Monday, 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 m…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 10:24AM[SHARE]Strong 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: The Arts Desk at 06:03AM[SHARE]Monday, 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 fills…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:24AM[SHARE]Saturday, 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: The Arts Desk at 06:36AM[SHARE]Thursday, August 19, 2021
A head-spinning thriller and a heart-wrenching monologue at Assembly
Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 09:36AM[SHARE]Tuesday, 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 itself,…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:03AM[SHARE]Friday, August 13, 2021
Two shows shine in a converted army reserve centre amid a depleted festival
Tunnels Army @ The Fringe ★★★
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 07:54PM[SHARE]Friday, 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 com…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:03AM[SHARE]Wednesday, 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 hi…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, 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: The Arts Desk at 06:42AM[SHARE]Captivating 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 horr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:42AM[SHARE]Saturday, August 10, 2019
Three contrasting shows tackling climate change and mass extinction
Sea Sick CanadaHub ★★★★  Â
She's not a performer, Alanna Mitchell tells us. She's …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:42AM[SHARE]Friday, 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: The Arts Desk at 05:54AM[SHARE]Three contrasting shows at CanadaHub tackle racism, climate change and clowning
Deer Woman CanadaHub ★★★  Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:54AM[SHARE]Thursday, 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 cha…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:12AM[SHARE]Wednesday, 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 a li…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 06:06AM[SHARE]Tuesday, 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: The Arts Desk at 07:06AM[SHARE]Monday, August 5, 2019
Two compelling examinations of femininity and masculinity at the Traverse Theatre
Enough ★★★★  Â
Immaculately turned out in winning smiles, navy and nylo…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 08:24AM[SHARE]Wednesday, March 27, 2019
New staging brings the iconic 1983 movie's themes and characters into sharper focus
'Cult' is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies. But there's undoubtedly som…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:20AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 27, 2018
Psychedelic Shakespeare feels rather too charming for its own good"Well, that was really sweet," one young audience member in front of me remarked on his way out of Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatr…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:24AM[SHARE]Tuesday, September 18, 2018
The British master-director settles for vaguely Beckett-inflected bafflementOf the Edinburgh International Festival's three productions by 2018's resident company, Paris's Théâtre des Bo…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:04AM[SHARE]Monday, August 27, 2018
Playful visual trickery and gnomic bafflement at the International Festival Home ★★★★  Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:48AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 22, 2018
Two striking explorations of sexual identity stop short of grabbing the emotions La maladie de la mort ★★★  Toxic masculinity in all its appalling variety is a …
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:42AM[SHARE]Friday, August 17, 2018
Three intimate storytelling shows at Summerhall offer mixed insights Orpheus ★★★★ Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:12AM[SHARE]Tuesday, August 14, 2018
Two superb - and very different - examinations of what defines our identity Nigel Slater's Toast ★★★★ Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:36AM[SHARE]Monday, August 13, 2018
Toxic masculinity and reflections on identity at the Fringe's newest venueLaunched just last year to celebrate the country's 150th anniversary, CanadaHub has quickly become one of the E…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 03:48AM[SHARE]Friday, August 10, 2018
Racial politics and gun culture dissected in two provocative shows at the Traverse Underground Railroad Game ★★★★★Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:54AM[SHARE]Wednesday, August 8, 2018
Cycles of abuse, a health service polemic and a celebration of silliness Coriolanus Vanishes ★★★★Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:24AM[SHARE]Monday, August 6, 2018
A brutal assault on liberal values, and exquisite dance/theatre/cinemaUlster American ★★★★★Â
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 05:18AM[SHARE]Thursday, September 14, 2017
Enoch Powell's 'rivers of blood' speech re-examined in flawed but timely playYou've got to hand it to David Greig. The artistic director of Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatre has show…
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 04:05AM[SHARE]Friday, August 18, 2017
Grief, loss, unending pain - and critics talking out of their backsides Meet Me at Dawn ★★★★★
SOURCE: The Arts Desk at 02:06AM[SHARE] 
