Articles by Fen Greatley

Sleeping Beauty

As though the Märchen of the Brothers Grimm weren’t harrowing enough, Another Soup’s production of the classic Sleeping Beauty renders this tale even bleaker and more upsetting.

We Didn't Have Time to be Scared

Looking for emotional charge? If so, this new musical blows everything else out of the water.

Vocal is Lekka

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
6th Aug, 2012

I don’t know where these guys have been hiding - well, I do: South Africa - but they sure know how to bring it.

Active Virgin

Review
★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
8th Aug, 2012

After last year’s successful Fringe offerings, One Academy Productions became a firm favourite of mine.

The Squiffy Journals

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
19th Aug, 2011

In a suitably dank place, a darkly comic tone is set by this troupe’s exploration of the less glamorous elements of the entertainment industry, tempered somewhat by more light-hear…

Married With Snails

Review
★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
20th Aug, 2012

Bernard and Miranda are living in marital bliss with their snail children.

Macbeth

Review
★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
30th Aug, 2011

Macbeth (I’m not afraid to name it; there’s nothing vaguely Scottish about this production) is a play that most everyone encounters at some point in their lives.

Towards the Moon

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
18th Aug, 2012

With acting instrumentalists, declarations of “Colour! Light!” and a lead called Bobby, I feared I was about to see a bad Sondheim knock-off.

Flanders and Swann

When Tim FitzHigham and Duncan Walsh Atkins took to the stage as Flanders and Swann in their dashing tuxedos, I mentally groaned and waited for the crooning to start.

The Butterfly Effect

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
10th Aug, 2011

The Butterfly Effect is possibly the strangest gig I’ve ever been to, even by Steampunk standards.

Doris Day Can F**k Off

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
11th Aug, 2011

The question on my lips for the first few minutes: what on God’s earth is he doing? In very few words, Greg is telling Doris Day to take a running jump.

What You Will

Shrewsbury School here lives up to its gleaming reputation with a technically flawless production.

The Hot Mikado

Never before have I seen G&S performed so well; too often is it synonymous with G&T, churned out rambunctiously by red-faced socialites clustered around a piano.

Spring Awakening

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
8th Aug, 2011

Gordonstoun’s bears the hallmarks of a high school offering: mixed ability and tampering with the script to give kids fairer parts.

Samba Sene and Diwan: Africa Calling

Review
★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Aug, 2011

The Fringe guide listing for this performance promises an ‘exuberant’ show full of ‘impassioned vocals’ and ‘Senegalese soul’.

Henna Night

Review
★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
17th Aug, 2011

The intense naturalism of this piece is realised in the staging.

Heavy Like the Weight of a Flame

Review
★★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Aug, 2011

This show was difficult to review.

Apply Within

Review
★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
8th Aug, 2011

Heaven knows it’s tough enough trying to get a job in these economic times without the daunting prospect of a cut-throat arena where every other candidate is your ultimate nemesis.

Wasted Love

Yes! This is everything you, I, everyone wants in a musical.

Pollyanna Meets Piaf

Review
★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
13th Aug, 2011

Besides me, the modest audience comprised exclusively of people ‘of a certain age’.

Antonio Forcione

Review
★★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2011

Few things can silence a crowd.

Bugsy Malone

Review
★★
Fen Greatley
Edinburgh Fringe
5th Aug, 2012

Bringing a musical to the Fringe is no mean feat, nor is coordinating a rabble of small children.

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