EIF
The Fifth Step (EIF)
★★★☆☆ Diffuse
The National Theatre of Scotland’s The Fifth Step at the Lyceum as part of the International Festival is a keenly observed and notably well acted piece that nevertheless lacks sustained impact.
The Outrun (EIF)
★★★★☆ Grandeur
The Outrun, from the International Festival and the Lyceum at the Church Hill Theatre for the whole three weeks, is a hugely ambitious, beautifully staged and extremely impressive production.
Please Right Back (EIF)
★★★★☆ Dizzying invention
Kent-based company 1927 use their signature combination of live action and animation to great effect in the International Festival’s Please Right Back at the Studio.
Life is a Dream (EIF)
★★★☆☆ Patchy
Life is a Dream, from Cheek by Jowl at the Lyceum in the International Festival, has moments of beauty and humour but never coheres into the spectacle it promises to be.
Dimanche (EIF)
★★★★☆ Hugely inventive
Dimanche at the Church Hill is a magically inventive display. The International Festival production is a collaboration between two Belgian companies – Focus, who use puppets and miniature objects and Chaliwaté, a physical theatre troupe. Both of these approaches are in evidence in a constantly engaging spectacle.
Thrown (EIF)
★★★★☆ Substantial
The National Theatre of Scotland’s Thrown, at the Traverse as part of the International Festival, is an intelligent and powerful piece of theatre.
Dusk (EIF)
★★★☆☆ Dry
Dusk from Comédie de Génève in the International Festival at the Lyceum is a thought-provoking and politically charged work that does not always engage as it might.
The End of Eddy (EIF)
★★★★☆ Enthusiastic
The End of Eddy’s unflinching examination of small-town prejudice is done with verve and humour at the Church Hill Theatre as part of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival.
Muster Station: Leith (EIF)
★★★★☆ Chilling
Muster Station: Leith, by immersive theatre specialists Grid Iron for the EIF, uses the halls and corridors of Leith Academy to suggest what it might be like when the climate emergency reaches a crisis point, here, in Edinburgh.
Medea (EIF)
★★★★☆ Towering
Medea, Liz Lochhead’s triumphant retelling of Euripides has returned to Edinburgh. The new production, at the Hub as part of the International Festival, boasts a Medea from Adura Onashile that will surely be every bit as legendary as Maureen Beattie was first time round.
