Allan Wilson
I Hope Your Flowers Bloom
★★★★☆ Lyrical
I Hope your Flowers Bloom is a beautifully lyrical monologue in which writer and performer Raymond Wilson, presented by All the Figs at the Storytelling Centre, shows his obsession for trees and other plants, even quoting the Latin name of every tree he mentions.
The Hearth
★★★★☆ Moving reflections
In The Hearth from Brite Theater, multi-instrumentalist and storyteller Tom Oakes uses the hearth; that place in the centre of a home where a fire is traditionally lit, to spark a series of moving reflections on life and memory.
The Booth
★★★☆☆ Comic confusion
Edinburgh University Theatre Group’s The Booth takes a satirical, but affectionate, look back to the 1950s, when Foley artists ruled the airwaves, using household objects to create so many of the sound effects that brought radio drama to life.
Concerned Others
★★★★☆ Profound impact
Tortoise in a Nutshell’s new verbatim documentary, Concerned Others, at Summerhall all Fringe, uses puppets and animation rather than actors to bring its script to life.
Break Up With Your Boyfriend
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable and informative
There’s a lot to enjoy in Break Up With Your Boyfriend by Edinburgh company, Scylla’s Bite, a tale of two young women with boyfriend trouble and therapy overload at the Pleasance Courtyard for the whole Fringe.
Salamander
★★★★☆ Powerful and funny
Salamander, by Pretty Knickers Productions at Assembly Roxy for the first two weeks of the Fringe only, takes its starting point from the unsolved murder of a sex worker in Leith in 1983.
Animate Lands: Mythic Celtic Tales
★★★★☆ Accomplished storytelling
Animate Lands: Mythic Celtic Tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a fascinating hour of stories from Scotland’s Celtic heritage presented by Dougie Mackay and Freya Rae.
The Rotting Hart
★★★★☆ Accomplished
Writer and performer Daniel Orejon’s solo show, The Rotting Hart at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, is a timeless, queer horror story set in rural Spain, where the unnamed protagonist lives alone with his father.
Copenhagen
★★★★☆ Stimulating and engaging
In Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen at the Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group tackle a difficult, sometimes impenetrable, play with intelligence and skill.
Pressure
★★★★☆ Energetic and intense
David Haig’s Pressure, focusing on two British obsessions: the weather and World War Two, had its world première at the Lyceum in 2014 and is now revived by Arkle at the Hill Street Theatre until Saturday.
