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…
Rika’s Rooms is the second in the series of four works that form the Playground Theatre’s season of plays by Gail Louw and features Emma Wilkinson Wright in the eponymous solo …
Unlike Marx's great work Capital, the one thing you cannot describe this boisterous comic Opera as, is boring.
Director Rachel Bagshaw has created a vibrant and vivid production of John Webster’s tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi, at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre that revels in the candlelight se…
For charisma, no other male dancer can beat Carlos Acosta, one of the greatest classical dancers of our times, still spell-binding at fifty.
It’s taken a hell of a time to get here, but finally, Hell has arrived in London’s West End.
We live in turbulent and deranged times.
Danny Sapani (Misfits, Killing Eve, Black Panther, the National Theatre’s Medea) is King Lear in this intricate, striking production directed by Yaël Farber.
You know you’re in for a wild night at the Arcola Theatre when one of the content warnings is ‘Mentions of necrophilia’.
Set in a secluded tower, this play is a queer adaptation of Alfred Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott, a poem detailing the life of said Lady, who is locked away, spending her days w…
There is something gorgeously comforting about a show that within five minutes of beginning you know you can relax and enjoy, because even the things that are ad libbed and unscrip…
Has the National Theatre put the Lyttelton on Airbnb? In October, we had the city-break-length two-week run of Alexander Zeldin’s The Confessions (quite long enough, in my opinio…
Before the titular, double-Grammy-awarded opening number begins, we are exposed to a soundscape of cheesy 80s commercials for domestic products that serve to highlight some of the …
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 …
Is Cinders a male or a female? Audiences won’t know until the curtain rises on a particular night.
The protagonist of Matthew Howell and Jack Michael Stacey’s new comedy farce almost says,“The name’s Blonde, Jane Blonde”.
The human brain doesn’t allow us to remember pain.
Mischief Theatre is back again with Peter Pan Goes Wrong, an effortlessly hilarious show where magic and mayhem coexist.
At first blush, it may seem a strange choice for a festive show but this latest incarnation is bang on the money.
Agatha Christie called And Then There Were None the most difficult to write book of her career, but staging her play comes with challenges of its own.
A fatal car crash, generational genocide, and child mortality.
As comedy vehicles go, this is a Rolls Royce.
Thought provoking, touching and incredibly true-to-life, Dan Sareen’s Passing provides thoughtful insight into the cultural conflicts that can come with the biracial experience.
After great success in London’s West End, Aladdin heads on a UK tour, enthralling all that come with tale of the street rat-turned-prince as charms the princess.
Head to the Bridge House Theatre, Penge for an evening of delightful storytelling and charming performances in Alan Booty's two-hander, The Loaf.
Winston Churchill’s famous expression, “It’s a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma…” could accurately be applied to the subject of The Kaspar Hauser Experiment a…
Touring the UK in Black History Month and into November is Philip Okwedy’s The Gods Are All Here, a one-man show about the performer's distant relationship with his parents a…
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 current transformation of the postage stamp stage of Barons Court Theatre, located in the cellar vaults of The Curtains Up pub, has been wrought by Designer Jane Linz Roberts, …
The play’s excessively long title has a folktale ring to it and with only limited knowledge of Balkan history sounds like a work of comic fantasy.
Billed as ‘documentary theatre’ Lessons on Revolution at the Hope Theatre is a fascinating excursion into performance and the creative process that challenges the traditional i…
Religious fervour and football fanaticism have much in common, so it seems entirely appropriate that Patrick Marber’s changing-room drama, The Red Lion should open to the sound o…
Rape, homophobic bullying, knife crime and murder in a mental health/correctional institute, Mathew Bourne’s Romeo+Juliet is probably the most shocking and bold of his re-imaginin…
We’re all familiar with mess in one form or another, but for most of us dealing with it is probably not an all-consuming activity in the way that it is for writer and performer Jen…
The contribution of Stephen Sondheim to musical theatre was commemorated in a one-off tribute show last year, following his death in 2021.
Strategic Love Play offers a tragic and often hilarious mirror to the fears and hopes of the vast majority of us who harbour a fear of dying alone.
It was a low turnout at the intimate Finborough Theatre for John McKay’s Dead Dad Dog, but we were all clearly in the mood for a fun night out.
An Afternoon with Anton Du Beke and Friends, and what an afternoon; Du Beke gives a hilarious and dazzling show filled with humour, dance and song.
Keeping stand-up weird since 2013, Harriet Dyer is everything I love about the Fringe.
There’s a great, restless energy in Director Declan Donnellan’s production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s seventeenth century Spanish classic Life is a Dream.
Director Daisy Evans draws the audience not only into the dark corridors of a mysterious castle in her revival of the Bela Bartok opera Bluebeard’s Castle.
Three distinct dance acts bring the unexpected to the stage for Beyond Boundaries, a show billed as a time-travelling showcase of Scottish hip-hop dance.
Gillian Lacey-Solymar, Carrie Penn and Toby Huelin’s Irrepressible, whilst a compelling story seems to rehash old messages without leaving us with a sense that we should do somet…
St Andrews University’s Gilbert and Sullivan Society is in sparkling form with their presentation of this little known show.
Another in the seemingly endless flow of musicals about unlikely subjects that prove successful.
An exceptionally enthusiastic and talented youth theatre put on a revival of the 2013 version of Pippin.
Tandava – the cosmic dance of Shiva – symbolising time; existence; non-existence and so much more.
Julius Caesar Must Die is a little misleading, as initially it appears to be an absurdist original dramatisation of the assassination of Julius Caesar.
How to live a jellicle life: life lessons from the 2019 hit musical ‘cats’ is as bonkers as it sounds, whilst still adding to the philosophical debate on how to live a good lif…
Sam Hurst leaps onto the stage in a black sequin suit and skull-covered tie ensemble that screams “entertainer”.
Do Rhinos Feel Their Horns or Can They Not See Them Like How We Can't See Our Noses may be in the running for the Fringe’s wackiest title and the show itself is an equally pl…
Edinburgh University’s Shakespeare Company present the chilling tale of Hekabe, a reimagined translation of Euripides’ original Greek tragedy.
The Night of the Musicals is a dazzlingly fun, exceptionally energetic hour of musical entertainment.
When you think of cabaret you might think of bawdy strip teases, caricatures of femininity, and lewd jokes.
Relating the most horrible experience a woman can go through portrayed in the most beautiful form, Amina Khayyam Dance Company return to the Fringe with a stage version sequel to t…
This double bill is a treat of depth of talent performing across a huge range of scope – all compressed within a single hour.
Don’t be put off by the topic - this dance show about death is far from gloomy.
In an era where anthropogenic climate change is not only an abstract global concern, but also becoming a lived reality for countless people, the joint production of Belgian puppetr…
The Stall by Jack Twelvetree is an abstract show that uses a childhood memory of flying as an extended metaphor to explore grief, loss, regret and mental health.
Expecting a retelling of the Greek myth, the office set is initially a little confusing.
Dazzling is a one-woman show following Alix, a quirky twenty-something living through the obligatory suffering which comes with discovering oneself, especially in the shadow of her…
2020 the musical follows main characters Emily Goodhand and Adam Pictor, two musical theatre performers who have faced a lot of rejection, finally get their big break in a show tha…
A Chorus Line - and what a chorus line! I was wowed by this performance of A Chorus Line presented by the Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group.
This completely original chamber musical by Shaye Poulton Richards is a darkly charming piece of new writing.
No use crying over spilt milk is a very commonly used proverb, and its familiarity and any possible connection to it is at the forefront of our minds as we watch this show.
There’s something really unsettling about 1950s suburbia, and What If They Ate The Baby? really taps into that feeling as it plunges deeply into the aesthetic of a stereotypical …
This show is light-speed FAST.
If you’ve been handed a flyer for Watch List in the street, you might expect what’s written on it –a show about an insecure police officer on a journey to clean up the street…
Nicole Travolta is Doing Alright is Travolta’s debut show that tells the story of her crippling shopping addiction and how she manages to abscond a steadily increasing mountain o…
The premise of Attachment: The Leech Show is very simple: it’s a play devised and performed for the sole benefit of impressing a single specific audience member; a prominent thea…
We begin, as most trauma does, in the distant past.
A classic story for a modern age, Les Millénniables is a self-aware and uniting musical, because it satirizes the generational divide, and understands its own ridiculous nature.
The improvisational sketch group Shoot From The Hip bring their spontaneous hour of games and tomfoolery to the Fringe this year.
Brooke Finegold is masterful in her hour of live poetry, spoken word and stand up comedy.
Examining the clashing forces on climate change, from eco-activists to oil barons and airheaded celebrities trying to make a change, Crash and Burn not only delivers on a very funn…
On a sunny afternoon in the mid-90s, a young ginger-haired boy is making his way across town to reach his psychologist appointment.
I thought I knew what to expect from The Devil’s Passion.
Social media star Paul Black returns to the Fringe this year with his new stand-up show, Nostalgia, a look back into his childhood as a gay wee boy growing up in Glasgow as the son…
The best way to express what this show represents, is to say it is like a classic cabaret crossed with a night with Mr Rogers.
The show is derived from interviews with humanitarian aid workers about the Impossible.
Paul Merton’s infamous Impro Chums return to the Fringe after a four year hiatus and is warmly welcomed by the Pleasance Grand’s 750 seat capacity bursting at the seams.
These girls are batshit crazy and I love it.
It’s hard to imagine that any show called, in full, A Shark Ate My Penis: A History of Boys Like Me could be weirder or more fun than it sounds.
The 2006 musical Spring Awakening, based on the book of the same name, tells the story of teenagers at a strict religious school in late 19th century Germany, struggling as they di…
Hurly Burly’s Death by Shakespeare is a stylised ode to Shakespeare, that lifts and showcases his best-known characters in a tumultuous yet entrancing way.
How do you summarise a whole life? Is it in the knick knacks and curios we collect? Do the objects we surround ourselves with truly represent who we are inside? And even if you lov…
Students from Westcliff High School for Boys, Essex, have arrived in Edinburgh with 14-18 Cyrano de Bergerac, an exciting re-imagining of Edmund Rostand’s 1897 classic tale writt…
This circus, dance and music show accepts no boundaries.
It is genuinely difficult to keep track of all the wellness tips that you’re supposed to follow to have a healthy body and mind.
The students of Royal Conservatoire of Scotland’s MA Musical Theatre programme are a staple at the Fringe, and they never let us down!Edges, a song cycle written by Benj Pasek an…
The room in the Brewdog Doghouse that Patrick Spicer occupies brings with it an air of informality that helps to set the tone for Spicer’s Yes Haha What.
I’m more of a casual Eva fan.
Aloft Circus Arts of Chicago (USA) burst onto the Fringe scene with their hit Brave Space last year.
Eddy Hare’s Leave It With Me is a great example of his dead-pan humour, flair for musical comedy, and joke writing ability.
Emotional balladry, lyrical wizardry, and musical husbandry are the cornerstones of Men With Coconuts, at PBH's Free Fringe @ Liquid Room Annexe/Warehouse.
A traditional dance class running from 9pm to 11pm daily, the Ceilidh is a sweaty fun-filled session in the extravagant grand hall of the Royal College of Physicians, featuring a l…
Ticking Clock Theatre brings to life the grim days of the Victorian hangman at the Space Triplex Studio in The Standard Short Long Drop, a fascinating play set in the cell of two p…
It is comparatively easy to portray conflict; showing the different forms of domestic love is much more difficult.
La codista / The queuer is a deceptively simple show about a woman who waits in line for other people.
Banana is a wacky hour of outside-the-box clown comedy that makes you smile from ear to ear.