Monday, February 5, 2024
The annual festival of visual theatre delivers an inventive mix of wry commentary, daft puppetry and high-precision performance
You can rely on Edinburgh's Manipulate festival to give you so…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:42AM[SHARE]Sunday, February 4, 2024
Theatre Royal, DumfriesThe well-crafted jokes are a cover for reflections on sectarianism, asylum seekers, Scottish independence, inequality, Covid conspiracy theories and pandemic isolation…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:06AM[SHARE]Thursday, January 4, 2024
Playwright and radio dramatist whose imaginative productions explored grief and lossOliver Emanuel, who has died aged 43 from brain cancer, was a playwright, teacher and radio dramatist who …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, December 13, 2023
Traverse, EdinburghRobbie Gordon and Jack Nurse's tale follows a team of Scots women's footballers, but its most powerful scenes move well beyond the game
There is plenty of talent on the fi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:36PM[SHARE]Monday, December 11, 2023
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughNick Lane's witty and rounded adaptation stars a no-nonsense Rosabelle, and manages to convey fear and fun with pop hits
If ever you find yourself in a sca…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:02PM[SHARE]Sunday, December 10, 2023
Northern Stage, NewcastleThis production rows back on panto excess, but boisterous audience interaction and bright songs keep it lively
Directors Katy Weir and Jake Smith think it is time to…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:24AM[SHARE]Friday, December 8, 2023
Live theatre, NewcastleThese one-act plays covering passion, acceptance and obsession are connected by a seasonally warming theme about community
In their trilogy of one-act plays, Laura Lin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:12PM[SHARE]Friday, December 1, 2023
Byrne, who has died aged 83, used his life as a constant source of inspiration for exuberant plays and paintings
If John Byrne had been known only for The Slab Boys, he would be considered o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:18AM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 29, 2023
Hull TruckEliza Blair plays the puppet-child on an adventure of self-discovery in this slightly muddled yet well-performed version
When Ivor MacAskill and Rosana Cade staged The Making of Pi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:06AM[SHARE]Monday, November 27, 2023
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghYoung Gerda is sent on an epic quest across mythical Scotland by steam train, cross-country skis, fishing boat and unicorn in Morna Young's version
When the curtain go…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 04:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, November 22, 2023
Theatre by the Lake, KeswickRiches-to-rags tale is set against the backdrop of Indian independence, amplifying the injustice and adding extra texture to this rewarding show
'I didn't promise…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 07:02AM[SHARE]Thursday, November 16, 2023
Royal Court, Liverpool Traditional tale is recast as a daft quest across Europe, built on a giddy score powering through hits from Bon Jovi to Kraftwerk
The dick jokes are, of course, inevit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:32AM[SHARE]Tuesday, November 14, 2023
She cast an armchair as Mr Bennet in a Pride and Prejudice reboot. Now Isobel McArthur's been let loose on lusty romp The Fair Maid of the West. So is she worried about outraging mothbally a…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:02PM[SHARE]Thursday, November 9, 2023
New version of the Anglo-Saxon epic features a massive cast of singers, actors and members of the community
Ian McMillan is contemplating the greats who have gone before him. He is one of fi…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 09:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, October 18, 2023
As he stages Gary McNair's twist on the tale of Pip, the director reflects on 16 years of spotting and developing raw talent while running the Tron
Andy Arnold is a director with staying pow…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:49PM[SHARE]Sunday, October 15, 2023
Queen's Hall arts centre, HexhamAn 83-year-old resident rails against the lack of liberty, settling herself on a bench outside and refusing to return despite legal threats and offers of hot-…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:33AM[SHARE]Friday, September 22, 2023
Royal Court, LiverpoolJames Graham's funny and violent TV adaptation belies a sensitive study of male mental health, as right-wing economics hits a group of road layers' lives
The emotional …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:37AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 21, 2023
Nottingham PlayhouseWith excellent performances, Tom Wright's play about the man who became a Victorian freakshow attraction is an at times uneasy mix of circus and polemic
Entrances don't g…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:49AM[SHARE]Curve, LeicesterThis staging of Kafka's story is physically exciting, even tireless, but it hits an early peak of terror then has nowhere to go for two hours
It is linguistically playful, po…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:33AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 14, 2023
Octagon theatre, BoltonIn Holly Race Roughan's thrilling and dynamic production, Arthur Miller's classic about a Brooklyn longshoreman and his family roils with primal passions
If Arthur Mil…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:33AM[SHARE]Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Stephen Joseph theatre, ScarboroughAlan Ayckbourn has fun imagining the hazards of malfunctioning android lovers and misbehaving auto-maids " but there's a deeper message too about human des…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:33AM[SHARE]Friday, September 8, 2023
His Majesty's Theatre, AberdeenAll-female production tells Bram Stoker's story from the perspective of women trying to escape patriarchy " it's often urgent, but sometimes sucked of energy
L…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:43AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 7, 2023
Shakespeare North Playhouse, PrescotHorror-movie witches haunt the unhappy couple throughout this touring co-production. It's one of many interesting ideas that are dropped too soon
There is…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:33AM[SHARE]Friday, September 1, 2023
Pitlochry festival theatreIsla Cowan's quietly intelligent new drama goes inside a three-way relationship and each person's different attachments to their rural cottage retreat
On the face o…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:55AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 31, 2023
Pitlochry festival theatreAt a dinner party attended by a child ghost and a goading TV pundit warning of apocalypse, a middle-class literati find themselves on the brink of social upheaval
P…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:49PM[SHARE]Thursday, August 24, 2023
On Edinburgh fringe stages, pop is eating itself with a series of pastiches and tributes that riff on TV hits and surreal celebrity reimaginings
This review goes out in honour of Gerard Slev…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:13PM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 23, 2023
The festival's musicals this year range from theatrical introspection to a rip-roaring improvisation inspired by Lin-Manuel Miranda's smash hit
The world's most popular musicals have often b…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:33AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 17, 2023
Summerhall, Edinburgh This brainy solo show follows Woof's intuitive thinker, standing in to deliver a lecture for her hyper-rational neuroscientist husband
And she starts off chatting to us…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:49PM[SHARE]Two inventive productions, Dimanche and Concerned Others, use puppetry and object-theatre to tackle vast environmental and social subjects
Such is the enormity of the problems facing humanit…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:07AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 16, 2023
C Aurora, EdinburghThe long-ago disappearance of a great-aunt is explored in Nishla Smith's captivating performance, enhanced by hand-painted animations
For decades, Nishla Smith's family ha…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 03:55PM[SHARE]Attachment: The Leech Show is a merry romp about an influential reviewer and sums up the industry's paradoxical attitude to theatre criticism
Advice has been circulating among fringe compani…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 05:07AM[SHARE] 
