EdFringe 2016
The Gingerbread Lady
★★★☆☆ Emotional
Convincing portrayals and realistic emotions are a feature of the Makars’ production of Neil Simon’s The Gingerbread Lady at the Royal Scots Club.
Les Miserables School Edition
★★★☆☆ Spirited
Well sung and staged with energy and economy, Captivate Theatre’s Les Miserables has considerable drive.
Collateral Damage
★★★☆☆ Purposeful
Short but decidedly not sweet, Collateral Damage is sharp and spiky.
Eugene & Elvis
✭✭✭✭✩ Tender:
Affecting and emotional, Charles Hindley’s Eugene & Elvis at Silk is a rawly human musing on love, loss, family ties and the healing power of music.
The Club
✭✭✭✭✩ Comic bravado:
The Club, the latest play from Edinburgh-born actor and writer Ruaraidh Murray, has a fiercely humorous energy and drive.
The F Words
★★☆☆☆ Lacking in fury:
There is a pleasing energy and political commitment to Pinched! Theatre’s feminist entertainment The F Words at Greenside, but as a show it fails to cohere.
Nosferatu’s Shadow
✭✭✭✭✩ Clever:
There is a delicate balance between information and entertainment, and between history and contemporary relevance, in Michael Daviot’s Nosferatu’s Shadow at Sweet Grassmarket.
Cradle King
✭✭✭✭✩ Hugely involving:
An outstanding display of acting is given by Robin Thomson, who is celebrating the 50th anniversary of his first professional appearance by reviving his 2003 performance as James VI in Donald Smith’s Cradle King in the John Knox House.
Robert Burns: Rough Cut
★★★☆☆ Smooth
Revealing and emotional, Robert Burns: Rough Cut at the Storytelling Centre presents a thoroughly believable portrait of the poet.
Faslane
✭✭✭✭✩ Therapeutic:
Jenna Watt’s affecting exploration of Trident in Faslane may never go nuclear, but her sympathetic approach to a complex issue restores some much-needed humanity to an increasingly polarised body politic.