Niroshini Thambar
GUSH
★★★☆☆ Fine performance
The Traverse’s world premiere of GUSH by Jess Brodie is a considered piece of theatre, excellently performed.
Auntie Empire
★★★☆☆ Splenetic
Auntie Empire, at Summerhall for two nights as part of Manipulate, is a thoroughly dark piece of satirical clowning. It is deliberately messy and unfocused, but perhaps that lack of focus is ultimately a disadvantage.
Book Festival 2025 round-up: Two
Hawk plays Cutler and further stagecraft at the Futures Institute
The Book Festival’s strand of performance-related events has produced some notable successes this year. The biggest draw, and probably the biggest triumph, was Hamish Hawk’s Life in a Scotch Sitting Room Vol. 0.
The Bush
★★★★☆ Relevant
Based on true events, The Bush, written & performed by Alice Mary Cooper recreates 1970s Australia as a group of housewives fight a David and Goliath style campaign to prevent Kelly’s Bush, an area of land in Sydney, from being turned into a housing and shopping development.
This Is A Gift
★★★★★ Luminous
Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir’s Leith-based retelling of the Midas myth, performed solo by Blythe Jandoo, creeps into your heart and slowly squeezes it in a golden vice.
Death of a Salesman
★★★☆☆ Modern Tragedy
Arthur Miller’s enduring tragedy Death of a Salesman leaves no question of the play’s outcome in its title, or in this new production from Trafalgar Theatre Productions and Raw Material touring to the Festival Theatre.
The Brenda Line
★★★★☆ Warm
The Brenda Line by Harry Mould, from the Pitlochry Festival Theatre and playing in Traverse 2 for four performances only, is a clever, moving and beautifully pitched production.
Disciples
★★★★☆ Powerful
Disciples from Stellar Quines and the Traverse is an arresting piece of drama and movement, playing at the Traverse until Saturday and transferring to Newcastle ‘s Northern Stage in November.
PPP: Jinnistan
★★★★☆ Frightening
Jinnistan by Taqi Nazeer is the last in the current season at the Traverse of Oran Mor’s Play, Pie and a Pint. In many ways, they have saved the best till last.
Home is Not the Place
★★★☆☆ Enlightening
Annie George’s powerful solo show Home is Not the Place, at Summerhall TechCube 0 on odd days of the Fringe, follows her attempts to discover her identity through her ancestors.
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