Reviews
Cinderella
★★★★☆ A ball
Pared-down panto doesn’t mean squeezed entertainment as the Brunton Theatre’s annual family fun fest is staged at Loretto School this month.
Cinderella
★★★★☆ Heartwarming
Edinburgh People’s Theatre have been doing pantomimes for so many years that they would be forgiven for coasting, However, Cinderella at the Church Hill – despite some awkwardness in the script – is effervescent, joyful, and appealing to all ages.
A Christmas Carol
★★★★☆ Thoughtful
That most evergreen of Christmas stories – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens – is given a faithful, tuneful and carefully contemporary spin by Forth Act at Saint Salvador’s in Stenhouse.
Same Team – A Street Soccer Story
★★★★☆ Exhilarating
Same Team – A Street Soccer Story, the Traverse’s December production, may be short on tinsel – but in its thought-provoking and frequently exuberant nature, it is peculiarly apposite for the season.
Boris and Sergey’s Christmas Cabaret
★★☆☆☆ Puppets unstrung
Thirteen years on from their first production, the multi-talented Flabbergast Theatre are reviving their most successful and enduring creations, Balkan bad boys Boris and Sergey, for a show billed as their ‘very unique take on A Christmas Carol’ at Assembly Roxy.
Unicorn Christmas Party
★★★★☆ Boogie time!
It’s a big, glittering, retro disco time at the Studio Theatre, where Unicorns Luna and Melody call on their young (and not-so-young) audience to help save Christmas in Unicorn Christmas Party.
Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
★★★☆☆ Well-turned
Amidst the noise, rituals and trappings of pantomime and Christmas, Strawmoddie’s take on Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather provides a welcome parody of our seasonal excess, at the Pleasance Theatre to Sunday.
Alice in Pantoland
★★★★☆ Wonderful fun
Alice in Pantoland, from Balerno Theatre Company at the Church Hill, is a traditional pantomime experience crammed full of delights.
Mark Thomas in England & Son
★★★★☆ Ferocious
Mark Thomas’s performance in England & Son, allied to an unflinching piece of writing, has a rare intensity. The Fringe First winner is now on tour to the Traverse until Saturday.
Monty Panto and the 12(ish) Labours
★★★☆☆ Light-hearted fun
In Monty Panto and the 12(ish) Labours at the Bedlam, mixed messages purposefully run riot. While it is neither quite a panto nor yet a full tribute to Monty Python, it provides solid entertainment from beginning to end.
