Hugh Simpson
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kind Of…!
★★★★☆ Clever fun
Shortened and adapted versions of Shakespeare have been the backbone of the Fringe for years, but there can have been few that feature such a large, well prepared and infectiously enthusiastic cast as Edinburgh Youth Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kind Of…!
Mairi Campbell: Living Stone
★★★☆☆ Gentle
Mairi Campbell: Living Stone at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a gently musical journey through history and the present day. It has much to recommend it, but cannot help seem slightly disappointing in the light of what has gone before.
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
★★★☆☆ Stately
Edinburgh Theatre Arts’ Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at St Ninian’s is a careful, intelligent production that is not always as funny as it might be.
Rat King Gospel
★★★☆☆ Uneven
Cup of Teatre and New Celts’ Rat King Gospel at theSpace on the Mile is an initially intriguing production that ultimately fails to deliver much insight, despite some fine acting.
Ne’er The Twain
★★★★☆ Couthie comedy
Edinburgh People’s Theatre have been doing the Fringe since it first started, and this is not the first time they have put on Alan Cochrane’s Ne’er the Twain. However, both play and company come over as commendably fresh and very funny.
June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me
★★★★☆ Exuberant
Intense emotion is combined with real intelligence in The National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron’s June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me by Charlene Boyd, at Summerhall Dissection Room.
Modern Love is Not a Dream
★★★★☆ A Dream
The clash of modern media with age-old themes is explored in Modern Love is Not a Dream by Laura Turner, presented by Looking Glass Theatre and New Celts at theSpace on the Mile. An intriguingly structured play, it is given a considered staging and features a first-rate ensemble.
You Deserve It
★★★★☆ Deserves praise
Out of Order Productions and New Celts do justice to Jess Ferrier’s impressive new play You Deserve It at theSpace on the Mile.
Badger
★★★☆☆ Overworked
Badger, from Burning Ember Theatre and New Celts at theSpace on the Mile, is a compelling but uneven farcical depiction of workers on the edge of reason.
Take Me to Your Leader
★★★★☆ Effervescent
Unexpected things keep popping up in Take Me to Your Leader from Headrush Theatre and New Celts at theSpace on the Mile.
