Reviews
Sunset Song
★★★☆☆ Pacey:
Leitheatre’s production of Lewis Grassic Gibbons Sunset Song burls along at pace and with great vitality at the Church Hill Theatre, where is playing to Saturday.
Shakespeare In Love
★★★★☆ Superslick:
Top-notch comic performances and a production that purrs like a Rolls-Royce mean that the touring production of Shakespeare In Love at the King’s, from Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Theatre Royal Bath, is extremely seductive.
The Last Days of Mankind
★★★★☆ A glorious mess:
The Last Days of Mankind, an international co-production at the reborn Leith Theatre, is an exasperating but ultimately worthwhile exploration of the horrors of the 1914-1918 war. Both resolutely adult and appealingly childish, it convinces and confounds almost equally.
Oh! What A Lovely War
★★★★☆ Powerful:
Brutal yet hilarious, Captivate Theatre’s production of Oh! What A Lovely War at the Festival Theatre Studio feels relevant beyond its obvious significance to Sunday’s centenary of the WW1 Armistice.
The Last Witch
★★★★☆ Hard as rock:
There is a visceral compulsion to Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Firebrand’s The Last Witch at the Traverse. While apparently telling of a disappeared world, its evocations of fears, suspicions and power imbalances are worryingly contemporary.
Vulcan 7
★★★☆☆ Mixed bag:
There are some brilliantly imaginative elements to the touring production of Vulcan 7 at the King’s. Unfortunately, none of them are in the script.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula
★★★☆☆ BANG!
Noisy fun is to be had in the touring Dracula at the King’s, in a production that lacks depth but is unashamedly crowd-pleasing, not to say crowd-scaring.
Popstars The 90s Musical
★★★★☆ Well risen:
Light in substance and heavy on the cheese, Allegro’s production of Popstars the 90s Musical which is at the Church Hill Theatre to Saturday feels more like a soufflé than a 90s jukebox musical.
Jerusalem
★★★★☆ Furious energy:
The EUTC’s production of Jez Butterworth’s celebrated Jerusalem at the Bedlam has so much drive and chutzpah that it is an undoubted success.
Jesus Christ Superstar
★★★☆☆ Hobbled:
There are some bright elements to the Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s production of Jesus Christ Superstar, which is at the Church Hill Theatre all week.
