Listings Mon 7 – Sun 13 Oct 2019
What’s on Edinburgh’s Stages this week?
The big musical theatre guns hit town this week with the music of Gloria Estefan in On Your Feet at the Festival Theatre and Queen in We Will Rock You at the Playhouse.
At the other end of the musical theatre scale, new musical The Stornoway Way, adapted by Kevin MacNeil from his best-selling novel, hits the Studio at the Festival Theatre with a bittersweet theatrical romcom, using traditional songs in Gaelic and English.
The ensemble in On Your Feet – the story of Emilio and Gloria Estefan – which is at the Festival Theatre from Mon 7 – Sat 12 Oct.
The major theatre event this week is at the Traverse, where Debbie Hannan is directing Jenni Fagan’s own adaptation of her novel, The Panopticon, for the National Theatre of Scotland. It follows an already institutionalised girl taken to the Panopticon care home in a “visceral, bloody and brutal testament to life and friendship”.
The King’s has the proven production, and very fine it is too, of Stephen Daldry’s multi award-winning production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller An Inspector Calls. If you’ve not seen it, then definitely one to catch and a piece which is still relevant to our times.
The Lyceum sees the return of James Ley’s brilliant Love Song to Lavender Menace – about Scotland’s first gay and lesbian bookshop, based on Forth Street – which started as a Book Fest commission in 2016, premiered in the Lyceum’s studio space, hit the Fringe (Æ review: ★★★★☆ Heart-warming and funny) and is now playing the Lyceum’s main stage for five performances only.
Elsewhere, John Osbourne brings two hit storytelling shows to the Netherbow with a double bill of John Peel’s Shed and Circled in the Radio Times; the Bedlam starts to get into its Autumn term stride with Andrew Bovall’s Things I Know to be True and the Roxy hosts a new aerial theatre production based on Twelfth Night, Viola.
And, of course, if you are free of a lunchtime, its always worth nipping in to the Traverse for A Play, A Pie and A Pint, which this week is Marie Jones’ black comedy Fly Me To The Moon. Sounds about right.
Listings
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.
Viola
Friday 11 October 2019
Evening: 7.30pm.
A new aerial theatre performance reimagining Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night through the eyes of Viola. Weaves Shakespeare’s original text with aerial performance (Silks and Corde Lisse) and floor acrobatics and a live improvised soundtrack (violin and cello) to illuminate the inner questions and turmoil of Shakespeare’s most vibrant heroine. Book here.
Bedlam Theatre
11B Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ.
Things I Know to be True
Tue 8 – Sat 12 Oct 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm
Bob and Fran have made their own little world at 25 Windarie Avenue with their four loving children; Rosie, Pip, Mark/Mia and Ben. However, as their children begin to find their own way in the world, Bob and Fran are left to come to terms with the life they have built. Book here.
The Brunton
Ladywell Way, Musselburgh EH21 6AA. Phone booking: 0131 665 2240
Russian National Ballet: The Nutcracker 2019
Sat 12 Oct 2019
2.30pm & 7.30pm.
After the sell-out performances of Nutcracker last year, Russian National Ballet returns to the UK to enchant you with the delightful production of The Nutcracker. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
On Your Feet
Monday 7 – Saturday 12 October 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm; Matinees Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm.
The Broadway and West End production of Gloria and Emilio Estefan’s smash-hit musical embarks on a UK and Ireland tour this Autumn. This is the inspiring true love story of Emilio and Gloria and charts their journey from its origins in Cuba, onto the streets of Miami and finally to international superstardom. Book here.
King’s Theatre
2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
J B Priestley’s An Inspector Calls
Tue 8 – Sat 12 Oct 2019
Evenings 7.30pm, Matinees Wed & Sat 2.30pm.
Stephen Daldry’s multi award-winning production of JB Priestley’s classic thriller returns after a sell out West End season. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Love Song to Lavender Menace
By James Ley
Directed by Ros Philips
Wednesday 9 – Saturday 12 October 2019
Preview Weds: 7.30pm.
Evenings: 7.30pm, Mat, Sat: 2pm.
On Edinburgh’s Forth Street, Bob and Sigrid opened Scotland’s first lesbian, gay and feminist bookshop, Lavender Menace. The trailblazing venture became the beating heart for Edinburgh’s LGBT+ community. Now, on the eve of the shop’s closure, sales assistants Lewis and Glen take a look back at its 80s origins … and straight away, the arguments begin! Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
We Will Rock You
Monday 7 – Saturday 12 October 2019.
Evenings: 7.30pm. Matinee Wed, Sat: 2.30pm.
Queen’s music drives Ben Elton’s comic SF romp where a handful of rock rebels – the Bohemians – fight against the all-powerful Globalsoft company and its boss, the Killer Queen in a globalised future without musical instruments. Book now.
Scottish Storytelling Centre
Netherbow Theatre, 43-45 High Street, EH1 1SR Box Office: 0131 556 9579
John Peel’s Shed/Circled in the Radio Times
Sat 12 October 2019
Evening: 7.30pm.
John Osbourne’s storytelling show about radio, music and a box of records that once belonged to Radio 1 DJ John Peel – followed by a story about television, the changing nature of how we watch TV and a collection of old copies of the Radio Times that used to belong to his granddad. Book here.
The Studio at Festival Theatre
22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000
The Stornoway Way
Fri 11 October 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Adapted by Kevin MacNeil from his best-selling novel. With a variety of voices from Lewis and a musical soundtrack featuring original and traditional songs in Gaelic and English, The Stornoway Way is irreverent, witty and honest, a bittersweet theatrical romcom, twisted, squeezed out and hungover, a story about the search for the ideal, the desire for happiness and the struggle to come to terms with who you are, versus who you want to be. Book here.
Traverse Theatre
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
A Play, A Pie and A Pint: Fly Me to the Moon
Tuesday 8 – Saturday 12 Oct 2019
Daily 1pm; Fri 7pm [T2]
Francis and Loretta are broke community care workers. Davy, one of their charges, has had a big win on the horses, and now the women grapple with their conscience. Marie Jones’ black comedy investigates whether we are valued more in life or in death. Book here.
The Panopticon
Friday 11 – Saturday 19 Oct 2019
Daily: 7.30pm; Sat mat 2.30pm. [T1]
A snarling counterculture outlaw, a bohemian philosopher in sailor shorts. Fifteen-year-old Anais Hendricks is smart, funny and fierce. She has also been let down by about every adult she has never met. Sitting in the back of a police car she is taken to the Panopticon, a young offender institution. A visceral, bloody and brutal testament to life and friendship. We have a new kind of heroine for the 21st century. Book here.
The Drift
Thursday 10 Oct 2019
8pm [T2]
So f*** you, my sweet forgetful Caledonia. The Drift is a journey through history, through Scottishness, through belonging, and through grief. An autobiographical, poetic spoken word show, Hannah Lavery explores her legacy of being “mixed” in Scotland, left to her by her father and mother and their respective journeys. Challenges us to see Scottish history and our public memory in a different light. Book here.
*NB: This is intended to be a complete listing of all public theatrical productions on in Edinburgh. If you are staging a show which is not listed, or a listing is inaccurate, please get in touch through the contact page, here.
