EdFringe 2021
Jack Docherty – Nothing But
★★★★☆ Oddly serious
Jack Docherty – Nothing But in the Gilded Balloon Wine Bar showcases Fringe veteran Docherty, in a piece of deceptively serious dramatic monologue. It draws on his comic roots and showbiz history, but ends up delivering something more troubling and rewarding.
Slings and Arrows
★★★★☆ Hard hitting
There is raw emotion on display in Slings and Arrows, a disabled led dram from Raised Voices at theSpace@ Surgeons Hall – but there is also humour, stagecraft and real hope.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
★★★★☆ Genuine
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is an enjoyable and convincing entertainment at Gilded Balloon Teviot and another convincing literary adaptation from Nigel Miles-Thomas and Fringe Management.
Hunt for Treasure Island
★★★☆☆ Novel hunt
In Hunt for Treasure Island, Not Cricket Productions return to the Fringe with an enjoyable romp of a treasure hunt round the New Town, seeking out the stolen manuscript of Robert Louis Stevenson’s latest novel.
SKANK
★★★★☆ Clever
SKANK at the Pleasance Courtyard is a thoroughly successful and engaging one-woman show that is smart, funny and unexpectedly touching.
Bytesize Theatre
★★★☆☆ Welcome
The lack of time to plan for live theatre at this year’s Fringe has not deterred the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group. Bytesize Theatre is a collection of three new plays presented on the online Fringe Player. The three pieces are not all equally impressive, but each has intriguing elements.
Afterparty
★★★★☆ Lairy
Packed with expletives and off-colour observations, Afterparty from New Celts Productions and F-Bomb Theatre at the theSpace’s Triplex theatre pulls no punches in its humorous but bitter-sweet story set in small town Scotland.
Press
★★★★☆ Sharply funny
Press in the Cabaret Bar at the Pleasance Courtyard is Black Bat Productions’ second production of this Fringe, and its second unqualified hit.
Catching Up
★★☆☆☆ Shapeless
There is an amorphous feel to Theatre Paradok’s Catching Up at Symposium Hall, as if what we are seeing has had one draft too few – or, more likely, several drafts too many.
Moonlight On Leith
★★★☆☆ Celebratory
Combining the quotidian and the lyrical, New Celts and REDCAP Theatre’s Moonlight On Leith at theSpace Triplex provides a touching portrait of assorted Leithers.
