Listings Mon 5 – Sun 11 Feb 2024
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week…
There’s plenty to see on Edinburgh’s stages this week, with EUSC staging The Taming of the Shrew (tickets) weekday nights and the Lyceum opening Two Sisters (tickets) for previews on Saturday.
The big musical is the arrival of the Regents Park Open Air Theatre production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse all week (tickets), while there are some great things still to come in the Manipulate Festival 2024 (preview & ticket links).
Ian McIntosh (Jesus) and Ensemble in the Palm Sunday scene of Jesus Christ Superstar. Pic: Paul Coltas
Perhaps the most exciting event of the week is the opening of Two Sisters, David Grieg’s first original script for several years in which he has been adapting musicals and the like. We’ll no doubt be writing much more about this, which runs until Saturday 2 March and has its press night night on Feb 15. For now it is worth noting that there are plenty of £15 tickets for the previews, starting on Saturday (Sat 10: 7.30pm. Tickets).
The EUSC have done a more than solid job in their updating and recontextualising (if such a word even exists) of The Taming of the Shrew Shakespeare’s most tricky of plays for modern audiences, with its gaslighting and mysogyny of the supposed shrew of the title.
Hugh Simpson has reviewed the EUSC production at the Pleasance here ★★★★☆ Lively and it sounds to be well worth a visit for its limited run (Mon 5 – Fri 9: 7.30pm. Tickets).
Main event
The Main Event has to be acknowledged as the arrival of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Playhouse, (Tue 6 – Sat 10: 7.30pm; Mats Wed, Sat: 2.30pm. Tickets). Away from its open-air theatre origins, this is a big and bombastic take on a show written in 1970. Andrew Lloyd Webber was showing himself to be master of all contemporary genres in what was conceived as a Rock Opera, while Tim Rice rather over-eggs the pudding with his lyrics.
This is flash, bang, wallop stuff, with bravura performances from Ian McIntosh as Jesus and Shem Omari James as Judus, with a particularly telling turn from Hannah Richardson as Mary. But the dominating forces here are lighting designer Lee Curran and choreographer Drew McOnie in what is a most memorable, if not aways subtle, production.
We’ve covered several Manipulate Festival shows already (links here) which sadly all have limited runs so have already closed. There are few tickets for the remaining shows with just a couple left for the much-anticipated Ragnorock from Edinburgh’s Tortoise in a Nutshell at the Traverse on Sunday (Sat 10/Sun 11: 8pm. Tickets). Bag them quick if you want to see it.
Otherwise the one show with plenty of availability is La Conquete (The Conquest) at the Studio (Fri 9 8pm, Sat 10 6pm: tickets) in which “two actresses use object theatre and body puppetry to revisit the eternal human desire for domination, exploitation and possession.” Could be awesome, could be pretentious nonsense, but given the curated nature of Manipulate, certainly worth a punt.
Oh, and if such things float your boat, there are still a few tickets left to see Candace Bushnell creator of Sex and the City at the Festival Theatre (Sat 10: 7.30pm. Tickets)
Listings
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site:
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Candace Bushnell – True Tales of Sex, Success and SEX AND THE CITY
Sat 10 Feb 2024
Evening: 7.30pm.
The international best-selling novelist – author and creator of TV’s iconic Sex and the City – takes us on a whirlwind tour of New York City, sharing her remarkable philosophy through stories of fashion, literature. . . and, of course, sex. Book here.
Barbara Dickson
Sun 11 Feb 2024
Evening: 7.30pm.
Farewell tour 2024: The legendary Scottish singer, songwriter, musician and actress has announced her Farewell Tour with her full band – having played her first headline tour with full band in 1977. It will be, she says, a memorable occasion when a suitable celebration is required. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Two Sisters
By David Greig.
Sat 10 Feb – Sat 2 March 2024
Tue – Sat: 7pm; Mats Weds & Sat: 2pm.
The story takes place over a single weekend as sisters Emma and Amy return to their childhood ‘paradise’, a seaside caravan park. Yet, the park has changed, and their childhood now seems a blurred memory as they delve into ‘adult things’; career anxieties and romantic complications. Lance, the DJ from back in the day, resurfaces teenage memories and reminds them how far, or not so far, they have come from their teenage selves. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014
Jesus Christ Superstar
Tue 6 – Sat 10 February 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm; Wed, Sat: 2.30pm.
Timothy Sheader directs this mesmerizing new production of the iconic global phenomenon. Originally staged by London’s Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre, this reimagined production won the 2017 Olivier Award for Best Musical Revival, garnering unprecedented reviews and accolades. Book here.
Pleasance Theatre
60 Pleasance, EH8 9TJ.
The Taming of the Shrew (EUSC)
Mon 5 – Fri 9 Feb 2024.
Evenings: 7pm.
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Lively
Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company’s adapted, recontextualised version set in Padua, in the 1980s, where the sun is above and the game is afoot. In the Italian summer, lovers vie for affections, wits are battled, parents outwitted and the perennial search of the young after money, pleasure and fun drives on. Book here.
Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Snapshots (Manipulate)
Mon 5 Feb 2024
Evenings: 7pm.
Exciting new visual theatre works from five Scottish artists presented here in the early stages of their development. Work from Sarah Cosgrove, Vee Smith, Mamoru Iriguchi, Craig Manson and Freda O’Bryne, featuring puppetry, object theatre, animated film, physical theatre circus and dance. Book here.
Surge Double Bill (Manipulate)
Tue 6 Feb 2024
Evenings: 7pm.
A special double-bill performance of two work-in-progress pieces supported through the Surge Bursary Programme. HOVER is a duet between human performance artist Althea Young and remote remote-operated drone named DJ. I, Honeypot is inspired by the lived experiences and intersectional identities held by lead artist and creative director Nikhita Devi. Book here.
La Conquete (The Conquest) (Manipulate)
Fri 9/Sat 10 Feb 2024
Fri: 8pm, Sat: 6pm.
What is the legacy of colonisation in today’s world? Through subtle back-and-forth between past and present, the colonial conquest is dissected, from the discovery and subjugation of a new territory and its indigenous population, to its transformation and exploitation, right up to the discrimination and prejudice of today. Two actresses use object theatre and body puppetry to revisit the eternal human desire for domination, exploitation and possession. Book here.
Ruins (Manipulate)
Sun 11 Feb 2024
Evening: 6pm.
A highly visual dance performance that explores how we can find a way through pain, damage, and isolation, both personally and globally, by focusing on being open to each other, our natural environment and co-evolving with other living entities. Book here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404
Tess (Manipulate)
Wed 7/Thurs 8 Feb 2024
Evenings: 7pm (Trav 1)
Ockham’s Razor, the UK’s foremost circus theatre company, presents a bold new vision of Hardy’s classic novel, Tess of the D’Urbervilles. Tess uses the original text combined with the physical language of circus, allowing the performers to retell the well-known story of power, loss and endurance through a feminist lens. Book here.
Pickled Republic (Manipulate)
Fri 9 Feb 2024
One show: 6pm (Trav 2)
Æ review: ★★★★★ Unique
Welcome to the jar. Here, tragedy floats and the lonely wail of an abandoned tomato cuts through the salty atmosphere. Come hear the lament of lives not lived, watch the chaotic energy of the search for meaning and try to find the connection between these decaying vegetables and your own existence. Book here.
Ragnarok (Manipulate)
Sat 10/Sun 11 Feb 2024
Evenings: 8pm (Trav 1).
A golden age is ending. There have been three years of winter. The sun hangs low in the sky, unmoving, and the bonds of kinship are failing. A young girl and her brother battle forward, seeking a future in a promised land. Two souls in a sea of thousands, they move through a fractured world as dream and reality clash around them. Book here.
ENDS
