Co-produced by Cheek by Jowl, Compañía Nacional de Teatro Clásico (CNTC Madrid) and LAZONA; in collaboration with the Barbican, London and Scène Nationale d’ALBI-Tarn, France Directed by Declan Donnellan Designed by Nick Ormerod ★★★★ A stillness. Enjoy it - it isn’t going to last long. And then, for the next 130 minutes, chaos. The undiluted chaos as Life is a Dream messily ricochets across the Royal … Continue reading Life Is a Dream – Royal Lyceum Theatre
https://youtu.be/1ydKle2a-Vk Composed by Georges Bizet Libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, Directed by John Fulljames ★★★★ Madama Butterfly to Carmen. Sixty years championing Opera within Scotland. Facing financial and global challenges, Scottish Opera remains a force in the cultural zeitgeist of the nation. With the influx of younger audiences and economic accessibility for others, Scottish Opera continues to be … Continue reading Scottish Opera: Carmen – Festival Theatre, Edinburgh
Produced by Agruación Señor Serrano Created by Álex Serrano, Pau Palacios and Ferran Dorda ★★★ With the sixteenth edition of Edinburgh’s stupendously inventive, diverse and creative visual storytelling festival MANIPULATE underway, Capital Theatre’s The Studio offers a fond welcome return to the Barcelona-based theatre company Señor Serrano, whose previous 2017 MANIPULATE piece A House In Asia became … Continue reading Birdie – MANIPULATE 2023
Produced by Dance Horizons Creative Direction by Oliver James Anwyl Nearing its tenth anniversary, the Edinburgh-based Dance Horizons has strived forth with the initiative to encourage and mentor a diverse and emerging root of talent across the UK, and internationally. Looking to welcome all into the industry, their collection of pieces is designed to nurture … Continue reading Innovations Contemporary Dance Platform Autumn – The Studio
https://youtu.be/4LidSTvY5OM Libretto by David Henry Hwang Direction & Choreography by Deborah Colker Conducted by Stuart Stratford ★★★★★ Deborah Colker for Scottish Opera has rightened a dichotomy: for nearly two decades, Osvaldo Golijov was the emergence of a postmodernist complexity within the classical world – and his ability to merge Latin American music with the potentials … Continue reading Ainadamar – Festival Theatre
Written by Ben Lewis Directed by Lu Kemp ★★★★★ Living a relatively quiet middle-class lifestyle amidst the trinkets and collectables which faintly glitter with promise and memory, Don, an intelligent, eccentric gentleman of a growing age from Clackmannanshire, is peppered with the natterings and intrusions of his family and care-workers. They fret over him with … Continue reading Don Quixote: Man of Clackmannanshire – Dundee Rep
https://youtu.be/hQC7-ie1_VY Written by Jack Nurse & Robbie Gordon Directed by Jack Nurse ★★★★ To paraphrase the right honourable MP Mhairi Black: there’s an ‘F’ word that the country is too fearful to speak. A word we need to vocalise, and a word Wonder Fools encourages audiences to use. A word which thousands died in their … Continue reading 549: Scots of the Spanish Civil War – The Brunton Theatre
Written by Pedro Calderón Translated by Jo Clifford Directed by Wils Wilson ★★★★ No, you’re not dreaming. The Royal Lyceum is once more adorned with flickering lamp lights and opened stage doors. Once again, she welcomes residents of Scotland into her embrace, though with a minor stage-lift for this particular production. And you’d be forgiven … Continue reading Life is a Dream – The Lyceum
https://youtu.be/r6SRiVrUlic Written by Alejandro Amenábar Directed by Alejandro Amenábar & Alejandro Hernández Spain/2019/107mins ★★★★ “Drain the swamp”. “Taking back control”. Or, in the case of Alejandro Amenábar's 2019 release While At War: “Long Live Death”. Amenábar searingly paints a sobering and sturdy (true) story of the tactics utilised at the onset of the Spanish Civil War to quash … Continue reading While At War – Edinburgh Spanish Film Festival
https://youtu.be/m4ojQ3RT3Sk Directed by Kike Maíllo Written by Cristina Clemente & Kike Maíllo Spain,Germany,France/2020/89mins ★★★★ Chaos and order; love and obsession. There are paradigms which belong together. In the case of architect Jeremiasz Angust, everything comes with a reason and design, until a young twenty-something year old girl crashes into his life. Approached on his way … Continue reading A Perfect Enemy – Review
