Theatre
The Woman in Black
★★★★☆ Still so spooky
The Woman in Black – touring to the King’s yet again this week – retains all of its mysterious power to entrance and terrify.
Looking Good Dead
★★☆☆☆ Unfortunate
Subtle as a bulldozer and only sporadically gripping, Looking Good Dead, which is at the King’s all week, works on one level as undemanding entertainment, but is not exactly guaranteed to have the crowds flocking back to the theatres.
PPP: A New Life (A Mini Musical)
★★★☆☆ Emotional
A New Life (A Mini Musical) at the Traverse every lunchtime this week is certainly not ‘mini’ in its emotional scope or its ambition.
Groan Ups
★★★☆☆ Flat
While there is real energy and commitment in Mischief Theatre’s Groan Ups at the King’s, it is in the service of a script that probably doesn’t deserve such efforts.
PPP: Rose
★★★☆☆ Important
Rose, the latest in the new series of A Play, A Pie and A Pint, produced by Oran Mor in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and the Traverse, is an involving biographical sporting tale.
History
★★★★★ Outstanding
History by Roy Williams is not only the best so far of the offerings on the Lyceum and Pitlochry Festival Theatre’s Sound Stage audio platform, it must also have a claim to be the most essential of all the audio dramas provided by theatres in the last 18 months.
PPP: Celestial Body
★★★★☆ Brooding
The return of A Play, A Pie and A Pint to the Traverse with Morna Pearson’s Celestial Body, which runs to Saturday, is certainly something to celebrate.
Jack Docherty – Nothing But
★★★★☆ Oddly serious
Jack Docherty – Nothing But in the Gilded Balloon Wine Bar showcases Fringe veteran Docherty, in a piece of deceptively serious dramatic monologue. It draws on his comic roots and showbiz history, but ends up delivering something more troubling and rewarding.
Slings and Arrows
★★★★☆ Hard hitting
There is raw emotion on display in Slings and Arrows, a disabled led dram from Raised Voices at theSpace@ Surgeons Hall – but there is also humour, stagecraft and real hope.
The Return of Sherlock Holmes
★★★★☆ Genuine
The Return of Sherlock Holmes is an enjoyable and convincing entertainment at Gilded Balloon Teviot and another convincing literary adaptation from Nigel Miles-Thomas and Fringe Management.
