Preview & Listings to Sun 2 Feb 2025

Jan 29 2025 | By | Reply More

What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?

It’s a week of properly great productions – with a trio of shows, the like we are not often privileged to see on Edinburgh’s stages, and the best news is that two of them are here to Feb 15.

The third, and pick of the week, is We Will Hear the Angels at the Fruitmarket (ends Thurs 6 Feb: tickets), Magnetic North’s extraordinary reflection on melancholy using movement, video, speech and music. It is a profound and uplifting piece which deserves your attention. Read Allan’s review (★★★★☆ Intense)and get your ticket before they sell out!

Apphia Campbell in We Will Hear the Angels. Pic Jassy Earl

Before we get to the big established shows, it’s well worth giving a look at the roots of where the future might lie. So welcome back BedFest, the EUTC’s festival of theatre at Bedlam (Wed 29 – Sat 1: tickets).

“This year’s programme features all original writing, with a mix of debut scriptwriters and students in our university’s playwriting masters program,” programmer Em Leites McPherson told Æ for our BedFest 2025 preview and listings here. “As well as standard plays and workshops, we deliberately sought out ideas which challenged the standard show experience, and brought something new to the festival.”

The biggies

So to the biggies, then. No apologies, but that is a pair of five star smashers. First up, the return of Cameron Mackintosh’s Mary Poppins to the Festival Theatre (ends Sat 15 Feb: tickets) sees the production as good as it ever was.

Possibly even better, according to our reviewer Rebecca Mahar (★★★★★ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious), thanks to Australian stars Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers reprising their roles as Mary Poppins and Bert. Jones is a particularly nuanced Poppins in a show that twinkles on its toes, under Chambers’ lead.

Jack Chambers (Bert), Charlie-Donald (Michael Banks), Florence Swann (Jane Banks), Sharon Wattis (Miss Corry/Miss Smythe) and Company in Mary Poppins. Pic Danny Kaan.

At the other end of the theatrical spectrum, New York company Theatre for a New Audience, bring a quite astounding take on The Merchant of Venice to the Lyceum (ends Sat 15 Feb: tickets) as the return leg of the two theatre’s Shakespeare Exchange. New York got Zinnie Harris’s Macbeth (an undoing), we get Arin Arbus’s unflinching 2022 Merchant.

We also get leading Black Shakespearean actor John Douglas Thompson, who, according to Rebecca’s review (★★★★★ Unflinching) is “incomparable” as Shylock, in what is not an easy watch, but one which is compelling, deep and very much worthy of your time and effort in seeking out.

As Rebecca says: “One of only a few Black actors who have been afforded the opportunity to play this role, he (Thomson) deeply and deliberately imbues Shylock with the experience of a Black man in America, layering subtleties into an already complex role.” The review is one of the longest we have ever published, but it is a great coffee-time read.

Elsewhere there is much rejoicing that, despite the best efforts of Storm Éowyn, the special preview performance of Michael Scott’s concert parody Three Queens from the Opera at Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre was not cancelled, but postponed a week (Fri: details).

postponed

If you fancy a bit of pre-communism Chinese culture then rush now to get tickets for Shen Yun at the Playhouse (Fri/Sat: tickets). Last we looked there were 16 seats left on Friday evening, 29 on Saturday evening and a solitary one for the Saturday matinee.

However it is already too late for balletLORENT’s The Velveteen Rabbit at the Studio (Sat: details), which has already sold out.

Listings

Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site.

Bedlam Theatre
11B Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ.
Bedfest 2025
Wed 29 Jan – Sat 1 Feb 2025
Various times.
See Æ listing & preview: BedFest 2025
EUTC with their annual theatre festival, including performances and workshops, open to both students and members of the public. Book here.

Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Mary Poppins
Wed 22 Jan – Sat 15 Feb 2025
Evening: 7.30pm.
Æ review: ★★★★★ Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Cameron Mackintosh and Disney’s spectacular production of the classic multi-award-winning musical arrives in Edinburgh with acclaimed Australian stars, Stefanie Jones and Jack Chambers reprising their roles as Mary Poppins and Bert. Book here.

Fruitmarket
45 Market Street, Edinburgh EH1 1DF
We Will Hear The Angels (Magnetic North)
Fri 24 Jan – Thurs 6 Feb 2025
Daily (not Sun/Mon): 7pm.
Æ report of 2022 Work-in-Progress is here.
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Intense
Taking its title from Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, this explores the loneliness of heartbreak through four characters who find themselves telling their stories to the enigmatic Lou. What becomes of the broken-hearted? They find healing through the sublime power of music. Book here.

Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre
1a Clark Road, EH5 3BD.

Three Queens from the Opera (Michael Scott)
Fri 31 Jan 2025
One performance: 8pm.
Three right royal characters from the Opera come together to present a concert that is not altogether harmonious and goes wrong from the start. A special preview performance of Michael Scott’s opera concert parody – a light and sparkling burlesque to brighten up a winter night! NB Production postponed from Friday 24 January 2025. Tickets £5 on the door.

Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.

An Evening with: Jackie Kay 
An “Evening with…” fundraiser.
Mon 27 Jan 2025

One show: 7.30pm.
Poet, dramatist, writer and former Makar, Jackie Kay, joins The Lyceum for an evening exploring her writing and career in aid of the theatre. Bring your questions for the interactive Q&A session that will follow.  Book here.

The Merchant of Venice
The Theatre for a New Audience production.
Sat 18 Jan – Sat 15 Feb 2025

Daily (not Sun/Mon): 7.30pm. Wed, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Æ review: ★★★★★ Unflinching
Shakespeare’s perennially contested play about corrosive bigotry and blinding vengeance is poised at the radioactive intersection of race, class and religion in Arin Arbus’s production. Book here.

Connor Burns: 1994
Live stand-up comedy.
Sun 2 Feb 2025

Daily (not Mon): 7.30pm. Wed, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
From one of the most exciting emerging new stars in the UK’s live stand-up scene,1994 is Edinburgh native’s Connor Burns third solo hour. A prolific joke writer, his Scottish-level cynicism and self-deprecation punctuates a disarmingly relaxed persona and an intelligent, razor-sharp wit. Book here.

Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Shen Yun
Fri 31 Jan – Sat 1 Feb 2025
Fri/Sat: 7pm; Sat mat: 2pm.
Exquisite beauty from the heavens, profound wisdom from dynasties past, timeless legends, and ethnic traditions all spring to life through classical Chinese dance, enchanting live orchestral music, authentic costumes, and patented interactive backdrops. Book here.

Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
The Velveteen Rabbit (balletLORENT)
Sat 1 Feb 2025 
Two shows: 11am & 2pm.
Toys come to life through the magic of storytelling, music, and dance. A toy rabbit and a boy embark on an adventure about growing up and the meaning of love. Inspired by Margery Williams’ tale. Book here.

*NB: This is intended to be a complete listing of all public theatrical productions on in Edinburgh. If you are staging a show which is not listed, or a listing is inaccurate, please get in touch through the contact page, here.

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