https://youtu.be/iWw-EyrG5Sw Directed by Alice Diop Written by Amrita David, Alice Diop and Marie N'Diaye France/2022/122 mins ★★★★ In their narrative-led debut, documentary director and filmmaker Alice Diop bases the stylistically reserved courtroom drama Saint Omer on the true-life 2016 case of Fabienne Kabou, a woman accused of killing her own child. The fictionalised character of Coly, a stand-in for … Continue reading Saint Omer
https://youtu.be/9UmlFsBR40w Written by Henrik Ibsen Directed by Josie Rose Embleton Produced by Hannah Lacaille ★★★★ Christmas. And things surely couldn’t be any better in the Helmer household. The luxuries of life at the fingertips of a mother, and a wife; whether it’s macarons or champagne suppers, if Nora Helmer desires the whims of fancy – … Continue reading A Doll’s House – Bedlam Theatre
Written by Rhona McAdam Directed by Mark Kydd ★★★ Mother knows best. Right? Well, for Gillian, her daily thoughts weigh a touch more than the usual stresses the mother of a teenage son. Taking inspiration from their own experiences from caring for her disabled son, Ruairidh, Rhona McAdam’s Caring is not a biographical piece – … Continue reading Caring – Scottish Storytelling Centre
Directed, Composed and Written by Andy McGregor ★★★ Parenthood’s a bit like a dance. Just as you think you’ve got all the steps down - you end up on your arse. And no matter how hard you try not to compare, it looks like everyone else is just getting the beats faster than you, better … Continue reading A New Life – Traverse Theatre
Written by Willy Russell Directed by Elizabeth Newman ★★★★★ Hello, screen. You listen to me right; I've got a cracker story to tell you. Russell’s Shirley Valentine and her infamous conversations with the Kitchen wall are now closing in on forty years old. And yet, she never truly ages. The pine kitchen and lack of jittering gadgets … Continue reading Shirley Valentine – Pitlochry Festival Theatre
https://youtu.be/fLmfwknvLic Written by May Sumbwanyambe Directed by Orla O'Loughlin ★★★★★ There’s a reason that one of the few props Enough of Him utilises is a chess board. There’s a reason that upon its second usage, the original piece colours have their players deliberately switched. Joseph Knight. A name that should ring through Scottish history to the present, … Continue reading Enough of Him – Pitlochry Festival Theatre
Produced by Cutting Edge Theatre ★★★★ Downs With Love is a frank, open conversation about the way we look at the capabilities, emotions and safeguarding of those with Down’s Syndrome; specifically, in the context of relationships. Abi Brydon plays a young woman named Beth. Beth is vivacious, and independent and has intense happiness in life most of us would … Continue reading Down’s With Love – Assembly Roxy
https://youtu.be/AAMRdPu3KnM Written by John Campopiano and Chris Griffiths Directed by John Campopiano and Gary Smart ★★★ Look. We get it. We really do. There’s just something not right about Clowns. It’s an established fear. There’s an unsettling presence to something with a permanent smile fixed on its face – and Stephen King, horror novelist extraordinaire, capitalised on … Continue reading Pennywise: The Story of It
Written by Rob Drummond Directed by Robert Softley Gale ★★★★ Rebuild. Reform. Rebrand. That’s the sort of three-buzz-word tripe which is rolled out these days, isn’t it? In 2030, the benefits system has had a much-needed overhaul. But perhaps not in the way claimants and those in need of it may have desired. It’s especially … Continue reading Don’t. Make. Tea – Traverse Theatre
Written & Directed by Martin Foreman ★★★ Who owns a story these days? Particularly a tale in which we know not the beginning, nor the end, or even most of the middle. For two millennia, The Satyricon has been picked at, adapted, added to, twisted and perverted more so than any contemporary text can fear. And it … Continue reading The Satyricon – Assembly Roxy
