Theatre Review: The House of Bernarda Alba, 3 November, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Blood, high-heels and heartache form the basis of Rona Munro’s new adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca’s 1945 play, sun-baked rural Spain swapped for rain-sodden East End Glasgow as a matriarchal family comes to terms with the death of the man in their lives.

Theatre Review: Adolf Hitler – My Part in His Downfall, 10 October, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Based on Spike Milligan’s 1971 novel of the same name, Adolf Hitler: My Part in His Downfall comes to the stage full of the absurd wit and tomfoolery one would expect from a one-time Goon.

Theatre Review: The Silver Darlings, 6 October, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Recalling memories of his own childhood in the far north of Scotland, Neil M Gunn’s 1941 novel comes to the stage with a vigor that belies its age and subject matter.

Theatre Review: Bright Black, 18 September, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

The Traverse One is a dramatic, steeply raked theatre and on entering to watch Bright Black the journey to find a seat at the front vaguely echoes the main character’s potential descent into the underworld.

Theatre Review: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, 18 September, Brunton Theatre, Musselburgh

*****
Perhaps better known in film circles for his astonishing feature debut, 2008’s comedy-thriller In Bruges, those familiar with Irish playwrite Martin McDonagh’s extensive theatre work are well aware that he’s no one-trick pony.
Originally performed in 1996, The Beauty Queen of Leenane opens in the kitchen of Mag (Carole Dance), a housebound old woman whose daily [...]

Theatre Review: The Beggar’s Opera, 16 September, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Launching their new season on an unsuspecting public, Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum brings a brand new envisioning of John Gay’s 1728 musical play The Beggar’s Opera to the stage, complete with sex, stilettos and a dash of sci-fi: this isn’t your great-great-great-great-grandfather’s Beggar’s Opera.

Fringe Review: Hugh Hughes in 360

*****
Hugh welcomed his audience at the door on entrance into the Pleasance Two venue. This was an unusual start and one that instantly encouraged a rapport with his audience.
Whilst at the front waiting for everyone to get seated, he then encouraged everyone to greet the person sitting next to them and behind them. Although this [...]

Fringe Review: The Garden

*****
As part of the Festival at the Traverse, a range of established writers produced work for The World is Too Much, the title based on an extract from a Wordsworth poem.
Unusually, the play began at 9am and breakfast was included in the price of the ticket. It was a rare scene to see Edinburgh’s finest [...]

Edinburgh Fringe Review: The Overcoat

Similar to the titular overcoat suspended above the audience of the Pleasance Grand for the duration of the production, you should hang any preconceptions at the door as you settle down to watch Amit Lahav’s impressive retelling of Gogol’s 1842 short story.

Edinburgh Fringe Review: Pappy’s Fun Club

From the offset the four characters, of Ben, Brendan, Matthew and Tom, ooze energy and improvised wit. It is clear the team of four put everything into their hour long show, attempting to achieve 200 sketches in an hour.

Edinburgh Fringe Review: Janeane Garofalo

Rambling, forgetful and keen to be loved, US star Janeane Garofalo arrives in Edinburgh with a stage persona it’s hard not to be enamored by.

Edinburgh Fringe Review: A-Team – The Musical

*****
Bringing back the A-Team may have proved impossible for Justin Lee Collins but in the cramped confines of Edinburgh’s Gilded Balloon Wine Bar those celebrated soldiers of fortune have well and truly returned.
This time around, as well as being armed with machine guns, revolvers and the odd blow torch, they’ve added song and dance routines [...]

Edinburgh Fringe Review: Hangover

Though its run time may be short, Hangover is packed with incident and plot, a thoughtful piece of theatre that will by its shocking end leave you, quite literally, hanging on Elliot’s every word.

Theatre Review: A Cock and Bull Story, 10 June, Kitsch Coffee Bar, Edinburgh

*****
Gay. For such a small word it’s amazing how much hate it can generate, controversy it can lead to and pain it can inflict: though it only contains three characters, you’d sometimes be forgiven for thinking it’s a four letter word.
While modern society prides itself on its liberal attitude to homosexuality and an understanding of [...]

Theatre Review: Quadrophenia, 26 May, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

While this new stage production of The Who’s Quadrophenia is quite clearly based on the 1973 album of the same name, there’s a good chance that many of the show’s audience will only ever have seen or heard of the film version, which itself has no sudden outbursts of song from its young leads.

Theatre Review: West Side Story, 5 May, Festival Theatre, Edinburgh

Depraved, deprived and more often than not despised, the two gangs at the centre of West Side Story proved last night that fifty years since their first face-off they can still rumble with the best of them.

Theatre Review: Copenhagen, Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

Copenhagen is an atom. For a brief moment, near the end of Michael Frayn’s electrifying Copenhagen, the world is reimagined as one big science experiment, the town of Copenhagen itself described as an atom, while its inhabitants are neutrons and light particles. Or waves. Or maybe ions.

Theatre Review: Curse of the Starving Class, 21 March, Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

So it’s doubly frustrating that Edinburgh Royal Lyceum’s latest production, Curse of the Starving Class may offer its audience a fine cast and top-notch production values with one hand, only to take it all away with a dry script that, like the empty fridge soprominent on stage, gives its actors little to get their teeth into.

Theatre Review: My Grandfather’s Great War, 7 March, Brunton Theatre

While copyright issues prevent me from publishing the full review here, you can read my review of the excellent one-man show, My Grandfather’s Great War, over at the Edinburgh Evening News website.

Theatre Review: Jolson & Co, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

Glitz, glamour and (a distinct lack of) greasepaint are the trademarks of the new touring production of Jolson & Co which opened at Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre this week.