Listings & preview Mon 26 Feb – Sun 3 Mar 2024
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
There’s plenty going on this week. The debut play from Edinburgh’s Liam Moffat kicks off the new season of lunchtime theatre at the Traverse with JACK (tickets); there’s theatrical comedy at the Playhouse with Peter Pan Goes Wrong (tickets); and musical mystery at the Portobello Town Hall with MAMA’s 24 Hour Musical Challenge (tickets).
It’s also a last chance to see Two Sisters at the Lyceum (tickets), the first chance to see Hamilton at the Festival Theatre (tickets) and your only chance to see 35mm: A Musical Exhibition at the Bedlam (tickets), experimental dance Listen to the Forest at the Roxy(tickets) and Peak Stuff at the Traverse again (tickets).
The Flyer for MAMA’s mystery show
The big local event is MAMA’s 24 Hour Musical Challenge at the Portobello Town Hall (Sat only: tickets). Really looking forward to this one which is also a fundraiser for the company after the continued closure of the Brunton due to crumbling concrete.
The cast of MAMA will be setting up camp in Portobello Town Hall on Friday when they will finally be told what show they will be performing on Saturday evening. Giving them 24 hours to cast, learn, rehearse and stage a full musical show before performing it to their paying audience.
Everyone involved with MAMA – that’s Musselburgh Amateur Musicals Association – has been preparing for this night since before Christmas. Not just the performers, but production team, technical team and FoH.
It’s been all about learning techniques to learn lines quickly, working out processes to learn the dance , music and complete costume fittings. They now have their kit list for their sleepover at the Theatre and are ready to learn what they will be performing, which will be revealed live on Facebook on Friday.
Shauna Macdonald in Two Sisters. Pic: Jess Shurte.
Elsewhere, Two Sisters (Tue – Sat: tickets) is getting good noises from many, but not all. Hugh gave it a rather muted “★★★☆☆ Wistful” thinking it too long. But it has a good wodge of four star reviews to put on the posters, so no doubt worth seeing.
The students of the EUTC have an interesting show at the Bedlam with Ryan Scott Oliver’s 2012 show 35mm: A Musical Exhibition (Wed – Sat: tickets), a woven mix of musical, photography exhibition and rock concert, using photographs by Matthew Murphy to create musical numbers. Director Freya Game’s version is “staged in a slick, blood-red purgatory, where performers evaluate the meaning of life and love when faced with death and familiar horror”.
Listen to the Forest (Fri/Sat: tickets) which gets two preview performances at the Roxy is a “transformative journey into the heart of nature’s voice” according to choreographer Valeria Levi. It endeavours to “embody the collective perspective of forests worldwide, echoing their struggles amid human exploitation.”
Levi invites audiences to “rediscover the profound connection between breathing and the untold stories of the Forest within ourselves”. At its core, this is a call to action – a plea for environmental consciousness and introspection.
A scene from Peter Pan Goes Wrong at the Playhouse. Pic: Pamela Raith Photography.
Little needs said of Peter Pan Goes Wrong from Mischief Theatre, the stage version of their hilarious TV show, which gets repeated viewing in our house. It’s been in town twice before at the King’s in 2015 (★★★★☆ Never Never stop laughing) and 2020 (★★★★☆ Nowt wrong). It now takes on the Playhouse (Tue – Sat: tickets).
Also with the biggies, the “room where it happens” arrives in Edinburgh on Wednesday, staying until April 27. This week there are a few seats available for Hamilton (Wed – Sat: tickets), mostly with limited view. And “few” really means that. Best availability is Friday with three pairs on sale as this is written. We’ll be at the press night next week.
The Traverse always has great demand for its A Play, A Pie and A Pint productions. This week’s JACK (Tue – Sat tickets) is the debut script from Edinburgh-based Liam Sinclair, directed by the Traverse’s AD, Gareth Nicholls.
Also at the Traverse is Peak Stuff (tickets) by Billie Collins produced by ThickSkin theatre. Alice is done with fast fashion. Ben can’t stop buying trainers. And Charlie just wants to sell out…one organ at a time. In an age of retail therapy, climate crisis and click and collect – how does our ‘stuff’ define us? And have we reached peak stuff?
Listings
Assembly Roxy
2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU
Listen to the Forest (Valeria Levi)
Fri 1 – Sat 2 March 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Sat Mat: 2.30pm. (Upstairs)
An experimental dance performance blending movement together with spoken word, music and BSL but it is also much more than this: it is a space to explore our capacity of feeling and empathy for other life-forms through our connection with breathing. Book here.
Bedlam Theatre
11B Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ.
35mm: A Musical Exhibition (EUTC)
Wed 28 Feb – Sat 2 March 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm.
Ryan Scott Oliver’s show is a woven mix of musical, photography exhibition and rock concert, based on photographs by Matthew Murphy. This version is staged in a slick, blood-red purgatory, where performers evaluate the meaning of life and love when faced with death and familiar horror. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Hamilton
Wed 28 Feb – Sat 27 April 2024
Mon – Sat: 7.30pm; Matinees Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm (+Tue 3 April)
The story of America’s Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, an immigrant from the West Indies who became George Washington’s right-hand man during the Revolutionary War and helped shape the very foundations of the America we know today. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Two Sisters
By David Greig.
Sat 10 Feb – Sat 2 March 2024
Tue – Sat: 7pm; Mats Weds & Sat: 2pm.
Æ review: ★★★☆☆ Wistful
The story takes place over a single weekend as sisters Emma and Amy return to their childhood ‘paradise’, a seaside caravan park. Yet, the park has changed, and their childhood now seems a blurred memory as they delve into ‘adult things’; career anxieties and romantic complications. Lance, the DJ from back in the day, resurfaces teenage memories and reminds them how far, or not so far, they have come from their teenage selves. Book here.
In aid of The Lyceum: An Evening with Clare Balding
Mon 26 Feb 2024
Evening: 7.30pm.
The first of a series of fundraising ‘evening with’ events from the Lyceum. Award-winning writer and broadcaster Clare Balding CBE, who has been at the forefront of sports presentation since 1998, discuss the highlights of her career over seven Olympic Games and six Paralympic Games with actor and Podcast host Nicola Roy. Book here.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014
Peter Pan Goes Wrong
Tue 27 Feb – Sat 2 Mar 2024.
Evenings: 7.30pm; Weds, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Following their multi award-winning sell-out success with The Play That Goes Wrong and the BBC TV series The Goes Wrong Show, Mischief return with their riotous spin on a timeless classic, the West End smash hit Peter Pan Goes Wrong. Book here.
Portobello Town Hall
147-149 Portobello High St, Portobello EH15 1AF.
24 hour Musical Challenge (MAMA)
Sat 2 March 2024.
Evening: 7.30pm.
Musselburgh Amateur Musical Association are taking the 24 hour Musical Challenge. At 7.30pm on Friday 1 March they will learn the name of the musical – 24 hours later at 7.30pm on Saturday 2 March they will perform it, live, in front of an audience in Portobello Town Hall. Book here to see the result!
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404
Jack (PPP)
Tue 27 Feb – Sat 2 Mar 2024
Daily (not Wed): 1pm; Wed: 3pm (Trav 2)
It’s Christmas Day. Our protagonist is presented with a puppy from his boyfriend and he’s fuming. He never wanted this but how can you say no to a puppy? Slowly but surely the newly christened “Jack” wears down his resistance, until a tragic event sends him spiralling on a path of self-destruction with booze, hook-ups, and the Virgin Mary. Book here.
Peak Stuff
Fri 1/Sat 2 Mar 2024
Evenings: 7.30pm (Trav 1)
“I like having things. I like having lots of things. It reminds me that I’m… Y’know? A person.” Alice is done with fast fashion. Ben can’t stop buying trainers. And Charlie just wants to sell out…one organ at a time. In an age of retail therapy, climate crisis and click and collect – how does our ‘stuff’ define us? And have we reached peak stuff? Book here.
ENDS
