Simon Wilkinson
Lyceum Christmas Tales IX – XII live
★★★★☆ Creative Joy
The final four stories in the Lyceum Christmas Tales, presented live from the theatre, put the seal on what has been an enterprise suffused with goodwill, invention, care and Christmas cheer.
Lyceum Christmas Tales V – VIII
★★★★☆ Fresh
The last four of the pre-recorded Lyceum Christmas Tales provide another helping of laughter, reflection and hope.
Lyceum Christmas Tales I-IV
★★★★☆ Tasty selection
With festive theatre lacking like so much in 2020, the Lyceum’s online Christmas Tales go along way towards compensating.
Seats Up at the Lyceum
Installation celebrates Scotland’s missing theatre:
The foyer of the Royal Lyceum has become the set of #TakeASeat, with freelance theatre designers creating a tableaux of empty seats to mark the loss of theatre during the Covid pandemic.
The Dark Carnival
★★★☆☆ Striking:
In The Dark Carnival, Vanishing Point has crafted a strangely fascinating but oddly frustrating entertainment – theatre-cum-gig-cum-cabaret that impresses in fits and starts.
Our Fathers
★★★☆☆ Charming:
Our Fathers at the Traverse has a great deal of talent behind it. The end result is amusing and entertaining but ultimately somewhat too frothy.
Flight
★★★★★ Masterful
Vox Motus’ Flight is an emotional and powerful work of art – an experience like no other that stays with you long after leaving Edinburgh’s Church Hill Theatre.
Meet Me at Dawn
★★★★☆ Mythic emotion:
Meet Me At Dawn, a new play by Zinnie Harris presented by the EIF at the Traverse, is a sombre but beautifully open-hearted depiction of love, loss and regret.
Glory on Earth
★★★☆☆ Accomplished:
Extreme care has been lavished on the Lyceum’s Glory on Earth. It has a clarity to its storytelling and performances, backed up by some excellent staging, but never engages the heart or mind as fully as it promises.
Black Beauty
★★★★☆ Humorously inventive:
Black Beauty, the Traverse’s show for all ages this Christmas co-produced with Red Bridge, is a million miles from a straight adaptation of the children’s classic but provides more than enough fun for everyone.
