Author: Hugh Simpson
PPP: Bread & Breakfast
★★☆☆☆ Spirited performances
Bread & Breakfast by Kirsty Halliday, this week’s Play, Pie and a Pint at the Traverse, moves away from the usual monologue or two-handed fare into the honourable tradition of misunderstandings, falling over and sticking your foot in a bucket.
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
★★★★☆ Fizzing
Peter Pan Goes Wrong, at the Playhouse until Saturday, can – much like its title character – apparently never get old. Instead, it remains fresh, funny and great fun on almost every level.
PPP: JACK
★★★☆☆ Promising
Jack by Liam Moffat, the first offering from A Play, A Pie and a Pint in 2024 at the Traverse, is a charmingly exuberant production.
Two Sisters
★★★☆☆ Wistful
Two Sisters at the Lyceum until the beginning of March, is a touching and well-observed piece that is ultimately too diffuse.
Guys and Dolls
★★★★☆ Exuberant
Visually and aurally impressive, Edinburgh University Footlights’ production of Guys and Dolls at the Pleasance is buoyant and extremely enjoyable.
Many Good Men
★★★★☆ Troubling
Many Good Men, from Civic Digits, Stellar Quines and Stories Untold at Heart of Midlothian’s Tynecastle Stadium, is an urgent and timely production, hard-hitting yet sympathetic.
The Taming of the Shrew
★★★★☆ Lively
Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company’s production of The Taming of the Shrew at the Pleasance is a witty and intelligent take on an endlessly troubling play.
Jekyll & Hyde
★★★★☆ Atmospheric
The Lyceum’s presentation of the Reading Rep Theatre production of Jekyll and Hyde features an ingenious adaptation by Gary McNair and a powerful performance by Forbes Masson.
Cinderella
★★★★☆ Heartwarming
Edinburgh People’s Theatre have been doing pantomimes for so many years that they would be forgiven for coasting, However, Cinderella at the Church Hill – despite some awkwardness in the script – is effervescent, joyful, and appealing to all ages.
A Christmas Carol
★★★★☆ Thoughtful
That most evergreen of Christmas stories – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – is given a faithful, tuneful and carefully contemporary spin by Forth Act at Saint Salvador’s in Stenhouse.
