Tuesday, August 8, 2023
Male violence, Greek myths and a modern-day cyclops in three strong shows
Stuntman, Summerhall ★★★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:19AMSaturday, August 5, 2023
Three solo shows at Summerhall cover family secrets, untrodden life paths - and poultry celebrity
The Death and Life of All of Us, Summerhall ★★★★
Victor Esses was 16 when he firs…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:13AMMonday, May 22, 2023
Celebration of Scotland's iconic comedy legend Billy Connolly is a moving portrait of a nation
Anyone expecting to see the Big Yin himself, Gary McNair breathlessly explains as he dashes on …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:48AMSaturday, May 20, 2023
It might sometimes whizz by, but Lesley Hart's stage adaptation has all the power, passion and profanities you could ask for
How do you cram a thousand-page novel, a cast of dozens and profo…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:03AMMonday, February 13, 2023
Zinnie Harris reimagines Shakespeare to compelling effect, making the audience complicit
You’d hardly call a director particularly perceptive for highlighting Lady Macbeth as the true pow…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:22AMThursday, October 6, 2022
Kingship, tolerance and the trappings of power are among the many themes of Rona Munro's passionate, timely new play
"The poem is real," intones entertainer-turned-courtier Ellen solemnly as…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 01:49AMTuesday, August 23, 2022
An energetic, lithe gig-theatre adaptation of Édouard Louis’s 2014 trauma memoir can't escape the book's limitations
Those working-class people really are appalling, aren’t they? Racist…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 03:42AMMonday, August 22, 2022
A slow-burn gothic horror plays with our sense of reality to intelligently creepy effect
In many ways, The Stones is what the Fringe is all about: a new theatre company (London-based Signal …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:54AMFriday, August 19, 2022
Two plays by Scottish writer James Ley set out to shock, provoke – and provide belly laughs too
Ode to Joy (How Gordon Got to Go to the Nasty Pig Party), Summerhall ★★★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:18PMTuesday, August 16, 2022
James Thierrée joyfully collides together dance, mime, acrobatics, music and more - but what does it all mean?
"I feel I owe you an explanation." That much James Thierrée concedes partway …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:54AMSaturday, August 13, 2022
A multi-layered, multi-generational theatrical epic is one of this year's stand-out offerings
First, a bit of housekeeping. Maybe it was the three-and-a-half-hour duration, or maybe the unfa…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:33AMFriday, August 12, 2022
Two performer-less shows on the theme of work set the audience to - well, work
Temping, Assembly George Square Studios ★★★★
Sarah Jane is away in Hawaii. But don’t worry – she�…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:18AMThursday, August 11, 2022
Theatre about theatre? There's plenty of it about at the Fringe: here are two fine examples
Every Word was Once an Animal, Zoo Southside ★★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:25AMTuesday, August 9, 2022
Three shows at the Traverse take in gritty realism and no-holds-barred farce
The Last Return, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:07AMMonday, August 8, 2022
Two shows at Summerhall explore issues of identity - though with contrasting outcomes
Boy, Summerhall ★★★★
Nature or nurture? It’s the perennial question behind so much in human d…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 10:24AMStrong constituent parts in Alan Cumming's Burns dance show - but do they add up?
In retrospect, all the clues were there. A star actor embarking on a new performance genre; a fresh reapprai…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:03AMMonday, August 23, 2021
Deeply moving verbatim show from a bright new London company
The popcorn on offer as you enter the Pleasance’s performing space at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre quickly fil…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:24AMSaturday, August 21, 2021
Frances Poet offers a luminous meditation on suffering and death at the Traverse
Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:36AMThursday, August 19, 2021
A head-spinning thriller and a heart-wrenching monologue at Assembly
Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 09:36AMTuesday, August 17, 2021
An elusive eco fable from Grid Iron makes glowing sense in its forest setting
There’s always a tricky balance to be struck with site-specific theatre. What’s more important: the show its…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:03AMFriday, August 13, 2021
Two shows shine in a converted army reserve centre amid a depleted festival
Tunnels Army @ The Fringe ★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:54PMFriday, August 16, 2019
Autobiographical refugee story feels like a boy's own adventure
Urgent, fast-paced, seemingly never pausing for breath, How Not to Drown is a real-life boy’s own adventure, an appeal for c…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:03AMWednesday, August 14, 2019
Messianic devotion and audience complicity in a slippery new work from Tim Crouch
It’s the end of the world as we know it. At least according to Miles, scientist turned messiah, who lost …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:06AMTuesday, August 13, 2019
Two vicious dissections of class and identity might just leave you reeling
Darren McGarvey AKA Loki: Scotland Today The Stand's New Town Theatre ★★★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:42AMCaptivating and macabre, 1927's new show marks a partial return to their own origins
A fat cat who gobbles up everything in sight. A king who tests his wife’s fidelity with increasingly ho…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:42AMSaturday, August 10, 2019
Three contrasting shows tackling climate change and mass extinction
Sea Sick CanadaHub ★★★★
She’s not a performer, Alanna Mitchell tells us. She’s a writer and journalis…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 04:42AMFriday, August 9, 2019
Ravishing physical theatre on the beginnings of life from Theatre Re
Physical theatre company Theatre Re are virtually Fringe royalty these days, with a several-year history of fine shows un…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:54AMThree contrasting shows at CanadaHub tackle racism, climate change and clowning
Deer Woman CanadaHub ★★★
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 05:54AMThursday, August 8, 2019
Pantomime excess in Meghan Tyler's wild but unconvincing new comedy
Chekhov famously pronounced that if you’re going to bring a gun on stage, you’ve got to use it. Is the same true for a…
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:12AMWednesday, August 7, 2019
Intellectual playfulness in Milo Rau's recreation of a gay hate crime
Who’d have thought a play about a homophobic hate crime could be so much fun? Well, maybe that’s overstating things …
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 06:06AMTuesday, August 6, 2019
Confusion reigns in an overly ambitious take on technology, time and climate catastrophe
You can’t question Javaad Alipoor’s ambition.
SOURCE: theartsdesk.com at 07:06AM 
