Articles by Mark Harding

Cabin Fever

If you are looking for a funny family show, Cabin Fever by Fresh !nk Theatre Company at theSpace @ Sugeon's Hall is a show where kids will get the jokes (most of them) and adul…

The Marriage of Figaro

This production makes me feel like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.

Hamlet

There’s something revolutionary in the state of Denmark.

Show Pony

Have you ever wondered what it is like behind the scenes for circus performers? Have you ever wondered what happens to them when they reach middle age? This engaging, funny and mov…

The Flock and Moving Cloud

The dance pieces of this double bill have very different styles and atmospheres, The Flock is an austere, almost scientific study, Moving Cloud is a euphoric, high adrenaline party…

Three of a Kind – A New Musical

Set in modern-day America, this Broadway style musical does not hold back on ambition.

Things We Will Miss

The show is an intelligent, serious meditation on the most serious of subjects: the climate crisis.

Oedipus Rex

Leonard Bernstein rated this operetta as one of the dozen greatest musical classics of the 20th century; it is also one of the most intelligent interpretations of one of the founda…

Edinburgh Tales

They are called Edinburgh Tales but are not really about Edinburgh, in the same way the model for this show, The Canterbury Tales, is not actually about Canterbury.

Petty Tyrant

Thank God! A proper Fringe show.

Penthesilea

This is a Rock Opera mixed with a nineteenth century play about the lengths people will go to for lust.

Ghost Light: Between Fall and Flight

The two acrobats in this show must be from the future – ordinary humans cannot be so strong, hawk-eyed, and flexible, with senses of spatial orientation, balance and bravery so o…

If I Only Could

These young actors have energy and plenty of charisma and the script has many flashes of originality and fun – the death scene of the older sister Joan is cleverly done, as is th…

Please Right Back

If you haven't seen 1927 before, you should do so – their productions are magical.

Taiwan Season: Palingenesis

This is an astonishing dance performance.

It's Not My Body Chapter 3.5 / This Is

This bill consists of two conceptual pieces, connected by an emphasis on the body in space.

BOBBY WINNER

Taiwan Season: Lost Connection

Sometimes a dance production is so stunning it leaves your brain unable to engage with your tongue: this is such a show – Lost Connection is a fitting name in more ways than one.

Taiwan Season: I Am The BOSS

I can’t imagine a child who wouldn’t love this show.

Conversations We Never Had, As People We'll Never Be

A couple has thirty minutes to decide whether to erase the memory of their failed relationship.

Instructions

This incredible show is mind-bogglingly thought-provoking; it is also a lot of fun.

The Faustus Project

Half Trick Theatre company certainly knows how to entertain.

OUTPATIENT

To say this is the funniest RomCom I've seen about Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis might be faint praise; to say this is one of the funniest shows I've seen about death is a…

Hamstrung

So, it turns out Yorick’s Ghost is Hamlet’s Father – confused? It’s not poor Yorick’s fault.

The Last Laugh

The dressing room set may be spooky, but the uncanny element is the actors’ supernatural embodiment of Tommy Cooper, Eric Morecombe and Bob Monkhouse.

Antonio’s Revenge

If your idea of entertainment is brutal violence, the rattle of hi-falutin’ Jacobean verse, pervy sex and lots and lots of blood, then this is the show for you.

Red

RED references the stories of Red Riding Hood, Rapunzel, Snow White and Hansel and Gretel and ties them all together using the heroine’s thread of magical red hair.

Maggie & Me

Review
★★★★
Mark Harding
Glasgow
Tron Theatre
14th May, 2024

Let’s tackle head-on what a younger theatre-goer may think when they see a play called Maggie and Me; “who is Maggie?” is my bet.

Blue Beard

Emma Rice is a genius - we know this from her stage adaptations of classic texts - but when it comes to a wholly original play written by Rice herself, how does she fare?The play i…

Marx in London

Unlike Marx's great work Capital, the one thing you cannot describe this boisterous comic Opera as, is boring.

Two Sisters

We live in turbulent and deranged times.

Jekyll and Hyde

Is there anyone who hasn’t seen at least one version of this story, a version filled with gore, elaborate story lines and ostentatious special effects? This production of Jekyll …

Hansel & Gretel

Engelbert Humperdink’s biggest hit, packed with stuff that should not fit.

The Barber of Seville

As comedy vehicles go, this is a Rolls Royce.

Dracula: Mina's Reckoning

What would you do if you were offered god-like powers? That's the final dilemma faced by Mina in this adaptation of the Dracula story by Morna Pearson.

The Threepenny Opera

There are many aspects to the brilliance of this show, but the greatest revelation is the singing.

AFTER ALL

Don’t be put off by the topic - this dance show about death is far from gloomy.

SKETCHES/GLISK

This double bill is a treat of depth of talent performing across a huge range of scope – all compressed within a single hour.

As Far As Impossible

The show is derived from interviews with humanitarian aid workers about the Impossible.

This is a Chair

More written about than performed, this is a rare chance to see a version of Caryl Churchill’s 1997 play, This is a Chair.

Reclaim

This circus, dance and music show accepts no boundaries.

Dusk

A community of actors are staging a theatre version of Lars Von Trier’s film Dogville.

The Last Flapper

There’s been a mix-up in the weekly appointment with her Sanatorium psychiatrist.

Sensuous Governing

Away from the hurly-burly of the centre of the city, one of the Sisters Hope parades the silent streets, ringing the bell to call the initiates to the ritual.

Taiwan Season: Duo

It is comparatively easy to portray conflict; showing the different forms of domestic love is much more difficult.

Blood of the Lamb

This incendiary play is described as Kafkaesque.

Hello, The Hell: Othello

Hello, The Hell: Othello is a dance and physical theatre presentation of Othello's and Iago’s afterlife in hell.

Thrown

Thrown – a play about backhold wrestling – surely one of the world’s more obscure sports, even to city-living Scots.

Taiwan Season: #Since1994

There is a large distance between the impression given in the description of this show on the EdFringe site and my experience of the performance.

Eulogy

The company Darkfield are a Fringe regular now, known for their shows housed in completely dark shipping containers.

La Traviata

Review
★★★★
Mark Harding
Edinburgh
10th Jun, 2024

In the years BS (Before Spotify), there used to be themed album collections: NOW That's What I Call Opera could be compiled solely from the seemingly endless bangers from La Tr…

Scottish Ballet: A Streetcar Named Desire

This stunning production is an ideal example of how to use the unique ability of dance to emphasise and refocus on different aspects of a classic drama.

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

The subtitle A Gothic Romance is added to Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty for a good reason.

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