Author: Julia Amour
The Bear
★★★★☆ Fast and furious
Chekov called his own short play, The Bear, a ‘stupid vaudeville’, but it takes smarts and sass to really bring it to life after nearly 140 years, and this production delivers hilariously.
Sweet
★★★★☆ Spirited and original
Sweet from EGTG for week one of the Fringe only, explores a spirited and original tale of Edinburgh’s complicity in benefiting from the slave trade, and some of the women who stood up to campaign against it.
Plano
★★★★★ Thrilling microcosm
Plano, presented by Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group for EdFringe Week One, feels like David Lynch, Tennessee Williams and Luigi Pirandello formed a fractious throuple in some netherworld multiverse. That is meant as high praise, just don’t expect the play to make any Newtonian kind of sense.
A Better Memory
★★★☆☆ Smart and tender
A Better Memory (Pleasance Courtyard, to 30 Aug) is a fresh, smart and tender exploration of family secrets and how AI can change your life.
Brassed Off
★★★★☆ Inspired
An inspired local setting and some barnstorming performances make for an assured rendition by Leitheatre of Brassed Off, adapted from the 1996 Britflick and graced by the magic touch of the Lochgelly Band.
We Will Hear The Angels
★★★★☆ Atmospheric
We Will Hear the Angels is a meditation on the mysterious power of music in times of trouble; a meditation whose open-hearted empathy gradually draws the audience into a special communion.
Waiting for Wonka
★★★☆☆ Sweetly sick satire
Waiting for Wonka at Gilded Balloon’s Patter House delivers deliciously on its billing as an unauthorised parody sequel to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, with slick performances and sly digs at the attention economy.
Placeholder
★★★★☆ Powerful evocation
Set one year before the Haitian revolution of 1791, Placeholder at the EAS Studios @ Summerhall, powerfully evokes women’s lost voices in a piece that honours the lives of those who were stolen.
Everest Mallory 24 (With Stanley)
★★☆☆☆ Rushed
Everest Mallory 24 (With Stanley) – Andy Dickinson’s one-man show at Paradise in the Vaults from 2-23 August – mixes the droll storytelling tradition of Michael Palin’s Ripping Yarns with an Everyman take on the heroism and recklessness behind the failed expedition.
Happy Ending Street
★★★☆☆ Gallus
Happy Ending Street, from new Scottish theatre company DollsnRags, bursts vividly into life at Leith Arches like a cross between gothic crime drama and teen comedy.
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