4 Star Shows

FRAT

Fraternities are an integral part of university life in the USA.

Julia. After 1984

It has become a cliché to say that George Orwell’s 1984, published more than 75 years ago, is relevant to our turbulent times.

Ballet BC (British Colombia)

A memorable, hugely exciting double bill, Passing and Frontier, performed by Ballet BC – the leading Canadian dance company – feels as if it’s at the forefront of contemporar…

The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

Magic, puppetry, dance, aerial acts and snowflakes inside an illuminated circle fill this musical version of C.

AS IF YOU KNOW ME

How well can you ever really know anyone? How much do we fundamentally understand about someone, and what are the masks and defences we all employ?A stage solely occupied by a keyb…

Water Colour

It’s the new season at Pitlochry and it is off to a flying start with the world première of Milly Sweeney’s debut play.

The Seagull

A big cast, a challenging text, and a very small stage.

The Man who was Thursday

Review
★★★★
Roger Kay
Brighton Fringe
Brighton Open Air Theatre (BOAT) / The Rotunda Theatre: Bubble
19th May, 2025

Identity confusion sits at the heart of this re-telling of G.

Titus Andronicus

As befits one of his earliest plays, Titus Andronicus has all the hallmarks of a Shakespeare honing his craft in a studenty troupe full of bold ideas, incautious language, over-wee…

With Ruby and I

Mags’s mum has recently died.

Parlour Song

Who knows what lies beneath the seemingly respectable, very ordinary, and rather bland lives of those who occupy suburban London? Jez Butterworth’s Parlour Song, at Greenwich The…

The Crucible

Scottish Ballet’s revival of Helen Pickett’s The Crucible is a sensation.

Noises Off

Brian Rix, the Whitehall Farces, and their successors from the 1950s were part of my life growing up, as they must have been for almost everyone packed into what felt like a matine…

Giant

This is your second chance to see the Olivier award-winning Giant in its 14-week limited run on the West End: a gripping new play that brings to light the dark views of children…

Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)

Great fun, at times hilarious, Pride & Prejudice, sort of by Isobel McArthur is a high energy spoof which will appeal to both Jane Austenites and those who’ve never read a wo…

Ben and Imo

Benjamin Britten was not the easiest person with whom to form an attachment, much less a friendship and to work for, but Imagen Holst, a focussed, determined and eccentric woman wi…

Bigfoot: In Plain Sight

Bigfoot in Plain Sight is the latest from theatre company A Handful of Bugs.

Midnight Cowboy

Based on the much loved novel by James Leo Herlihy which inspired the triple Academy Award-winning 1969 film starring Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman, Midnight Cowboy – A New Music…

Playhouse Creatures

After 18 years of pious, puritanical rule, theatres could at last re-open their doors when Charles II came out of exile and assumed the throne.

Wild Rose

Based on the award winning 2018 film of the same name by Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose has line danced its way to the stage.

The Makropulos Affair

The greatest operatic soprano in the world, with an irresistible beauty, who is 300 years old, preserved by an occult elixir – that is some role.

Pandora

If location is everything, Teatro dei Giordi at the Coronet Theatre have espoused this sentiment in their latest work, Pandora, which transforms the stage into a unisex public lava…

The Testament of Gideon Mack

Impressively adapted for stage by Matthew Zajac, The Testament of Gideon Mack is transformed from James Robertson's original, and brilliant, novel into a robust and highly refl…

What A Gay Day! - The Larry Grayson Story

For those of us who lived through the era of Larry Grayson, What a Gay Day, at the Bridge House Theatre, Penge, is a joyous walk down memory lane.

An Evening Without Kate Bush

Saying a show is ‘not for everybody’ has never been higher praise.

A Man For All Seasons

Rober Bolt’s A Man for All Seasons, is steeped in the politics of the age, but the dispositions of its characters have a timelessness that inescapably leads us to reflect on the …

Vollmond

Four major elements combine in Pina Bausch's Vollmond at Sadler's Wells to create an intriguing two-hour, two-act production of contemporary dance from Tanztheater Wupperta…

The Merchant of Venice

At times deeply shocking, sugar-coated with goofy humour, this is an extraordinary must-see production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, relevant to our dark times so fi…

Snow White and the Seven Drag Queens

Review
★★★★
James Macfarlane
Glasgow
22 Queen Margaret Union, University Gardens
15th Jan, 2025

It’s adult pantomime season again – oh no it’s not! - and with it comes a selection of x-rated jokes, filthy humour and songs a-plenty.

Idle Women

Inspired by a photograph and an article on women of the waterways in the Second World War, Busy Lizzies Theatre Company and Long Way Home Productions collaborated in creating this …

Mother Goose

Perth Theatre has made a festive name for itself over the years with its traditional panto played out in the perfect setting of its beautiful Edwardian auditorium.

Grace Campbell Is On Heat

There is no way to suitably introduce a show that ticks all the boxes in the way that it provides us with everything that we might want from a stand-up hour.

Oor Wullie

Oor Wullie is back on stage, looking no’ bad for a spiky-haired loon who first started entertaining the public in 1936 in the cartoon pages of The Sunday Post newspaper.

The Sound of Music

Say the words The Sound of Music and you will often be greeted with a misty-eyed response as people recall their childhood, watching the film with family at Christmas.

A Million Miles Under Hampstead Heath

Making your professional debut as a playwright, is a nerve-racking experience, but Nina Fuentes can set aside any doubts or fears following the rapturous reception that the premier…

Alter_Azione

Review
★★★★
Roger Kay
Catania OFF Fringe
Zo
29th Oct, 2024

Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet that the function of art is to hold up a mirror to nature.

Othello

Review
★★★★
Rebecca Vines
UK Regional & Tours
Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Southern Lane
23rd Oct, 2024

Tim Carroll’s Othello, now playing in the main house at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, marks an RSC return to the play after a nine-year hiatus following Hugh Quarshie’s memora…

News

In the shadow of Europe’s most active volcano, Mount Etna, and by the beautiful coast of the Ionian Sea, the Catania Fringe has, perhaps, one of the most glamorous locations for …

Don Pasquale

Review
★★★★
Mark Harding
Scotland
Multiple Venues
15th Oct, 2024

This revival of Scottish Opera’s 2014 production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale brings together the comic opera brilliance of David Stout playing the Don (last seen with the compa…

Statues

A beautifully devised piece of theatre from award-winning playwright Azan Ahmed (Deen & Dunya, The Father and the Assassin), Statues is a whipsmart production that uses hiphop …

Gruoch: The Lady Macbeth

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
31st Oct, 2024

After some years of setbacks, Caroline Burns Cooke took to the stage at Dundee Fringe with her new work, Gruoch: Lady Macbeth, written for her by David Calcutt.

What The Thunder Said

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
14th Nov, 2024

As might be expected in Jane William’s ambitious work, What the Thunder Said, there are some impressive sound effects of the heavens in torment.

Look Back In Anger

The Almeida’s Angry and Young season has opened with John Osborne’s Look Back in Anger that heralded the mid 1950s revolution in drama and gave birth to the Angry Young Man gen…

Buckets of Blood: Fairy Tales Not For Kids

Review
★★★★
Richard Beck
Dundee Fringe
The Keiller Shopping Centre, Chapel Street
21st Sep, 2024

In a gripping and hilarious show, Yorkshire storyteller Eden Ballantyne takes us back to the original versions of some of the most famous children’s stories and leaves us wonderi…

Snake in the Grass

Alan Ayckbourn’s Snake in the Grass gives an opening impression of a potentially genteel tale concerning reunion of two sisters in the garden of their late father’s country hou…

Roots

The Almeida’s Angry and Young season has opened with two seminal works from the dramatic revolution of the late 1950s: Arnold Wesker’s Roots and John Osborne’s Look Back in A…

The Real Ones

Review
★★★★
Laura Tucker
West End
Bush Theatre
17th Sep, 2024

A meaty feast of new theatre from playwright Waleed Akhtar, The Real Ones is a fast-moving and impassioned exploration of platonic love, tackling themes of identity and sexuality t…

The Brenda Line

In the canon of surprising things my mother told me, the fact that the Samaritans used to have designated phone lines for men wanting to use them as sex lines must rank high.

A Night with Janis Joplin

A music-filled biography of the life and musical influences of Janis Joplin that sets the house on fire.

After the Silence

Very early in After the Silence, Juliana França’s character relates her experience of being taught about Brazil’s history in school.

The Fifth Step

With a smartly self-referential script from David Ireland, which is packed with engaging, funny, and irreverent dialogue, The Fifth Step proves to be a powerful and darkly comedic …

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story

Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story is a joyful reimagining of the Princess of Wales' life, told with wildly speculative poetic licence.

A Girl Gets Naked In This

Perhaps winning the award for most provocative title of the Fringe, A Girl Gets Naked In This is a series of nine monologues written and performed by women on the subject of sex an…

Crime and Punishment

Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment will be known to many, having been adapted for stage and screen countless times.

idiots... GAY idiots

According to hosts Grace Fool and Jennifer Schmennifer, this country is founded on Gay idiots—and quite right too! With live singing, drag, character comedy, lip-syncing and clow…

Technically: A Musical

Twitching the curtain and shining a light on what happens backstage, Jacob Marshall and Shannon Hill’s Technically: A Musical is a show full of inside jokes and caricatures from …

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…

I Did Something I Shouldn't Have...

Marketing a show as a thriller often raises hopes that are not met.

Hannah Gadsby: Woof!

Hannah Gadsby has been accused of killing comedy, but you’re going to remember this eulogy for a long time.

Nigamon / Tunai

Nigamon/Tunai is an inspirational immersive ritual created by indigenous artists, Émilie Monnet from Canada and Waira Nina from Columbia who seek to draw attention to the destruct…

Hamlet

There’s something revolutionary in the state of Denmark.

No Such Thing As A Fish

Meet Dan, James, Anna, and Andy as they take on the Fringe for a live recording of their podcast No Such Thing As A Fish – Thundernerds.

Eric Liddell: The Chariot of Fire

In more than a century of heroic Olympic feats and sporting glory, the Paris event of 1924 retains a special sort of sepia-tinted reverence.

The Chaplain

Directed by Catherine McLean, The Chaplain is the story of a man whose grim responsibility it is to administer salvation to the souls of the lowly unfortunates trapped in a decrepi…

This Is Not Romeo and Juliet

Not to be missed, hugely inventive, an extraordinary show, This is Not Romeo and Juliet choreographed by Danish Palle Granhøj is experimental but with broad appeal.

The Manchester Revue

At the end of the show, the cast on stage said “If you’ve enjoyed the show, we’ve been The Manchester Revue.

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…

Golem

In Jewish folklore, a golem is a clay figure brought to life by magic.

Summoning Sondheim

The theatre is dying, so Jordana Belaiche and Grace O’Keefe are holding a séance to bring back the legendary musical theatre composer, Stephen Joshua Sondheim.

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…

The Passion of Andrea 2

Upon entering the theatre, you're greeted by an array of massive sacks hanging above the stage, each differing in colour, texture, and shape.

The Weird Sisters

Marie-Laure Corben, Dalia Kay, and Eliza Waters' creation, The Weird Sisters, is now being performed at the Fringe following its debut at the Leeds Theatre Festival in July 202…

Dear Billy

In Scotland, Billy Connolly is more than just a successful comedian, actor, musician, television presenter, and Knight of the Realm; he’s “the Big Yin”.

Pericles

Pericles, not included in the First Folio and generally considered as authorially dubious, has only ever been staged in Stratford six times.

Margaret Thatcher Queen of Soho

Upon viewing Margaret Thatcher: Queen of Soho, with its vibrancy, provocative introspection, and above all cuttingly sharp humour, it’s really not hard to see why it celebrates i…

Negare

What if someone could gently peer deep into your soul and remove all the masks to reveal your true self? Luxembourg-based Z Art Company presents Negare, choreographed by Giovanni Z…