It’s 2014 and Ukraine is in chaos after President Yanukovych is ousted by a populist uprising. The people are angered at his decision to suspend the preparations to join the European Union, and they are disgusted by the immense corruption within his government. What better way to encourage […]
After a sensational opening involving the lead singer of The Great White Males smashing his way through the stage’s backdrop, this punk performance gets off to a cracking start: “Everybody wants a home A little bit of debt to call their own” The show’s called Cuncrete, and it […]
Katie Bonna sets up ‘All The Things I Lied About’ in the guise of a TED talk; the red carpet, the head mic., the snazzy spotlights. She tells us this talk will change our lives, that she will draw us from the dark heart of dishonesty and pull […]
After a couple of years off the comedy radar Tony Law’s new show, ‘A Law Undo His-Elf What Welcome’ makes it clear that he is back on target. Bouncing onto stage in a pilot onesie and gardening gloves, Law begins his show with a sequence of rhythmic gymnastics: […]
‘Ethics is nothing else than reverence for life’. A quote from the scientist Albert Schweitzer, not the scientist featured in the play, Tank, but a scientist with a much better sense of moral integrity than the characters on stage. Tank is an extraordinary piece of theatre, not simply because […]
Seann Walsh hasn’t been to Edinburgh for a couple of years. This is almost definitely because he’s been living a prolifically healthy lifestyle; wheat free, dairy free, avocado on rye, that sort of thing. Not because he looks like a glowing vision of health, but because he can’t […]
Alternating between the present day and the mid 90s, Happy Dave is both the story of a DJ and a commentary on today’s youth culture, or lack of it. The rave scene in the 90s was a counter culture that really stuck it to The Man. Thousands of […]
It’s the end of the world. A great flood has swept all but four human beings into oblivion. Somehow, against the odds, four strangers manage to escape on a swan pedalo. At first the characters are fairly stereotyped: posho Steven; nerdy pessimist, Andy; spiritual nutter, Bobby; scarily competitive […]
In all the fun of the fringe it’s easy to overlook the theatre productions that are doing something more than simply entertaining their audiences and trying to break even. A lot of theatre I’ve seen in Edinburgh this summer is pushing boundaries in terms of form, but Villain […]
It’s a simple set-up. The audience fills out a form while queuing for the show; they accuse someone they know of a crime, and they provide a line or two of substantiating evidence. Then the show gets up and running and one of these ‘criminals’ is called to […]