Wendy Seager
The Snow Queen
★★★★☆ Epic
The Snow Queen at the Lyceum provides thrills, humour and imaginative theatricality. Morna Young’s adaptation (directed by Cora Bissett, with music by Finn Anderson) could not be staged in 2020 for obvious reasons.
Sinbad the Pantomime
★★★★☆ Sin-good
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as Sinbad sails into Musselburgh’s Brunton Theatre for the festive season. And with the Arabian Nights legend, played with gusto by Calum Barbour, comes a slew of familiar faces making up the supporting cast.
The Mother Load
★★★★☆ Nuanced
The Mother Load by Lynda Radley, the latest in the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage series of audio presentations, is a warmly human and cleverly constructed piece.
Rapunzel: The Pantomime
★★★★★ Towering achievement
The Brunton’s panto is a little different this year – Oh yes it is! Covid means the Brunton’s 2020 offering was filmed, with smaller audiences able to watch Rapunzel in the venue’s cinema. As it turned out, tier changes meant that plan was abandoned, but a web link ensures kids of all ages don’t have to miss out.
Brunton puts panto on screen
Rapunzel hangs out on Brunton’s Silver Screen
The Brunton Theatre in Musselburgh is determined to put on panto this year, so has created a film version of Rapunzel The Pantomime, screening in its cinema over Christmas – and available to stream online
Ludicrous MacKenzie
★★★★☆ Crackling comedy:
There’s equal measures of biting wit and pacy dialogue in the downstairs room of New Town gastro pub Little White Pig, as writer-director Mark McDonnell launches his latest production, Ludicrous MacKenzie, and a new venue.
Cinderella
★★★★☆ Oh yes it is…. Terrific!
It’s Cinderella with a touch of The Greatest Showman at this year’s fun-filled Brunton-produced panto, running through the festive season until January.
A Game of Death and Chance
★★★★☆ Eerily Interesting
Young critics scheme review
In A Game of Death and Chance, the National Trust for Scotland’s first ever Fringe show, four characters from the 17th century – and death himself – have occupied an old Edinburgh tenement to tell stories of Scotland’s past.
Bingo!
★★★☆☆ Energetic:
A musical about women at the bingo would seem a natural for a warm-hearted, reassuringly couthy comedy. Instead, Bingo! ends up as a much swearier, somewhat darker affair that provides entertainment but is let down by its structure.
Descent
★★★★☆ Passionate:
Powerful and shocking, Linda Duncan McLaughlin’s Descent at the Traverse’s lunchtime theatre season from A Play, A Pie and A Pint, grabs you with an intense passion that doesn’t ever hold back.
