Archive for August, 2023
Why Am I Like This?
★★★★☆ Important story
Why Am I Like This? from High Heels and Heavy Suitcases at theSpace @ Surgeons Hall is something of a gem. Beautifully tailored to its audience, space and time slot, it is funny and refreshing.
The Importance of Being Earnest
★★★☆☆ Spirited
Arkle’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest at the Royal Scots Club has a headlong momentum that impresses, even if it is not always ideally suited to the play.
Sherlock Holmes The Last Act / Watson: The Final Problem
★★★★☆ Mercurial and ★★★★☆ Reliable
Sherlock Holmes The Last Act and Watson: The Final Problem are both clever, beautifully performed pieces of theatre. They both provide novelty, as well as fidelity to the work of Arthur Conan Doyle.
What Girls Are Made Of
★★★★★ Exhilarating
Cora Bissett is nothing short of incredible in her gig-theatre show What Girls Are Made Of. It is full-throttle, high energy and, at points, it really does feel like you are front row at a gig.
Alfie and George
★★★☆☆ Last curtain
If the ghost of Samuel Beckett was invited to return from the grave to write an episode of Inside No.9 he might have come up with a similar idea to the one used for Alfie and George at Hill Street Theatre.
I Hope Your Flowers Bloom
★★★★☆ Lyrical
I Hope your Flowers Bloom is a beautifully lyrical monologue in which writer and performer Raymond Wilson, presented by All the Figs at the Storytelling Centre, shows his obsession for trees and other plants, even quoting the Latin name of every tree he mentions.
Garage Warriors
★★★★☆ Strong writing debut.
Garage Warriors, Lewis Aitken’s writing debut for Raw Toast Productions at Surgeons Hall, is inspired by Chat GPT but thankfully not written with the aid of it.
The Hearth
★★★★☆ Moving reflections
In The Hearth from Brite Theater, multi-instrumentalist and storyteller Tom Oakes uses the hearth; that place in the centre of a home where a fire is traditionally lit, to spark a series of moving reflections on life and memory.
Making History by Stephen Fry
★★★★☆ Lovingly assembled
There is a great deal of attention lavished on Making History by Stephen Fry from Edinburgh Theatre Arts at St Ninian’s Hall. The result is an absorbing one.