Culture
Fringe Reviews: Dance and Theatre
Is there work on Mars ★★★★ In a Dystopian world, a young woman named Xue is being interviewed for a Move to Mars Worker’s Visa as a lawyer with Nylon Tusk’s SpaceX. Through a series of tests and questions – all whilst doing a beep test – the audience are eyewitness to systemic barriers and…
Read MoreFringe Reviews: Circa: Wolf, Garry Starr & Ascension
Circa: Wolf is an astonishing, feral acrobatic spectacle, says Frankie Reason. ★★★★ Performers snarl at one another from across the stage, negotiating, imitating one another’s movements, and the ‘pack’ repeatedly forms and disperses, repelling any lone wolves that attempt to penetrate the fold. The choreography is charged with an unexpected intimacy, raw and animalistic, bodies…
Read MoreReview, All the Devils Are Here: ‘The violence is graphic and the threat of more never lets up’
Barnaby Roper’s British thriller All the Devils are Here wastes no time in setting its mood: the violence is graphic and the threat of more never lets up, says Holly Roberts. What follows plays out like Reservoir Dogs relocated to Uncle Monty’s Penrith cottage: a gang of criminals, fresh from a bloody money heist, are…
Read MoreEdinburgh International Festival: Mary, Queen of Scots, Orpheus and Eurydice & Book of Mountains and Seas
Dramatic, intimate, and visually striking – Sophie Laplane and James Bonas’s brand new ballet, Mary Queen of Scots, is a gothic reimagining of the young queen’s life, says Frankie Reason. ★★★★★ The story unfolds through the fragmented recollections of an elderly Elizabeth, brought to life by Swedish dancer Charlotta Öfverholm, and the curtains open on…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Neil Ansell: ‘It was a revelation to discover that nature writing could also be literature’
Neil Ansell on the books of his childhood, the best book he has read this year, and the book that has been his ‘north star’ ever since he discovered it. The first book I remember reading: The earliest reading experience I can clearly recall is of a Dr Seuss book, The Cat in the…
Read MoreEdinburgh Fringe Reviews: Miriam Margolyes, Patrick Monahan & Lorna Rose Treen
Miriam Margolyes is as outrageous as ever in her one-woman show, Margolyes & Dickens: More Best Bits says Frankie Reason. ★★★★ She doesn’t feel the need to introduce herself – ‘if you don’t know who I am, what the f**k are you doing here?’ – and she’s entirely justified. The audience cheer their approval and…
Read MoreRebecca Atkinson-Lord, An Tobar and Mull Theatre: ‘It’s still so important we come together and share stories’
Artistic Director of An Tobar and Mull Theatre, Rebecca Atkinson-Lord, on island life, how the theatre has changed the lives of many locals and her latest production – a powerful one-woman stage adaptation of Sarah Moss’ acclaimed novel Night Waking. I grew up part of the time in Wolverhampton in the Black Country and the…
Read MoreFringe Reviews: Dance & Theatre
The Crucible – ★★★★ Nine sturdy-looking wooden chairs horseshoe the stage. A woman dressed like a governess stands in the centre with a lit lantern as she watches the crowd fill the seats. A few chairs downs from me sits a performer with a white bonnet covering her face. The lights dim and music starts,…
Read MoreEdinburgh Fringe, Raise the Barre: ‘A must see, it’s truly terrific’
Raise the Barre is explosive stuff. A must see, it’s truly terrific, says Jeremy Welch. ★★★★★ It’s graduation day at a dance school presided over by a strict assessor. There are two troupes of dancers here, the female troupe dressed in classical ballet tutus, the male troupe dressed similarly but in an anarchistic way, black…
Read MoreThe Good Books, Kristie De Garis: ‘If I like the sound of a book I’ll either buy it in the next six minutes or not at all’
Drystone waller Kristie De Garis on the books of her childhood, her love of O’Brother by John Niven and why life is too short to keep reading the books you don’t enjoy. The first book I remember reading: Slugs by David Greenberg. A children’s book that could only have been published in the 80s.…
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