Hilary Davies
Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
★★★☆☆ Well-turned
Amidst the noise, rituals and trappings of pantomime and Christmas, Strawmoddie’s take on Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather provides a welcome parody of our seasonal excess, at the Pleasance Theatre to Sunday.
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.
And Then There Were None
★★☆☆☆ Patchy
Agatha Christie’s evergreen And Then There Were None is presented by Strawmoddie at the Central Hall, Tollcross, with delicacy and no little effort. Unfortunately, choices with staging – and problems seemingly inherent in the venue – make for an awkward experience.
Bytesize Theatre
★★★☆☆ Welcome
The lack of time to plan for live theatre at this year’s Fringe has not deterred the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group. Bytesize Theatre is a collection of three new plays presented on the online Fringe Player. The three pieces are not all equally impressive, but each has intriguing elements.
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.
Women in Parliament
★★☆☆☆ Attic Crude:
Crude on several levels, amateur company Athens of the North’s project to stage Andrew Wilson’s new translation of Aristophanes’ Women In Parliament is both fascinating and infuriating.
The Lark
★★★★☆ Fiery:
There is fire in the belly of EGTG’s telling of The Lark – Jean Anouilh’s take on the story of Joan of Arc – at Bellfield in Portobello to Saturday.
All About My Mother
★★★☆☆ Ambitious:
Clever in its staging and ambitious in scope, the EGTG’s Scottish premiere of All About My Mother, at the Roxy to Saturday, provides plenty to satisfy but a certain amount of confusion along the way.
Macbeth
★★☆☆☆ Darkly modest:
The Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Company take on Shakespeare’s Macbeth at Assembly Roxy this week, in a production which leans into all the horror and gore the tragedy reveals.
Volpone
★★★★☆ Ruthless:
The Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group bring Ben Johnson’s comedy, Volpone, to life and new audiences in a hilarious version of the tale about just how far people will go to be rich.
