EdFringe 2024
LIFE
★★★☆☆ Drawn out
LIFE from Maria McDonell at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a production that does not always quite live up to its startlingly clever premise.
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.
VL
★★★★☆ Huge energy
VL, from Francesca Moody Productions, at Roundabout @ Summerhall throughout the Fringe, will delight anyone who has ever been a worried teenager. Or anyone who appreciates comedy.
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.
The Bookies
★★★☆☆ Spread bet
The Bookies spins the story of a betting shop on Leith Walk, its employees and a slot machine-addicted customer in this black comedy playing at Summerhall for the duration of the fringe.
Sing Along With the Fairy Song
★★★★☆ Ethereal
Children’s author Janis Mackay presents just under an hour of fairy-themed songs and story telling in Sing Along With the Fairy Song at the Scottish Storytelling Centre for three to eight year-olds.
The Phantom of the Opera
★★★★★ Breathtaking
A haunting production of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Charles Hart’s The Phantom of the Opera is staged by Captivate Theatre with a stellar cast of 21 at The Edinburgh Academy in Stockbridge.
The Last Forecast
★★★★★ Outlook: good
In The Last Forecast, Bridie Gane and Catherine Wheels present a comically timed and quirky movement piece for children over six, at Assembly @ Dance Base during the first half of the fringe.
