Kai Fischer
Plinth
★★★☆☆ Horrors of war
Writer and performer, Al Seed’s latest creation, Plinth, produced by his own company and Vanishing Point and touring to Manipulate, opens with Seed standing on a plinth giving a live rendition of a series of poses found in military statues.
Wake Up
★★★★☆ Audacious
Solar Bear’s triple bill of short plays, brought together under the title of Wake Up and playing for one night only at the Studio near the start of a Scottish tour, is a resounding and entertaining success.
Red Ellen
★★★☆☆ Diffuse
Red Ellen, at the Lyceum, co-produced with the Nottingham Playhouse and Northern Stage, suffers from many of the faults that affect biographical drama, and is far too long for its own good. Nevertheless, it has an abundance of compassion, and an excellent central performance from Bettrys Jones.
Life is a Dream
★★★★★ Glorious
The Lyceum’s Life is a Dream is a necessary and exquisite reminder of the possibilities of live theatre. Originally planned to end the 2019/20 season, this production has emerged into a completely changed world.
Dogstar Online
Taylor of Inverness first up for Vimeo On Demand:
Dogstar Theatre, the Highlands-based company with a European outlook, is to stream a filmed version of its international hit The Taylor of Inverness as the first show in a new paid-for online presence.
Mouthpiece
★★★☆☆ Political emotion:
There is much to admire about the staging of Mouthpiece at the Traverse, and even more about how it is acted. In the end, however, the play tantalises rather than delivers.
The Hour We Knew Nothing Of Each Other
★★★★☆ Contains multitudes:
Dizzying in its invention and almost ludicrously ambitious in scope, The Hour we Knew Nothing Of Each Other at the Lyceum is undoubtedly uneven but always intriguing.
Gut
★★★☆☆ Gut-wrenching:
There are moments in Gut – presented by the Traverse in association with the National Theatre of Scotland – where it is difficult to breathe, such is the power of Frances Poet’s psychological thriller. However, there are also stretches which are far less compelling, or even entirely convincing.
How to Disappear
★★★☆☆ Troubling comedy:
Morna Pearson’s new play How to Disappear, which is this year’s ‘alternative’ Traverse Christmas entertainment, definitely has its heart in the right place.
Tabula Rasa
★★☆☆☆ Disjointed:
Tabula Rasa at the Traverse is a collaboration between Scottish Ensemble and Vanishing Point that contains moments of heartfelt beauty but never coheres.
