Festival Theatre
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
★★★★☆ Star car
The car is, of course, the star in Southern Light Opera’s production of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang at the Festival Theatre all week, but it would be nothing without a tight and committed cast around it.
The Shawshank Redemption
★★★☆☆ Faithful retelling
The Shawshank Redemption at the Festival Theatre provides a dependable evening of cogent storytelling.
The Ocean at the End of the Lane
★★★★★ Breathtaking
Anyone with even a passing interest in fantasy should certainly go and see The Ocean at the End of the Lane at the Festival Theatre. As should anyone who has ever suffered loss, ever been a child, or who wants to see a theatrical production whose storytelling drive is matched by its extraordinary visual power.
Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty
★★★★☆ Enchanting
New Adventures’ magical production of Sleeping Beauty, at the Festival Theatre all week, tells the timeless tale of Princess Aurora with a modern gothic twist that has you hooked from the start.
Wish You Were Dead
★★☆☆☆ Lacks Grace
Two days after the latest series of Grace left our TV screens, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is back on stage in Edinburgh in Wish You Were Dead, Shaun McKenna’s sixth adaption of a Peter James novel.
Swan Lake
★★★★☆ Classically beautiful
Birmingham Royal Ballet’s traditional Swan Lake spellbinds its audience with Tchaikovsky’s iconic and emotive score performed live by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia, just as Odile spellbinds Prince Siegfried.
Peaky Blinders – the Redemption of Thomas Shelby
★★★★☆ Razor sharp
Festival Theatre: Tue 28 Feb – Sat 4 Mar 2023
Review by Suzanne O’Brien
Was there a need, desire or craving for a dance theatre version of hit TV show Peaky Blinders? Perhaps not. But Rambert Dance’s piece successfully plays on the show’s popularity to introduce new audiences to the world of dance.
The Yeomen of the Guard
★★★★☆ A classic with clarity
The good men and women of Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society do more than yeoman service as they present arguably the greatest Savoy opera at the Festival Theatre.
An Inspector Calls
★★★★☆ Searching
Stephen Daldry’s extraordinary production of JB Priestley’s classic play, An Inspector Calls, originally created for the English National Theatre, returns to Edinburgh this week and is no less powerful for being staged in the cavernous Festival Theatre.
Hey Duggee – the Live Theatre Show
★★★★☆ A-Woof!
Hey Duggee and the five Squirrels who are the regular attendees at his club house in the popular Cbeebies cartoon, rock up to the Festival Theatre with an almost pitch-perfect production for pre-school audiences.
