Scenes that hinted at homosexuality and mocked church and police removed by lord chamberlain before 1966 West End debutJoe Orton's play Loot, originally censored for immorality more than 50 …
Church Hill theatre, Edinburgh Two boys endure stormy seas and slave labour as they journey from Kabul to London this highly imaginative productionHow do you begin to recreate the refugee ex…
Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Morpurgo's ludicrous satire on the post-show chat is so full of invention you could watch it twice and not stop laughingJoseph Morpurgo made a name for himself…
Old Red Lion theatre, LondonThis powerfully acted story of George Orwell's death-bed marriage to Sonia Brownell makes for an entertaining night of literary intrigue and anecdoteGeorge Orwell…
The Studio, Edinburgh The Turner prize-winner improvises with a mic and guitar in an endearing, exposing show full of ticklish humourA few years ago, the Turner prize-winner Martin Creed was…
A look back at the evolution of the event, now celebrating its 70th year, and how risk-taking has kept it ahead of the gameSacrifice in the name of art was more than just a noble sounding id…
Williamson Park, LancasterThe setting is inspired, but the adventure has been reduced to a domestic fableNight has fallen. We walk through a wooded glen. Music and birdsong fill the air. Lea…
Finborough; Royal Court, London Cicely Hamilton's forgotten feminist drama hits home, while John Tiffany delivers rage and vaudeville in a bravura revival of Jim Cartwright's RoadHistory on …
An appreciation by the actor Stephen Rea, star of a number of the late American playwright's worksSam Shepard, who died on 27 July, was an Illinois-born playwright, screenwriter, author, act…
Spectacular light show in New Town square has shut down smaller events and venues, say criticsIt was meant to celebrate all that the summer festival season has come to mean to Edinburgh and …
Pleasance Courtyard, EdinburghThe whipsmart standup overthinks, overshares and delivers a winningly funny show that finds the humour in heartbreakCall it reinvention, or call it back to basi…
From Sara Pascoe's new standup to a strange evening with Martin Creed, via acrobats, Samuel Beckett and a wild girl from Borneo, here are the sights so farAll photographs by Murdo MacLeod Co…
Traverse, EdinburghGary McNair's play about a lonely misfit's one-sided correspondence with the Smiths frontman makes for a touching hour'This isn't fan mail, it's correspondence," declares …
He was one of the first openly gay men in metal. Now, after losing everything in a house fire, Faith No More's Roddy Bottum is bankrolling an opera featuring crystal-meth arias and interspec…
Oscar Isaac's Hamlet left me cold. Give me 10 Things I Hate About You any dayA couple of weeks back, I went with a friend to see Oscar Isaac in Hamlet. I'd acquired Public Theater membership…
A new feature film on the Indigenous Australian painter traces his family's quest for justice after losing the copyright to his work"This big girl's got a nice place," says artist Lenie Nama…
He's been called offensive, dated, lazy and misogynistic. Is Paul Chowdhry " Britain's first Asian standup superstar " bothered? Nosheen Iqbal finds outStanding in a Soho alleyway to be phot…
He's not a TV favourite, but the actor and comedian has built one of the most diverse audiences of any current standup, partly through the subversive use of social media. Now he's written hi…
Wild Bore was born out of conversations about absurd, sexist and ignorant ways three comedians, as female performers, were described by reviewersThere is one unwritten rule of theatre: do no…
Northern Stage at Summerhall, EdinburghSelina Thompson uses a light touch and humour to leaven anger and grief, as she brings past traumas palpably up to dateTim Etchells of the experimental…
The actor and sketch show comic opens up about the things that make her laugh the most, from The Thick of It to German nipplesI love the Nazi sketch by Mitchell and Webb. Two Nazis worrying …
No Miracles Here, a new show at the Edinburgh festival, revisits the Depression-era craze that had couples dancing for weeks in pursuit of big prize money. Today, that spirit lives on in rea…
Trafalgar Studios, LondonThe West Wing and Grease star takes the lead in this revival of Alexi Kaye Campbell's play, but is let down by unresolved contradictionsStockard Channing, star of Th…
One of the unexpected pleasures of last summer returns to Regent's Park, while the Finnish choreographer addresses masculinity and brutality1 The Flying Lovers of VitebskWhat is the cost of …
A puppet blockbuster, a Bigfoot opera and a Northern Soul dance marathon all feature in the lineup of the 70th Edinburgh festivalEdinburgh Playhouse Continue reading...