Theatre :: Review 31 Oct 2008
Gareth K Vile: I question whether Tennessee Williams is always best served by southern American accents. Apart from the cast’s habit of losing the drawl, it detracts from the urgency of the language, covering the passion and degradation with a faded glamour and...
Theatre :: Review 21 Oct 2008
Gareth K Vile: Despite my enthusiasm for both Theatre Workshop’s agenda for social justice and Weiss’ aggressive, political script, this Marat/Sade is a shambolic disappointment. A play so engaged, so angry and so nihilistic needs more than the strong cen...
Theatre :: Review 20 Oct 2008
Michael Cox: Mary Poppins is that rare entity that one stumbles upon occasionally: an adaptation that equals, if not surpasses, the original source. The story follows Jane and Michael Banks, two spoilt children who, through the use of imagination and game-playing ...
Theatre :: Review 18 Oct 2008
Agata Maslowska: Linguistic and cultural disorientation makes up the core of the latest Traverse production, Cherry Blossom, co-produced with the Teatr Polski of Bydgoszcz. J?zykowa i kulturowa dezorientacja stanowi rdze? najnowszego przedstawienia Teatru Trave...
Theatre :: Review 05 Oct 2008
Gareth K Vile: Apart from an unsatisfying introduction, which attempts to act as an expressionist overture but ends up as vulgar mime with a burst of unnecessary nudity, this up-dating of Don Juan is sharply directed, well acted and concisely staged. Mark Springer&rs...
Theatre :: Review 04 Oct 2008
Gareth K Vile: Even the most powerful companies fail, on occasion. Needcompany are very powerful, and The Porcelain Project is, disappointingly, a failure. Even at under two hours, it is far too long, wandering around its point and undermining some restrained, elegan...
Theatre :: Review 26 Sep 2008
Gareth K Vile: The only fair way to consider the Arches Live! is as a block of events. The pricing structure makes it far more economical to see multiple shows and even the most jaded critic finds it hard to determine which performances will be the first shout of an ...
Theatre :: Review 23 Sep 2008
Mhairi Graham: Scottish Ballet pulled out all the stops in their Autumn triple bill, enrolling the best in choreography, music and costume. Opening the show was Steven Petriono’s Ride the Beast: dancers thrashed onto the stage, inviting the audience to, unusual...
Theatre :: Review 21 Sep 2008
Melissa Trachtenberg: There are no bells and whistles in Macbeth, opening this season of Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre. There are no clever tricks, no contemporary adaptations, no Brooklyn accents or tasers. It is a sincere production prioritizing the elements so intrinsical...
Theatre :: Review 14 Aug 2008
Agata Maslowska: There is something eerie about this one-woman show. While it is clear that The Gymnast attempts to explore the cruelty of the Cambodian civil war and its aftermath, the structure of the performance makes it quite incomprehensible. Frantic chases and ...
Theatre :: Review 11 Aug 2008
Agata Maslowska: 'Born. Consume. Be silent. Die.' This rather disturbing message opens the performance of Precarious company who fill the stage with a unique fusion of physical dance theatre and multimedia. Provocative and touching, The Factory is a dynamic commentary...
Theatre :: Review 10 Aug 2008
Gareth K Vile: The third of Dancebase’s mixed bills features a long work from Norway’s Odd Johan Fritzoe and a jittering remix from Rosie Kay. Both of these works display technical perfection, ferocious technique, edgy energy and relentless force: as a do...
Theatre :: Review 08 Aug 2008
Gareth K Vile: This is difficult one. On the one hand, it is exciting to see dance pulled clear of the studio and theatre, thrust into new spaces and engaging with a surprised public. On the other, there is a sense that Enclosure 44 is something of an in-joke: certai...
Theatre :: Review 04 Aug 2008
Agata Maslowska: The dancers of the RootlessRoot Company invite you to ‘immerse yourself into the deepest visions of sexual fantasy’. The underlying message comes from Milan Kundera’s The Unbearable Lightness of Being: ‘Woman longs to be weight...
Theatre :: Review 29 Jul 2008
Agata Maslowska and Gareth K Vile: St Andrews is not well known for its drama: tucked away on the coast, fifty minutes from Dundee, it is regarded as isolated. Fortune Kookie Productions, led by Richard Tan and emerging from the Fife University aims to correct this with a production of ...
Theatre :: Review 17 Jul 2008
Michael Cox: Evita may be remembered as Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's masterwork; even critics of their talent mostly concede to the greatness of the piece. For the uninitiated, the musical charts the rise and fall of Eva Duarte, following her from starry-eye...
Theatre :: Review 28 Jun 2008
Mhairi Graham: 'Bite-sized theatre to accompany Arta's delicious tapas selection', was the running line for Feast, a selection of performances by Glasgow-based organisation, Ankur Productions. And that was exactly what the audience got: a platter of theatrical bites...
Theatre :: Review 16 Jun 2008
Katie Smyth: The sanctuary of South Leith Parish Church provided an apt background to this modern day retelling of the Prodigal Son. Golden boy Harry fled the neighbourhood of his childhood, swapping sharing a ham bone with the next-door neighbours for Romanian wed...
Katie Smyth: Battling against the cacophony of Scooter-esque tunes blasting from the funfair next door, Gappad hold their own, plunging the audience into unsettling darkness in the Duncan Place Resource Centre. On entering the performance space, audience members w...
Deborah Martin: A teenage boy is standing on stage talking with the speed of a ladder running up a stocking. The sound is familiar. It’s the relentless buzz of “me, me, me” heard from every wannabe of the Pop Idol ilk. Following sell-out performan...
