Preview & Listing: Mon 8 – Sun 14 April 2024
What is on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
Musical theatre or straight theatre? The choice is yours this week, with plenty of both on offer and a couple of juicy one-off events thrown in for good measure.
The week opens with the return of Penpal Theatre’s Dram-a at the Depot at Leith Depot (Mon: tickets) which we reviewed here on its last outing. This is the script-in-hand night where you are advised to arrive early and grab a pint before enjoying the six short plays. This time the theme is Spring Fever, canines are welcome and cake will be available.
Kirsty Doull, Dee Black, Penny Cobham and Stuart Mitchell in ETA’s The Misanthrope. Pic: John McLinden
On the straight theatre front, local amateur company ETA has The Misanthrope at St Ninian’s Church Hall on Comely Bank (Mon-Sat: tickets). The ever-entertaining company are taking on Roger McGough’s third Moliere adaptation, having previously excelled with his first: Tartuffe in 2015 (★★★★☆ Timelessly funny)
This time the company has moved the action forward some 200 years to the end of the 19th century, a time when Café Society was very much in vogue. Alceste has decided to turn his back on French society but continues to pursue the lovely Celimene. Along the way barriers are placed in his way to try to ensure that his tale does not have a happy ending.
The latest of Rona Munro’s James plays, James V: Katherine opens at the Studio Theatre (Ends Sat 20 April: tickets). The intimate setting of the Studio Theatre is understandable, but it seems crazy that such a popular series has such a limited run, with the all dates completely sold out. Hopefully it will have a future life so more people can see it.
At the Lyceum, Gabriel Quigley’s adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Girls of Slender Means opens for previews at the Lyceum on Saturday (Ends Sat 4 May: tickets). Direction is by Roxana Silbert and official opening night is next week.
musical theatre
For fans of musical theatre, local amateurs EMT take The Addams Family to the Church Hill Theatre (Tue-Sat: tickets). Direction is by Niall King, who was at the helm for last year’s 9 to 5 the Musical (★★★☆☆ Pacy fun), Ashley Le Crass is choreographing her fifth EMT production and in the pit will be MD Rob Stewardson in his second EMT show.
New young local company Never Ending Theatre – “creating accessible and inclusive theatre” – have the Greenday musical American Idiot at Assembly Roxy (Thurs-Sat: tickets). Direction is from Aoife Summers, choreography by Rowan Ross and the MD is Emily Paterson.
Ore Oduba and Natalie Paris in Pretty Woman. Pic: Marc Brenner.
On the big stages, Pretty Woman finishes its run at the Playhouse (ends Saturday: tickets). It is pretty much a guaranteed pleaser, with a fabulous cast led by Ore Oduba who is at the top of his game as the fourth wall-breaking Happy Man and hotel concierge Mr Thompson. And of course Hamilton is at the Festival theatre (ends Sat 29 April: tickets).
Elsewhere, the hot ticket is An Evening of Stories with Mara Menzies at the Storytelling Centre on Wednesday (tickets). Mara is a hugely engaging storyteller whose twists and theatrical use of story is not recognised nearly enough. The chance to see her in the intimate Storytelling Court should not be passed up.
The Traverse has two shows on offer this week. 90 Days (Fri-Sun: returns only. Live stream Sat 13: details here.) tells the story of how Scotland’s first women’s rugby players galvanised the Scottish rugby community to become the unlikely saviours of the 1994 Women’s Rugby World Cup.
On Saturday, it is the special edition of the Traverse’s flagship engagement project: Class Act: Ukraine in Scotland (two shows: tickets) – see our preview and news story here.
Looking forward a couple of weeks, fans of Ian Rankin and the Lyceum get a chance to support the theatre when Ian makes a fundraising appearance there (Mon 22 April: tickets), interviewed live on stage by Lyceum artistic director David Greig.
Listings for week ending Sunday 14 April 2024:
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site:
Assembly Roxy
2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU
American Idiot (Never Ending Theatre)
Thurs 11 – Sat 13 April 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat Mat: 2.30pm (relaxed perf).
Young Edinburgh company with the Green Day musical about three lifelong friends, forced to choose between their dreams and the safety of suburbia as it follows their quest for true meaning in the world. Book here.
Church Hill Theatre
33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
The Addams Family: A New Musical (EMT)
Tue 9 – Sat 13 April 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm.
Edinburgh Music Theatre take on the musical with a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice, and music and lyrics by Andrew Lippa, which sees Wednesday Addams fall for a normie kid and Gomez have to keep a secret. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Hamilton
Run ends – Sat 27 April 2024
Mon – Sat: 7.30pm; Matinees Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm (+Tue 3 April)
Æ Review: ★★★★★ The storm’s eye.
The story of America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and helped shape the very foundations of the America we know today. Book here.
Leith Depot
138-142 Leith Walk EH6 5DT
Dram-a at the Depot: Spring Fever
Mon 8 April 2024
Evening: 8pm.
The return of script-in-hand performances of short plays. This month’s theme is Spring Fever and the playwrights are Melloney Flinn, Sophie Good, Wendy Miller, Andy Moseley, Catriona Scott and Jane Sunderland. All brought to life by Liz Strange, Gilchrist Muir, Jordan Monks and Sheila Duncan. Take cash: there will be cake. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
The Girls of Slender Means
By Gabriel Quigley, adapted from the novel by Muriel Spark
Sat 13 April – Sat 4 May 2024
Tue – Sat: 7.30pm; Mats Weds & Sat: 2.30pm.
Set in the summer of 1945, in a hostel for the ‘Pecuniary Convenience and Social Protection of Ladies of Slender Means below the age of Thirty Years, who are obliged to reside apart from their Families in order to follow an Occupation in London’, The Girls of Slender Means follows the adventures of the women who live there. They do their best to act as if the war never happened. But behind the girls’ giddy literary and amorous explorations hides an exquisite fragility and sinister peril, as they strive to survive ‘when all the nice people were poor’. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014
Pretty Woman: The Musical
Tue 2 – Sat 13 April 2024
Tue – Sat: 7.30pm; Mats Wed, Sat & Sun: 2.30pm
Once upon a time in the late ’80s, Vivian met Edward and her life changed forever. Be swept up in their romance in this dazzlingly theatrical take on a love story for the ages – and get to know these iconic characters in a whole new way – in a sensational show that took London’s West End by storm, guaranteed to lift your spirits and light up your heart. Book here.
Scottish Storytelling Centre
43-45 High St, EH1 1SR. Phone booking: 0131 556 9579
An Evening of Stories with Mara Menzies
Wed 10 April 2024.
Evening: 7.30pm.
The multi-award-winning, international touring storyteller, writer and narrative artist, draws on her dual Kenyan/Scottish cultural heritage to create worlds that explore contemporary issues through legend, myth and fantasy. Book here.
Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
James V: Katherine
Fri 5 – Sat 20 April 2024
Previews Fri 5/Sat 6, Tue 9: 7.30pm.
Tue – Sat 7.30pm; Mats Thurs, Sat : 2.30pm.
See Æ news story: Next James play announced
The latest instalment in the James Plays series from writer Rona Munro. One woman’s love story, during the time that changed Scotland forever.” Any human soul has only two real choices. How we live and how we die…” Book here.
St Ninian’s Church Hall
40 Comely Bank, EH4 1AG
The Misanthrope (ETA)
Mon 8 – Sat 13 April 2024.
Mon – Fri: 7.30pm; Sat: 1pm & 6pm.
Edinburgh Theatre Arts with Roger McGough’s take on Moliére’s classic comedy of manners. Disgusted with French society where powdered fops gossip in code and bejewelled coquettes whisper behind fans, poet Alceste embarks on a one-man crusade against fakery, frippery and forked tongues. But could the woman he adores be the worst culprit of them all? And in this rarefied world will his revolution prove merely revolting? Book here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
90 Days
Fri 12 – Sun 14 Apr 2024
Fri: 7pm; Sat 8pm; Sun: 2pm (Trav 1)
Set in the 1990s, 90 Days tells the story of how Scotland’s first women’s rugby players galvanised the Scottish rugby community to become the unlikely saviours of the 1994 Women’s Rugby World Cup after its sudden cancellation by the powerful rugby elite. Uplifting, musical and moving, 90 Days lifts a glass to friendship, tenacity, empowerment, and love. Book here. Details of live stream, Sat 13, here: www.90daysplay.co.uk.
Class Act: Ukraine in Scotland.
Sat 13 Apr 2024
Two shows: 2pm & 5pm (Trav 2).
Special edition of Class Act, working with Ukrainian young people currently living in Scotland to unlock their creative talent and potential. Their scripts will be brought to life by a team of professional theatre-makers to tell these urgent stories and celebrate the voices of the young people of Ukraine. 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.
