Brian James O’Sullivan
PPP: The Last Cabaret on Earth
★★★★☆ Impressive
The Last Cabaret on Earth, by Brian James O’Sullivan at the Traverse, is the first in the new series of Play, Pie and a Pint from Òran Mór (with Ayr Gaiety) – and has an impact out of all proportion to its small scale.
Strange Town actor for West End Macbeth
David Tennant’s hit Macbeth transfers to Harold Pinter theatre
Edinburgh’s Strange Town theatre company and young acting agency has another West End star in its books as Raffi Phillips joins his fellow cast members in the transfer of the Donmar Warehouse’s Macbeth to the Harold Pinter theatre.
PPP: Meetings With The Monk
★★★★☆ Imaginative possibilities
Meetings With The Monk, the latest Play, Pie and a Pint from Òran Mór and the Traverse, is a beautifully considered and tremendously well-staged play.
The Stamping Ground
★★★★☆ Vibrant
The Stamping Ground at the Festival Theatre is unabashedly emotional and visually enthralling. Raw Material and Eden Court’s Runrig musical – which played successfully in Inverness in 2022 – is touring Scotland and will surely find appreciative audiences.
PPP: Oscar
★★★★☆ Perfectly formed
A funny, touching and tremendously acted musical, Oscar by Brian James O’Sullivan heralds the welcome return of Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint to the Traverse.
An Edinburgh Christmas Carol
★★★☆☆ Comedy overshadows pathos:
An Edinburgh Christmas Carol, the Lyceum’s Christmas re-invention of Dickens, is a full-on comic display that is undoubtedly pleasing despite apparently missing some important points.
PPP: Chic Murray: A Funny Place For A Window
★★★★☆ Fitting tribute:
As you might expect, there are plenty of laughs in Chic Murray: A Funny Place For A Window. What is less expected is a touching and beautifully acted love story.
Twelfth Night
★★★★☆ Kaleidoscopic:
Shifting emotions are filtered through autumnal sunlight in the Lyceum’s Twelfth Night, with as much defiant sadness on view as happy resolution.
PPP: McGonagall’s Chronicles
★★★★☆ Cheerful complexity:
Gary McNair’s McGonagall’s Chronicles, the first in the new series of A Play, A Pie and a Pint at the Traverse, is a winningly daffy confection. While it may not treat its subject entirely fairly, it does at least show him unusual sympathy.
The Arabian Nights
★★★★☆ Ravishing:
Beautiful to look at and clever enough to know when to be stupid, The Arabian Nights at the Lyceum is genuine family Christmas entertainment.
