Reviews
The Enormous Christmas Turnip
★★★★☆ Enormously inventive
Pun-packed and full of playfulness, The Enormous Christmas Turnip from Scottish Theatre Producers, hops into the Studio theatre with its young audience very much in mind.
Jamie and the Unicorn online
★★★★☆ Streaming good fun
The brand new pantomime Jamie and the Unicorn at the Gaiety Theatre in Ayr, hits all the big pantomime tropes – and hits them bang on – with a live performance that makes a smooth transfer to online viewing.
White Christmas
★★★★☆ Big and bright
The Curve Theatre’s big touring production of White Christmas brightens the Playhouse stage like a clear sky after a night fall of snow, bringing both warmth and crisp definition in its wake.
WILF
★★★☆☆ Encouragingly filthy
There is a pleasingly unruly feel to James Ley’s new play WILF, this year’s seasonably unseasonal offering from the Traverse. Full of heart, not to mention dialogue that would have given the Lord Chamberlain palpitations, it overcomes structural difficulties to produce a successful whole.
Hansel and Gretel
★★★★☆ Sweet treat
It’s back! Oh yes it is. After Covid sent the 2020 Brunton panto online, the regulars are once more live on stage before a very appreciative audience. Hansel and Gretel brings festive fun back to Musselburgh, bigger and better than ever.
Christmas Dinner
★★★★☆ Touchingly funny
Christmas Dinner may be something of a stopgap as this year’s Lyceum show, but it proves a success in its own right. Amusing, energetic, and wearing its considerable profundity lightly, it should appeal to the widest possible audience.
Heathers The Musical
★★★★☆ Magnificent mean girls
When a beloved film turns stage musical, you can bet that the original’s best-remembered line will become a song. Not Heathers, whose most-quoted piece of dialogue involves, shall we say, the recreational use of a chainsaw.
The Nutcracker
★★★★☆ Seasonal feast
Scottish Ballet’s much-loved version of Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is back at the Festival Theatre over Christmas. This time round, it seems reinvigorated and remarkably fresh.
20 Minutes of Action
★★★★☆ Unflinching case-study
Pollyanna Esse’s powerful piece of verbatim theatre about horrific real-life events in Stanford University in 2015 gets a welcome second outing at the Assembly Roxy this week, after premiering at Bedlam two years ago.
Sleeping Beauty
★★★★☆ Comforting
Familiar routines, eye-catching gimmicks and cheeky swagger are naturally present in Sleeping Beauty, this year’s pantomime at the King’s. And if something is unsurprisingly missing, it does pretty well in making up for it.
