Articles by Lia Sanders

Back from the Future

Review
★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
24th Aug, 2013

Fans of Marty and Doc beware; the similar title should not make you think that this has any link to the classic sci-fi movies.

Charlie Chuck's Chuckasaurus Show

Review
★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
23rd Aug, 2013

I never expected not to ‘get’ a children’s show.

soulspace

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
23rd Aug, 2013

Even just turning off Princes Street into the graveyard of St Cuthbert’s Parish Church is peaceful.

The Takeaway Story Show

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2013

‘I knew we should have booked a longer time slot,’ said one of the actors as another struggled to make it offstage while pretending to be a beached shark.

Yurtakids! Presents Cinderella

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
22nd Aug, 2013

This is Cinderella, but not as you know it.

Romeo and Juliet

Review
★★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
17th Aug, 2013

Romeo and Juliet is perhaps the most youth-filled of all Shakespeare’s plays, with the star-crossed teen lovers and their idealistic yet doomed belief than young love can conquer…

Sparkling Granny

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
17th Aug, 2013

For a brief time in my life, I helped primary school children improve their reading.

A Boy Who Cried Wolf

Review
★★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2013

Ren is performing before the show begins, making up a silly version of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star with the audience’s help.

Funny Stuff for Happy People

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2013

Wearing a kilt, a red stripy top and a pair of gold earrings, the bearded Martin ‘Bigpig’ Mor somehow made me think of a Scottish pirate in a children’s storybook.

James Campbell's Comedy 4 Kids

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2013

Watching James Campbell launch into his family friendly stand-up routine makes one wonder why there are not more stand-ups for children around.

Joshua Seigal Presents the Legend of Ooshus Magooshus (And Lots of Other Poems)

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2013

One can’t help but like Joshua Seigal.

Storytime!

Review
★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2013

Storytime! felt less like a finely honed performance and more like an Apprentice challenge: in two days come up with a way of entertaining a group of five year olds for an hour.

The Amazing Bubble Man

Review
★★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
16th Aug, 2013

When I worked at C venues, the Bubble Man had an almost legendary status: he was a guaranteed sell-out every year.

The End Is Nigh!

Review
★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
15th Aug, 2013

Hendrick’s Carnival of Knowledge presents itself as a place of knowledge and relaxation, of playfulness and learning.

Help! My Supply Teacher is Magic

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
14th Aug, 2013

This show is based on the popular CBBC series of the same name, in which magicians go into schools in disguise and pretend to be supply teachers, amazing the pupils in the process.

The Maharajah and the Kohinoor

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
14th Aug, 2013

The Kohinoor diamond is notoriously supposed to carry a curse which falls on all male owners of the stone.

Grim Tales from the Brothers Grimm

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Aug, 2013

In an appropriately darkened room we listened as the wonderfully eccentric Viktor Wynd, multidisciplinary artist and wearer of green-and-yellow-checked suits, regaled us with suita…

The Big Bite-Size Play Factory's Family Creatures

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
12th Aug, 2013

The Big Bite-Size Play Factory’s Family Creatures may seem an impenetrable sort of name but early into watching this show it became apparent that this was a sketch show intended …

A Very, Very, Very Sleepy Princess

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
10th Aug, 2013

While Sleeping Beauty and the entire kingdom was asleep who did the dusting for all those hundreds of years? What would happen if the wrong person had kissed her? These are the sor…

Huggers - Free Festival

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
10th Aug, 2013

This show is something of a smorgasbord of family entertainment.

Lissa and NeeNee's Riverside Adventure

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
10th Aug, 2013

They say to never work with children.

YurtaKids! A Story of a Man and His Shadow

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
10th Aug, 2013

One imagines that the members of the Principio Attivo Teatro are absolutely lethal at charades.

Titus

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
9th Aug, 2013

After challenging the fourth wall in the beginning, Joseph Arkley, in the eponymous role, stood with his two feet firmly planted on the edge of a desk, not moving until the closing…

Robbie the Robot Learns English - And Saves the Day!

Review
★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
9th Aug, 2013

Just because a show is intended for children is no excuse for bad acting.

Bec & Tom's Awesome Laundry

If all children’s shows were this good we would all be going to see them with or without children.

The Firebird

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
8th Aug, 2013

An hour and a half sounds like a long time to keep a group of children entertained for.

A Mysterical, Disneycal Choose Your Own Adventure

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
7th Aug, 2013

Sadly, this Disney inspired show is lighter and emptier than even Snow White’s mind.

The Curious Case of the Ugglie Wump and Other Mysterious Monsters

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
7th Aug, 2013

Upon entering this show, one was first struck by the grey and white cut-out set which looked like illustrations from a Dr Seuss book that’s gone over to the dark side.

Scatterbrained

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
6th Aug, 2013

In their fantastic, feast-for-the-eyes costumes – including brightly coloured converses and Oompa Loompa style facepaint – Dolphin School Theatre Company put together a very ph…

The Just So Stories

With only four simply dressed actresses and a range of household objects, Red Table Theatre act out four of Kipling’s tales from The Just So Stories, sticking very closely to his…

Brave Macbeth

Review
★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
5th Aug, 2013

This is Macbeth the musical as though it has been rewritten by a Monty Python fan and acted by a drama group, with och-aye accents and just a touch of camp; altogether it makes for…

Lapin Wants Breakfast

Review
★★★★
Lia Sanders
Edinburgh Fringe
5th Aug, 2013

I confess that I was not particularly looking forward to this show, struggling to imagine how, as the Fringe guide put it, a show ‘dotted with carefully repeated French keywords�…