Made In Edinburgh
Slings and Arrows
★★★★☆ Hard hitting
There is raw emotion on display in Slings and Arrows, a disabled led dram from Raised Voices at theSpace@ Surgeons Hall – but there is also humour, stagecraft and real hope.
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.
Afterparty
★★★★☆ Lairy
Packed with expletives and off-colour observations, Afterparty from New Celts Productions and F-Bomb Theatre at the theSpace’s Triplex theatre pulls no punches in its humorous but bitter-sweet story set in small town Scotland.
Press
★★★★☆ Sharply funny
Press in the Cabaret Bar at the Pleasance Courtyard is Black Bat Productions’ second production of this Fringe, and its second unqualified hit.
Catching Up
★★☆☆☆ Shapeless
There is an amorphous feel to Theatre Paradok’s Catching Up at Symposium Hall, as if what we are seeing has had one draft too few – or, more likely, several drafts too many.
Moonlight On Leith
★★★☆☆ Celebratory
Combining the quotidian and the lyrical, New Celts and REDCAP Theatre’s Moonlight On Leith at theSpace Triplex provides a touching portrait of assorted Leithers.
Radio 69
★★★☆☆ Frothy
There is enough liveliness and verve in Radio 69, presented by the Counterminers at theSpace at Symposium Hall, for several Fringe shows. However, a corresponding attention to detail is not always present.
Wish List
★★★★☆ Subtly political
Wish List is an urgently contemporary piece from New Celts and Bone Struck Theatre, dealing with young carers, mental health and the gig economy in a way that never preaches and is always beautifully human.
Fear of Roses
★★★★☆ Stylish
Fear of Roses, by Black Bat Productions at Assembly Roxy, is a crisp, intelligent and thoroughly rewarding three-hander.
Corpsing
★★★☆☆ Energetic
It is always pleasing to see play titles that are clear hostages to fortune, like New Celts and Red Rabbit’s Corpsing at theSpace Triplex. However, this is nothing to do with forgetting your lines, and everything to do with actual corpses.
