Articles by Oliver Simmonds

Brexit and Nazi Art: Interview with Ten Storey Love Song’s Paul Smith

Feature
Oliver Simmonds
Edinburgh Fringe
30th Aug, 2016

Bobby Winner Ten Storey Love Song (adapted by Luke Barnes from the Richard Milward novel) is a play cum techno gig about five wretched tower-block inhabitants who deserve better fr...

One for the Road

Harold Pinter’s short play, One for the Road, concerns torture, and you can assume it’s talking about state-sanctioned torture, given Rising Phoenix Repertory’s decision to t…

Taiwan Season: Solo Date

Looking like a cyberpunk priest, Tsai Pao-Chang’s hero is swamped in technology — AI, encrypted files and dating sites.

All In

Here’s what happens in order: A parody of bourgeois conversation by actors in black morphsuits; a light show to the gaiety of the Ode To Joy; unembellished description of said pi…

Single Varietal

Review
★
Oliver Simmonds
Edinburgh Fringe
Spotlites
18th Aug, 2016

Bob Stourton has an orchard.

Camille

Most Fringe shows think they can squeeze two hours into fifty minutes.

Ears on a Beatle

Billed as “not simply a docu-drama”, Ears on a Beatle promises perspective on the post-Summer-of-Love, post-Fab-Four decade in which the two protagonist agents find themselves.

Under Ice

Lithuanian director Arturas Areima mounts an adaptation of Falk Richter’s play of the same name, Under Ice.

Nzinga Warrior Queen

When the polyrhythm is heard in Nzinga Warrior Queen’s opening, you know this isn’t a comedy of manners.

Mule

Drug-smuggling.

This Evil Thing

Many appreciate conscientious objectors because they seem on the right side of history.

Last Call

Angst.

Spaced: Whisky Theatre

Review
★★
Oliver Simmonds
Edinburgh Fringe
Valvona & Crolla Scottish [email protected]
14th Aug, 2016

Imagine you’re fifteen.

The Road to Huntsville

Stephanie Ridings does a lecture on state homicide with drama.

Tent

A man and his unseen companion in a tent.

The Rose of Jericho

Kevin Hely stares, bares his teeth and darts along the stage.

Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London

Five-star performance in a three-star play.

Sins Borne

Absolutely implausible and performed implausibly too: there are moments where Sins Borne’s premise works but they are too sparse.

BOBBY WINNER

Ten Storey Love Song

Ten Storey Love Song may be the greatest Fringe show I’ve ever encountered.

Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: Ascension Part 2

Here we go again.

Bend in the River

Deep Water Theatre Collective mount Bend in the River: a tender, Thornton Wilder-esque look at the modest living of lepers.

Travesty

It’s a bowl of sugar mixed with grit.

Wilde Without the Boy

It’s indefatigably Wilde.

Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: Ascension Part 1

The Genesis + Revelation cycle by Fourth Monkey promises “traditional Bible stories with a contemporary twist”.

Happy Dave

Bloody Happy Dave.

Captured

Forsaken love.

Isabel(le)

Isabel(le) concerns Isabel Brade, a freewheeling brothel owner with a penchant for dance, and Emma, her great-granddaughter and narrator of the show.

House and Amongst the Reeds

London-based Clean Break fit two plays into one show: House, a tight family drama set in a British-Nigerian household, and Amongst the Reeds, a nondescript tale of homelessness, fr…

Dreaming Under the Southern Bough

[email protected] mount an original adaptation of Tang Xianzu’s A Dream Under the Southern Bough.

Inferno

Inferno is the first and, arguably, best part of Dante’s Divine Comedy.

The Unknown Soldier

Centenary productions saturate the Fringe, yet the conceit at the heart of The Unknown Soldier puts it slightly above the masses.

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