Preview and listings: Mon 23 – Sun 29 Sept 2024
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
Edinburgh’s got right back into the swing of things after the post-EdFringe hiatus. The Macmillan fundraiser, Showcase, is at the Church Hill and there is a pair of big tourers in A Chorus Line at the Festival and Blood Brothers at the Playhouse.
Not to forget Edinburgh’s very own We Are Brothers at the Studio with A Dame of Two Halves, David Paul Jones and Ben Harrison’s Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me at Summerhall, Fraser Scott’s Common Tongue at the Storytelling Centre and Jack Hunter’s PPP: The Wolves at the Door at the Traverse.
Showcase 2024 is at the Church Hill Theatre, Tue 24 – Sat 28 Sept. Pic: Ryan Buchanan
The big local opener – and the true herald of the start of Autumn – is Showcase’s annual production at the Church Hill Theatre (Tue – Sat: tickets). All monies raised will add to the £349K the company has already donated to MacMillan Cancer Support over the years.
This year’s show is hung on the peg of Something About This Night. That’s the song from Finding Neverland, with those oh so appropriate lines for any performer: “At the start of the show; When nobody knows just what to expect or believe; The tension is high and the silence is loud; It’s getting much harder to breathe…”
Direction is once again by Andy Johnston and although the contents remain a closely guarded secret, our mole suggests that the running order is “jam packed with everything from Barbie, boy bands and Bond with all the musical theatre classics that you know and love!”
Them is Brothers.
The other local show is at the Studio with A Dame of Two Halves (Tue/Wed: tickets), from the MacNeill brothers Harrison and Leo, who appeared as the Uglies at the Portobello pantomime last year and go by the stage name of Them is Brothers.
The Studio dates see the duo revive their debut show, On the Run: Dame Over! (Æ’s EdFringe 2022 review: ★★★★☆ Dame to Fame), alongside a brand-new follow-up, Dame Changer: Hostage to Fortune!, as part of a “double bill comedy extravaganza” that “weaves between Pantomime parody and fugitive-crime-thriller-very-serious-play”. Sounds good to us!
The cast Of Blood Brothers, at the Playhouse Tue 24 – Sat 28 Sept 2024. Pic: Jack Merriman.
The two big touring shows are the return for the umpteenth time of Blood Brothers to the Playhouse (Tue – Sat: tickets) with Scottish actor Vivienne Carlyle in the key role of Mrs. Johnstone, having received nightly standing ovations for her “powerful and poignant performance” in the West End production.
Then the Festival Theatre has the Curve’s acclaimed touring revival of A Chorus Line (Tue – Sat: tickets). “New York City. 1975. On an empty Broadway stage, seventeen performers are put through their paces in the final, gruelling audition for a new Broadway musical. Only eight will make the cut.”
Creator Michael Bennett used real-life testimonies from late-night recording sessions with dancers to create a show that celebrates the lives of theatre’s unsung heroes, as they tell searing stories of ambition, shattered hopes, and what it really costs to follow your dreams.
Eighties memories
Then there are a couple of intimate Scottish touring shows. First up, Ben Harrison, artistic director of Grid Iron, and David Paul Jones, talented musician of this parish and long time collaborator with Grid Iron, bring their Eighties memories to Summerhall in Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me (Mon – Wed: tickets).
Then writer and director Fraser Scott has Common Tongue at the Storytelling Centre (Sat: tickets). A “play aboot imperfect Scots”, this fast-paced and quick-witted one-person show utilising projected creative captioning throughout, sees Bonnie (Olivia Caw) navigate her relationship with the way she (and the audience) speaks; coming to grips with the implications of her language, dialect and accent.
The Cast of A Chorus Line, at the Festival Theatre Tue 24 – Sat 28 Sept 2024.
Also showing is the second of this Autumn’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint season of lunchtime theatre at the Traverse, with The Wolves at the Door (Tue – Sat: tickets). The play is in Trav 1 this week, so there’s a few more tickets and availability for all performances.
Listings
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site.
Church Hill Theatre
33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
Something About This Night (Showcase Edinburgh)
Tue 24 – Sat 28 September 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Scottish charity raising funds for Macmillan Cancer Care by staging an annual show to the highest standard of entertainment and professionalism. An eclectic mix of musical styles and sources, drawing on the rich vein of amateur musical talent in the Edinburgh area. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
A Chorus Line
Tue 24 – Sat 28 Sept 2024
Evening: 7.30pm; Thurs, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
The musical masterpiece that revolutionised Broadway, with creator Michael Bennett using real-life testimonies from late-night recording sessions with dancers. Celebrate the lives of theatre’s unsung heroes, as they tell searing stories of ambition, shattered hopes, and what it really costs to follow your dreams. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Karine Polwart & Dave Milligan
Windblown and Earthbound
Thurs 26 Sept 2024
One performance: 7.30pm.
Hear from the venerable old Sabal palm of Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden as it approaches its own glasshouse demise. Retrace the Borders boat journey of 18th century Edinburgh geologist James Hutton as he discovers evidence of Deep Time. And honour the 21,000 unmarked dead of Glasgow’s Necropolis graveyard. Sold Out.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Blood Brothers
Tue 24 – Sat 28 Sept 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats: Wed, Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm.
Willy Russell’s legendary Blood Brothers returns – again – telling the captivating and moving tale of twins who, separated at birth, grow up on opposite sides of the tracks, only to meet again with fateful consequences. Book here.
Tim Peake: Astronauts – The Quest To Explore Space
Sun 29 Sept 2024
Evening: 7.20pm.
With the help of extraordinary archive material and footage, matched only by his unparalleled storytelling, Tim will bring to life the awe-inspiring endeavours of those pioneering explorers we call astronauts. Book here.
Scottish Storytelling Centre
43-45 High St, EH1 1SR. Phone booking: 0131 556 9579
Common Tongue (Fraser Scott)
Sat 28 Sept 2024.
Evening: 7.30pm.
A fast-paced and quick-witted show exploring the impact of language, identity and culture in Scotland, Fraser Scott’s play follows Bonnie as she navigates her relationship with the way she speaks, coming to grips with the implications of her language, and how much she can claim it or ignore it. Book here.
Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
A Dame of Two Halves
Tue 24 Sept 2024
Evening: 7.30pm.
Join panto dames Aunty Disestablishmentarianism and Aunty Biotics on not one, definitely not three, but two riotous escapades which weave between Pantomime parody and fugitive-crime-thriller-very-serious-genre-play. Book here.
Summerhall
1 Summerhall, EH9 1PL.
Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
Mon 23 – Wed 25 Sept 2024
Evenings: 8pm (Old Lab).
A re-imagining of teenage years in the 1980s. David Paul Jones and Ben Harrison grew up on the west coast of Scotland and east of England respectively, falling in love with similar music. David re-interprets classic 80s songs, interwoven with Ben’s stories of that wonderful, troubled, exhilarating and oddly innocent decade. Book here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
The Wolves at the Door (PPP)
By Jack Hunter.
Tue 24 – Sat 28 Sept 2024
Lunchtimes: 1pm (Trav 2).
It’s 2023. Amidst a cold snap, the cost-of-living crisis has hit and global energy prices are spiralling. Daniel is reading his daughter ‘The Three Little Pigs’, but his life is anything but a fairytale. Little does he know, two “wolves” will soon be banging on his door to pay him an unexpected visit. Book here.
ENDS
