Dundee Rep
Sunset Song
★★★☆☆ Well performed
Stage versions of Sunset Song seem to come around every couple of years, perhaps because no-one has managed to come up with the definitive adaptation yet. Dundee Rep’s new version (a co-production with the Lyceum) has great strengths as well as weaknesses.
The Grand Old Opera House Hotel
★★★★☆ Marvellous mayhem
Isobel McArthur strikes again with The Grand Old Opera House Hotel, a wonderfully written fusion of farce and opera running the full length of the fringe.
Disappearing Act
Scottish producing theatre in existential danger
Scotland’s producing theatre sector, which includes the Traverse and the Lyceum, is in imminent danger of collapse unless it can take collective action on a number of different fronts, according to a major new report.
Online Xmas Viewing
Shows to see if your panto is cancelled
Covid has caused nearly all theatre in Scotland to be cancelled, but Dundee Rep, the Gaiety Ayr and the Edinburgh Lyceum theatres have made online versions of their Christmas shows available to the public.
Smile
★★★☆☆ Sympathetic
Smile, Dundee Rep’s football-themed online offering, transfers to the screen to provide a satisfactory record of 2020’s successful play about the legendary Jim McLean.
Oor Wullie
★★★☆☆ Sparky:
Oor Wullie, the touring musical from Selladoor, Dundee Rep and DC Thomson has moments of comic brilliance. However, it never quite coheres into a wholly convincing story.
Quinn cast as Wullie
Cast announced for Oor Wullie tour to King’s:
Full casting has been announced for the world premiere production of Oor Wullie, coming to the Edinburgh King’s in January 2020, with Martin Quinn taking on the iconic lead role.
Oor Wullie for King’s
New musical set for Scottish tour:
A new musical based on DC Thomson’s comic strip Oor Wullie will tour to the Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre in January 2020.
The Dark Carnival
★★★☆☆ Striking:
In The Dark Carnival, Vanishing Point has crafted a strangely fascinating but oddly frustrating entertainment – theatre-cum-gig-cum-cabaret that impresses in fits and starts.
The Last Queen of Scotland
★★★☆☆ Urgent:
There is undeniable promise in The Last Queen of Scotland. It is told in a voice largely absent from the stage, and presents a story which seems to have been largely forgotten, but remains desperately contemporary in so many ways.
