Jonathan Whiteside
Amadeus
★★★★☆ Intimate
Edinburgh-based Strawmoddie theatre company bring Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus to the Pianodrome in a powerful examination of the jealousy of mediocrity in the face of genius.
Going Postal
★★★★☆ First Class
Strawmoddie’s Going Postal, their fourth production of a Terry Pratchett novel adapted for the stage by Stephen Briggs, is delivered with all due care and attention to detail at the Pleasance Theatre to Sunday.
Conspiracy
★★★★★ Bureaucratic nightmare
Conspiracy, a co-production between Edinburgh-based grassroots companies Strawmoddie and RFT, is a chilling and almost obscenely mundane account of the Wannsee Conference, held in a Berlin suburb in January 1942.
Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather
★★★☆☆ Well-turned
Amidst the noise, rituals and trappings of pantomime and Christmas, Strawmoddie’s take on Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather provides a welcome parody of our seasonal excess, at the Pleasance Theatre to Sunday.
Hamlet / Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard
★★★☆☆ Pacy and ★★★★☆ Slick
New Edinburgh amateur company Necessary Cat make their debut performances for the last week only of the fringe with the elegantly twinned pairing of Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead.
Cadaver Synod
★★★☆☆ Gore of yore:
Cadaver Synod is an engaging historical comedy-horror from RFT at the Sweet Grassmarket that crosses boundaries of genre and taste with equal relish.
In Horror We Trust
Spookfest’s second scary sojourn:
The Edinburgh Horror Festival returns from this Friday evening, 27 October, with a five night frenzy of foul deeds and frightening theatrics in the lead up to Halloween on Tuesday.
Vichy Goings-On
★★★☆☆ Creative:
An effective original script carries Vichy Goings-On right the way through, giving it easy entertainment value at the Fringe. There are a few bumps along the way, but on the whole RFT deliver an engaging, likeable story with unique characters.
