Listings Mon 18 – Sun 24 Nov 2019

Nov 17 2019 | By More

On Edinburgh’s Stages this week:

It’s the official start of the Christmas season as the Edinburgh Gang Show make their sixtieth annual foray onto the stage of the King’s.

Expect some very sparkly singing and dancing from the assembled young people from Scouting and Girlguiding, who have a reputation for putting on a considerably enjoyable show.

Natalya Romaniw as Tosca and Roland Wood as Scarpia in Scottish Opera’s Tosca at the Festival Theatre this week. Pic: James Glossop.

The big event is the arrival of Scottish Opera with its formidable production of Tosca at the Festival Theatre. It’s a production which has certainly had legs, but it is still a thoroughly superb one. The setting at the fall of Mussolini emphasises its sense of the drama, while finding distinct contemporary resonances.

Elsewhere these if a full set of intriguing smaller scale productions, from the return of Annie George’s TWA for the last time, at the Roxy, the Lung Ha company interviewing Ian Rankin on the Lyceum stage and at the Traverse, the arrival of Shona Reppe’s latest work – always a cause for celebration in these parts.

Leitheatre take over the Church Hill for their Autumn production of On Golden Pond, the Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company take on Berkov’s East for a two night stand at the Wee Red, while Theatre Paradok  go for a more modern classic, with the Edinburgh premiere of Kieran Hurley’s hit Mouthpiece.

On the musical theatre front, Kerry Ellis and Zoe Tyler are headlining a concert for Edinburgh-based secondary cancer charity Make 2nds Count at St Giles on Friday, while the EUSOG has set its sights on some Sondheim with Into the Woods at the Pleasance.

And still you have to have a laugh – the mirth-merchants are taking over the Playhouse all week with Jack WhitehouseTim Minchin and Romesh Ranganathan all letting rip on different nights.

Assembly Roxy
Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU. Phone booking: 0131 623 3030.
TWA
Fri 22/Sat 23 Nov 2019
Evening: 7.30pm.
Twa stories in one: a re-telling of the myth of Philomela, the Athenian princess whose tongue has been cut out – based on the version in Ovid’s Metamorphoses – interwoven with a contemporary tale about a woman who has been silenced in different ways. Each finds resistance through the creative act. Book here.

Augustine United Church
41 George IV Bridge, EH1 1EL
Mouthpiece
Fri 22 – Mon 25 November 2019
Evenings: 7.30
Theatre Paradok take on Kieran Hurley’s Edinburgh’s set hit. Salisbury Crags. Twilight. A woman takes a step forward into the air. A teenage boy pulls her back. Two lives are changed forever. Book here.

Church Hill Theatre
33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR
On Golden Pond
Wednesday 20 – Saturday 23 November 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm.
Leitheatre stage Ernest Thompson’s 1979 play about ageing and family life, set in the New England summer home of retired couple Ethel and Norman Thayer. Book here.

Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Scottish Opera – Tosca
Thu 14, Sun 17, Thu 21 & Sat 23 November 2019
Thu & Sat 7.15pm, Sun 3pm
Passion, glamour, love worth dying for – Anthony Besch’s Tosca has it all. In 1940s Rome, in the shadow of Mussolini’s tyrannical rule, the ill-fated lovers come to life against a backdrop of political corruption and intrigue. This superb production is beloved the world over – don’t miss it as it comes home to the Scottish Opera stage. Book here.

King’s Theatre
2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Edinburgh Gang Show 2019
Tue 19 to Sat 23 November 2019
Evenings 7pm; Matinee Sat 2.15pm
It’s November… it’s the King’s Theatre… it’s GANG SHOW time! Over 250 young people from Scouting and Girlguiding return to the King’s with their spectacular production – the 60th Edinburgh Gang Show. As always there will be show-stopping musical numbers, fabulous choreography, stunning individual performances and hilarious comedy routines. Book here.

Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
LUNG cHAts Live with Ian Rankin
Tuesday 19 November 2019
Evening: 7.30
Nicola Tuxworth and Gavin Yule of Lung Ha Theatre Company in conversation with Ian Rankin, one of the world’s most celebrated crime writers. This special event takes place just days after the re-release of Ian’s 1990 novel, Westwind; and will be followed by a Q&A and book-signing. Book here.

Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Jack Whitehouse: Stood Up
Monday 18 November 2019
Evening: 8pm.
Brand new stand-up tour from the star of hit show, Travels With My Father, now in its second season, which features Jack and his father Michael touring the globe, clashing over what they want to see and do on their travels. Book here.

Tim Minchin – Back
Tue 19, Wed 20 & Sat 23 Nov 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm

The award-winning comedian, actor and composer returns to the stage for his first UK tour dates since 2011. Billed as Old Songs, New Songs, F*** You Songs, hinting at a set list of material from all corners of Minchin’s eclectic – and often iconoclastic – repertoire. Book now.

Romesh Ranganathan – The Cynics Mixtape
Thurs 21/Fri 22 Nov 2019
Evening: 7.30pm

Romesh is putting showbiz aside to deliver a carefully curated selection of all the things he has found unacceptable since the last tour, including why trying to save the environment is a scam, why none of us are truly free, and his suspicion that his wife is using gluten intolerance to avoid sleeping with him. Book now.

Pleasance Theatre
Pleasance Courtyard, 60 Pleasance EH8 9TJ.
Into the Woods
Wed 20 – Sat 23 November 2019
Evenings: 7.30; Mat Sat: 2.30pm.
EUSOG stage their take on James Lapine and Stephen Sondeheim’s musical. Its mixture of light hearted Fairytale anarchy and heartfelt emotional moments should leave you entertained but also moved and reflective if they get it right. Book here.

St Giles Cathedral
Royal Mile, EH1 1RE.
A West End Winter Wonderland
Friday 22 November 2019
Evening: 7.30pm
Concert for Edinburgh-based secondary cancer charity Make 2nds Count, headlined by its patron Kerry Ellis, the Queen of the West End and Broadway alongside musicals superstar Zoe Tyler. The whole show will be hosted by Tom Urie for a magical festive evening of show-stopping musical numbers. Book here.

Traverse Theatre
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
Atlantis Banal: Beneath the Surface
Thursday 21 – Friday 22 Nov 2019
6.30pm [T2]
Born on an island, struck by lightning and raised by a dry cleaner, Atlantis Banal is an artist like no other. Since she first rose to the surface of the art scene she’s been creating ripples far and wide. In her exhibition Beneath the Surface she invites visitors to take the plunge, and immerse themselves in a world where the ordinary becomes extraordinary, and nothing is what it first appears. This brand new show for families is set in an intimate ‘pop-up’ art gallery, featuring a flying fish, fashion on a tin can and a mermaid who isn’t afraid to make an exhibition of herself. Book here.

Wee Red Bar
Lady Lawson Street, EH3 9DF
East
Wed 20/Thurs 21 November 2019
Evenings: 7.30pm.
The Edinburgh Shakespeare Company with Steven Berkoff’s raw and unsanitized depiction of a working-class community living in London’s East End during the 1960s, using a combination of poetic Shakespearean dialogue and Cockney slang. Book here.

*NB: This is intended to be a complete listing of all public theatrical productions on in Edinburgh. If you are staging a show which is not listed, or a listing is inaccurate, please get in touch through the contact page, here.

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