Reviews
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.
Solaris
★★★★☆ Questioning intelligence:
Dealing with troubling questions about human interaction, the Lyceum’s adaptation of Solaris is – like all the best science fiction – not really about alien planets but about our own world.
Tartuffe
★★★★☆ Great comic timing
Young Critics Scheme review
Tartuffe at the Assembly Rooms is Liz Lochead’s new, shortened version of her adaptation of Moliere’s 17th century play into Scots.
BookFest – The Final Whistle
Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 Final Round-up:
The Edinburgh International Book Festival 2019 closed with its customary eclectic selection of events a remarkably prescient glitch and a Playing with Books presentation that showed exactly what such an adaptation can do.
Daughterhood
★★★★☆ Poignant
Young Critics Scheme review:
Daughterhood by Charley Miles for Paines Plough and Theatr Clwyd, is a fast paced piece, full of bitterness, jealousy and love, performed in the immersive environment of the Roundabout at Summerhall.
Don’t Frighten the Straights
★★★☆☆ Homo-ironic storytelling:
Turan Ali is a great storyteller. Maybe too good – when he told his partner that he wanted to do a show about ʻwhat gay men really get up toʼ, the reply was, well, Don’t frighten the straights…
India Flamenco – A Gipsy Tale
★★★★☆ Absolutely fascinating:
Three women, three styles and three different sensualities – combined with their shared joy for dance, are the main ingredients of this stunning production.
Barry
★★★☆☆ Smiling engagement:
Barry, Shrinking Violet’s devised play which is at the Bedlam for five days only, attempts to find out who Edinburgh’s famous Doctor James Barry really was.
Goodbye Charles
★★☆☆☆ Extreme comic chaos:
Goodbye Charles, Eight Minute Dirge’s Fringe debut, is an episodic comedy performed with a surfeit of enthusiasm. Lacking in focus, it nevertheless has charm and potential.
