Amateurs
Showcase 2024 – Something About This Night!
★★★★☆ Spectacular
Showcase 2024 – Something About This Night! provides the expected tuneful extravaganza, hugely reliable while appearing remarkably fresh.
Æ at the 2024 Summer Festivals
All Edinburgh Theatre’s coverage of the 2024 festivals
Edinburgh’s theatre makers excelled themselves this year, with over 180 theatre, musical theatre, children’s theatre and dance shows at the Fringe. Which is a wonderful testament to the theatre bones of the city.
The Kelpie, the Loch and the Water of Life
★★★☆☆ Radio fun
Arkle’s The Kelpie, the Loch and the Water of Life is an ideal mid-afternoon diversion for the last week of the Fringe.
Trial by Jury
★★★★☆ Spritely
Cat-Like Tread presents a spritely rendition of Gilbert & Sullivan’s one-act comic opera, Trial by Jury that entirely fulfils its brief: light, fun, and more than a little ridiculous.
Amy’s View
★★★☆☆ Slow-moving
The Makars’ production of Amy’s View, at the Royal Scots Club for the Fringe’s last week, is well staged and acted but never really ignites.
Around the World in 80 Days
★★★☆☆ Enjoyable
Arkle’s Around the World in 80 Days, at the Royal Scots Club in Fringe Week Two, is a straightforward piece of family-friendly theatre. Inventive and committed, it has its drawbacks, but is always fun.
Macbeth & Dunsinane
Macbeth: ★★★☆☆ Speedy
Dunsinane: ★★★★☆ Bloody
A Necessary Cat have done it again – bringing a powerful double helping of a Shakespeare starter and Shakespeare-adjacent main course to the Fringe in which the whole is better the sum of its parts.
How I Learned to Drive
★★★★☆ Difficult
How I Learned to Drive, from Arkle at the Royal Scots Club for the Fringe’s second week, is a challenging piece staged with due care and skill.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kind Of…!
★★★★☆ Clever fun
Shortened and adapted versions of Shakespeare have been the backbone of the Fringe for years, but there can have been few that feature such a large, well prepared and infectiously enthusiastic cast as Edinburgh Youth Theatre’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Kind Of…!
Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike
★★★☆☆ Stately
Edinburgh Theatre Arts’ Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike at St Ninian’s is a careful, intelligent production that is not always as funny as it might be.
