Shows at The Lyceum

Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True

Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True

"Hear Word!" is how Nigerians start a story, a sort of town crier’s call and Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True co-written and directed by Ifeoma Fafunwa is definitely at… 

Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer

Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer

Hard to be Soft: A Belfast Prayer choreographed and directed by Oona Doherty is at times an explosive, visceral and overwhelming experience. 

Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not

In the company of Barrie Kosky, Artistic Director of Komische Oper Berlin, and singers Alma Sadé and Helene Schneiderman, step back into the tragedy and tongue-in-cheek wit of a forgotten genre: Yiddish operetta… 

Red Dust Road

Red Dust Road

Jackie Kay’s memoir Red Dust Road, adapted for the stage by Tanika Gupta, is a huge disappointment. 

Kalakuta Republik

Kalakuta Republik

Kalakuta Republik will stay with you, for good or bad. 

La Reprise Histoire(s) du theatre (I)

La Reprise Histoire(s) du theatre (I)

Theatre-making manifestos always make me wary, in part because I'm inherently suspicious of portentous artists in any field: "The aim is not to depict the real, but to mak… 

Shooglenifty: East West

Shooglenifty: East West

Formed in Edinburgh in 1990, Shooglenifty has always embraced a wide church of influences. The band draws in members from the Highlands and Islands, and the city, from traditional musical backgrounds, and those shaped by more experimental genres… 

The Duchess (of Malfi)

The Duchess (of Malfi)

There's little doubt that The Duchess of Malfi has become the most popular and successful work written by the English Jacobean playwright John Webster. Its concise narrative, complex characters and at-times beautifully poetic language has ensured that the play continues to be revived across the centuries… 

Local Hero

Local Hero

When Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre announced that they were producing a stage musical based on the iconic 1983 Scottish film Local Hero, I must admit to wondering if it was (a) a sign that one of Scotland's most successful producing theatres had decided to play safe with a familiar brand; and (b) little more than an exercise in nostalgia… 

Avenue Q

Avenue Q

Guess Q’s back! The naughtiest puppets in town will be heading to a theatre near you as comedy musical Avenue Q returns next year to tour the UK with all of your favourite fuzzy friends, opening in at Portsmouth Kings Theatre 21 January 2019... 

Wendy and Peter Pan

Wendy and Peter Pan

Rumbustious, fast, furious and funny, yet full of magic and fairy dust, Wendy and Peter Pan will delight all ages: an awfully big adventure and the perfect Christmas show. It is also a new version of J M Barrie’s well-loved play, adapted by Ella Hickson and directed by Eleanor Rhode, which re-imagines gender roles (the swopping round of names in the title is no typing mistake) and also re-interprets the theme of "Lost Boys", the theme of mortality adding poignancy and depth… 

Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac

The works by French poet and playwright Edmond Rostand, just one of the victims of the influenza pandemic which swept the world in 1918, are today largely forgotten; the one exception is his 1897 "heroic romance" Cyrano de Bergerac… 

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

“If music be the food of love, play on…” In Shakespeare’s bittersweet comedy genders blur, boundaries are crossed and the world is turned upside down, all with music as the engine for these bacchanalian shenanigans… 

The Prisoner

The Prisoner

As resident company at the 2018 International Festival, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord brings three contrasting yet equally daring works to Edinburgh. Peter Brook is among the most influential figures in international theatre, and one of the most important artistic figures in the past century... 

La Maladie de la mort

La Maladie de la mort

Featuring an acclaimed cast of screen and stage actors, Marguerite Duras’s psychological thriller is given a radical stage reworking by iconoclastic British director Katie Mitchell. 

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

Considered to be one of the greatest plays ever written, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot is famously a play about nothing. Twice. Two characters wait for the titular character to arrive and as they wait, they meet some other travellers on the road before being informed that Godot will not, in fact, be coming... 

Creditors

Creditors

August Strindberg apparently subtitled his play Creditors (in Swedish: Fordringsäxgare) a “tragicomedy” but, while David Greig’s 2008 adaptation does indeed contain a few decent one-liners to inspire laughter, this remains an all-too-easily depressing tale of individuals brought down by the forgotten or overlooked fracture-lines in their own personalities—not least their ability to easily forget how past actions always come with a price which has to be paid, sooner or later... 

The Belle's Stratagem

The Belle's Stratagem

Writer and director Tony Cownie has established a particular niche at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, taking potentially overlooked 18th century comedies (like Carlo Goldoni's The Venetian Twins) or modern works inspired by them (Liz Lochhead’s Thon Man Moliere) and giving them a distinctly Scottish twist... 

The Lover

The Lover

When watching the stage adaptation of any book, especially one I’ve not read, there’s often a question lingering at the back of my mind; would I appreciate this more, would I understand this better, if I had? It’s a telling distraction, of course; arguably, any stage adaptation should stand or fall on its own metaphorical feet as a work of theatre; if you need to bring background information to make the experience work, it’s failed... 

The Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights

Stories illuminate the truth, lies hide it; that’s just one of the lessons audiences of all ages can take from Suhayla El-Bushra’s energetic new adaptation of The Arabian Nights, brought to Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum stage by director Joe Douglas; a suitably magical portmanteau of mythical stories within stories that offers a genuinely inventive, and refreshingly vibrant family entertainment for the festive season... 

Love Song to Lavender Menace

Love Song to Lavender Menace

“Lavender Menace”, according to Wikipedia, were “an informal group of lesbian radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians and lesbian issues from the feminist movement at the Second Congress to Unite Women in New York City on May 1, 1970”... 

Cockpit

Cockpit

Site specific theatre is nothing new in Scotland; from the numerous innovative creations by the likes of Grid Iron Theatre Company to much of the work by the “without walls” National Theatre of Scotland, performances in non-theatrical settings can ensure an impact—when everything works—difficult to reproduce within the safe traditions of the proscenium arch... 

Oresteia: This Restless House

Oresteia: This Restless House

A father’s horrifying sacrifice of his daughter sets in motion a cycle of bloody revenge. Murder and madness ensue, testing the loyalties of his remaining children and propelling them to the edge of reason... 

Blak Whyte Gray

Blak Whyte Gray

Blak Whyte Gray is a galvanising dance theatre work from award-winning East London hip-hop company Boy Blue Entertainment. It’s a bold and brilliant dance creation combining tightly drilled choreography and a ground-shaking electronic score... 

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Time and again during Zinnie Harris’s new adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s famous farce, people tell each other not to be absurd. Obviously, it’s a not-so-subtle reference to Ionesco’s honoured place within the role-call of the post-War ‘Theatre of the Absurd’, but it’s also surely an apt description within this colourful, but somewhat slow production by Turkish director Murat Daltaban (of Istanbul’s DOT Theatre, co-producing with Edinburgh’s own Royal Lyceum Theatre)... 

Come & Sing International

Come & Sing International

Do you love singing? Would you like the chance to sing some of classical music’s most iconic choral pieces, led by a wonderfully expressive conductor? If so, come along and sing with members of the Edinburgh Festival Chorus... 

Glory on Earth

Glory on Earth

At one point during Glory on Earth, its two main characters—stage right, the young, romantic Mary, Queen of Scots; stage left, the firebrand Protestant preacher John Knox—are each writing letters to the English Queen, Elizabeth... 

Charlie Sonata

Charlie Sonata

There’s much to admire, to even love, in Douglas Maxwell’s new play at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum; a script full of humour and subtle characterisation, if not always clarity and sense, which director Matthew Lenton—Artistic Director of much-acclaimed Vanishing Point—has given a luminous staging, every character clearly delineated by casting and costume... 

A Number

A Number

In one sense, this Lyceum revival of Caryl Churchill’s 2002 play is exactly the “dynamic two-hander” described in the programme: the only actors on stage are Peter Forbes, as regret-filled father Salter, and Brian Ferguson as his son Bernard... 

Hay Fever

Hay Fever

Dominic Hill, artistic director of Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, apparently doesn’t like to constrain any theatrical experience with the blunt instrument of a rising or falling curtain; he clearly prefers both audience and cast to enter the theatre space more or less simultaneously—with things apparently starting only once everyone has turned up... 

The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale

Shakespeare's The Winter’s Tale has all the characteristics of a Tragedy, as we speedily witness the horrendous consequences of King Leontes' groundless jealousy for pregnant wife Hermione and life-long friend Polixenes... 

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock

As titles go, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a fine conflation of the innocent and disturbing, although the cultural impact of Joan Lindsay’s novel is arguably more down to Peter Weir’s 1975 film adaptation than the book itself... 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

As a rule, the best children’s stories—be they novels, comics or TV shows—all inspire the same question: “What on Earth were they taking when they came up with that?” The granddaddy of this, of course, is Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, a genuinely creepy children’s story in which author Lewis Carroll plays with the weirdest logics and ideas... 

Jumpy

Jumpy

You get a strong sense of what Jumpy is going to be like from Jean Chan’s impressive set—two jumbled piles of household goods, surrounded by an off-kilter frame of plain wall... 

The Suppliant Woman

The Suppliant Woman

In ancient Greece, it was the practice before any theatrical performance to name those citizens who had financed it, and for a respected citizen to give “the libation” to the Gods... 

Thon Man Molière

Thon Man Molière

Never, ever underestimate the stupidity of the rich and powerful; that’s certainly one of the obvious lessons you can get from Liz Lochhead’s brilliantly funny take on the scandalous life and times of 17th century French playwright Jean-Baptiste Poquelin de Molière... 

The Iliad

The Iliad

It says something about us as a species that one of our oldest myths, crystallised in the form of Homer’s epic poem Iliad, is about war – specifically the bloody climax of the Greek’s 10 year siege of the city of Troy... 

I Am Thomas

I Am Thomas

I am Thomas is an economic show bound together with a fantastic cast. Though billed as a “brutal comedy with songs”, there are in fact more songs than comedy; this is largely fine as the songs are pretty good... 

The Crucible

The Crucible

In the face of something terrible, we can either laugh or cry. For the audience watching John Dove’s new production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, the apparent choice is – more often than not – to laugh... 

The Weir

The Weir

If there’s one moment in this new production of Conor McPherson’s The Weir that encapsulates the quality of its cast and director, it’s towards the close when a moment of genuine emotional tension is deliberately punctured by what, in other hands, could be nothing more than a crass joke... 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Enthused with enchantment and wonder, Theresa Heskins’ adaptation of C S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe lovingly translates the classic book from page to stage. Original music, earnest performances and stunning sets bring the snowy land of Narnia to life, a land where it is “always winter and never Christmas, think of that!”The level of creativity and care behind this production is evident in the gorgeous programmes... 

Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn

Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn

About halfway through the second story of three, in the middle of a series of thoughts on the benefits for men of sitting down on the toilet, Daniel Kitson breaks off, looking up from his notebook: “These are not Harry’s opinions, these are mine... 

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

There are many good reasons for launching the celebratory 50th anniversary season of Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre Company with a new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot... 

The Driver's Seat

The Driver's Seat

Described as “a metaphysical shocker” on its release in 1970, The Driver's Seat was apparently author Muriel Sparks’ favourite amongst her own stories, in part thanks to the clarity of its present-tense realisation... 

The Venetian Twins

The Venetian Twins

For some, he was “Italy’s Shakespeare”, “the Moliere of Venice”; yet it’s only relatively recently that British theatre audiences have warmed to work by 18th century Italian playwright Carlo Goldoni – specifically, his 1743 comedy The Servant of Two Masters, turned into West End gold as One Man, Two Guvnors, initially starring James Corden... 

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler

Many of the world’s greatest Tragedies – Shakespeare’s in particular – are grounded on the character flaws of their titular characters: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and so on... 

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

There’s rumbustious joy aplenty in this new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s infamous examination of legality and justice. Constantly entertaining and frequently enlightening, its only real downside is it being a two-hour-plus show which undoubtedly feels like a two-hour-plus show... 

Faith Healer

Faith Healer

Reality and performance lie at the heart of this solid production of Irish playwright Brian Friel’s Faith Healer. Certainly, they’re not the most comfortable of bedfellows, as evident in the four –sometimes supportive, more often conflicting – monologues which outline the 20-odd year career of titular faith healer Francis Hardy, his “mistress”(or wife, depending on whom you believe) Grace, and his manager and friend Teddy... 

BFG

BFG

Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre always has a Christmassy feel to it, with its gilded pillars and Arabian Nights ceiling, and this enchanting adaptation feels like an early Christmas present... 

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