Scotland Theater Reviews Page 22

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: OTTO & ASTRID'S JOINT SOLO PROJECT, Piccolo
by Kat Mokrynski - August 09, 2023

Otto & Astrid’s Joint Solo Project is a fun show that will have you clapping and singing along to their songs. While it has a slow beginning and an uncertain middle, it certainly has a strong ending with some great musicianship and a delightful rock and roll vibe. ...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SASHA ELLEN: WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU ELLENS, MAKE ELLENADE, The Counting House
by Kat Mokrynski - August 08, 2023

What’s the worst date you’ve ever had? Can you remember the exact date it happened and recount the evening in every detail? Sasha Ellen can, and she’s going to tell you all about it! Sasha Ellen: When Life Gives You Ellens, Make Ellenade is a stand-up show in which Ellen takes us through her recent ...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: BLUES AND BURLESQUE, The Voodoo Rooms
by L Gourley - August 08, 2023

Blues and Burlesque is the perfect antidote if you’re searching for a decadent night of fun in the midst of some global turmoil. After all, there’s nothing like a Charleston to distract from the apocalypse....

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: KRYSTAL EVANS: THE HOTTEST GIRL AT BURN CAMP, Monkey Barrel
by L Gourley - August 07, 2023

Trauma-based dark humour is plentiful in modern comedy – as Krystal Evans says herself, making comedy out of tragedy is the best way to take the power back from it – but none do it quite like The Hottest Girl at Burn Camp, Krystal Evans' debut hour at the Fringe....

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: THE NIGHT CHILDREN, Greenside @Nicolson Square
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

It’s a very American coming-of-age story. The script follows all the correct beats and the direction tackles the necessary points for it to be a well-paced and flowing piece of theatre, but the characters are walking clichés. Everything is done abnormally by the book, including the performances by t...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: THEM, Pleasance Dome
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

A frighteningly life-sized portrait of the patriarchy. Built over the course of seven years with extracts from interviews with male-identifying individuals and their own personal stories, Them is rightfully enraging. From inculcating servitude from a young age to weaponised incompetence, the company...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: THE FISH BOWL, Summerhall
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

Dementia is a scary prospect. The fate of many and incurable, it’s inevitable and painful for the patient and their family. Featuring interviews with professionals in the field of aged care and real-life stories, The Fish Bowl is a compassionate piece of theatre....

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: LOOKING FOR GIANTS, Underbelly Cowgate
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

Echlin is an incredibly gifted writer. She visualises the pain of youth and externalises it with quiet humour and breezy observations that hide deep heartbreak. With a magnetic personality and expressive, captivating eyes, she takes her audience through a confessional journey where she tries to find...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: DISTANT MEMORIES OF THE NEAR FUTURE, Summerhall
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

David Head crafts an exquisite exploration of the relationship between humanity and technology with a big dash of capitalistic doom. Five stories are tied together by the dread and threat of an artificial future. With deadpan, confidently dark humour, Head paints an alarming picture of a world that’...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TEA AND MILK, C Venues
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

Edith Alibec writes a charismatic personality with a bitter edge and a silver tongue. She is incredibly funny, with a darkly sarcastic worldview cemented by side glances and sardonic asides. We are witnesses to her pain, becoming the confidantes of her most private thoughts. She is a universally rel...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: EULOGY, Pleasance Dome
by Cindy Marcolina - August 07, 2023

It’s dreamlike and nightmarish. Confusing and alarming. The piece works on a subliminal space, has a few jump scares, and it is, frankly, quite weird. While in earlier productions the concept was clear and definite, this instance sees a puzzling storyline that doesn’t entirely make sense....

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: ADULTS, Traverse Theatre
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 07, 2023

Amongst a raft of anonymous Air BnBs in Edinburgh, thirty-something Zara is running her own business and trying to make her way in the world. A new client has just arrived, but her colleague is running late. Tensions are high...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: LIE LOW, Traverse Theatre
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 07, 2023

Desperate to shake her insomnia, Faye enlists the help of her brother, Naoise, to try a form of exposure therapy. But Naoise has a devastating secret that's about to explode....

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: THE GRAND OLD OPERA HOUSE HOTEL, Traverse Theatre
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 07, 2023

When shy Aaron joins the hotel’s ramshackle team he’s faced with emotionally volatile guests, apathetic staff and inept management. Not to mention the rumour of a pair of singing ghosts haunting the corridors. ...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: BEN TARGET: LORENZO, Summerhall
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 07, 2023

Ben Target is a critically-acclaimed performance artist and multi-award-winning comedian (yawn), but in 2020 he gave this up to become the live-in carer for an irascible octogenarian prankster. A life-affirming story about death, conveyed through the popular mediums of storytelling, servitude to the...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: TONY! [THE TONY BLAIR ROCK OPERA], Pleasance At EICC - Pentland Theatre
by Stefanie Lyons - August 07, 2023

My salad days were spent growing up as a teen in the Blair era. My life has been shaped by Cool Britannia, The War on Terror and Sexed Up Documents. It's in my blood and created the outline of my now fully-formed Millennial Angst. Therefore, of course I wanted to review a show, examining and laughin...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: WHISKY & WITCHES PRESENTS MYTHICAL BEASTS, The Mother Superior - The Mother Superior Cave
by Stefanie Lyons - August 10, 2023

If you have a couple of hours to spare and you want to try smoky, deep, fruity, warming, delicious whiskies, while also listening to folk tales, tasting notes that will blow your mind, and live singing that will haunt your heart and soul - look no further and make sure you get a ticket to Whisky & W...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: RENT, Paradise In St Augustine's - The Sanctuary
by Stefanie Lyons - August 06, 2023

If you enjoy RENT then go and see this. If you, like me, hadn't seen it and would like to, go and see this. It's not Broadway, but it's pretty close. ...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: ANYTHING THAT WE WANTED TO BE, Summerhall
by Cindy Marcolina - August 06, 2023

“How much time do you spend worrying about your decisions?” This is a show for anxious people. Theatre-director-who-was-nearly-a-doctor Adam Lenson steps on stage directed by Hannah Moss and delivers a life-affirming piece about the what-ifs we all come across. ...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: CHASING BUTTERFLIES, Pleasance Dome
by Cindy Marcolina - August 06, 2023

Tipping into the contemporary interest in murders, Chasing Butterflies is a compelling, engrossing play that will have you hooked until the very end. While the suspicions of the farsighted may be correct from the start, a riveting origin story and an extensive list of gory details keep them on their...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SALTY IRINA, Summerhall
by Cindy Marcolina - August 06, 2023

The town where Anna and Eireni are studying has been hit by a number of racially provoked murders. There doesn’t seem to be a pattern, except that the victims are all immigrants. While a non-existing strand of organised crime is being blamed, the two women meet after a shocking event and decide to i...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: SUGAR AND BLOOD, ZOO Playground
by Cindy Marcolina - August 06, 2023

All in all, the production feels like it’s only at the beginning of its life, as is the company, so there’s plenty of scope to grow and become the big feminist project it strives to be. A stronger script, more decisive vision, and an external eye will make all the difference....

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: WITHOUT SIN, Summerhall
by Cindy Marcolina - August 06, 2023

An audience of two steps into a small black box. They’re separated by a wall and can only hear each other through headphones when they talk into a microphone. Without Sin is an intriguing project that tugs at our contemporary need to feel. ...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: ANDRONICUS SYNECDOCHE, ZOO Southside
by Cindy Marcolina - August 06, 2023

There’s loads of theatre at the Fringe. Some is excellent, some is average, some is… questionable. Polish company Song of the Goat present a retelling of Shakeseare’s Titus Andronicus in what could simply be described as a gothic, choral, impenetrable behemoth of a production. It’s transfixing for a...

EDINBURGH 2023: Review: ALEXANDER BENNETT: I CAN'T STAND THE MAN, MYSELF, Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose
by Kat Mokrynski - August 07, 2023

How do you deal with self-hatred? Do you go to therapy? Do you talk to your friends about it? Or do you create a one-hour comedy show and put it up at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival? For Alexander Bennett, the third option was the way to go....