Helen Goldie

Suddenly Last Summer
★★★☆☆ Well acted
Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group’s Suddenly Last Summer upstairs at the Roxy has excellent performances, but some less than ideal staging.

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.

Louder
Showcase: Most worthwhile
Framework Theatre’s Louder is a showcase for “semi-staged draft works of four brand new plays, all written & directed by early-career artists of marginalised genders.”

Copenhagen
★★★★☆ Stimulating and engaging
In Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen at the Assembly Roxy, Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group tackle a difficult, sometimes impenetrable, play with intelligence and skill.

The Merry Wives of Windsor/Holyrood
★★★☆☆ Shakespeare transported:
Let’s get one thing straight right away, EGTG’s show at the Royal Scots Club is not an expose of the fun and frolics of the female members of the Scottish parliament.

Skirt
★★★★☆ Challenging stereotypes:
Can women really have it all? is the question on everyone’s minds in Skirt, Claire Wood’s thought-provoking play for the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Company at the Royal Scots Club.

Titus Andronicus
✭✭✭✩✩ There will be blood:
Bloody, nasty and noisy, the Grads’s production of Titus Andronicus at the Assembly Roxy has all of the ingredients of a memorable shocker but it is let down by some confused moments and a surprising politeness.

Festen
✭✭✭✭✩ Dark matters:
There is a fierce intensity to the Grads’ Festen at Adam House, in a consistently strong production that crackles with energy.

August: Osage County
★★★☆☆ Brave attempt
Some excellent performances and high production values give The Grads’ production of August: Osage County interest and a degree of merit, but overall it can only be seen as a qualified success.