Shakespeare
Henry V
★★★☆☆ Contrarious
Henry V from Massachusetts-based Ghost Light Players is a dynamic, physical, ensemble-centred production of Shakespeare’s sprawling history that aims to impress upon its audience the “bloody cost of war”.
Macbeth & Dunsinane
Macbeth: ★★★☆☆ Speedy
Dunsinane: ★★★★☆ Bloody
A Necessary Cat have done it again – bringing a powerful double helping of a Shakespeare starter and Shakespeare-adjacent main course to the Fringe in which the whole is better the sum of its parts.
The Whirligig of Time
★★★★★ Malvolio Often Appears Innocent
Malevolent, malicious, malcontent: Malvolio. But is he? In a tour-de-force by solo actor Robin Leetham, Tortive Theatre’s The Whirligig of Time questions the traditional perception of Malvolio as the antagonist of Twelfth Night, and allows him to tell his version of the story.
Macbeth: Sleep No More
★★★☆☆ Well Spoken
Reducing Shakespeare’s cast of forty-plus characters to a company of four female performers, Shadow Road Productions brings Macbeth: Sleep No More back to the Fringe in an adaptation that encapsulates the essence of the Scottish Play.
Shakespeare adjacent pairings
It’s the Bard, Bill, just not as you know him
Following Necessary Cat’s brilliant pairing of Hamlet and Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead at the Fringe of 2023, the Edinburgh-based company is back with Macbeth and David Greig’s Dunsinane.
Macbeth (an undoing)
★★★★☆ Compelling
Zinnie Harris’s much-garlanded adaptation of Shakespeare, Macbeth (an undoing), returns to the Lyceum subtly tweaked and all the better for it.
Drama Desk nods for Harris’ Macbeth update
Four Drama Desk Award noms for Macbeth (an undoing)
Macbeth (an undoing) returns to the Lyceum on Tuesday 14 May 2024 after a successful international tour in which it picked up four nominations from the prestigious Drama Desk Awards from the New York critics.
The Taming of the Shrew
★★★★☆ Lively
Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company’s production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Pleasance is a witty and intelligent take on an endlessly troubling play.
Macbeth
★★★★☆ High impact
There’s plenty to mull over in the high concept, high impact, high-everything modern dress production of Macbeth touring to a quartet of created theatre spaces – and this month spending a fortnight at the Royal Highland Centre.
Matthew Bourne’s Romeo and Juliet
★★★★☆ Radical and inventive
Matthew Bourne’s radical reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet for his New Adventures company, creates a ballet about the powerless and the powerful which highlights the madness of young love and the crazy things it forces us to do.
