This is a superb student production from St Edward’s School, under the direction of Jamie Johnstone and co-director Rebecca Clark.
We open with a group of young Southern belles, beautifully attired in vintage-style dresses, learning how to apply make-up to please their husbands, so setting up the conservative …
Sometimes a production doesn’t come together and it’s not for a lack of trying.
This is a play for fans of Greek tragedy and theatre nerds.
Every Brilliant Thing is quite simply brilliant.
Taking place in the greatest of British institutions — a chip shop — on election night, Open is a devised work by the student-run Nottingham New Theatre.
Fans of Charles Dickens will love this charming one-man show performed by Ian Pearce, which he adapted from a short story.
When High Court Justice Sir Horace Fewbanks is found dead, Detective Inspector Chippenfield and Detective Sergeant Rolfe are on the case to find the killer.
A space at Summerhall has been transformed into a forest.
It’s August 1999 and a group of Bristol teenagers have returned from a trip to Cornwall where they went to see an eclipse.
This evocative dance performance is as notable for the process by which it was made as it is for the quality of the final product.
This year is the 30th anniversary of the Battle of the Beanfield, a violent police intervention in which more than 500 travellers were arrested in a field on their way to a new-age…
Jean is sitting in a cafe enjoying a lobster bisque when a phone nearby starts to rings.
Best described as cabaret with some clowning thrown in, Scarlet Shambles: It Used To Be Me is a delightful surprise.
In this fun one-woman show, a self-described bi-dyke shares with us stories of her sexual evolution, from Mormon adolescent scanning second-hand books for smut, to monogamous domes…
A superb one-woman show from Kate Cook, Invisible Women tells of the thrilling adventures of a repressed housewife and sometime poet turned WWII operative.
An adaptation of the classic gothic horror by Henry James, this show promises chills and thrills but didn’t send too many shivers up my spine.
Set in an attic sewing room, Saoirse’s life is presented to us as a form of patchwork quilt.
Conceived and performed by stage magician Janne Raudaskoski, The Outsider is a spectacular piece of theatre illusion.
This is a story of Sarah, a lover of maps and trigonometry.
Mistaken presents four short monologues, written and directed by Nick Myles and performed by William McGeough.
This adaptation of Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s autobiography by writer/performer Tom Stuart is in turns sympathetic and shocking.
A charming storytelling piece that fuses spoken word and music, Fable from the Flanagan Collective charts the story of ‘J’.
I wasn’t supposed to be reviewing this show, but on a friend’s recommendation (“three Korean ladies doing Chekhov.
In the surrounds of St Cecilia’s Hall, my view of pianist Peter Bream is through a glass case displaying a set of tartan-clad bagpipes.
Gershwin fans will enjoy this programme of carefully selected tunes as well as biographical readings, including letters between Gershwin and his brother and collaborator Ira.
Billed as an uplifting tale about murder, Send More Paper is entertaining and thought provoking in equal measures.
This fun new adaptation of JM Barrie’s classic story begins in Priceland.
This is a play about a writer, the girl he loves and the characters in his head.
Flat Pack is a coming-of-age story.
This piece from Japan seeks to present a slice of life.
This play, about a group of high school students attempting to adapt the Greek classic with disastrous consequences, thankfully doesn’t end in a case of life imitating art, altho…
In this solo show about an ambitious crooner, we see Frank Corelli in an interrogation room, prompted to reveal the story that got him there.
The welcome recording over the PA tells us that this event is part of the Assembly Rooms’ ‘Enchanting ideas’ series for a ‘more discerning audience’, getting a chuckle …
Who doesn’t love a good murder? Most of Britain does apparently and this preoccupation is not a recent event.
Eilidh has a problem.
Prepare to be offended and amazed.
It should be a speakeasy with small round tables and lowballs of stiff drinks on the rocks – but it ain’t.
He claims he’s now been knighted as Sir Robert Downe (you can call him Count Downe, geddit?) but that isn’t the only outlandish claim made at this fabulous frolic of a cabar…
This romp through the bygone days of grand movie theatres and classic films is brought to us by Jean (Karen Levick) and Pearl (Helen Wood).
This play explores the enduring Celtic mythology of Selkies – mythical seal-like creatures who, once ashore, can shed their skin, appear as beautiful women and have their hearts …
This lovely piece of devised work opens with the young cast, paint-splattered and white-faced, arranged on a row of chairs, from which they begin a choreographed series of movement…
If this show had simply featured the songs of the Three Belles – an Andrews Sisters-inspired act with delightful voices and glorious harmonies – and some references to the 1…
The worst thing about this show is that there’s a life-size cardboard cut-out of Robert Pattinson onstage the entire time.
In this abridged version of Into the Woods I wasn’t sure if the ‘junior’ part would refer to the length or the audience appropriateness of the play.
Writing fiction in Jane Austen’s time was deemed a frivolous thing and, with this considered, the frivolity of a musical is certainly an appropriate way to present her life.
Movin’ Melvin Brown is in town doing two different high-energy shows on alternating nights.
The title for this play comes from the chromosomes that arbitrarily define gender.
I had high expectations for this adaptation of one of my childhood favourites.
Riding with Night opens with an ensemble of black-cloaked figures, their faces masked, and a voiceover providing an epilogue to the play we are about to see.
Like a Virgin has an intriguing concept, promising bubble-gum pop and teen rites of passage.
This adaptation by Stephen Williams follows the stories of Clever Gretel (no relation to Hansel) and Silly Kate Elizabeth.
The premise for this clever improvised show is to poach from the best of the Fringe.
Jack lives on an island where the community calls itself idyllic.
Tracing the life of Korean dancer Choi Seung-hee, this solo show is surprising and delightful.
This original work sets out to present the history of the US state of Nevada, contending that there’s more to it than Vegas.
“Would you rather die by drowning or die of cancer?”Scott would rather drown.
Paper Play is the story of a boy who climbed to a great height to see what he could see.
In this energetic play presented as a game-show the audience is divided into two teams and sat facing one another across the playing space.
Neil Simon’s comedy is made up of three self-contained acts in three different explorations of relationships, all of which take place in the same room at the Plaza Hotel in Manha…
Prelude to a Number is a show about maths: more specifically, it’s about the ‘golden number’ phi, which is related to the Fibonacci sequence and is all around us, although we…
A slick piece of cyberpunk with noir flourishes, The Orpheus Project is an atmospheric re-imagining of Kafka’s The Trial combined with the myth of Orpheus and his quest to bring …
Hosted by the effulgent (according to her title card) Fay Roberts, this event did as promised, presenting diverse voices from a number of different spoken word artists.
From the corridors of a modern hotel we enter Victorian London in this immersive musical theatre piece.
Much as if I’d been with real-life evangelists, I imagine, I left this show wondering what on earth had just happened.
Combining contemporary and African dance, four dancers put on an impressive physical display in Kaneish Dance Theatre’s Tabula Rasa.
Those familiar with Shakespeare and fans of musicals will enjoy Emanuel Theatre Company’s fun romp that mashes the two genres together.
Performed in the stately Edinburgh Elim church, Mary the Last Farewell is a historical drama about the life of the Queen of Scots.
“It’s the game show of all game shows!” our host tells us as we begin.
Forget Justin Bieber and his legions of ‘beliebers’.
In the back room of the White Horse pub, Danny Mullins is taking us through what his promo material describes as interactive music magic.
Gambit Theatre’s offering at the Fringe is a theatrical exploration of two real-life conmen and more specifically, identity imposters.
In this retelling of Euripides’ tragedy, the Trojan War has ended but the women of Troy are still to discover their fates and more tragedies.
Christian Cagigal’s Obscura is an utterly charming magic show, but it’s more than that: it’s a theatrical experience incorporating card tricks, music boxes and storytelling.
This original musical by Kingdom Theatre is a tribute to the songs of Frank Sinatra.
It’s not often you’re treated to performance poetry in a setting with as much production value as this.
First produced in 1989, Bill Gallagher’s script, which won the Sunday Times Playwriting Award, still feels relevant to the issues in contemporary culture.
Sweep Up The Stars charts the bittersweet journey of Bill/William, who is determined to become a writer when, at the age of eight, his older self appears to him through the power…
Children will love this fun spectacle of bubble-blowing and even grown-ups will be impressed by the Amazing Bubble Man’s feats; not ten minutes into the show, I heard a Dad in fr…
Set at the fictional Celebrity Café, this cabaret features sketches, song, and the baking of mini-cupcakes.
“We live in a time of magic.
In Scandimania: Gods of Ice and Fire, the stage is crammed with seven young actors, all dressed in white, who leap into action and unfold a fast-paced enactment of Norse mythology.
Of 566 scientists to win the Nobel Prize, only 15 have been women.
Melvin Brown has got the moves, and this suave dude who appears in a suit and gold satin shirt also has a killer voice.
Mhari and Thomas can’t conceive.
We can all remember the name of our first crush, can’t we? That’s the question Love.
Fleeting Clouds, the Splendid Library is an original Chinese opera inspired by the Guoyunlou books, an encyclopaedic set covering 1000 years of knowledge.
Produced by C theatre, The Snow Queen is a charming adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s classic tale by Karina Wilson.
The Jungle Referendum, by Three Mugs of Tea Theatre, invokes the classic tale of the Jungle Book to explain what’s going on with the Scottish referendum.
This exuberant, toe-tapping spectacular is a sure-fire crowd pleaser.
If you fit into the overlappy bit of a Venn diagram of people who like dance, people who like comedy and people who like men who look a bit like Vikings, this show is for you.
Kiwi comedian Cal Wilson invites us to imagine what her life would have been like if she’d made different choices (or if she’d been born a man).
The Greenville Ghost, a new script by Tom Bonnington, is a laugh-a-minute farce about two struggling hoteliers who decide to invent a fictional ghost to draw in clientele.
It’s fair to say I’m acquainted with the Harry Potter series.
I’ve heard horror stories of people who went on ghostly tours in Edinburgh and were scared by actors hiding in dark places, or who felt nauseous or panicky in the fetid air, so i…