Ben Blow
Cadaver Synod
★★★☆☆ Gore of yore:
Cadaver Synod is an engaging historical comedy-horror from RFT at the Sweet Grassmarket that crosses boundaries of genre and taste with equal relish.
It’s A Wonderful Life
★★★☆☆ Profound:
The heartbeat of humanity which lies at the core of Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life is brought to the stage in a straightforward but never simple adaptation by Floating Brick Theatre, at the Cornerstone Centre to Saturday.
Those Worrisome Sleeps
★★☆☆☆ Fractured fantasy:
Those Worrisome Sleeps, RFT’s excursion into fantasy and dark magic at Sweet Grassmarket, has an unusual atmosphere and a vigorous earnestness that never translate into a convincing whole.
Midnight conspiracy
RFT stage Scottish Premiere of Wannsee play:
It was the midnight of the twentieth century, the day in 1942 when 15 Nazi bureaucrats met in the Wannsee suburb of Berlin to coordinate the “Final Solution to the Jewish Problem” – murder on an industrial scale.
Getting into Formation
Annexe Arts’ festival for Assembly Roxy:
The new Formation Festival is taking place at the Assembly Roxy from Saturday 3 February 2018, with theatre performances from Annexe Repertory Theatre and a selection of Edinburgh grassroots companies.
Vichy Goings-On
★★★☆☆ Creative:
An effective original script carries Vichy Goings-On right the way through, giving it easy entertainment value at the Fringe. There are a few bumps along the way, but on the whole RFT deliver an engaging, likeable story with unique characters.
The Bruce In Ireland
★★★☆☆ Brutal:
Bleak beyond remorse, Ben Blow’s new play about Edward Bruce’s bloody foray into Ireland, playing at the Assembly Roxy until Thursday, makes for cynical viewing.
After Bannockburn
New play follows the Bruces to Ireland:
Thanks to Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, the world knows of Robert the Bruce’s triumph at Bannockburn – which earned Scotland her freedom. At least according to his film.
The Lower Depths
✭✭✩✩✩ Depths hidden:
Dark and vicious, Andy Corelli’s take on Gorky’s The Lower Depths for Siege Perilous strikes all the right tones at the Hidden Door, but doesn’t always reveal them as clearly as it might.
Icelandic debut at D21
UK premiere of Icelandic play:
Discover 21, Edinburgh’s smallest theatre, is staging the UK premier of an Icelandic two-hander this weekend with the three-night run of Bitter Sweet by Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir.
