Listings: Mon 24 – Sun 30 January 2022
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week…
The return of what appears to be some kind of normality to theatres gets underway this coming week with two big musical versions of hit films opening at the Playhouse and the Church Hill Theatre on Burns Night.
In the professional corner, the cast of School of Rock – The Musical are socking it to the man at the Playhouse, while at the Church Hill Theatre waving the flag for the amateur community, the Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group are dusting off their jotters in Legally Blonde the Musical.
The UK Tour of School of Rock – the Musical. Pic: SOR
Meanwhile in Summerhall, the Festival’s Studio Theatre and on the Meadows, the wonders of the MANIPULATE festival are kicking off in a somewhat reduced but none-the-less intriguing fashion. You can read our full listings here: MANIPULATE updates.
There are a couple nice comedies on offer as well, with single dates for The Ghosting of Rabbie Burns at the Assembly Roxy – not on Burns night but Saturday 29. Nicola Roy and Jamie Quinn star in Gillian Duffy’s script which proves that love and relationships haven’t changed that much in 200 years after all.
Over at the King’s it’s time to dust up on the polari with the theatre tour of Round the Horne, adapted from the hit sixties radio show, with its infamous movie spoofs and such hilarious regular characters as Rambling Sid Rumpo, Charles and Fiona, J. Peasemold Gruntfuttock, and – of course – Julian and Sandy.
LISTINGS
Click on the name of the show to go to its ticketing site.
Assembly Roxy
2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU
The Ghosting of Rabbie Burns
Sat 29 Jan 2022
Evening: 7.30pm.
Heartbroken author Emily Winters takes herself away to her aunt’s old cottage in Ayrshire to get over her cheating ex. As she celebrates Burns night alone (wishing that the right man would show up), she gets a visitation slightly different than what she had hoped for… Book here.
A Brief History of the Fragile Male Ego – online
Sun 30 Jan – Sun 6 Feb 2022
On demand (online).
Andrea has been giving her lecture but it’s not going well. Her previous events have been marred by protests and she’s hoping the open-minded audience will hear her out. Jordan & Skinner’s solo show cuts to the bone of the current conversation around gender politics and has been reworked as a performance for the screen. Book here.
Church Hill Theatre
33a Morningside Road, EH10 4DR
Legally Blonde – The Musical
Tue 25 – Sat 29 Jan 2022
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat Mat: 2.30pm.
Elle Woods appears to have it all but her life is turned upside down when her boyfriend Warner dumps her so he can attend Harvard Law. Determined to get him back, Elle charms her way into the prestigious law school. Edinburgh University Savoy Opera Group return to live theatre after two years. Book here.
King’s Theatre
2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Round the Horne
Saturday 29 Jan 2022
Evening: 7.30pm.
Ooh, Mr Horne! How bona to vada your dolly old eek! From 1965 to 1968 there wasn’t a bigger radio programme in Britain than the ground-breaking Round the Horne. For half-an-hour every Sunday afternoon, audiences of up to 15 million people would gather around the wireless to listen to Kenneth Horne and his merry crew get up to all sorts of mischief. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
School of Rock
Tue 25 – Sat 29 Jan 2022 
Evenings: 7.30; Mat Weds, Sat: 2.30pm.
Wannabe rock star Dewey Finn poses as a substitute music teacher at an elite prep school, exposing his students to the rock gods he idolises, transforming them into a mind‐blowing rock band.Book here.
Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000
Manipulate: The Chosen Haram
Friday 28 January 2022
Evening: 7.30pm.
This circus piece from Sadiq Ali explores themes of faith, sexuality, addiction and human connection. Blending Chinese pole with visual and physical theatre, it tells the story of two queer men, their chance meeting through a dating app and the social and personal barriers they desire to overcome in seeking happiness and fulfilment. Book here.
Manipulate: After Metamorphosis
Sat 29 January 2022
Matinee: 4pm.
Lewis Sherlock with a high-octane, visceral reworking of Kafka’s classic tale that weaponises the surrealism of the original text into a wild rumpus; a satire of conformity. In a world of political and ecological turmoil, where unfathomably large corporations control everything and our food supply chain is in jeopardy, are we just workers for the hive? Are we all Gregor Samsa? Tickets and details.
Manipulate: Eat Me
Sun 30, Mon 31 January 2022
Evening: 8pm.
Part of the Manipulate festival. Loud dress, no shoes – Prey slips in the rain, every raindrop a tooth. The Man, watching his neighbours from the shadows of his flat, sees breakups, group sex, a dog die and revive, and her – melancholic, solitary. For Predator nothing will ever be the same again. Book here.
Summerhall
1 Summerhall Square, EH9 1PL
Manipulate: Dinner with… LARDS
Sat 29 January
Summerhall Gallery Bar: 6pm
A dinner party with a difference – an anarchic artistic meal hosted by LARDS, the ensemble of Scotland-based theatre artists who draw on their combined specialisms in clown, bouffon, character work and visual/physical theatre to celebrate liveness, risk and intense joy! Your meal, the entertainment and a glass of wine are included in the ticket price. Tickets and details.
ENDS
