The first rule about a Dada performance is that you don’t start one with the history of Dada.
A simple premise lays the foundation for Melanie Gall to recount the story of two of Hollywood’s brightest golden age stars, Deanna Durbin and Judy Garland: a New York Times jour…
It is a complete delight to watch these two actors practice their craft.
The phrase "Every Time a Bell Rings" is well known and resonates especially at Christmas time: straight away we expect a link to the classic It’s a Wonderful Life, and …
M6 Theatre Company have put together a heartwarming show filled with the Christmas spirit, with some truly charming use of puppetry, storytelling and stage magic It is exactly the …
A lot of love has gone into this imagined duet between Frankie Howerd and his lover Dennis Heymer.
SpaceXPat explores the motivation and aftermath of an astronaut expat called Pat deciding to stay permanently on the International Space Station (spot that pun in the title).
Conceived, written and acted by Timothy Quinlan, this short film features some of the better acting on offer at the Fringe, and like so many others, is inspired by the strange real…
The Boom Room is a sweet little radio play that captures the ennui and idiosyncratic Englishness of lockdown – cleaning out spice racks, a sudden urge to plant potatoes – and p…
The 72-year-old cabaret performer Nigel Osner knows a thing or two about ageing and self-isolating during the pandemic.
Viv (Katherine Parkinson) has lost her shoe on her London commute.
It’s embarrassing recalling your teenager years, isn’t it? Awkward crushes, cringe-worthy fashion choices and dramatic mood swings; most of us are very happy to leave those yea…
“It’s about us—together,” explain Jake Jarratt and Cameron Sharp, in their new play in which two drama students – straight “Jake”, gay “Cameron” – end up trying…
Matt Hoss is a man on a mission.
Though we aren’t given the choice that may be implied by the inclusion of the subtitle in The Visit or The Old Lady Who Comes to Call, it is a play that uses juxtaposition as it …
Families come in all shapes and sizes.
Love is never easy.
NUMB, by Timothy Cobeanu, has an unusual start.
Watching A Little Space made me think of Marmite.
Connor is on a night out and ready to be open about his sexuality.
Going to see comedians with no prior knowledge of their work is always a bit of a risk.
Suspended from the ceiling of the Coronet Theatre are five crystalline orbs that almost look like faces.
The decade might be set in history as ‘Swinging’, but for many of us who lived through the ‘60’s the appellation has only a marginal connection with the realities of life.
Performing a play in a cathedral about an archbishop assassinated in a cathedral might sound like a match made in heaven.
Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane is an intensely Irish play set in the wilds of Connemara, premiered locally by the Druid Theatre Company in Galway in 1996.
A simple production, A Life Twice Given stretches itself to do justice to a very complicated idea, with only limited resources and space.
Gaslight has stood the test of time in the canon of British theatre.
While browsing some of the more risqué websites you may discover some titillating videos of various people trying to get each other to laugh, moan and groan simply by tickling.
It’s only two years until the face of Alan Turing appears on the new £50 note.
The Tower Theatre Company seek to outrage and (somewhat) inspire with their recreation of Dead Funny.
The neon sign above the stage at the new Turbine Theatre, Battersea, hints at the lights of New York City, but it also reminds us of the history behind director Drew McOnie’s pro…
The world premiere of Sadie Hasler’s Stiletto Beach has burst onto the stage at the dynamic Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch in a bold, brave, fearless and funny exploration of what…
Falsettos has been around since 1992, but it’s UK premier has only just opened at The Other Palace, London.
If, unlike me, you include politics, the public-school system or pub quizzing in your CV’s ‘Other Interests’ section, you’ll already know that Hansard is the name given to …
Only a couple of weeks ago I, and some friends, were in an Escape Room.
Das Stuck’s The Mannequin is a contemporary Edda of intertwining tales: bohemians enwrapped in the fashion industry whilst isolated in the LGBTQ+ community.
Green and Blue is a touching and thoughtful production about two police officers patrolling opposites sides of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland durin…
Brecht’s darkly comic play about the ascent of the moronic, childish but charismatic gangster Arturo Ui should be relevant for obvious reasons.
Amy Garner Buchanan and Hayley Ricketson embark upon their second collaboration and create a show that explores what it means to be a woman trying to claim an identity for herself.
Will Gompertz feels like an old friend, not because I have ever met him, but because I have grown up with his inciteful and interesting contributions as the BBC’s arts editor.
The play follows Nick: a young, successful artist struggling with his identity and mental health.
The Hart Players theatre company brings Noël Coward’s Still Life to the Fringe.
It’s an old feminist adage that the personal is political – and it doesn’t get much more personal than this.
Irene Possetto’s one-woman play presents a young girl named Isabelle living a life of true tragedy in 1301.
Smokescreen Productions is supporting the work of Amnesty International through its new work, Judas, at Assembly Blue Room.
Direct from Australia, John Rowe brings his sofa-based entertainment show to the Edinburgh Fringe.
Asterglow theatre is a new amateur company focused on new writing centered on female and non-binary individuals.
William Shakespeare’s narrative poem The Rape of Lucrece tells the story of Lucrece, a noblewoman in ancient Rome whose rape at the hands of her husband’s friend, Tarquin, ulti…
Improvengers: Pretendgame is an ambitious concept without the follow-through.
I’ve never been the biggest fan of Alice Birch’s writing.
Billed as part Brazilian street dance and part Scottish ceilidhe with everyone invited to share the dance floor and a whisky, this suggested a rather more joyful, carnivalesque exp…
There are quite a few variations on the Romeo & Juliet theme at this year’s Fringe, but few have as many puns as AcadePitch Presents - Romeo and Juliet: An A Capella Tragedy.
The blank, sterile corridors of Surgeons Hall are not where you might expect to find folky fun late at night.
Folksy Theatre describe their touring, and frequently open air, production of The Comedy of Errors as being ‘Filled with Folksy's wonderful live music, audience interaction a…
Circus is inherently exciting to watch – the whole point of it is to see human bodies interact with the world in a way you didn’t think was possible.
Laurie Black is back and she’s green, keen and featuring a plethora of originally written electro synth space cabaret songs.
As the surge of improv comedy takes over the Fringe, Sisterwives brings a classic sketch show that packs a wicked punch.
It was a day like any other day.
Very few kind words have ever been said about the prison system in this or any other nation.
If you’re one of the many people who visit the Fringe from far flung parts of the world (hello Londoners daring to go past the M25) it’s easy to forget amongst all the clamour …
Amber Topaz, the inaugural Miss Burlesque UK, brings Edinburgh Fringe a burlesqueless theatrical cabaret experience that is personal, informative, and inclusive.
A riotous romp through the history of the female body, the patriarchy and the bad science behind the titular gender myth.
‘What’s going on…??’ Rosana Cade cries, with their head in the seat of a swivel chair, spinning slowly in front of a fixated and silent audience.
Le Coup, in the Underbelly Circus Hub’s ‘The Beauty’ tent, is perfectly programmed.
Four work colleagues reunite after 30 years, in this delightful intergenerational analysis of motherhood.
More of a personal theatrical experience than what one might expect from a show described as ‘cabaret’, Allie Jessing’s Hetaira: A Mythic Cabaret sees the talented actress de…
Chris Read is a talented singer-songwriter performing his debut solo hour at the Fringe this year.
BBC radio music aficionado Russell Clarke is making his Edinburgh Fringe debut in a show jam-packed with fascinating rock ‘n’ roll trivia and random connections between the sta…
Black Light Theatre Company features a boisterous and lively cast in their production The Last Bubble.
This new musical follows the story of Alex Peel, whose life is changed by a diagnosis which will eventually lead to her going completetly blind.
Stoner comedy is a strange subgenre.
Limbo: The Twelve is one of the latest pair of musicals from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, allowing a group of talented young performes the opportunity to perform an origina…
It is often a challenge to take a piece of original writing that has already achieved success at the Fringe and do something new with it.
This World War II farce is a good choice for a 25-strong company to showcase their talents, with a wide range of roles on show.
A clever, conversational creation which examines differing experiences and attitudes to feminism, misogyny and the patriarchal structures which limit women in society.
Sam Wyatt is an ambitious stand-up comedian who has taken a novel approach to this year’s festival, in designing a live gameshow with uniquely imaginative rounds.
Staging The Winter’s Tale in the middle of the summer might seem to be an unusual choice, but as we huddled in the wind blasted Brighton Open Air Theatre it seemed pathetic falla…
One man, a guitar, and the most venerated love story of all time.
Edinburgh Festival Fringe is a beacon of individuality for our time: it presents a platform for anybody with the desire to express themselves and whatever makes them individuals.
In Moment of Truth, James Freedman opens with an air of mystery.
Here Comes the Tide, There Goes the Girl is one of four plays presented by CalArts at venue 13 this year and is steeped in their tradition of producing original material that stret…
Enigma, a new musical presented by Enigma Theatre UK is an exciting piece of historical musical theatre telling the story of a unit of female code breakers in America during World …
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature has, for many years, produced and maintained a “Red List” of species which are either already extinct or in danger of bei…
It’s probably worth clarifying in the first sentence of this review that I was not expecting to be drawn into the bureaucratic complexities of being the Easter Bunny whilst at th…
Tiff Milner (writer/director) presents a well-researched retelling of a lesbian herstory, set in twentieth century Paris, at the eponymous the lesbian bar Le Monocle.
Noises Off meets Antigone with a lot of great dick jokes thrown in for good measure! Bitch, Antigone from Australia’s Out Cast Theatre and writer Steven Dawson, is a hilarious go…
The National Youth Theatre have put Mark Zuckerberg on trial.
Robert Temple is performing the only traditional hour-long hypnosis show in Edinburgh Fringe this year, so if you’re looking for a show where any number of people can volunteer t…
A rock guitar-playing punsmith may sound like it has a niche appeal to a certain type of Fringegoer, but Robin Boot’s early afternoon show in Whistlebinkies managed to pull in a …
I have absolutely nothing but admiration to the performers of Recirquel Company Budapest, given that some of their number must have spent their entire lives training their lean, mu…
Bumper Blyton features a bumper cast of improv experts who give assured performances throughout, but too many bells and whistles lead to a muddled production.
Writer Jack Fairey has taken on a huge task in adapting the substance of Homer’s Iliad into a modern story still firmly embedded in the Trojan War with a running time just short …
Whatever else the history books will make of UK politics in 2019, it can at least acknowledge some impressive feminist credentials, with women leading parties right, left and centr…
Dear Mother Moon is one of four works presented by CalArts this year in what has become the Institute’s Edinburgh home, Venue 13.
Christine Devaney’s And the Birds Did Sing is a gentle, moving meditation on the loss of her father, expressed through story-telling and some expressive physical movement to an e…
As an unfinished text imbued with deep mystery, ranging from menacing abstract bureaucracy to detailed recounted memories, Kafka’s The Castle is a challenging undertaking, but th…
Another is a quadruple selection of dance pieces by the fledgling company Ballet-works founded by a former soloist of Stuttgart Ballet, Robert Robertson and comprises both contempo…
How To Use A Washing Machine is a charming two-hander from emerging company Slam Theatre.
This is a show for the fans.
If this was billed as Music and took place in a concert hall, the MP4 Quartet’s perfomance of three pieces by Steve Reich, Pendulum Music, Different Trains and WC 9/11 would earn…