Listings: Mon 11 – Sun 17 April 2022
What’s on Edinburgh’s Stages This Week…
All Edinburgh’s major stages are in use this week with some brilliant productions on offer from the NTS at the King’s, Giles Terera at the Lyceum, the Goes Wrong stable at the Festival, Vanishing Point at Traverse (where PPP is in its final week) and the second week of Dreamgirls at Playhouse.
There is work off the stages too, notably with Hope Rises the Edinburgh Easter Play in Princes Street Gardens West on Easter Saturday in a performance which will be available to watch online, largely thanks to what has been learned during lockdown.
The Edinburgh Easter Play 2022 Launch in Princes Street Gardens. Pic: Colin Hattersley
The big show is undoubtedly from the National Theatre of Scotland with its sparkling new adaptation into a musical of Peter Mullan’s 1997 film Orphans (King’s Tue-Sat), about four grownup siblings coping with grief and each other on the night before their mother’s funeral.
If anyone can turn this darkly disturbing tale with its deep dive into Glasgow’s nightlife into a musical – while keeping the full-on, hallucinatory ultra-violence and the most industrial of Glaswegian vernacular – it is Cora Bissett.
The other most welcome arrival is to the Lyceum, in a co-production with the Bristol Old Vic, of Giles Terera’s The Meaning of Zong (Weds – Sat 24). The Hamilton star’s debut play is based on true events as it follows the story of Olaudah Equiano some 200 years ago,
Reading reports of a massacre aboard the slave ship Zong, where 132 Africans were thrown overboard, Equiano joined forces with anti-slavery campaigner Granville Sharp. Their public condemnation helped set in motion events which led to the abolition movement in the UK.
But Olaudah’s mission goes beyond the courtroom. Having bought his own freedom, he now faces a personal battle to rediscover his past and accept his true self.
“biggest and most daring”
Mischief’s Magic Goes Wrong (Festival Wed – Sat) was created with the help of magic legends Penn & Teller. Billed as the company’s “biggest and most daring” comedy catastrophe to date, the show follows a gang of hapless magicians as they stage an evening of grand illusion to raise cash for charity. What could possibly go wrong!
We reviewed Dreamgirls (Playhouse, ends Sat) last week: ★★★★☆ Enduring success. Staring Nicole Raquel Dennis as Effie, it is an extraordinary story with big, spine-tingling vocals and is going down very well with Edinburgh audiences by all accounts.
Strictly fans might like to be reminded that Johannes Radebe, a firm favourite among the professional dancers, is in town for one night only with Freedom (King’s, Sun). There are a few tickets left – but selling fast.
Vanishing Point take on Franz Kafka with The Metamorphosis (Traverse, Wed – Sat), about Gregor who wakes up one morning to discover he has turned into an insect. Adapter and director Matthew Lenton says: “The great power of the original story is that every reader imagines what the creature looks like. Kafka insisted that the creature should never be drawn or illustrated when the book was first published.
“If we know exactly what Gregor has become, or if we see it too clearly, it lets us off the hook. We can say, ‘oh that’s not me, it’s someone else’. But the insect could be you, the story is about every one of us and what could happen to any one of us. It asks us to imagine what that would be like.”
Listings
Click on the name of the show to go to its ticketing site.
Assembly Roxy
2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU
All or Nothing Cabaret
Tue 12 April 2022
Evening : 7pm (Roxy Central).
Following the postponement of the 2021 Christmas Cabaret the All or Nothing Student Cabaret is returning to Assembly Roxy to celebrate all that has been achieved over the past year in high flying style. Expect an evening full of moving moments, spectacular sights and breathtaking tricks! Book here.
Tam O’ Shanter and Other Tales
Fridays 15, 22 & 29 April 2022
Evenings: 7.30pm (Roxy Upstairs).
A comic celebration of the ‘Gothic’ poems of Robert Burns from Stolen Elephant Theatre who perform Tam O’ Shanter, Death and Dr Hornbook and Address to the Deil. Expect to encounter Witches and Death. Oh and the De’il himself of course. Book here.
The Brunton
Ladywell Way, Musselburgh EH21 6AA. Phone booking: 0131 665 2240
Stories Just in Case (Puppet Animation Festival)
Wed 13 April 2022
Matinee: 2pm (Venue 2) (45 mins)
Clydebuilt Puppet Theatre with a quartet of stories, including The Forgotten Treasure where a man finds a blue flower, then treasure and ‘forgets what the real treasure is’, The Ungrateful Crocodile about the crocodile that is rescued and then tries to eat its rescuer and traditional Scottish tale The Mermaid and The Fiddle Player. Book here.
Flotsam & Jetsam (Puppet Animation Festival)
S
at 16 April 2022
Matinee: 2pm (Theatre) (50 mins)
Lempen Theatre with a hopeful, adventure story about two very different creatures that must learn to work together. Visual theatre with original music and delightful puppetry: Flotsam is soft, flexible, laid back. She slides and glides through life on the ice. Jetsam’s insectile body is stiff and nervy, alert and watchful, suspicious of all in his forest home. And then comes the weather… Book here.
Abbamania
Sat 16 April 2022
Evening: 7.30pm (Venue 1).
Europe’s leading Abba tribute band continue to entertain audiences with their outstanding vocals and musical performance live on stage with a sensational two hour show featuring record breaking and timeless hits which will have you dancing in the aisles. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Magic Goes Wrong
Wed 13 – Sat 16 April 2022
Evenings 7.30pm; Mats Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm.
Back with their biggest comedy catastrophe to date, multi award-winning Mischief (The Play That Goes Wrong, BBC One’s The Goes Wrong Show) return to the stage with their hilarious new show created with magic legends, Penn & Teller..Book here.
King’s Theatre
2 Leven Street EH3 9LQ. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Orphans
Tue 12 – Sat 16 April 2022
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats Weds, Sat: 2.30pm.
Glasgow, 1998, one hell of a storm is ripping through the city. The Flynn siblings just need to survive the night and make it to their mother’s funeral in the morning. Cora Bissett directs this darkly comic nedw musical about family, grief and forgiveness based on Peter Mullan’s 1997 movie. Book here.
Johannes Radebe: Freedom
Sunday 17 April 2022
Evening: 7.30pm.
TV dancing sensation and international champion Johannes Radebe presents his first UK Tour. The show is a celebration of music and dance, from African fusion to fiery Latin, classic dance arrangements and huge party anthems, with a company of exciting dancers. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
The Meaning of Zong
by Giles Terera
A Bristol Old Vic production in association with The Royal Lyceum
13 – 24 April 2022
Following the aftermath of the massacre of slaves aboard ship Zong, The Meaning of Zong boldy interrogates the impact of the subsequent court case which, for the first time, considered the fiscal cost of a human life, and resulted in the galvanisation of the abolition movement in the UK. Tickets and Details.
Online
On a screen in your own home
Hope Rises – The Edinburgh Easter Play
Saturday 16 April 2022
One performance, streamed live from 2pm.
This year’s Easter Play, Hope Rises, will be live streamed from Princes Street Gardens. See full listing below. Live stream details here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Dreamgirls
Tue 5 – Sat 16 April 2022
Mon – Sat: 7.30; Mats Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm.
See Æ review: ★★★★☆ Enduring success.
Meet The Dreams – Effie, Lorrell and Deena – three talented young singers in the turbulent 1960s, a revolutionary time in American music history. Staring Nicole Raquel Dennis as Effie in an extraordinary story with unforgettable, spine-tingling vocals that send audiences wild. Book here.
Marti Pellow – Greatest Hits Tour
Sunday 17 April 2022.
Evening: 7pm.
You spoke and Marti listened. The brand new Greatest Hits tour is about finally being able to come together to celebrate love, life, and remember those we may have lost along the way. Most of all, it’s about enjoyment and celebrating the here and now. Get your dancing shoes on – it’s time to party with Marti! Book here.
Princes Street Gardens (West)
West Gardens, Princes St. EH2 2HG
Hope Rises – The Edinburgh Easter Play
Saturday 16 April 2022
One performance: 2pm.
A group of displaced people arrive in a new country. They have nothing – except their stories. Stories of encounters with a remarkable person who changed everything. His name was Jesus. He gave them hope. This year’s Easter Play has taken on a powerful contemporary resonance. Details here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404
A Play, A Pie And A Pint: My Doric Diary
Tue 12 – Sat 16 April 2022
Daily, 1pm (Trav 2)
By AyeTunes! [Katie Barnett & Jamie Siggens]. It’s December 31st in Fraserburgh, Aberdeenshire, and Daisy has disappeared down memory lane again. Obsessed with what could have been, Daisy is suddenly given the opportunity of a lifetime – to go back. A Doric jukebox musical about what it means to love and let go. Book here.
Fault Lines
Tue 19 April 2022
Evening: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
A fashion show on the fracture between feminism and fabric. A catwalk which takes you from Haute Couture to bargain bin, from big beats to near silence. Five women come together in a celebration of difference. They dance, they walk… Susan Sontag meets America’s Next Top Model. Book here.
The Metamorphosis
Wed 13 – Sat 16 April 2022
Evening: 7.30pm.
The story of an ordinary man who wakes up one morning to find he has been transformed into a giant insect. Soon he begins to realise he’s got bigger problems than being late for work. His family, shocked by his bizarre condition, barricade him into his room, unwilling to accept that somewhere inside this behemoth of a bug is their son. Vanishing Point take on Franz Kafka. Book here.
ENDS
