https://youtu.be/oL3IC6Q35VM Book, Song & Lyrics by Willy Russel Directed by Bob Tomson & Bill Kenwright ★★★★ Legendary - Willy Russell’s musical Blood Brothers, beloved across the country, draws the ancient philosophical narrative of nurture versus nature into the contemporary world. Downtrodden and faced with no alternative, Mrs Johnstone is scarcely able to feed her existing children … Continue reading Blood Brothers – Edinburgh Playhouse
Based on Susan Hill's Book Adapted by Stephen Mallatratt Directed by Robin Herford ★★★★ Theatres and their spectres have an abundant and symbiotic relationship, many as equally famous as their venues and star-studded productions - after all, are you really a theatre without a ghost? A rite of passage, The Woman in Black has captivated … Continue reading The Woman in Black – King’s Theatre
https://www.youtube.com/v/84lJ_gOdAvo Artistic direction and choreography by Bawren Tavaziva ★★★★ How do you explain slavery to a child? Compile histories’ abhorrent make-up of colonialism and the repugnancy of its continuation today into a sane sentence. Boy’s Khaya (meaning Servant’s House) has humble origins as the young man who once stepped out from behind their white master’s house … Continue reading Boy’s Khaya – The Studio
Book, Music & Lyrics by Jim Jacobs & Warren Casey Directed by Nikolai Foster ★★★★ It’s 1959 - and who knows what the sixties will bring. In the states, Rock, Pop and Motown rule the roost with their intense and addictive tracks, while Buddy Holly and Elvis Presley have a lot to answer for with … Continue reading Grease – Festival Theatre
https://youtu.be/hojf6u-45IE Original Story by Carol Ann Duffy Choreography by Liv Lorent ★★★★ Happy endings seem hard to come back right now, don’t they? It’s difficult in the present climate to appreciate the smaller things, to find joy and solace in a story or two. And often, the chipperness in those tales that guided us through … Continue reading The Lost Happy Endings – Festival Theatre
Music & Lyrics by Dolly Parton Book by Patricia Resnick Directed by Jeff Calhoun ★★★★ 545 days. That’s how long it’s been since the Edinburgh Playhouse roared with The Lion King’s juggernaut presence, and now it returns to the daily grind. Slapping the alarm clock, taking a few more minutes of rest, the sleeping giant … Continue reading 9 To 5 – Edinburgh Playhouse
Written by Frances Poet Directed by Gareth Nicholls ★★★★ Pain is a difficult thing to communicate. It manifests in a myriad of intricate and contorting ways – emotional, mental and physical. Still is Frances Poet's effort to capture varying experiences of it. Gaynor, a housebound mother confined by chronic pain, is awaiting the birth of her … Continue reading Still – Traverse Theatre
Conducted by Stuart Stratford Libretto by Giuseppe Verdi ★★★★ Giuseppe Verdi’s final opera Falstaff emphasises the comedic aspects of the mistaken identities, love triangles and caddish rogues who litter history. Adapted from Shakespeare's Merry Wives of Windsor, the opera follows Sir John Falstaff, as plump as he is lustful, as he attempts to keep his dwindling reputation as a … Continue reading Falstaff – Edinburgh International Festival
Directed by Andy Johnston ★★★★ One Hundred and Twenty-five years of communal magic, Southern Light Opera has called the Kings’s Theatre, the old Lady of Leven Street, home for more than a century. And how fitting that one of Edinburgh’s grassroots production companies should be the one to strike out with a continued appeal for … Continue reading Southern Light Sings for the King’s – Festival Theatre
Written by Mamoru Iriguchi Dramaturg by Lou Brodie ★★★★ Even going to school in the early 2000s, sex education left a lot to be desired. It divided us between those who identified as boys and as girls and left us with barely any more information than we had when we went in. On reflection, something … Continue reading Sex Education Xplorers (S.E.X) – Summerhall
