Preview and listings: Mon 4 – Sun 10 Nov 2024
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week…
It is an outrageously busy week with something on nearly every stage. From the final week of A Streetcar Named Desire at the Lyceum (Tue – Sat: tickets) to Allegro’s The SpongeBob Musical (Tue – Sat: tickets) at the Church Hill, it is all go.
Besides the award-winning Streetcar, theatre lovers are well done by, with the EUTC putting on Tony Kushner’s epic Angels in America Part 1: Millennium Approaches (Wed-Sat: tickets) at the Bedlam.
A scene from Scottish Opera’s production of Don Pasquale at the Festival Theatre.
There’s a full pack at the Traverse, too. There’s The Election Monologues in the Trav Bar (Mon: tickets), Rae Mainwaring’s play about Multiple Sclerosis, Bright Places in Trav 2 (Wed – Fri: tickets) and Manjeet Man’s Run Rebel, aimed at a young audience in Trav 1 (Thurs – Sat: tickets).
Opera lovers girding their loins for the autumn visit of Scottish Opera to the Festival Theatre, starting with Donizetti’s Don Pasquale (Fri, Sun & Sat 16: tickets), have an extra treat at St John’s West End where Clyde Opera Group are commemorating the centenary of Puccini’s death with a Puccini Gala (Sat: tickets).
If musical theatre lovers can relish the allegory behind SpongeBob‘s Bikini Bottom, there’s maybe less on show in Only Fools & Horses The Musical which is more of a straight-up transfer to the stage as the Trotters come to the Playhouse (Tue – Sat: tickets).
There are more home-grown pleasures too. Debbie Cannon’s The Remarkable Deliverances of Alice Thornton is at the Storytelling Centre (Thurs: tickets), while A War of Two Halves about the Hearts team who volunteered en masse in 1915, returns to Tynecastle in time for Remembrance Day (Sat – Thurs 21: tickets)
And on a completely different tip, Kevin Quantum is bringing his Edinburgh Magic back to the Caledonian Hotel (Fri/Sat: tickets) while the Innovations Contemporary Dance Platform return to the Studio (Fri/Sat: tickets) with another array of new dance work.
Phew!
Listings
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site.
Bedlam Theatre
11B Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ.
Angels in America Part 1: Millennium Approaches (EUTC)
Wed 6 – Sat 9 November 2024.
Evenings: 7pm.
New York in the mid-1980s. In the midst of the AIDS crisis and a conservative Reagan administration, five New Yorkers with interconnected lives grapple with life and death, love and sex, heaven and hell. The first part of Tony Kushner’s epic, follows two troubled couples, one gay, one straight: Louis Ironson and his lover Prior Walter; and Mormon lawyer Joe Pitt and his agoraphobic, Mormon housewife Harper. Details here.
The Caledonian Hotel
Princes Street, EH1 2AB.
Edinburgh Magic (Kevin Quantum)
8/9 Nov 2024
Two shows: 6pm & 8.30pm (Versailles Suite).
Æ Review: ★★★★☆ Rosy
Kevin Quantum performs an hour of magic that’s fooled some of the most brilliant and creative people ever to have lived, often times with strong links to Edinburgh and Scotland. An elegant, intimate and quite astonishing evening of magic, mystery and wonder in one of Edinburgh’s most historic and enchanting hotels. Book here.
Church Hill Theatre
33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
The SpongeBob Musical (Allegro)
Tue 5 – Sat 9 November 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat mat: 2.30pm.
When the citizens of Bikini Bottom discover that a volcano will soon erupt and destroy their humble home, SpongeBob and his friends must come together to save the fate of their undersea world. With lives hanging in the balance and all hope lost, a most unexpected hero rises up. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
The Horne Section’s Hit Show
Mon 4 Nov 2024
Evening: 7.30pm.
Unruly, ridiculous, and surprisingly satisfying, the six-headed comedy band includes five outstanding musicians and one non-musical stand-up. There’ll be comedy, songs, enthusiastic dancing, and a lot of mucking about. A brand-new show from the hugely talented band and Alex Horne, the creator and co-host of the BAFTA and National Comedy Award winning Taskmaster.Book here.
Don Pasquale (Scottish Opera)
Fri 8, Sun 10, Sat 16 Nov 2024
Fri 8, Sat 16: 7.15pm; Sun 10: 3pm.
Don Pasquale runs a crumbling boarding house in Rome with a chain-smoking chambermaid, an ancient porter, and a greasy cook for company. Determined to keep his fortune to himself, Pasquale decides to marry, spiting his nephew Ernesto. But, when he finds a bride, he discovers that married life is not as simple as he expected. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
A Streetcar Named Desire
The Pitlochry Festival Theatre production.
Thurs 24 Oct – Sat 9 Nov 2024
Daily (not Mon): 7.30pm. Wed, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Taut
After losing her family home and prosperous life, former southern belle Blanche Dubois moves into the shabby apartment of her younger sister Stella and her husband Stanley Kowalski in a poor neighbourhood in New Orleans. Book here.
An Evening with: James Naughtie
An “Evening with…” fundraiser.
Sun 10 Nov 2024
One show: 7.30pm.
In this one-off event as part of our ‘Evening With’ fundraising series, James joins us for an in-depth exploration of his life and work at the top of British political journalism. Hosted by Artistic Director, David Greig. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Only Fools & Horses The Musical
Tue 5 – Sat 9 Nov 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm; Wed, Sat: 2.30pm.
Stick a pony in your pocket – The Trotters are back and coming to town! Based on John Sullivan’s legendary television show, this critically acclaimed home-grown musical spectacular features cherished material from Britain’s best loved TV series. Book here.
Scottish Storytelling Centre
43-45 High St, EH1 1SR. Phone booking: 0131 556 9579
The Remarkable Deliverances of Alice Thornton (Debbie Cannon)
Thurs 7 Nov 2024.
Evening: 7.30pm.
Yorkshire, 1668. Mrs Alice Thornton – widow, mother, and daughter of the late Lord Deputy of Ireland – finds herself the subject of a most dreadful scandal. Tonight, she begs your presence at a defence of her life, including a number of miraculous deliverances from death. Book here.
St John’s Scottish Episcopal Church
1A Lothian Road, EH1 2AB.
Puccini Gala (Clyde Opera Group)
Sat 9 Nov 2024
Evening: 7.30pm.
This year, the music world commemorates the centenary of the death of the legendary opera composer Giacomo Puccini. To mark this special occasion the opera gala presents excerpts from Puccini’s famous operas: La Bohème, Tosca, Manon Lescaut, Gianni Schicchi and Madama Butterfly. Book here.
Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Innovations Contemporary Dance Platform
Fri 8/Sat 9 Nov 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm.
An exciting array of new dance work exploring human relationships, reflection and connections between language and identity in the LGBTQ+ community, including:
Vedere Te (1322) by Noemi Piva (Italy)
Q-Fforia by Oran Longmuir (Scotland) & Angharad Jones (Wales)
Meohadim by Jacob Gomez (Spain)
I Can See Us by Daniel Lukehurst (England). Book here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
The Election Monologues (Raw Material & Traverse Theatre)
Written by Suzie Miller, Conceived by Abigail Gonda.
Mon 4 Nov 2024
Evening: 6.30pm (Traverse Bar).
Four deeply personal stories from the frontline of the battle for intellectual and reproductive freedom. Created from interviews with librarians and doctors working in Idaho, these monologues highlight the injustices that are in play NOW, and that are at risk of proliferating if the outcome of the imminent US election swings right. The outcome affects us all. Book here.
Bright Places (Carbon Theatre)
By Rae Mainwaring.
Wed 6 – Fri 8 Nov 2024
Evening: 8pm (Trav 2).
I was 23 when it came crashing into my life; without warning, when everything was going so well, just when I was really, really happy… A three-woman, one-woman show about Multiple Sclerosis, MS for short, not to be confused with M&S or S&M. With 90s pop, a costume box and a whole heap of glitter, Bright Places is a darkly funny and deeply honest autobiographical story about growing up in the shadow of chronic illness. Book here.
Run Rebel (Pilot Theatre)
By Manjeet Mann.
Thur 7 – Sat 9 Nov 2024
Evening: 7.30pm, Thur mat: 1.30pm; Sat Mat: 2.30pm (Trav 1).
Amber is trapped – by her family’s rules, by their expectations, by her own fears. But on the running track she is completely free. As her body speeds up, the world slows down. And the tangled, mixed up lines in her head get s t r a i g h t e r . . An electrifying adaptation of Manjeet Mann’s acclaimed novel. Book here.
Tynecastle Park
Gorgie Road, EH11 2NL
A War of Two Halves (Two Halves Productions)
Sat 9/Sun 10 Nov 2024
Sat: 8.15pm; Sun: 1pm.
The poignant and powerful tale of the Heart of Midlothian players who, in 1915, showed tremendous courage and team spirit to volunteer en masse for McCrae’s Battalion (16th Battalion, Royal Scots). More remarkable, is that at the time they were the best team in Scotland and were well on their way to being crowned league champions. Book here.
ENDS
