Saskia Ashdown
The Scent of Roses
★★★☆☆ Lacks urgency
The Scent of Roses, from writer-director Zinnie Harris at the Lyceum, features a top-notch cast and dialogue that often rings true regarding how self-delusion and self-evasion wreck our relationships with each other and the world around us. However, the production as a whole never truly ignites
Covid delays Lyceum show
The Scent of Roses opening delayed a week
The cast and company of the new Zinnie Harris play, The Scent of Roses, has been effected by Covid, delaying the play’s opening by a week.
Who Are You?
★★★☆☆ Timely
Who Are You? – the last in the series of audio presentations from the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre – is a strange piece both in atmosphere and in execution. Philosophically weighty but artistically less convincing, it has an initial impact that it cannot sustain.
History
★★★★★ Outstanding
History by Roy Williams is not only the best so far of the offerings on the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage audio platform, it must also have a claim to be the most essential of all the audio dramas provided by theatres in the last 18 months.
Lament for Sheku Bayoh
★★★★★ Essential
Lament for Sheku Bayoh, the Lyceum’s online co-production with the National Theatre of Scotland and the Edinburgh International Festival, is a work of huge impact on many levels.
An Edinburgh Christmas Carol
★★★☆☆ Comedy overshadows pathos:
An Edinburgh Christmas Carol, the Lyceum’s Christmas re-invention of Dickens, is a full-on comic display that is undoubtedly pleasing despite apparently missing some important points.
Festival Theatre Birthday Bash
Variety show to mark Festival’s silver anniversary in June:
The 25th anniversary of the Festival Theatre will be marked in June with a one-off night of variety, featuring specially commissioned pieces and work produced over the last year in a packed evening of dance, music, film and song.
War in America
★★★★☆ Timely:
The Attic Collective’s War in America is passionate, emotional and committed – but not over-earnest, and certainly not polite.
The Gentleman’s Stratagem – Review
★★★☆☆ Mannered
Subverting and reinterpreting old work seems to be a speciality of young company Charlotte Productions and Gentleman’s Stratagem, at the Vaults all week, is a fine example of that.
