Articles by Tom Moyser

Breakfast Plays: Tech Will Tear Us Apart (?)

The Traverse’s Breakfast Plays series is an intriguing prospect: four plays on the same theme by their Associate Artists, presented as script-in-hand rehearsed readings at 9am ea…

Droll

Drolls, Brice Stratford tells us in the show’s scholarly introduction, were originally performed by half-drunk actors in covert locations on raucous evenings during the Puritan I…

Ghost Quartet

“Side One.

The Girl with the Hurricane Hands (and Other Short Tales of Woe)

Each of the short – but far from woeful – tales in this half-hour collection (from Bristol University and National Youth Theatre) have concepts that could be summed up in one l…

A Tale of Two Cities: Blood for Blood

A Tale of Two Cities: Blood for Blood is neither the best of times, nor the worst of times, but over a ninety-minute running time it is a something of an odd construction.

4D Cinema

In 1923, Marlene Dietrich made the transition from stage to cinema through a bit part in German silent comedy The Little Napoleon.

The Castle Builder

With the feel of an interactive workshop rather than a theatrical ‘show’, The Castle Builder is a lo-fi exploration of outsider art that alternates between informal lecture and…

Ubu on the Table

La Pire Espèce have been rummaging in the cupboards: in Ubu on the Table coffee pots, cutlery, a glass jug and drawers full of unassuming objects populate the cast in an energetic…

Boris: World King

A lot has happened to Boris Johnson since Boris: World King’s runaway success at last year’s Fringe.

A String Section

Here is what happens in A String Section: five women cut the legs off the chairs on which they are sitting.

Squish Squared

Guided by the contours and movements of squash and the confining size and layout of a squash court, Squish Squared is a unique and searching dance sequence that invites some fascin…

Robin Ince's Reality Tunnel

“The thing I was going to show you – well there’s a few things to show you – but I want to tell you something else first,” says Robin Ince some time into this intellectua…

Fraxi Queen of the Forest

Review
★★★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh – Fletcher Building
19th Aug, 2015

Fraxi Queen of the Forest is a pageant for children about ash dieback.

Taiwan Season: The Paper Play

This charming double bill from Puppets Being Theatre uses poise and precision to bring to life ingenious paper creations.

Gomaar Trilogy

The Gomaar Trilogy has stylish puppetry and heartfelt sincerity – but its confident aesthetic fails to enliven a tired story of a male artist trying to accommodate his creative i…

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Picture this.

I'm Not Here Right Now

How do we choose what we believe? Do we believe what we see with our eyes? Or do we believe what others find believable? What happens when these two things contradict one another? …

The Jabberwocky

In this marvellous production from UCLU Runaground, the creatures from Lewis Carroll’s classic poem become metaphors for the inner demons a young boy must fight as he learns to c…

Colors

Kurage Theatre’s innovative theatre show is a song, dance and drama spectacular.

Bobalong

Amiable hosts Dingo (Joshan Chana) and Dog (Thomas Fraser) present surreal sketches and storytelling in this enjoyable and inventive show that will sometimes be lost on younger aud…

Back to Blackbrick

Sarah Moore Fitzgerald’s much-loved Young Adult novel Back to Blackbrick is adapted in a technically ambitious production from Patch of Blue.

Jack and Molly and the Beanstalk

We all know the story of Jack and the Beanstalk – or at least, think we do.

City of the Dead Haunted Graveyard Tour

Edinburgh’s City of the Dead tour company guide fringe audiences along their graveyard route.

Twelfth Night

Twelfth night is a time of chaos, mess and topsy-turvy.

Yianni in Think Big (The Big One)

In his hugely popular free show Think Big, Yianni sets out his ambition to sell-out the biggest venue at the Fringe, have Michael ‘HackIntyre’ open for him and to enter the stage ‘…

Polly Toynbee: Reasons to Be Cheerful

‘Look, I’m really sorry for this but we’ve got you here under false pretences,’ says Polly Toynbee at the start of her talk with David Walker.

Chris Mullin – A Walk On Part

At the start of this show former Labour minister Chris Mullin claims that his memoirs chart ‘the entire rise and fall of New Labour from John Smith’s death in 1994 to Gordon Brown …

The Dragon and George

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
22nd Aug, 2013

There is no dragon in The Dragon and George.

Magpie & Stump Are Chairman Lmao and the Lolitburo

Review
★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
22nd Aug, 2013

‘We’re from Trinity College Cambridge’, says Harriet Cartledge, introducing herself, three other comedians (John Howe, Vishal Patil and Ken Cheng) and their stuffed Magpie.

Godspell

The second production of Godspell to grace the stages of the American High School Theatre Festival this Fringe - from St Luke’s School in Connecticut - is a skilfully directed spec…

Pigeon English

Gbolahan Obisesan’s adaptation of Stephen Kelman’s novel Pigeon English has a lot of big names behind it: a popular novel and school classroom-reader; an acclaimed playwright; and …

Richard Wiseman: Psychobabble

Richard Wiseman’s Psychobabble feels like an assembly.

Domestic Science

Domestic Science is a complex but perfectly balanced equation.

Bridget Christie - A Bic for Her

‘There’s a time and a place for that’, says Bridget Christie of serious political talk about feminism, ‘and eleven in the morning in a comedy show is not it’.

Childrens' Haunted Underground Tour

Every day in Edinburgh, a group of children and adults disappear into a haunted layer within South Bridge, enveloped in the crevasses of the city.

Absolute Improv Stories!

There are few things quite as lively, or amusing, as the imaginations of children.

The Red Tree

The Red Tree might be the most stylistically challenging piece of children’s theatre at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

The Golden Cowpat

The Golden Cowpat is a show grown on fertile pasture: Tucked In Productions’s Robin Hemmings and Anna Wheatley are accomplished performers, with a show as dramatically skilled as…

Adventures On Air – Free!

Ever wondered what radio DJs chat about when they’re off-air? No, me neither - but it turns out the topic provides a wealth of material for James Cook’s one-man show about the tria…

Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel

Commercially, Austentatious is perhaps one of the easiest sells on the Free Fringe: a popular and intensely loved literary brand – Austen – combined with the most crowd-pleasin…

Inspector Norse

For the most part, Inspector Norse is a traditional detective farce: plenty of awful puns, stereotyped characters and of nods to the Nordic crime dramas - most obviously The Killin…

Phil Wang: Anti-Hero

On entering his small room at Pleasance for his first full-hour stand-up set Phil Wang promises us two things: that this set will get rather blue around the middle and that it will…

The Comedy Reserve

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
18th Aug, 2012

On paper The Comedy Reserve is a great idea: find four up-and-coming comics and sort them out with a fully paid up Edinburgh show under a prestigious banner, along with all the pub…

I Believe in Unicorns by Michael Morpurgo

I Believe in Unicorns immediately invites us into its world.

Howard Read: Hide and Speak

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
19th Aug, 2013

Howard Read, the creator of the six-year old stand-up comedian and CBBC sensation Little Howard, leads a double life.

Claudia O'Doherty: Pioneer

‘I got a lot of money from the electronics company Pioneer to put on a massive show!’ shouts Claudia O’Doherty, as the word ‘Pioneer’ rises from screens both behind and in front of…

Newcastle University Comedy Society Showcase / PBH's Free Fringe

‘I was going to have a cucumber down my pants’ says compere Marc Smethurst, removing a cucumber from his pants, ‘but there’s a reviewer in tonight.

The Horne Section

If I were to imagine a perfect evening’s entertainment, I’d like to think I’d come up with something not dissimilar to The Horne Section.

Nicholas Parsons' Happy Hour

Nicholas Parsons’ Happy Hour is like a dusty old set of furniture in a stately home.

Susan Murray's Photo Booth

Susan Murray’s Photo Booth has a promising concept: comedy spun around her collection of passport photos – her own, her friends’, her family’s and those of complete strangers tha…

Sarah Jones: Does Not Play Well With Others

If there’s one near-forgotten art form due for a revival – along with storytelling and morris dancing – it’s surely ventriloquism.

Rua Macmillan Trio

In Madame Blavatsky’s ‘The Ensouled Violin’ Giuseppe Tartini’s demonic fiddle-playing is the result of a pact with the devil.

Thugz N Tearz

A play with this many Zs in its title should not be this good.

Subliminal Nonsense

Milk is a graduate with a degree in advertising.

Debris

Dennis Kelly’s Debris is a masterpiece.

Tenderpits

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
15th Aug, 2012

The stage of the Fringe one-man-show can be a high, vulnerable, and exposed parapet and never more so when the performer – in this case writer and co-creator Anthony Johnston –…

Spooky Men's Chorale

The Spooky Men’s Chorale are perhaps the world’s least famous international superstars.

King Creosote

King Creosote’s iron-clad strengths are his songwriting - whimsical and understated - and his voice - fragile and melodic.

...In for a Pound

Review
★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
25th Aug, 2011

The room is the size of your average school drama studio.

A Conversation with Carmel

A Conversation with Carmel is a dialogue of artistic fusion with a lot to say, and far too many ways of saying it.

School of Comedy

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
23rd Aug, 2012

In Shakespeare’s Hamlet the players are driven to Elsinore by a company of child actors who have commandeered the urban stages.

Mad About the Boy

Mad About the Boy, the new play from Gbolahan Obisesan, could not have come along at a better time.

Aaaand Now for Something Completely Improvised - Free

The improv group Racing Minds want to tell you a story.

Sanderson Jones - ComedySale.com/Fringe

There aren’t many taboos left in comedy.

The Madness of King Lear

Review
★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
21st Aug, 2012

Were I a paying customer in the audience of The Madness of King Lear, I would have walked out when Lear - Leofric Kingford-Smith – began his imitation of Rammstein using Shakespe…

Jay Foreman: We're Living in the Future

Jay Foreman’s show is a nostalgia trip for the young.

The Music Box

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
20th Aug, 2012

The Music Box, a new play by Cambridge University’s Emma Stirling is not only bad, but bad for theatre.

Peacock and Gamble Emergency Broadcast

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
18th Aug, 2011

Just over the half the audience at Peacock and Gamble’s Emergency Broadcast seem to love this show.

Flynch, Looking

To say that Flynch, Looking is about a seaside holiday will tell you nothing.

The Musicians

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
26th Aug, 2012

This production of Patrick Marber’s The Magicians shows huge amounts of effort and creativity on the part of its young cast from the sixth form of Taunton School, and is never wi…

Dave Gorman's Power Point Presentation

Dave Gorman has formed a double act - with a projection screen.

The Comedy Manifesto

From the moment the host of The Comedy Manifesto Kate Smurthwaite gives the audience the power to award points via heckling and gestures towards the Mussolini quote that the restau…

An Instinct for Kindness

I don’t feel entirely comfortable reviewing An Instinct For Kindness.

Nick Cope: Family Songs and Music

Nick Cope is the children’s singer-songwriter who brings acoustic, folky indie rock to the under-fives.

Horrible Histories - Barmy Britain

Have you ever a heard a room containing hundreds of children fall completely pin-drop silent? And if so, did that silence result from the listing of statistical, historical facts? …

Belt Up's Twenty Minutes to Nine

Before I walk into the theatre it is quarter to six in the afternoon.

Peep

Performed in a specially made box inspired by the darkened booths of Victorian peep shows, Peep presents one of three short plays about sex and eroticism, depending on the time of …

The Life Doctor

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
26th Aug, 2011

The Life Doctor’s vital signs are all there: lights, music, movement and a very talented cast.

Black Country Cider Lions - Free

The Black Country Cider Lions’ compere Rob Kemp reminds us near the start of the gig that the room we are in is bespoke.

The Magician's Daughter

On paper The Magician’s Daughter could be one of the best shows of this year’s Fringe: a sequel to The Tempest, written by legendary children’s author Michael Rosen, includin…

Lullabies of Broadmoor - Venus at Broadmoor

Review
★★
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
30th Aug, 2011

A Victorian insane asylum.

The Burns Unit

For a band who create a sound as complete and consistent as The Burns Unit, the Scottish-come-Canadian collective look rather disparate.

The Jabberwocky

Lewis Carroll’s ‘The Jabberwocky’ is to my mind one of the best works of literature to get children playing with language and at tempting their young imaginations.

Chilly Gonzales

Halátnost, the Russian word that literally translates as ‘dressing gown-ness’, has finally found its English, or more accurately Canadian, equivalent.

David O'Doherty Presents: Rory Sheridan's Tales of The Antarctica

David ‘Perrier Award winning’ O’Doherty has grown a beard especially for his role as the intrepid – read: inept - explorer Rory Sheridan.

Bec Hill is More Afraid of You Than You Are of Her!

A man in the front row at Bec Hill’s show accuses her of being the worst comedian he’s ever seen.

Josie Long and Sam Schäfer's Awkward Romance

Josie Long, arguably the highest profile comic on this year’s Free Fringe, and newcomer Sam Schäfer are an odd pairing.

Sheeps: A Sketch Show

Any sketch show that opens with the entire plot of Oliver Twist, in song, in three minutes is going to be good.

Little Howard's Big Show

Review
★★★★
Tom Moyser
London Fringe
23rd May, 2012

It should be no surprise that I am not the only unaccompanied adult at Little Howard’s Big Show.

Pun Run

Pun Run is a simple idea: a load of comics and other acts (including a sketch group, musical numbers and the Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppet Theatre) deliver short, condensed sets of…

Tim Key - Masterslut

Chekhov said that if you put a gun in your scene it has to go off.

Mark Grist - Rogue Teacher

There are few performers humble, subtle and versatile enough to not only survive the avalanche of churnalistic pulp – that is to say, newspaper articles ripped from press release…

Will Pickvance, Piano Whisperer, on the Anatomy of the Piano (for Beginners)

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
27th Aug, 2016

Will Pickvance returns to the Fringe this year with his whimsical Anatomy of the Piano (for Beginners), an anatomical lecture about the piano.

Us/Them's Carly Wijs & Gytha Parmentier are Talking Terrorism to Children at Summerhall

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
24th Aug, 2016

Us/Them, a family dance show about terrorism, has been one of the surprise hits of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe.

Andrew Roberts & Josh Mathieson are Dealing with Death in Children's Theatre

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2016

The Many Doors of Frank Feelbad is a brave and engaging work about how children and families process and communicate grief.

Sun, Chen-Chieh on Inspiring Children to Becoming Puppeteers

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2016

The Adventure of Puppets charts the voyage of two explorers as they venture into the unknown.

The Ruby in the Smoke Team on Working with Philip Pullman

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
19th Aug, 2016

Philip Pullman’s The Ruby in the Smoke sees the author’s Victorian mystery novel come to the stage for the first time.

Paines Plough’s James Grieve & Remy Beasley on the Magic of Theatre for Teens

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
19th Aug, 2016

I Got Superpowers for my Birthday by Katie Douglas is an action-packed fantasy adventure about the pains of growing up and learning you can shoot fire from your fingertips.

Riverdance’s Suzanne Cleary & Peter Harding on Creating New Dance Traditions

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
17th Aug, 2016

Into the Water is a fantastical folk-dance adventure set in a magical wasteland.

'Wreaking havoc on the interactive whiteboard' - Richard O'Brien's Free For All

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
25th Aug, 2015

Richard O'Brien is the author of several plays and four books of poetry.

“We can be anything behind the puppet” - Puppetry Panel with Les Enfants Terribles, Puppet Soup and Smoking Apples

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
25th Aug, 2015

This year's Fringe - both in the children's and adults' sections of the programme - is full of innovative and exciting puppet shows.

Clout Theatre, Superbolt Theatre and Tooth+Nail: The Lecoq Theatre Panel

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
19th Aug, 2015

L'École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris is one of the world's most influential theatre schools.

Dickens Quiz with the cast of Dickens Abridged

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
19th Aug, 2015

Dickens Abridged, a fast-paced musical romp through Charles Dickens's life and works, has been entertaining audiences in Edinburgh and beyond for the last eight years.

'39 Steps meets Naked Gun but for children' - Adapting the Falcon’s Malteser for the Fringe

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
13th Aug, 2015

The Falcon’s Malteser is the story of private detective Tim Diamond and his younger brother Nick becoming embroiled in a malteser-related mystery.

Ethical Quandires and Sequin Jackets: Tonight with Donny Stixx's David Mercatali and Sean Michael Verey

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
11th Aug, 2015

In their companion piece to 2013’s Fringe First Award-winning Dark Vanilla Jungle, writer Philip Ridley and director David Mercatali tell the story of Donny, a boy who has commit...

How to Co-Star with a Robot - Interview with Spillikin’s Helen Ryan, Jon Welch and Jude Munder

Feature
Tom Moyser
Edinburgh Fringe
11th Aug, 2015

Pipeline Theatre’s Spillikin is the moving story of an Alzheimer’s sufferer who is kept company by a robot made and programmed by her robotics-obsessed husband.

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