Scott Thomson

The Lady Vanishes
★★★☆☆ Magnificent hokum
The Lady Vanishes provides for an entertaining evening up at the Church Hill Theatre, where the Threepenny Theatricals draw on 1930s English sensibilities for this train-set period thriller.

The Hollow
★★★☆☆ Stately:
Huge care and attention has gone into the staging of Threepenny Theatricals’ version of Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. That care, however, does mean that there is a definite absence of energy in a production that never outstays its welcome but frequently threatens to.

The Sorcerer
★★★★☆ What larks:
For careful execution and straightforward fun, it is difficult to imagine many recent productions of Gilbert and Sullivan have beaten Cat-Like Tread’s The Sorcerer at Paradise in Augustines.

H.M.S. Pinafore
★★★☆☆ Shipshape:
There is a straightforward likeability to Cat Like Tread’s H.M.S. Pinafore that helps it to overcome some less confident moments.

The Pirates of Penzance
✭✭✭✭✩ Plenty of pizzazz:
Fun, games and top-notch singing abound in The Pirates of Penzance at the King’s. The Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society’s production is reassuringly traditional, very strong musically, and extremely funny.