Articles by Emma Banks

Game

Game

The rising trend in ‘poverty porn’ suggests that there’s money in laughing at, scorning at and ultimately punishing the socially and economically deprived. Mike Bartlett’s highly inventive new play imagines this tendency to its extreme, and leaves us wondering how far we are from this unsavoury conclusion... 

The Rove

The Rove

Stories have always been at the heart of cultural inheritance – the myths we pass on about self, family and nation – and today is no different. The wildly popular ‘Serial’ podcast and documentaries like the brilliant Stories We Tell draw on the inherently unreliable nature of narrative and rejoice in that uncertainty; ultimately, though, they gain their momentum from a deep yearning for answers... 

A Taste of Honey

A Taste of Honey

It was 1958 that saw Sharagh Delaney’s first play hit the stage, and it isn’t hard to imagine how totally stupefied the contemporary audience must have been. This is a play about a working class girl who falls pregnant by a black sailor, is abandoned and picked up again by none other than a homosexual art student... 

The Light Princess

The Light Princess

Is that a bird? A plane? No, it’s Rosalie Craig, and what a soaring, magical flight hers is. Harking back to Jacobean tales of star-crossed lovers and enchanted wilderness spaces, George Macdonald’s 1864 fairy-tale has been gloriously reimagined in Marianne Elliot’s The Light Princess... 

Blurred Lines

Blurred Lines

Blurred Lines is a cutting reference to Robin Thicke’s chart-topping hit that had us all grimly singing along to ‘you know you want it’. However, the title is also a very apt one for describing the inconsistencies between women and the roles prescribed to them... 

Keith Farnan: Fear Itself

Keith Farnan: Fear Itself

Keith Farnan’s appeal is that he is both a loveable Irish rogue and an acerbic politico. An agile performer, Farnan is able to flit between the endearing absurdities of traditional social mores and the Big Questions of love, life and death; I never thought I would enjoy being told I was going to die! According to Farnan, humans are guided by fear... 

Faustus and the Snakes

Faustus and the Snakes

This revision of Marlowe’s classic Doctor Faustus draws on the timeless story of the man who sells his soul to the devil in exchange for knowledge and power. A bleak landscape of deprivation and drugs conveys the sense that we are living in an age devoid of meaning or value; more than ever, power and knowledge are objects of desire... 

A Midwife Crisis

A Midwife Crisis

The NHS: you just don’t know whether to laugh or cry. St George’s Medics Review appreciate this in their satirical sketch show surrounding our great (and deeply deficient) health service, exploring the ridiculous and sometimes worrying nature of hospital life from an inside perspective... 

Power Games

Power Games

Power Games pays homage to the classic notion of the Fatal Flaw in its depiction of a banker’s fall from grace. However, Power Games doesn’t even come close to the illustrious history of tragic drama... 

Laughter On the Outskirts - Free

Laughter On the Outskirts - Free

Every twenty years or so, comedy re-vamps itself. In the ‘80s, we had Alternative Comedy, a conscious break with the mainstream that shook up the worn-out punchline in favour of something daring, something completely unpredictable... 

Mixed Doubles

Mixed Doubles

Facebook culture is without a doubt the comedic subject du jour and, admittedly, I have begun to grow tired of seeing mimes of the ‘like’ function three times a day during this year’s Fringe... 

Stupid Hair and Skinny Jeans - Ryan McDonnell

Stupid Hair and Skinny Jeans - Ryan McDonnell

Ryan McDonnell has never quite fitted in. Whether it was his bright ginger hair, his Catholic upbringing, his inability to grow suave stubble à la Jack Whitehall – a principal culprit of the stupid hair and skinny jeans fad – McDonnell has always been a bit of an odd one out... 

Stephen Carlin: Gambling Man

Stephen Carlin: Gambling Man

In his new Fringe show, Stephen Carlin sheds light on a unique problem that comes out of gambling addiction; while most addicts can feasibly avoid their choice drug for evermore, gambling addicts have to live in a world that is built upon the very principle of risk... 

American Gun Show

American Gun Show

Chris Harcum is loud, brash, theatrical and oh so American. But what else can you expect from the American Gun Show? This ‘solo comedy’ is undeniably treading new waters in its bid to bring people face to face with the reality of the gun-toting ‘Ted Nugent syndrome’, while also getting some laughs along the way... 

How to be a Modern Marvel®

How to be a Modern Marvel®

Tupperware: it’s robust, it’s light, it seals, it’s stylish and it’s modern. Vive la revolution! How to be a Modern Marvel® is Mariette Navarro’s play about the fad for plastic that swept over France in the 1960’s... 

Dan & Dan Live: The First Sign of Madness

Dan & Dan Live: The First Sign of Madness

Comedy duo Dan & Dan, famous such YouTube hits as Requiem for a Wardrobe and the brilliant Daily Mail Song, have graduated to the real world of live comedy. However, if you are familiar with any of their work, you will recognise that this may pose some technical issues... 

Blackwell's Writers at the Fringe

Blackwell's Writers at the Fringe

Once a week during the Fringe, Blackwell’s is hosting evenings dedicated to celebrating Scotland’s rich literary scene. Each event has five speakers; some are established authors, some have only just published their first book... 

Paul F Taylor Presents The Greatest Show In The World Ever

Paul F Taylor Presents The Greatest Show In The World Ever

Paul F Taylor is like a puppy: he has very fluffy hair, oodles of energy and even when he slips up, we still like him. Indeed, despite points during the show that seemed like he was chasing after his own tale, oblivious to the audience around him, he never lost our attention, and continued to be rather loveable throughout... 

Invisible People Journeys

Invisible People Journeys

3rdThought, the renowned over-65’s theatre company, have bestowed upon the public an utterly charming new idea that revolves around personalised one-to-one performances. Dressed in mystical white robes and striking organic headpieces, the Invisible People are quite the sight to behold within the fracas of the Fringe... 

Upstairs Downton

Upstairs Downton

When people say that period dramas aren’t their thing, I just don’t believe them. How could you not swoon when eyes meet across the dancehall, or chuckle when yet another fragile lady-of-the-house develops pneumonia from a walk in the rain? Consequently, I had high hopes for the improvisational comedy, Upstairs Downton... 

Sandi Toksvig My Valentine

Sandi Toksvig My Valentine

As Toksvig scurries excitedly on stage, she triumphantly proclaims that she is returning to Edinburgh after over thirty years since her first Fringe Festival. Indeed, one could almost forget that Toksvig has had quite the dazzling comedic past before she settled into the more sober realms of Radio 4... 

Verb Garden: The Decent Chat Show

Verb Garden: The Decent Chat Show

The premise behind the Decent Chat Show is a good one, but unfortunately what I experienced didn’t even come close. In fact, having entered to see three pull-out chairs and an unfinished stage, we were somewhat predictably informed that the host was absent due to ‘traffic problems’ (she actually gestured with air-quotes)... 

Theo Gibson

Theo Gibson

What happened to rock n’ roll? What happened to ruddy passion? Theo Gibson is a perfect example of a new age of Sheeran-sheeps who sing – and rap, we can’t miss that out – about cigarettes, WKDs and life in Landan... 

Am I

Am I

Geared towards raising awareness of human rights violations, Am I is most effective in its ability to turn its question back on the audience: who are we, and what part do we have to play in this violence? The performance is palpably intense and the sense of unease induced by the rather uncomfortable depiction of brutality is something that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theatre... 

Marcus Brigstocke: 'Je m'accuse - I am Marcus'

Marcus Brigstocke: 'Je m'accuse - I am Marcus'

If you want to know how it came to be that Marcus Brigstocke became a part-time podium dancer while also working on an oil rig in Scotland, this show is definitely for you. Indeed, it is a far cry from his characteristic politicised rants and spitting style of outrage, but a refreshingly jovial tour through his rather exceptional life... 

The Play That Goes Wrong
BOBBY WINNER

The Play That Goes Wrong

The Play That Goes Wrong is an impeccably glorious spoof of such amateur disasters, that centres upon Cornley Polytechnic’s production of ‘Murder at Haversham Manor’ as it descends into a hysterical fiasco that had its audience gasping for breath... 

It's Me Dayne

It's Me Dayne

It’s Me Dayne is thoroughly awkward, cringe-worthy and even gob-smacking, but boy, is it funny. Indeed, Rothman is a fresh face on the increasingly popular anti-comedy scene; not only does he revel in those horrific ‘huh?’ moments, but he retains a certain likeability that gets the audience on side... 

Desdemona, a Play About a Handkerchief

Desdemona, a Play About a Handkerchief

This refreshing re-interpretation of Shakespeare’s Othello sees the handkerchief drama played out from a female perspective, a comedic take on the tragedy that we’re used to. Indeed, it benefits from the stripped-back cast, shining light on those three female voices that are so clearly overshadowed in the original text... 

Dressing Down

Dressing Down

If you ever forget why it is that everyone has heard of the Cambridge Footlights, Dressing Down will remind you. Indeed, this production from the former and current presidents of the renowned university troupe deserves a firm place in the long-esteemed history of Fry, Laurie, Mitchell and Webb... 

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