Lyceum
The Scent of Roses
★★★☆☆ Lacks urgency
The Scent of Roses, from writer-director Zinnie Harris at the Lyceum, features a top-notch cast and dialogue that often rings true regarding how self-delusion and self-evasion wreck our relationships with each other and the world around us. However, the production as a whole never truly ignites
Christmas Dinner
★★★★☆ Touchingly funny
Christmas Dinner may be something of a stopgap as this year’s Lyceum show, but it proves a success in its own right. Amusing, energetic, and wearing its considerable profundity lightly, it should appeal to the widest possible audience.
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.
Who Are You?
★★★☆☆ Timely
Who Are You? – the last in the series of audio presentations from the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre – is a strange piece both in atmosphere and in execution. Philosophically weighty but artistically less convincing, it has an initial impact that it cannot sustain.
History
★★★★★ Outstanding
History by Roy Williams is not only the best so far of the offerings on the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage audio platform, it must also have a claim to be the most essential of all the audio dramas provided by theatres in the last 18 months.
Sophia
★★★☆☆ Revealing reminder
The conflicting demands of professional ambition and personal happiness are brought into stark focus in Sophia by Frances Poet.
Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil
★★★☆☆ Human
The latest Sound Stage production from the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre, Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil, is a funny and affecting tale of love and obsession set in the decaying heartlands of Scottish industry and football.
The Mother Load
★★★★☆ Nuanced
The Mother Load by Lynda Radley, the latest in the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage series of audio presentations, is a warmly human and cleverly constructed piece.
Hindu Times
★★★☆☆ Fierce Originality:
Hindu Times – the latest audio offering from the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage – is a wildly original piece. Although cumbersome at times, it has a raucous energy that is frequently arresting.
Tennis Elbow
★★★★☆ Linguistic luxury
Thoroughly enjoyable on its own terms, Tennis Elbow – the latest offering from Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Lyceum’s Soundstage – is a flawed but very funny piece.
