Review: Vikki Stone – Instrumental
By Editor at August 2, 2014 | 10:54 am | 0 Comment
The musical comedienne described by the Scotsman as the bastard lovechild of Tim Minchin and Victoria Wood is back at the Fringe with her most personal show yet. I'd first become aware of Vikki Stone when a friend invited me to see her at Carnegie Hall in Dunfermline last October. It was a dark Tuesday night and there were only 12 other people in the audience, so she
Review: Murder She Didn’t Write
By Editor at August 24, 2013 | 12:57 pm | 0 Comment
It is something of a hackneyed cliché for all reviews of shows like this to begin with the preface “improvised shows are very hard to review” – but the fact remains, this is indeed true. The performers are entirely at the whim of the audience suggestions and, whilst a few other improv troupes have now taken to accepting a few different suggestions and letting
Review: Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers
By Editor at August 22, 2013 | 11:52 am | 0 Comment
For those of you unfamiliar with ‘Taiko drumming’, essentially it is the practice of using traditional Japanese drums (such as those which would be used to accompany the Samurai as they marched into battle) in an ensemble performance, with different routines having different specific meanings and origins. I have to say, as a percussionist with a lifelong
Review: Impromptu Shakespeare
By Editor at August 21, 2013 | 1:28 pm | 2 Comments
One would be forgiven for thinking a show entitled ‘Impromptu Shakespeare’, wherein the entire concept is for the cast to create a brand new Shakespeare play in every show, would be performed almost entirely in the Bard’s synonymous iambic pentameter verse format. Barring the occasional slightly awkward rhyming couplet, however, this is sadly not the
Ninjas Storm the Edinburgh Fringe
By Editor at August 19, 2013 | 4:09 pm | 1 Comments
Mugenkyo Taiko Drummer Ninjas at the Edinburgh Fringe have caused a stir both onstage during the show itself - in a dramatically lit, tightly choreographed spectacle - & also through their on-street publicity stunts. Audiences have been building steadily through the run thanks to phenomenal crowd reactions & the growing buzz on the street that something special
Review: Songs For A New World
By Editor at August 19, 2013 | 10:34 am | 0 Comment
If you were to say the name Jason Robert Brown to the average theatre goer or Joe Public on the street, ‘Who?’, would be by far the most common response. Indeed, even among “industry people”, the New York based singer/composer greatly divides opinon. Brave then is the decision of Edinburgh company Green Room to tackle Brown’s distinctly American
Review: Drum Struck By Drum Café
By Editor at August 18, 2013 | 11:55 am | 1 Comments
Being a percussionist who owns his own ‘djembe’, to say I was excited about seeing a show which features traditional African drums, including one for EVERY member of the audience, would be the very definition of understatement. Slotting in somewhere between Stomp! and The Lion King, Drum Struck delivers on practically every level. In the beginning, we meet the Drum
Review: The Curse Of Elizabeth Faulkner
By Editor at August 17, 2013 | 2:46 pm | 0 Comment
Every now and then, you see a listing for a show and think to yourself “Yes! This seems to have all the makings of a great show.” When I saw there was a “Horror farce” featuring an undertaker-turned-gravedigger and the whole thing was being performed in what is essentially a cave under the South Bridge, I felt sure I was in for a real treat. Sadly however,
Review: ‘The Play That Goes Wrong’
By Editor at August 15, 2013 | 11:57 am | 0 Comment
As far removed as it is from my usual style, I am going to begin this review with a couple of negatives – for reasons, I’m certain, will become very clear, very quickly. My first (and main) gripe with this production is something of a ‘pet peeve’ of mine with theatre in general – the lack of any form of programme or cast list (save for paying £5
Review: Hansel & Gretel – The Opera
By Editor at August 14, 2013 | 11:26 am | 0 Comment
Translator/Director, Christopher Moon-Little, brings his modern take on Engelbert Humperdink’s 1891 opera to the Edinburgh fringe for weeks two and three. It features dual cast, largely composed of current or recent music school students – a fact which goes some way toward explaining the slightly uneven level of the performances. The first half of the opening
