured paramount success with his show and book 'This is Going to Hurt'. In his latest piece based on his new book, the audience undergo another emotional rollercoaster as Kay recounts the laborious laments of being an NHS frontliner.

Sometimes tactical stagecraft, talented actors and a minimalist set are all you need to evoke spine-chilling terror.

Emma Rice places an old age folktale in a new age context through an eccentric movement-led, magical and musical theatrical extravaganza.  

Mischief Theatre made headlines in the West End with their acclaimed “Goes Wrong” series, where the Cornley Polytechnic Drama Society showcases performances and everything goes absolutely haywire. Despite previous mishaps, this fictional acting troupe are back again, this time attempting a rendition of Peter Pan. 

Drawing on Theatre of the Absurd, clowning and Bertolt Brecht, this Tim Burton-esque musical uses quirky song and dance to explore humanity's deepest, darkest truths. 

Labelled as 'the most shocking, subversive and violent play on the London stage', David Ireland's Cyprus Avenue is a darkly comic exploration of sectarian hatred. This one definitely isn't for the faint-hearted.

Actors bare it all in Simon Beaufoy's award-winning adaptation of The Full Monty in Glasgow this week. A hilarious, delightful and phenomenally-acted story with an important social critique - what's not to love?

An ancient play with a contemporary message, Perth Youth Theatre’s Antigone tells us to never underestimate a powerful woman, or talented young people.

Last weekend sparked a very different theatrical audience - mostly male, all sporting green, ready to watch a unique piece catered to Celtic football fans. For the first time ever, I saw a very long-line to the men's toilets at interval and virtually no-one at the ladies! The piece had some decent jokes and an interesting (although strange) plotline, but only works for this very specific demographic.

The RCS second-year BA Acting cohort present a welcome genderfluid adaptation of Shakespeare’s queerest comedy. It is an engaging lens, although a cliché ending left me wanting more.