Scotland Theater Reviews: Best Shows & Critic Recommendations Page 40

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: THE DESK, Summerhall
by Daniel Perks - August 26, 2019

Reeta Honkakoski spent time in a cult in the UK. The Desk is an allegory, alluding to that time. It's a hypnotic watch, if intentionally repetitive....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: SEX EDUCATION, Summerhall
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

One parent refuses to talk about sex. The other buys their child gay porn DVDs. Sex Education blends startling performance, moving storytelling, a no-holds-barred interview with Harry's mum and some good old-fashioned gay porn that his dad bought when he was 14. A show for anyone who's wondered why ...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: DADDY DRAG, Summerhall
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

This is a show about dads. Good dads, daft dads, dads who wear slogan t-shirts, dads that put on barbecues, dads that tell dad jokes, dads that are bad at dancing. This is a show about dads who are absent and dads who are not very good dads at all. Daddy Drag asks us to consider how the relationship...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: ENDLESS SECOND, Pleasance
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

A new play about consent within a relationship. A young couple at university have fallen in love. They listen to each other. They respect each other. But everything changes after a drunken evening with their friends. On this night, when he takes off her underwear and his boxers, she says, 'No'. But ...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: THE CLAIM, Summerhall
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

The Claim by Tim Cowbury, directed by Mark Maughan. A comically absurd and quietly shattering journey to the heart of our tolerant and fair society. Serge stands before us. He has a performance to give. But why is he here? What is he claiming has happened to him? And what has Willy Wonka got to do w...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: TIFF STEVENSON: MOTHER, Monkey Barrel
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

Person of interest on Mock The Week, People Just Do Nothing and The Bugle squats and delivers a show about the extreme sport of womanhood. Birthing her vision of the future before your eyes, how she hopes it will be... free from class war, poverty and consent issues. Also dragging the overdue spectr...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: JEN BRISTER: UNDER PRIVILEGE, Monkey Barrel
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

Brister has it all: a wife, kids, a house and a job she loves (sometimes) so what the hell is she moaning about? Join Jen as she takes an irreverent look at the often controversial subject of 'privilege'. Who has it? Who doesn't? And why does no one like to admit they have any?...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: BIBLE JOHN, Pleasance
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 26, 2019

1969 at the Barrowlands Ballroom in Glasgow, three women are murdered by an Old Testament-quoting serial killer, nicknamed Bible John. He's never been caught. 2019, four women bound by their obsession with true crime want to change that. Immersing themselves in the world of Bible John and his victim...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: LEAVE A MESSAGE, Gilded Balloon
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 27, 2019

Two friends, Ed and Sarah, travel to the small squalid bedsit where Ed's father passed away a few days earlier. As they wade through the debris, the fragments of one lost life begin to coalesce, just as another starts to show signs of cracking. Will we be remembered for anything more than the mess w...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: THE WASP, Greenside
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 26, 2019

A gripping electric thriller, exploring the far-reaching, unexpected and devastating effect childhood bullying can wreak. Gasp-inducing moments between former schoolmates twist and turn in this tense, often darkly comedic, and ultimately shocking female two-hander....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: MAX AND IVAN: COMMITMENT, Pleasance Dome
by Emma Ainley-Walker - August 24, 2019

Comedy duo Max and Ivan are known for their character sketches, but Commitment weaves a true life narrative into an hour that's all about silly fun and best friendship....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: TOKYO ROSE, Underbelly Cowgate
by Emma Ainley-Walker - August 24, 2019

One of this year's Untapped Award winners, Burnt Lemon's Tokyo Rose tells the true story of an American citizen born to Japanese parents, Iva Toguri. Studying to become a doctor in California, Iva is sent to Japan to look after her sick aunt. When America join World War Two, she is refused entry to ...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW REVIEW: SERIOUS FACE, Laughing Horse @ The Free Sisters
by Daniel Perks - August 23, 2019

Amy Howerska: Serious Face attempts a heightened social commentary of living in a post-feminist society. But with all the technical hitches and audience hostility, it barely gets itself going....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: SASHA ELLEN: PICKLE, Underbelly
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 25, 2019

From disastrous dates, to ruining weddings, to causing whole islands to go into a state of emergency, Sasha Ellen chalks it all up to being a bit of a pickle. A storytelling stand-up show about romantic misadventures on an epic scale. A friendly romcom featuring an engagement, a missing person and a...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: ELECTRIC, Underbelly
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 24, 2019

Baby wipes, glitter and cans at the ready, Joni and Scarlett head off on their respective weekends. From two sides of Dublin City, the pair unexpectedly meet in the neon fields of Irish music festival Electric Picnic. Hysterically riotous and soul-stirring, Electric probes our innate prejudices and ...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: THE PROFESSOR, Assembly Rooms
by Daniel Perks - August 23, 2019

The Professor is taking his final class, a variety of pop culture subjects to cram as much as possible into this swansong. But despite all the detail, this production has very little to say....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: YUCK CIRCUS, Underbelly
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 26, 2019

Winner: Top-tier Fringe World Martin Sims Award 2019. Winner: Adelaide Tour-Ready Award 2019. Winner: Best Circus Fringe World Weekly 2019. Sugar, spice, and apparently 'nice'. With our bloody good sense of humour, we're going to rip into the uncomfortable using high-flying acrobatics, absurd confes...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: COTTON FINGERS, Summerhall
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 25, 2019

Aoife's hungry and bored. Cillian makes a mean cheese toastie. As boredom and hunger are satisfied by half an hour in Cillian's bed, Aoife's life changes forever. As social and political upheaval grips her country, what hope does Aoife have to regain control? A timely, politically-charged show writt...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: STIFF AND KITSCH: BRICKING IT, Pleasance
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 23, 2019

Musical Comedy Award winners 2018 sing about everything keeping them awake at night: tax, wooden cutlery and the consequences of last night's eight double G&Ts. Each. From the creators of the hit show, Adele Is Younger Than Us, Stiff and Kitsch: Bricking It is a story of life's favourite fears, told...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: BREAKING THE WAVES, King's Theatre
by Daniel Perks - August 22, 2019

Lars von Trier's 1996 film Breaking The Waves has no underscore. So, while the subject matter is perfectly apt for yet another opera where a woman debases herself at the whims of a man, composer Missy Mazzoli has little to musically draw inspiration from....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: LITTLE DEATH CLUB, Underbelly's Circus Hub On The Meadows - The Beauty
by Adam Robinson - August 20, 2019

When you step into the Little Death Club, the lights are low, the band is jamming and the anticipation is palpable....

BWW Review: AMELIE, King's Theatre, Glasgow
by Natalie O'Donoghue - August 20, 2019

A story of an astonishing young woman who lives quietly in the world, but loudly in her mind. She secretly improvises small, but extraordinary acts of kindness that bring happiness to those around her. But when a chance at love comes her way, Amélie realises that to find her own contentment she'll h...

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: ARE WE NOT DRAWN ONWARD TO NEW ERA, Zoo Southside
by Emma Ainley-Walker - August 19, 2019

The stage is set, a single tree with a single apple hanging from it. A woman lies to the side. It is a Garden of Eden paradise but the apple is plucked, and as more people enter more destruction ensues....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: SINCE U BEEN GONE, Assembly Roxy
by Emma Ainley-Walker - August 19, 2019

Teddy Lamb's Since U Been Gone is two stories inextricably weaved together. The first is a tale of friendship and grief. The second is Lamb's own queer coming of age, changing pronouns and learning to love and express the person they truly are....

EDINBURGH 2019: BWW Review: ALGORITHMS, Pleasance Courtyard
by Bryony Rae Taylor - August 19, 2019

Algorithms is a feel-good show, comic and gently moving. It's written by Sadie Clark who developed the play through the Soho Theatre's Writer's Lab....