Hugh Simpson
Showcase 2019
★★★★☆ Melodic juggernaut:
Showcase 2019 at the Church Hill Theatre is an object lesson in how to ring the changes on a familiar formula and keep the result delightfully fresh.
Solaris
★★★★☆ Questioning intelligence:
Dealing with troubling questions about human interaction, the Lyceum’s adaptation of Solaris is – like all the best science fiction – not really about alien planets but about our own world.
Goodbye Charles
★★☆☆☆ Extreme comic chaos:
Goodbye Charles, Eight Minute Dirge’s Fringe debut, is an episodic comedy performed with a surfeit of enthusiasm. Lacking in focus, it nevertheless has charm and potential.
Surveillance
★★★☆☆ Intriguingly lop-sided:
Surveillance, by Anomaly Theatre at theSpace on North Bridge, is a collection of items about ‘big data’ and the surveillance society that is somewhat hit-and-miss but has some fascinating elements.
Fish
★★★☆☆ Surprisingly dry:
Fish by Shinehouse Theatre as part of the Taiwan Season at Summerhall, is an attractive production which remains a curiosity rather than a vital piece of theatre.
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.
Rowan Rheingans: Dispatches on the Red Dress
★★★★☆ Quietly compelling:
Dispatches on the Red Dress by Rowan Rheingans at the Storytelling Centre, is one of the increasing number of productions coming from the folk scene that meld theatre, storytelling and music; it can certainly hold its head up with the best of those.
The Collection of Professor Novak
★★★☆☆ Old-fashioned:
The Collection of Professor Novak, an understated combination of storytelling and trickery upstairs at the Outhouse, charms almost despite itself.
Krapp’s Last Tape
★★★★☆ Authentic Krapp:
Wistful and careful, Arkle’s production of Krapp’s Last Tape brings out the humanity in Beckett’s masterpiece. Often seen as a forbidding play, there is nothing remotely inaccessible about this.
She Can’t Half Talk
★★☆☆☆ Unconvincing lives:
She Can’t Half Talk, EUTC’s Fringe production at the Bedlam, is a varied set of stories that contains much of promise but fails to convince as a coherent whole.
