Caitlin Skinner
PPP: Detained
★★★★☆ Heartfelt
Detained, the final instalment in the Traverse’s autumn season of offerings from from Òran Mór’s Play, Pie and a Pint, is a thoughtful and incisive piece of theatre.
Through the Mud
★★★★☆ Emotionally resonant
A musical story of Black liberation, explored through the journeys of two generations of female activists in the United States, Apphia Campbell’s Through the Mud at Summerhall for the whole fringe, co-produced by Stellar Quines and Royal Lyceum Theatre, boldly and beautifully examines revolution.
Through The Mud
★★★★☆ Powerful
Review by Hugh Simpson
Through The Mud by Apphia Campbell at the Lyceum is a story of the struggle for civil rights in the USA in the face of racism. Its portrayal of the African American experience across the generations is both depressing and inspiring, told with craft and tunefulness.
PPP: Until It’s Gone
★★★☆☆ Thoughtful
Until It’s Gone, the first in the new Traverse season of Oran Mor’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint at the Traverse, is a downbeat, thoughtful work.
Sister Radio
★★★★☆ Silence speaks
Sister Radio arrives at the Traverse at the same time as anti-government protests in Iran, triggered by the death of a 22 year old woman arrested by Morality Police, enter their seventh week.
Book Festival Round-up
Theatre-interests at the Edinburgh International Book Festival
Although the main draw at the Book Festival for theatregoers is undoubtedly the magnetic This Is Memorial Device, there are also always plenty of other performances of interest.
A Brief History of the Fragile Male Ego
★★★☆☆ History reduced
Multi award-winning feminist theatre company Jordan & Skinner has reimagined its 2019 Edinburgh Fringe hit, A Brief History of the Fragile Male Ego, turning it into a zoom style lecture that is available for home streaming through various platforms throughout February.
Playing With Books – the Yellow Door
The last of this year’s Playing With Books events at the Book Festival was a singular piece. The Yellow Door was even more of a ‘work in progress’ than is usual for the strand as it is not yet even a book. I
Hindu Times
★★★☆☆ Fierce Originality:
Hindu Times – the latest audio offering from the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage – is a wildly original piece. Although cumbersome at times, it has a raucous energy that is frequently arresting.
Distance Remaining
★★★☆☆ Assured
There are some wonderful, and wonderfully human, performances in Distance Remaining. The three separate sections of the production ultimately fail to gel, but there is more than enough to sustain the interest.
