Shakespeare

Twelfth Night
★★★☆☆ Droll
The Forth Act return to Saughton Park with another helping of outdoor Shakespeare, transporting the Illyria of Twelfth Night to a beach town in the summer of 1967.

Lear
★★★★★ Magnificent
Lear by Ramesh Meyyappan at the Traverse is a stunning piece of work – raw and delicate, disciplined and chaotic, frightening and beautiful.

Much Ado About Nothing
★★★☆☆ Energetic
The Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company’s Much Ado About Nothing at the Pleasance is a good-natured if uneven production.

The Merchant of Venice
★★★★★ Unflinching
Completing the inaugural outing of The Shakespeare Exchange, a partnership of the Lyceum with New York City-based Theatre for a New Audience, TFANA brings Arin Arbus’s unflinching production of The Merchant of Venice to Edinburgh.

& Juliet
★★★★☆ No woe
There’s no woe to this story of Juliet without her Romeo, as Shakespeare’s most famous heroine gets solo billing in the girl power musical & Juliet which hits the Playhouse this week.

After Shakespeare: Richard III
★★☆☆☆ Flat
Billed as a staunch defence of a man maligned by Shakespeare and history alike, After Shakespeare: Richard III from Slade Wolfe Enterprises Limited succeeds only in making a rather boring play out of what was an extraordinary life.

Shakespeare for Breakfast
★★★★☆ Feelgood start
This is the 32nd year that C Theatre has staged Shakespeare for Breakfast at the Fringe with its offer of early morning coffee, croissant and an irreverent hit of the bard.

Regina Vagina
★★★★★ Smash
Hosted by William “Shakey” Shakespeare Regina Vagina, a new historical comedy musical from Erstwhile Media, takes a satirical romp through the life of Elizabeth I, famously known as the Virgin Queen, and asks the all-important questions: But did she?

At Home With Will Shakespeare
★★★★★ Sans nothing
It’s a popular image of Shakespeare: the great Bard, bent over his desk, quill flying over parchment as he composes some of the greatest drama ever put on the stage. But in At Home With Will Shakespeare, Pip Utton’s Shakespeare does not write freely…

Panto Macbeth
★★★★★ Perfectly absurd
It’s panto. It’s Macbeth. It’s Panto Macbeth. What more do you want? The Mermaids Performing Arts Fund of St. Andrews University hurl a fifty-minute pantomime version of Shakespeare’s tragedy of Macbeth onto the Fringe stage, like a vulgar No-Fear Shakespeare crossed with traditional panto bits.