Theatre
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
★★★★☆ Powerful
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, from Leitheatre at the Church Hill, is a complex piece of pitch-black satire discharged with skill.
Hansel and Gretel
★★★☆☆ Refreshing
What larks are to be had up at the Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre this week, where the St Serf’s Players are staging Norman Robbins’s pantomime adaptation of Hansel and Gretel.
A Christmas Carol
★★★★☆ Splendidly seasonal
Guy Masterson’s A Christmas Carol is a splendidly seasonal production of Charles Dickens’ classic tale of greed and redemption in a world of extremes of wealth and poverty, playing at the Roxy until Friday.
Chalk
★★★★☆ Well observed
The UK premiere of Walt McGough’s Chalk from the Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group, upstairs at the Assembly Roxy, lacks a little in apocalyptic intensity – but convinces in its evocation of human relationships.
Apocalypse beyond the line
EGTG revive Walt McGough’s Chalk
Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group return this coming week with a revival of American playwright Walt McGough’s intense, 2015 sci-fi fable, Chalk, upstairs at the Assembly Roxy from Wed 8 to Sat 11 November 2023.
The Grandmothers Grimm
★★★★☆ Hallowe’en treat
Some Kind of Theatre’s bold feminist drama The Grandmothers Grimm explores the role of women in the creation of the Brothers Grimm’s famous anthology and acknowledges the unknown voices behind the tales.
A second night of Horror
The Devil in the Belfry: ★★★★☆ Turbo charged
Tarmac Lullaby: ★★★☆☆ Twisted
A second night at the Edinburgh Horror Festival reveals more supernatural goings on, this time in the Cinema Room with the new Tarmac Lullaby from Crested Fools and a returning piece The Devil in the Belfry from Brassica Theatre.
Battery Park
★★★★☆ Musically convincing
Battery Park, the touring production from Sleeping Warrior and the Beacon Arts Centre at the Traverse for two nights only, is a gripping and tuneful piece of theatre.
PPP: Disfunction
★★☆☆☆ Confusing
Disfunction by Kate Bowen and directed by Lu Kemp, the last in the Traverse’s current season of Òran Mór’s A Play, A Pie and A Pint, is a lively but ultimately puzzling piece.
Schism
★★★☆☆ Thoughtful
There is plenty to ponder in Alex Cook’s intriguing new play, Schism, for Broadsword theatre, which is staged in the bowels of Augustine United Church for four performances only, ending on Monday 23.
