Articles by Sam Forbes

Borderlands

We are on the border between England and Scotland, life and death, fluid and solid.

You're Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy

Caroline Horton enters laden with suitcases against a pastel French tricolour.

The Ex

Dutch jazz punk veterans The Ex, have been going for thirty-five years.

Darkness Falls – John's Gospel

The Gospel of John is the most interesting of all the New Testament gospels.

To Sleep To Dream

To dream or not to dream? For the residents of Lhaytar, the only remaining city on an otherwise flooded Earth, the answer is definitively the latter.

Quiet Violence

The room smells of Deep Heat.

The Accidental Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

Review
★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
C venues - C
21st Aug, 2015

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most famous creation is given a shaky new lease of life in this parody adventure by Tobacco Tea.

Eclectically. Arranged. Poe and The Tell-Tale In Part

Fusion Theatre return to Greenside with a Poe-faced and incoherent piece of physical theatre that often makes even less sense than its overwrought title.

Stockholm

Review
★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Te Kore
19th Aug, 2015

Todd and Kali are a young couple.

ErictheFred

An ambitious clown show from veteran performer Chris Lynam, ErictheFred never quite lives up to its multimedia promise despite some impressive and funny moments along the way.

The Mountain Top

Review
★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Venue 13
17th Aug, 2015

In April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr went to Memphis.

Woolly Eyed Turtle 3D

Emily Johnson and Maeve Bell are a double act from Ireland.

Writing

A charming, witty and engaging show, Writing is an exploration of just that - the process of writing, as seen from a child’s perspective.

A Reason to Talk

Sachli Gholamalizad moved from Iran to Belgium when she was five.

Twin Primes

As any GCSE maths student will tell you, a prime number is one that has only two factors: one and itself.

The Communist Threat

A hotel room in Vienna, 1950.

Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons, Lemons

123,205,750.

Souvenirs

Review
★★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Zoo
15th Aug, 2015

Ashley (Ellice Stevens) has just moved to a new town.

Mind the Gap

Six passengers travel on the tube from Stratford to Ealing Broadway.

Fiesta de los Muertos

It’s one of the very few natural certainties that as we begin, so we must end – everything that lives, one day, has to die.

Incarnadine

Macbeth gets the prequel it never needed in Chiaroscuro’s portrait of the thane as a young warrior.

On Track

A gallery space with assorted artworks: chainsaw, feathered headdress, a map of the world.

Wojtek: The Happy Warrior

In 1942, a girl traded some food for a Persian bear cub.

PAN

PAN, the Korean word for festival, is a showcase of traditional dance and drumming and forms an eye-opening if not always compelling introduction to the country’s performance.

Traces

Traces has been amazing audiences around the world for nigh on a decade; it is a testament to the visual and theatrical power of the show that it’s lasted as long as it has.

Mitch’s Movie Pitches

Review
★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Summerhall
11th Aug, 2015

Mitch (Eric Sigmundsson) loves movies.

Kafka's Ape

Franz Kafka’s short story A Report to an Academy takes the form of an informative lecture given by an ape called Red Peter.

Electric Dreams

Rose’s earliest memory is a ruined birthday party at the age of eighteen.

The Pie-Eyed Piper of Hamilton

Pantomime is not just for Christmas, according to Òran Mór, whose take on the genre is a wonderfully satirical look at the corridors of power.

Talking with Angels: Budapest, 1943

Review
★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Summerhall
14th Aug, 2015

A crucifix, a menorah, the smell of incense.

The Remnants: Threadbare

Archimedes (Alexander Wilson) is interested in scopophilia, pleasure derived from looking.

Munch

Thanks to E.

The Remnants: As Thyself

A short and beguiling piece of theatre, As Thyself is presented here as the first part in a conceptual series of plays by Isla van Tricht, although it was originally a standalone p…

Scattered

When their estranged father dies, twins Nicky and Jake reunite to execute his will.

(Un)tied

Georg Büchner’s fragmented masterpiece Woyzeck has always attracted experimentation, from one-man shows to Punchdrunk’s latest, The Drowned Man.

Amy K

The expectations and contradictions of the modern world are explored in Deborah Gibbs’ well-meaning but heavy-handed production inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Trial.

Seawall

Putting on Sea Wall at the Fringe is a bold move.

Why Is Life Like Sparrows?

Review
★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Venue 13
19th Aug, 2014

Anni Dafydd emerges onto the stage wearing layers of mismatched technicolour clothes.

Actors

There’s an hour to go before an amateur production of Hamlet – the star of the show still hasn’t turned up, the rest of the cast hate each other and the director’s an egoma…

The Constant Soldier

A soldier sits in an anonymous room.

Pieces of Eight

Aberdeen’s Literal Lines bring their confused and incoherent sketch show to Edinburgh for the first time.

The Hunting of the Snark

Chicago’s Forks & Hope Ensemble brings Lewis Carroll’s famous nonsensical poem to magical life in this youthful and ebullient adaptation.

The Boy in Blue

Bringing a show to the Fringe is a daunting prospect even for established theatre companies.

Leave Me

Boy meets girl.

This Wide Night

Chloë Moss’ 2008 play about two women reunited after getting out of prison is confidently revived by SUDS in Eliza Gearty and Tom Herbert’s searing production.

My Luxurious 50 Square Feet Life

Review
★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
just Festival
12th Aug, 2014

In Hong Kong, thousands of people – poor families, students, white-collar workers – live in dystopian-sounding “sub-divided units” that sometimes only amount to 50 square f…

I Promise I Shall Not Play Billiards

In the mid-19th Century, Madeleine Smith was accused of poisoning her lover, Pierre Emile L’Angelier.

The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven

Every evening, the understated sacred space of St.

Private View

Plunge Theatre’s Edinburgh debut unflinchingly explores 21st century femininity in this confrontational piece of modern feminism in which three women explore perceptions of…

Landscape with Skiproads

What happens when the past collides with the present? If the philosophical is made tangible, does it still have the power to transform? And can myths ever hold any relevance to our…

Stackard Banks is Self-Discovered

An Amazonian tribe, a German arch-nemesis and The Bourne Ultimatum are just three of the things on the mind of world-renowned adventurer Stackard Banks, played with much gusto …

Watching Windows

In 1964, a young bride is discovered standing on a high window ledge at her own wedding reception.

Hamlet

New theatre company Gin & Tonic makes an assured debut with an abridged version of Hamlet that breathlessly energises Shakespeare’s masterpiece with a confidence not often seen i…

Bond!

Review
★★★
Sam Forbes
Edinburgh Fringe
Zoo
16th Aug, 2014

There is only one way that Gavin Robertson can possibly start Bond!, his one-man parody of Ian Fleming’s greatest creation.

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