Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Traverse, EdinburghFirst, we were outraged by the apparent crimes of Jimmy Savile. Then we felt betrayed: had the innocence of 1970s light entertainment been a sham? Behind the showbiz sheen…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:43PMMonday, March 25, 2013
Brae, ShetlandThere's plenty to be said against the motor car, but none of that is the concern of Ignition. Wils Wilson's extraordinary show for the National Theatre of Scotland and Shetland…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMMonday, March 11, 2013
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghThanks to a flurry of co-productions between theatres in Scotland, Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum is currently associated with two top-quality ensembles. While Mark Thomson'…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:48PMTuesday, February 19, 2013
Citizens, GlasgowWe're in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest territory – but instead of Jack Nicholson finding method in the madness, here we have Eddie, a hospital radio DJ, discovering the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:55PMMonday, February 18, 2013
Tron, GlasgowYou couldn't fault this adaptation of Julia Donaldson's novel for being short of themes. In 90 minutes, it ticks off bereavement, child abuse, missing people, drug addiction, me…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:34PMMonday, February 4, 2013
Beacon, GreenockHalf an hour along the Clyde from Glasgow, the Beacon is a handsome new arts centre with a 500-seat main auditorium and a 100-seat studio. The artistic director of the �…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:37PMWednesday, January 23, 2013
Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh There is much that is extraordinary about Shelagh Delaney's debut play: that it was written by an 18-year-old after watching something by Terence Rattigan and thinkin…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:33PMTuesday, January 22, 2013
Citizens, GlasgowThe class war isn't over yet. Just ask the House of Commons catering staff whom MP Christopher Chope referred to as "servants" last week. Let's hope they don't react li…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:04PMWednesday, December 12, 2012
Citizens, GlasgowAs pantos across the land ramp up the contrast, volume and colour, the Christmas show at the Citz is refreshingly austere. Against a backdrop of naked winter trees, this Sle…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:16PMTuesday, December 11, 2012
Dundee RepAt this time of year, even the more sober-minded shows play to the gallery with fart gags and slapstick. The distinguishing characteristic of Jemima Levick's production of The Snow…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:30PMMonday, December 10, 2012
Tron, GlasgowWhen Charles Dickens conceived the character of Ebenezer Scrooge, it is unlikely that he had in mind a large woman in a spangly leotard, bejewelled shoulder pads and curly black…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:23PMFriday, December 7, 2012
Arches, GlasgowIt's not so much the spirit of Christmas birth as of Easter resurrection that possesses this Hans Christian Andersen adaptation by Catherine Wheels. It begins, delightfully, i…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:56PMMonday, December 3, 2012
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghIt's impressive enough that Johnny McKnight is writing, directing and starring in Aganeza Scrooge at Glasgow's Tron this season, but somehow he has also managed to fie…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:45AMWednesday, November 21, 2012
Oran Mor, GlasgowThey discovered Elvis, they discovered sex, they discovered material wealth. Now the baby boomers are discovering death. The results can be maudlin and introspective – but…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:15PMThursday, November 8, 2012
Traverse, EdinburghThe wag who described Morna Pearson as the Dr Dre of Scottish theatre was probably exaggerating. The Elgin-born playwright is no gangsta rapper, though you can't deny the …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:26PMTuesday, October 23, 2012
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghTowards the start of Shakespeare's comedy, the fairy queen Titania tells her lover Oberon how their quarrel has turned nature upside down. "The seasons alter…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:21PMMonday, October 22, 2012
Traverse, Edinburgh"I'm at home and I feel homesick," says the character of Kate Bane, explaining her unresolved anguish to the boyfriend who has come to meet her parents. Or rather, in Ella…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:59PMTuesday, October 16, 2012
Platform, GlasgowImagine a string quartet, but with actors instead of musicians. In place of a score, a set of overlapping monologues. As they riff on similar themes, they could be from a fa…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:15PMWednesday, October 10, 2012
Govanhill Baths, GlasgowEven a trip to the swimming baths is full of ritual. First comes the initiation ceremony of changing room, wire basket and wristband – just as it is here in Adrian …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:31PMWednesday, October 3, 2012
Citizens, GlasgowShe enters in socks, tracksuit bottoms and faded grey T-shirt. Her blood-red hair is a shade away from the glossy surfaces of her fitted kitchen. Her son has just been dropp…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:44AMWednesday, September 26, 2012
Royal Lyceum, EdinburghCanadian playwright Michel Tremblay's Les Belles Sœurs, translated here as The Guid Sisters, is one of the greatest plays of the 20th century, remarkable on many leve…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:50PMTuesday, September 18, 2012
His Majesty's, AberdeenYou can imagine a stage adaptation of Robin Jenkins's sublime 1955 novel turning out like Of Mice and Men. Set during the second world war on a remote Highland estate,…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 02:00PMMonday, September 10, 2012
Tron, GlasgowYou couldn't accuse Sylvia Dow of being over-hasty. After a lifetime in arts administration, she has waited until her 70s to make her playwriting debut. There is nothing antiqua…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:38PMThursday, August 30, 2012
Royal LyceumThe play by Arthur Miller that became Death of a Salesman was originally called The Inside of His Head, but the title could apply equally to Vanishing Point's nightmarish contrib…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:14PMWednesday, August 15, 2012
Fringe veterans have various strategies for surviving Edinburgh – from stirring up debate to remembering your motivation – but all agree on the benefits of limiting beer intakeOf all the…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 08:04AMFriday, August 3, 2012
Pitlochry festival theatreSince director Richard Baron staged The 39 Steps at Perth Theatre in 1998, the adaptation has been on a journey as long and involved as that of Richard Hannay when …
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:26PMThursday, July 12, 2012
Tron, GlasgowAs titles for riotous comedies go, this one had to be the grimmest. The stones in Sean Harkin's pockets are there to weigh him down as he drowns. His suicide, as playwright Mari…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 12:53PMFriday, June 29, 2012
Arches, GlasgowThe earliest hours of the morning are also the most solitary: a drunk staggering home; a security guard watching CCTV; a forlorn Facebook user hoping someone will message back…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 11:15AMMonday, June 18, 2012
Pitlochry festival theatreThe murder-mystery always lets you down. It's a genre that compels you to piece together the clues, then leaves you with a sense of emptiness the moment the detecti…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 06:56AMSunday, June 17, 2012
Tramway, GlasgowAlan Cumming plays every part in Shakespeare's tragedy set inside a mental asylum, writes Mark FisherIn his one-man Elsinore, Robert Lepage had to have a sword fight with him…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 10:53AMTuesday, June 12, 2012
Dundee RepAt the hands of director Jemima Levick, Shakespeare's isle is not only full of noise but women, too. As seagulls scream over a very 21st-century set of washed-up bin bags, computer…
SOURCE: The Guardian at 01:28PM 
