Spread over four evenings, John Bryden’s consummate performance of the Well-Tempered Clavier’s second book is the perfect way to unwind after a frantic day at the Fringe.
Combining some of Bach’s most popular music with a few lesser-known pieces, the Bach Ensemble of Edinburgh provided a hint at the composer’s stylistic breadth by performing a refre…
Surely one of the most outrageous Oscars ever given is the 1984 Academy Award for Best Sound.
Despite its outrageous name, Richard Coughlan’s romp of a show proved that though the popularity of gentler, more modern comedians continues, the gag-filled anecdotal performer can…
Like other communities in Europe that have historically suffered political repression the Celtic peoples of the British Isles have for centuries expressed their culture through mus…
Up until the 20th century, with a few notable exceptions, the cello was seen as decidedly inferior to the violin.
For most of his fifty-seven years, to call Ludwig van Beethoven a tad troubled would be an understatement.
Before this show, every time I walked past the nondescript sign on Nicolson Street imploring me to give the Scientologists a try, I was tempted to stop.
Immortalised in the books of authors like Kipling and Forster, British India has become a staple of our literary heritage.
Thanks to their eager adoption by Pau Casals during the early decades of the 20th century, Bach’s cello suites have grown to become a crucial pillar of the classical pantheon, even…
Although Beethoven’s ten chamber works for piano and violin are now commonly known as ‘Violin Sonatas’, they were initially called ‘Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violin’, and not with…
Commissioned by a devoutly Catholic prince and covering the whole range of the Church’s liturgy, the Mass in B minor could be seen as something of an anomaly, for it was composed b…
Much like karaoke or clubbing, The Room is not an event that should be experienced either alone or sober.
Don’t get too excited: the eponymous Dick is simply a shortening of Richard and not the male sex organ.
The difficulty with reviewing a show like this is that because the comedians change from day to day, the quality of the comedy and the direction the show takes is impossible to pre…
An intriguing twist on the old formula for Jewish humour, Emily Rose’s act attempts to make the synagogue, and not the archetypal comedy character that frequents it, the star of th…
Although Italy’s economy and political system have of late appeared to be on the verge of total collapse, at least her sixty-odd million citizens can take solace in the fact that t…
Due to the fact they lived such different lives to our own, it is perilously easy to dismiss our medieval cousins as having absolutely nothing in common with modern Britons.
Leading his audience through a trip he took to South America in 1986, Peter Searles’ vivid physical expression and knack for detail ensure that what could have been a show exemplif…
Nicholas Parsons has been such popular and uncontroversial figure in the British entertainment industry for so long that I could say almost anything about his show and he would sti…
You can imagine how it might have happened.
Having been a stalwart of English-language culture for over four centuries, William Shakespeare’s favourite dramatic motifs are surely common knowledge to at least most of the coun…
The top deck of a disused city bus late on a Tuesday night is not where you might expect to find one of the most thoughtful shows I have seen at the Fringe so far, especially consi…
He introduces himself as ‘Manos from Samos’ though he’s lived as an expat for the past twenty years.
Jokes that everyone’s heard before are always the hardest to make funny, so spare a thought for that most venerable of comedian: the ‘Jewish comic’ who has decades of comedic folkl…
What with the febrile state of British society at the moment, Steve Richards’ canter through our political parkland seems perfectly timed.
Just before the start of his set, a pre-recorded message by Bobby Mair warns ‘everyone easily offended’ to leave the premises immediately.
For a country of barely four million people, Ireland has gifted us with a disproportionate number of comedians.
Josh Widdicombe begins his set by confessing that he was just short enough to be eligible to play the eponymous Hobbit of Peter Jackson’s latest epic trilogy.
It is with the long and idiosyncratic Christian tradition of Ethiopia in mind that one must approach the small exhibition of devotional art at Galerie Mirage.
Like so many shows at the moment, Om Nom Nominous lures in punters with a ridiculous name.