Festival Review: Bluebeard’s Castle

Megan Amato reviews Bluebeard’s Castle. When I was first given the program for the upcoming International Festival, I immediately clicked yes for Bluebeard’s Castle without much thought.  As a lover of classic fairy tales reimagined through different mediums, I assumed I was in for Bela Bartok’s classic operatic tale of a woman forcing open doors…

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FRINGE REVIEW: FLAMENCO GUITAR ODYSSEY WITH PHILIP ADIE

Rosie Morton reviews Philip Adie’s Flamenco Guitar Odyssey.  ONE man and his guitar. Amidst the madness of The Fringe, it pays to keep things simple. Aberdeen-born Philip Adie, who now lives in Seville, did just that with his ‘Flamenco Guitar Odyssey’. Taking to the stage in Alba Flamenca, an intimate venue on East Crosscauseway, Adie…

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Festival Review: Phaedra/Minotaur

Madeleine Sutton reviews Phaedra/Minotaur at the Edinburgh International Festival. IN THIS production of Phaedra/Minotaur – which pairs Benjamin Britten’s final poignant cantata Phaedra, with the moving new dance piece Minotaur – opera and theatre director Deborah Warner and choreographer Kim Brandstrup take us through themes of passion, female desire, and devastation. Phaedra, based on Robert…

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Fringe Review: Trash Test Dummies

Alister Tenneb reviews Trash Test Dummies at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. THIS acrobatic/circus/slapstick performance essentially revolves around three wheelie bins – doesn’t fill you with delight? The show is geared towards kids ten years and under and judging by the near constant shouts, shrieks, squeals of laughter from their younger attendees they certainly know their…

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Fringe Review: Frank Skinner: 30 Years of Dirt

Alister Tenneb reviews Frank Skinner: 30 Years of Dirt at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. I FIRST saw Frank Skinner more than 30 years ago, performing in one of the smallest rooms in the Pleasance Courtyard, a couple of years before he won The Perrier Award. I think there were about five people in the crowd.…

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Fringe Review: Paul Foot: Dissolve

Alister Tenneb reviews Paul Foot: Dissolve at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. PAUL FOOT enters the room and immediately is right up shouting into people’s faces in a pretty full-on manner – possibly it’s his way of laying down the rules for audience engagement. I’m glad not to be on the receiving end of it. He…

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Fringe Review: Il Wol Dang

Megan Amato reviews Il Wol Dang at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. BEFORE interviewing Il Wol Dang, I had been intrigued by their beautifully simplistic poster with their slogan “Come and Take a Dreamy Nap”. Further research led me to their Spotify account with a setlist that combines traditional Korean and western instruments in a captivating…

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Fringe Review: Fall and Flow

Megan Amato reviews Fall and Flow at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. AS I slipped into the performance, I was not clear on what kind of show I had walked into to as it was wholly different from what I had expected nor anything like what I had seen at the Edinburgh Fringe so far. However,…

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Fringe Review: The Legends of Mountains and Seas

Megan Amato reviews The Legends of Mountains and Seas at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. THE Graduate Institute of Performing Arts of National Taiwan Normal University’s The Legends of Mountains and Seas dramatises the Chinese myth of legendary archer Hou Yi, who was banished to Earth for shooting down nine out of ten suns and his…

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International Festival Review: The Rite of Spring

Megan Amato reviews The Rite of Spring at the Edinburgh International Festival. PINA BAUSCH’S The Rite of Spring returned to Edinburgh on 17 August with pan-African dance company École des Sable, The Pina Bausch Foundation and Sadler’s Wells. Composed by Igor Stravinsky in 1913, Bausch transformed the pagan Russian performance into the stark battle between…

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