Reviews
The Nutcracker
★★★★☆ Seasonal feast
Scottish Ballet’s much-loved version of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is back at the Festival Theatre over Christmas. This time round, it seems reinvigorated and remarkably fresh.
20 Minutes of Action
★★★★☆ Unflinching case-study
Pollyanna Esse’s powerful piece of verbatim theatre about horrific real-life events in Stanford University in 2015 gets a welcome second outing at the Assembly Roxy this week, after premiering at Bedlam two years ago.
Sleeping Beauty
★★★★☆ Comforting
Familiar routines, eye-catching gimmicks and cheeky swagger are naturally present in Sleeping Beauty, this year’s pantomime at the King’s. And if something is unsurprisingly missing, it does pretty well in making up for it.
Maryland
There is cathartic release of pent up rage to Lucy Kirkwood’s Maryland, which had a semi-staged, script-in-hand performance at the Southside Community Centre on Saturday and returns in a different production to the Traverse this week.
Death Drop
★★★☆☆ Premature pantomime
Death Drop, from Tuck Shop and Trafalgar Theatre Productions at the King’s until Saturday, is an uneven affair – camp, garish and ultimately entertaining.
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
★☆☆☆☆ Unfathomable
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow from Tilted Wig productions, touring to the King’s until Saturday, may just about pass muster for a post-Hallowe’en frightfest due to its occasional horrific moments.
Dirty Dancing
★★★★☆ Raunchy
Every night is Friday night this week at the Festival Theatre where Dirty Dancing (the classic story on stage) provides enough tight buns, iconic moments and hot dance moves to keep them whooping and cheering to the very rafters.
Life is a Dream
★★★★★ Glorious
The Lyceum’s Life is a Dream is a necessary and exquisite reminder of the possibilities of live theatre. Originally planned to end the 2019/20 season, this production has emerged into a completely changed world.
Bug
★★★★☆ Twisted romance
Set in a motel room somewhere in America, Bug begins like a twisted tale of romance but ends as a case study of how conspiracy, paranoia and wild theories can escalate into all-encompassing self-destructive philosophies.
Beauty and the Beast
★★★★★ Bountiful
The roses are back at the Edinburgh Playhouse and they smell sweeter than ever – be they named Belle or Beast – in Disney’s newly reimagined version of Beauty and the Beast, playing to the end of November.
