#EdFringe
For Better, For Worse
★★★☆☆ Truthful
For Better, For Worse from PenPal Productions at C aquila is largely successful at combining a family comedy with the wider world, in a way that many have found too difficult to pull off in the past.
Land Under Wave
★★★★☆ Inclusive
Land Under Wave, presented by the Young Edinburgh Storytellers, is a beautifully inclusive combination of traditional music and storytelling, brought up to date for the 21st Century.
Witch? Women on Trial
★★★☆☆ Engrossing
Witch? Women on Trial from storyteller Natalie Nardone makes excellent use of a recently opened venue, the Lost Close, deep in amongst the wynds and closes under the houses that once crowded around the Royal Mile.
In Everglade Studio
★★★★☆ Sweltering
In Everglade Studio is a tuneful, tense and entertaining production from Black Bat Productions in The Box at Assembly George Square.
The Beatles Were A Boyband
★★★★☆ Deeply affecting
The Beatles Were A Boyband, Rachel O’Regan’s Fringe First winning play for F-Bomb Theatre, returns to the Gilded Balloon for a short run this year. Written in the wake of some high profile murders, it sadly still feels relevant a year on.
Hamlet / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
★★★☆☆ Pacy and ★★★★☆ Slick
New Edinburgh amateur company Necessary Cat make their debut performances for the last week only of the fringe with the elegantly twinned pairing of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Kitchen Underwear
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable and engaging
Kitchen Underwear by Fringe debutants Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective is an enjoyable and engaging two-hander about flatmates who clearly have significant feelings for each other.
Come Die With Me: The Murder Mystery Musical Parody
★★★☆☆ Exuberant
Happy Sad’s Come Die With Me: The Murder Mystery Musical Parody, at Just the Tonic @ The Grassmarket Centre, is often as unwieldy and potentially confusing as its title. However, the end result is undoubtedly good-hearted and good fun.
Sir Percival and the Jabberwock
★★★☆☆ Epic ambition
There is a poetic sensibility at work in Kestrel Eye Production’s Sir Percival and the Jabberwock, at Greenside @ Infirmary Street, that overcomes huge difficulties to create a fascinating result.
Enquiry Concerning Hereafter
★★★☆☆ Philosophical
Enquiry Concerning Hereafter, produced by Adam Smith’s Panmure House, is a touching evocation of friendship mixed with philosophy.
