Theatre
Poggle
★★★★★ Disarmingly charming:
There is real delight for pre-school kids to be had at the Studio of the Festival Theatre this Christmas, as the clever and playful Poggle is revived by Barrowland Ballet.
Rhinoceros
★★★☆☆ Interactive:
Theatre Paradok’s interpretation of Eugene Ionesco’s absurdist Rhinoceros at the Assembly Roxy is a bold attempt to bring the text into a modern setting.
Robin Hood & Bairns in the Wood
★★★★★ Hugely entertaining:
From Sherwood Forest to the Church Hill Theatre, Robin Hood and his Bairns in the Wood shine in this year’s fun and entertaining pantomime from the Balerno Theatre Company.
Flutter
★★★★☆ Cheeky:
Built in a flurry of snow, Flutter from Tortoise in a Nutshell at the Assembly Roxy and then out tour, is the charming story of young sisters who venture out into the garden after a snowstorm.
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.
Almodovar on stage
Scottish premiere of Almodovar adaptation:
When All About My Mother opens at the Assembly Roxy this week, it will be the culmination of a decade-long mission from director Ross Hope to bring the stage adaptation to Scotland.
Sunset Song
★★★☆☆ Pacey:
Leitheatre’s production of Lewis Grassic Gibbons Sunset Song burls along at pace and with great vitality at the Church Hill Theatre, where is playing to Saturday.
Shakespeare In Love
★★★★☆ Superslick:
Top-notch comic performances and a production that purrs like a Rolls-Royce mean that the touring production of Shakespeare In Love at the King’s, from Eleanor Lloyd Productions and Theatre Royal Bath, is extremely seductive.
Bringing the Mearns to the Stage
New adaptation of Scotland’s favourite book for Leitheatre:
The week that marks the centenary of the end of the 1914-18 war seems a most appropriate one for Leitheatre to bring a new adaptation of Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song to the stage.
The Last Days of Mankind
★★★★☆ A glorious mess:
The Last Days of Mankind, an international co-production at the reborn Leith Theatre, is an exasperating but ultimately worthwhile exploration of the horrors of the 1914-1918 war. Both resolutely adult and appealingly childish, it convinces and confounds almost equally.
