Listings Mon 21 – Sun 27 Oct 2019
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week…
There’s a pretty extreme choice of entertainment on Edinburgh’s stages this week, from the quirky brilliance of Live Art cabaret Anatomy at the Traverse to the full-on splendour of The King and I at the the Playhouse.
Theatre-wise, we have Rona Munro’s take on Frankenstein at the King’s, touring five star hit Barbour Shop Chronicles at the Lyceum and Oliver Emanuel’s latest The Monstrous Heart at the Traverse.
Charlene Boyd in The Monstrous Heart at The Traverse to Sat 2 Nov. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
If Rona Munro’s take on the Frankenstein story doesn’t tickle the fancy, then there is always The Occasion’s The Monster and Mary Shelley at Assembly Roxy. The Occasion being Peter Clerke and Catherine Gillard, previously the co-artistic directors of benchtours, so this should be something quite fascinating.
Douglas Adams fans should get themselves along to the Bedlam, where EUTC is staging his Hitchhiker follow-up, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency – which was a rather unremarkable TV series a while back. Hopefully, the stage version has more bite.
Musicals wise, the splendour of The King and I has been recognised in Martin’s review (★★★★★ Fit for a King). But this lavish touring production is not the only musical in town, as the ever-strong and tuneful EdGAS return to the Church Hill stage with their Autumn production, Carousel.
And finally there is the latest production from Visible Fictions, Slug – also at the Roxy – a new play for six year olds with Melanie Jordan (best known for her wonderful physical performances) stepping into the co-directors role with Douglas Irvine.
Click on the name of the show to go to its ticketing site.
Assembly Roxy
Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU. Phone booking: 0131 623 3030.
Page2Stage October
Tuesday 22 October 2019
Evening: 7.30pm.
Showcasing extracts from four brand new plays read in front of a live audience, with a chance to carry on discussions, meet the team, writers and actors in the comfort of the Roxy Snug Bar. Book here.
The Monster And Mary Shelley
Friday 25 October 2019
Evening: 7.30pm.
Incorporating elements of music hall, melodrama, horror and teenage rebellion with a pulsing, contemporary cinematic score, The Occasion celebrate one of literature’s most influential talents with an atmospheric, moving, and at times darkly comic exploration of the Gothic Girl who electrified the world. Book here.
Slug
Sat 26/Sun 27 Oct 2019
Sat: 6pm, Sun: 2.30pm.
Slug is munching through your prize winning cabbages eating your roses and leaving slimy trails all over the lawn. Slug is taking over your thoughts and tormenting your dreams. But Slug doesn’t care. Directed and Created by Dougie Irvine and Melanie Jordan for Visible Fictions. Book here.
Bedlam Theatre
11B Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ.
Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency
Wed 23 – Sat 26 Oct 2019
Evenings: 7.30.
Dirk finds himself on the trail of a gruesome murderer who is somehow involved with the works of Coleridge, quantum physics, and the enigmatic study of the Cambridge Professor of Chronology in the stage adaptation of Douglas Adams’ follow-up to The Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Book here.
The Brunton
Ladywell Way, Musselburgh EH21 6AA. Phone booking: 0131 665 2240
No Man’s Land
Fri 25/Sat 26 Oct 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm.
A chance meeting between two writers in a North London pub leads to an alcohol fuelled night of verbal sparring in Pinter’s dark comedy. Hirst, a wealthy recluse, invites Spooner, a down at heel poet, to his Hampstead townhouse for a nightcap. As the whisky flows, their stories become more elaborate and improbable, until the arrival of two younger men forces events to take an unexpected turn. Book here.
Church Hill Theatre
33a Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
Carousel
Wednesday 23 – Saturday 26 October 2019
Wed – Sat: 7.30pm, Mat, Sat: 2.30pm
EDGAS returns to the repertoire of Rodgers and Hammerstein with this timeless classic, featuring well-known songs such as If I Loved You, June Is Bustin’ Out All Over and, of course, the anthemic You’ll Never Walk Alone. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
CBeebies Presents: Hansel & Gretel
Sat 26/Sun 27 Oct 2019
Two shows daily: 1pm & 4.30pm.
See news story: CBeebies Xmas Show for Edinburgh. This year’s CBeebies Christmas Show is Hansel and Gretel and it will be recorded at the Festival Theatre. As ever, the show will feature many of CBeebies’ most popular actors and presenters. Book here.
King’s Theatre
2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Frankenstein
Mon 21 to Sat 26 October 2019
Evenings 7.30pm, Matinees Wed & Sat 2.30pm
An eighteen-year-old girl, Mary Shelley, dreams up a monster whose tragic story will capture the imaginations of generations to come. A young scientist by the name of Frankenstein breathes life into a gruesome body. Rona Munro’s brilliant new adaptation of Mary Shelley’s Gothic masterpiece places the writer herself amongst the action as she wrestles with her creation and with the stark realities facing revolutionary young women, then and now. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Barber Shop Chronicles
By Inua Ellam
Directed by Bijan Sheibani
October 23 – November 9 2019
Preview: Wed 23 Oct.
Tue – Sat: 7.30pm; Mats Sat, Wed: 2pm.
Newsroom, political platform, local hotspot, confession box, preacher-pulpit and football stadium. For generations, African men have gathered in barber shops to discuss the world. These are places where the banter can be barbed and the truth is always telling. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
The King and I
Wednesday 16 – Saturday 26 October 2019
Evenings Mon – Sat: 7.30pm; Matinees Weds 23, Thurs & Sat: 2.30pm.
The Tony Award-winning production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s great collaboration tours with a 50 strong cast and full orchestra. A sight to behold. Book now.
The Illegal Eagles
Sun 27 Oct 2019
Evening: 7.30pm
The World’s Official No.1 Eagles tribute returns in 2019 for another outstanding show promising more of their trademark musical prowess, acute attention to detail… Book now.
Traverse Theatre
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
The Monstrous Heart
Wednesday 23 Oct – Saturday 2 November 2019
Tue- Sat: 7.30pm; Mat Thurs 31: 3pm. [T1]
Why would anyone want to get closer to nature? What’s that about? It’s cruel. Vindictive. Mag lives in a rustic cabin in the Canadian wilds, far from neighbours and further from her past. But when her estranged daughter Beth turns up on the doorstep having been freshly released from prison, the past becomes terrifyingly present. And it has teeth. Book here.
Anatomy: Finest Cuts
Thursday 24 Oct 2019
8pm [T2]
Full-throttle live art cabaret: an unpredictable cauldron of mischievous performance, featuring everything from tactical action to bleak bouffon, from noise art to fart jokes, from opera to pop and ballet to biscuits. After seven years of producing a wild diversity of genre-defying work in Edinburgh, gardening the grassroots for gorgeous originality, legendary local music hall outfit Anatomy, takes a cleaver to the renowned international archives to carve out juicy morsels and terrifyingly tender tastes. Book here.
Thick Skin, Elastic Heart
Friday 25 – Saturday 26 Oct 2019
8pm [T2]
A hybrid poetic theatre production, showcasing a kaleidoscope of diverse UK voices, played out like a frenzied scroll through a social media feed, with seemingly disconnected pieces, woven together with athletic, physical delivery. The piece presents a collection of contemporary spoken-word monologues and group poems, giving voice to a generation, frequently reduced to a sound-bite in mass media – ineffectual, lazy, oversensitive “snowflakes”. Featuring a special support slot from an Edinburgh poet. Book here.
