Reviews
Babes in the Wood
★★★★☆ Fantastic fun
If you are hankering for a proper family panto after missing out in recent years, you could hardly do better than Edinburgh People’s Theatre’s Babes in the Wood, at the Church Hill until Sunday 18th December.
Once Upon a Snowstorm
★★★★☆ Gently Engaging
Once Upon a Snowstorm at the Traverse is a gentle, snowy tale based on Richard Johnson’s picture book, adapted and directed by Jo Timmins, that totally engages its target audience of children aged 5 – 8 and their parents.
Beauty & the Beast: The Panto
★★★☆☆ Charming
Beauty & the Beast: The Panto, the Christmas offering from Forth Children’s Theatre, has the appeal of a traditional pantomime. Like many pantos, it lacks a little in subtlety and smoothness, but makes up for it in determination and pizzazz.
Spiderman: Into the Pantoverse
★★★☆☆ Cheerful
Complicated plot twists and uncomplicated fun collide in Spiderman: Into the Pantoverse, EUTC’s unruly but heartfelt pantomime which plays at the Bedlam to Saturday.
4Play
★★★☆☆ Comedy capers
Comedy is definitely a priority as the four members of Edinburgh playwright collective 4Play bring four pieces of new work to the Traverse stage, much to the delight of a capacity first night audience.
Cinderella
★★★☆☆ High Spirited
St Serf’s Players continue their successful panto collaboration with the Trinity Theatre Company for a Cinderella at Inverleith St Serf’s Church Hall that is gutsy and brisk in all the right ways.
Cinderella The Panto
★★★★☆ Melodious
Balerno Theatre Company’s Christmas show at the Church Hill is a treat for all ages. Cinderella The Panto is stuffed full of tunes, features some pleasingly old-school pantomime business and is performed with a great deal of heart.
Sinbad the Pantomime
★★★★☆ Sin-good
It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas as Sinbad sails into Musselburgh’s Brunton Theatre for the festive season. And with the Arabian Nights legend, played with gusto by Calum Barbour, comes a slew of familiar faces making up the supporting cast.
An Edinburgh Christmas Carol
★★★★☆ Timely
There is so much to commend in the return of An Edinburgh Christmas Carol to the Lyceum, where it runs through until December 31.
Cell Outs
★★★★☆ Searing
Cell Outs from Glasshouse Theatre follows two young, idealistic graduates who join a training scheme offering a postgraduate qualification and work experience in rehabilitation, hoping to have a positive impact and make a real change to the lives of prisoners.
