Review
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
★★★★☆ Powerful
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, from Leitheatre at the Church Hill, is a complex piece of pitch-black satire discharged with skill.
Hansel and Gretel
★★★☆☆ Refreshing
What larks are to be had up at the Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre this week, where the St Serf’s Players are staging Norman Robbins’s pantomime adaptation of Hansel and Gretel.
The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan
★★★★☆ Highflying
The Pantomime Adventures of Peter Pan turns out to be about 98% pantomime and 2% Peter Pan, but is tremendous fun nevertheless.
A Christmas Carol
★★★★☆ Splendidly seasonal
Guy Masterson’s A Christmas Carol is a splendidly seasonal production of Charles Dickens’ classic tale of greed and redemption in a world of extremes of wealth and poverty, playing at the Roxy until Friday.
The Snow Queen
★★★★☆ Epic
The Snow Queen at the Lyceum provides thrills, humour and imaginative theatricality. Morna Young’s adaptation (directed by Cora Bissett, with music by Finn Anderson) could not be staged in 2020 for obvious reasons.
No Spray No Lay
Work in Progress
What a piece of fun is to be had with No Spray No Lay, a new musical staged as a work-in-progress in the decidedly fringe-flavoured lower hall of the Augustine United Church for four performances only.
A Trilogy of Comedies
★★★★☆ Celebratory
The Trilogy of Comedies, presented by Saughtonhall Drama Group at Saughtonhall United Reformed Church to mark their 75th anniversary, provide geniality, stagecraft and much laughter.
Edinburgh Gang Show 2023
★★★★☆ Riding high
Boasting a cast of (nearly) thousands and as much entertainment as you could wish for, the Edinburgh Gang Show 2023 hits the odd wrong note but in the end its sheer momentum brooks no argument.
Ghosts of North Leith
★★★★☆ A haunting tale
Following a trial reading at Leith Festival earlier this year, the Ghosts of North Leith have been brought home in Citadel Arts Group’s production, which returns them to the church near by the cemetery where they are buried.
Elegies
★★★★☆ Evocative and relevant
The Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland’s dance adaptation of Hamish Henderson’s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica is an evocative piece of theatre that is particularly relevant to our troubled world, despite being published in 1948.
