Reviews
The Night Watch
★★★☆☆ Uneasy retelling:
The touring adaptation at the King’s of The Night Watch, the best-selling novel by Sarah Waters, has a great deal of emotional clarity, but little in the way of dramatic power.
An Inspector Calls
★★★★☆ Worryingly compelling:
The revival of a much-garlanded take on J.B. Priestley’s An Inspector Calls at the King’s is wonderfully staged, relevant and more than a little troubling.
PPP: The Signalman
★★★★★ Riveting
There is a touch of horror to The Signalman, in which playwright Peter Arnott views the Tay Bridge disaster from the post of signalman Thomas Barclay, on duty at the south end of the bridge on the evening of Sunday December 28, 1879.
Annie
★★★☆☆ Optimistic:
The sun, as always, is coming out tomorrow in Annie, but in this touring production at the Playhouse to Saturday, the orphan’s optimism is more dearly bought than it might be.
A Woman of No Importance
★★★☆☆ Curiosity value:
A Woman of No Importance, Classic Spring Company’s touring production at the King’s, is an accomplished piece of theatre whose stately nature contains little in the way of excitement.
A Taste of Honey
★★★☆☆ Sweet:
Some outstanding performances overcome a series of gimmicky directorial choices in the UK National Theatre’s touring production of A Taste of Honey at the King’s.
Mamma Mia!
★★★★☆ Take a chance:
It’s not just one of us who was pleased to have Mamma Mia! back on the Edinburgh Playhouse stage – an air of expectation and excitement filled the entire auditorium for Friday’s show.
Black Men Walking
★★★★☆ Poetic Journey:
There is a scope to Eclipse Theatre Company’s Black Men Walking that is truly impressive. And if its reach sometimes exceeds its grasp, it is none the worse for it.
Showcase 2019
★★★★☆ Melodic juggernaut:
Showcase 2019 at the Church Hill Theatre is an object lesson in how to ring the changes on a familiar formula and keep the result delightfully fresh.
Number One Fan
★★★☆☆ Deftly deceptive
With A Play, A Pie and a Pint rocking the Sunday evening schedules on BBC Scotland, Number One Fan, the lunchtime offering at the Traverse until Saturday, proves that there is even more fun to be had in witnessing theatre in real life.
