Royal Scots Club
The Kelpie, the Loch and the Water of Life
★★★☆☆ Radio fun
Arkle’s The Kelpie, the Loch and the Water of Life is an ideal mid-afternoon diversion for the last week of the Fringe.
Amy’s View
★★★☆☆ Slow-moving
The Makars’ production of Amy’s View, at the Royal Scots Club for the Fringe’s last week, is well staged and acted but never really ignites.
Divided
★★★★☆ Delicate
In Divided, Kate Macsween and Michael Reddington play the parents of recently transitioned Saul, in this (mostly) two-hander about family, gender, and the deeper commitments behind unconditional love.
Around the World in 80 Days
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable
Arkle’s Around the World in 80 Days, at the Royal Scots Club in Fringe Week Two, is a straightforward piece of family-friendly theatre. Inventive and committed, it has its drawbacks, but is always fun.
How I Learned to Drive
★★★★☆ Difficult
How I Learned to Drive, from Arkle at the Royal Scots Club for the Fringe’s second week, is a challenging piece staged with due care and skill.
The Ruffian on the Stair
★★☆☆☆ Falls short
For the second of their Fringe productions, EGTG revive The Ruffian on the Stair, a little-known Joe Orton play, sixty years after it debuted as a BBC radio play.
A Singular Deception
★★★☆☆ Medical mystery
Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group mark their 70th year with A Singular Deception, a new play by company member Hilary Spiers which is the first of two shows at the Royal Scots Club for Week One of the Fringe.
A Comedy of Tenors
★★★★☆ Ludicrous
The Edinburgh Makars sail through the old-fashioned farce of A Comedy of Tenors at The Royal Scots Club with about as much pace, timing and sheer energy as you could hope.
Hamlet / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
★★★☆☆ Pacy and ★★★★☆ Slick
New Edinburgh amateur company Necessary Cat make their debut performances for the last week only of the fringe with the elegantly twinned pairing of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Lilies on the Land
★★★★☆ Beautiful drama
Following on from the success of their production of David Haig’s Pressure in April, Arkle Theatre have returned to World War 2 for Lilies on the Land as the early evening Fringe offering.
