Susan Lowes
The Raven
✭✭✭✭✭ Perfect madness:
Searching for perfection, the Bawsoot Theatre Company gets pretty close in its cleverly crafted production of The Raven.
Death and the Maiden
✭✭✭✭✩ Painfully poignant:
Emotionally charged, Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group’s production of Death and a Maiden is poignant, gripping and full of pain.
The Witch of Edmonton
★★☆☆☆ Tragically complex:
Based on a Jacobean play written by William Rowley, Thomas Dekker and John Ford in 1621, the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group’s production of The Witch of Edmonton is a curious and intense tragi-comedy that confuses as much as it entertains.
Heartlands
✭✭✭✭✩ Heartwarming:
In a multi-layered and engaging performance, Urban Fox Theatre Company deliver a wonderfully warm and intimate insight into modern life and modern relationships.
The Bookbinder
✭✭✭✭✭ Beautiful craftsmanship:
A book is a beautiful thing, a story is a work of art, a fairytale is a thing of dreams. The Bookbinder is all of these – it’s a beautiful, articulate and inventive show that is as engaging as it is mysterious.
Spring Awakening
★★★★★ Cult classic:
Based on Frank Wedekind’s 1891 German play about repressed sexuality and its manifestations, Spring Awakening gets a a surprisingly refreshing production from MGA that mixes 19th century Germany with rock music. And does so exceptionally well.
Carousel
✭✭✭✩✩ Visually stunning:
Opera North’s production of Rodger and Hammerstein’s Carousel is a curious combination of drama, dance and song that on occasion both hits and misses the mark.
Il Trovatore
✭✭✭✭✩ Weighty drama:
Darkness and light are so intertwined, it is impossible to have one without the other. In SO’s Il Trovatore, love, hope and light burn even stronger when through the darker elements of humanity.
L’elisir d’amore
✭✭✭✩✩ Intoxicating talent:
Edinburgh Grand Opera’s version of L’elisir d’amore is a reduced arrangement, it’s cut in places and designed to suit the intimate Church Hill Theatre. That doesn’t mean that it cuts out any of the drama.
A View From The Bridge
★★★☆☆ Honourable:
A strange and mysterious 1950s New York is explored in the Touring Consortium Theatre Company’s take on Arthur Miller’s A View From the Bridge, but the production fails to completely convince.
