Reviews
Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet
★★★★☆ Innovative dynamism
Quadrophenia, A Mod Ballet, at the Festival Theatre until Saturday, is no mere exercise in nostalgia, but a highly successful piece of dance.
Cutler tribute, McDermid play at BookFest 25
Hamish Hawk, Vanessa Redgrave at Edinburgh Futures Institute
The 2025 Edinburgh Book Festival – in its second year at Edinburgh Futures Institute – will feature the normal mix of theatre-adjacent events and other enticing attractions in its two week programme from Sat 9 to Sun 24 August.
Restless Natives: The Musical
★★★☆☆ Mixed bag
Restless Natives: The Musical, arriving at Leith Theatre, is decidedly mixed and often meandering. There is much to enjoy about a production that has considerable joy to it, but there are also long stretches that are far less convincing.
Lear
★★★★★ Magnificent
Lear by Ramesh Meyyappan at the Traverse is a stunning piece of work – raw and delicate, disciplined and chaotic, frightening and beautiful.
The Mountaintop
★★★★☆ Vital
The Lyceum’s production of The Mountaintop is an enthralling, beautifully performed examination of history and humanity.
Scottish Opera Double Bill
Trial by Jury – ★★★★☆ Absurd
A Matter of Misconduct! – ★★★★☆ Shrewd
Scottish Opera and the D’Oyly Carte Opera celebrate the 150th anniversary Gilbert & Sullivan’s partnership by pairing Trial By Jury with A Matter of Misconduct!, a new operetta commissioned in response to it.
The Merry Widow
★★★★★ Scintillating
Scottish Opera presents a scintillating new adaptation of Franz Lehár’s The Merry Widow at the Festival Theatre, bringing its setting into the twentieth century, and its sensibilities into the twenty-first.
They Came From Mars…
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable
They Came From Mars and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church Hall In Time for the Townswomen’s Guild’s Coffee Morning, performed by the St Serf’s Players at Inverleith St Serf’s, is a ludicrous and charming piece, even if it does not always completely come off.
The Watsons
★★★★☆ Intriguing
The Watsons, from Edinburgh People’s Theatre at the Church Hill, is an attractive production of a clever (if distinctly odd) literary adaptation.
Grown Ups
★★★★★ Silly
The Edinburgh International Children’s Festival opened at the Traverse with a very silly show indeed: Grown Ups, which is a primarily non verbal piece about what grown ups do when children aren’t around.
