Lyceum
Treasure Island
★★★★☆ Creative
Treasure Island, the Lyceum’s family Christmas show, is an enchanting production whose energy and visual invention compensate for the occasional mis-step.
A Streetcar Named Desire
★★★★☆ Taut
Originally staged at Pitlochry Festival Theatre in their 2023 summer season, this multi-layered production of A Streetcar Names Desire sets alight this classic tale of love, lust and betrayal set in a sultry New Orleans.
The Fifth Step (EIF)
★★★☆☆ Diffuse
The National Theatre of Scotland’s The Fifth Step at the Lyceum as part of the International Festival is a keenly observed and notably well acted piece that nevertheless lacks sustained impact.
Shirley Valentine
★★★★☆ Tour de force
Sally Reid’s performance lights up the Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s production of Shirley Valentine, touring to the Lyceum for a three week summer season.
Sunset Song
★★★☆☆ Well performed
Stage versions of Sunset Song seem to come around every couple of years, perhaps because no-one has managed to come up with the definitive adaptation yet. Dundee Rep’s new version (a co-production with the Lyceum) has great strengths as well as weaknesses.
Macbeth (an undoing)
★★★★☆ Compelling
Zinnie Harris’s much-garlanded adaptation of Shakespeare, Macbeth (an undoing), returns to the Lyceum subtly tweaked and all the better for it.
The Girls of Slender Means
★★★☆☆ Poignant
Gabriel Quigley’s adaptation of Muriel Spark’s The Girls of Slender Means for the Lyceum is an enjoyable and wonderfully acted piece of theatre, that does justice to its source’s substance if not its ambition.
Blue Beard
★★★★☆ Furiously funny
A riotous combination of anger and dizzying theatrical invention, Blue Beard at the Lyceum until the end of the month, is troubling and messy in exactly the right ways.
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.
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.
