All Reviews

Writer and Director: Dictynna Hood Reviewer: Maryam Philpott A dysfunctional family gather for a birthday party to finally reveal all the dark secrets that for reasons no one can fathom have never been revealed before at any number of parties the family have previously attended together. So goes the oh so standard narrative treatment which Dictynna Hood applies to her ...

Writer and Director: Tom Cullen Reviewer: Richard Maguire British films have held their own at this year’s London Film Festival. Despite tiny budgets, British directors have made movies just as good as those boasting budgets of millions. Pink Wall, the directorial debut by actor Tom Cullen was made with £100,000 and was shot in nine days. Nevertheless, his film charting ...

Writer: Catherine S McMullen Director: Małgorzata Szumowska Reviewer: Richard Maguire The Handmaid’s Tale hangs heavy over Małgorzata Szumowska’s first English-language film about a cult leader and his female disciples trekking across moors and mountains to find a new home. While beautifully shot, The Other Lamb is too laden with familiar horror tropes and the story isn’t as involving as it ...

Writer: Jenni Fagan Director: Debbie Hannan Reviewer: Dominic Corr Panopticon: noun. A historical building, most often a windowed prison turning in on itself, allowing a sense of visual connection. The inhabitants are on view at all times. Never really themselves, their thoughts the only thing kept apart from their keepers. It is also the titular building in which Jenni Fagan’s ...

Writer: Hannah Lavery Director: Eve Nicol Reviewer: Dominic Corr “Tick the box which most applies to you”. We don’t even consider it, do we? Many theatre-goers in Scotland will tick a box without so much as a thought. Often white. Often Scottish, or Irish or British - what though, when you apply to multiple boxes? When you become an inconvenience ...

Reviewer: Miriam Sallon Dance Expanded brings us a selection of finalist performances from its 2016 and 2018 competitions. Anyone can apply to the competition, and there are no limitations on content. The only stipulation is, “You have to have something to champion, something to defend.” It’s no wonder, then, that the performances are varied in the extreme, from slow-motion seaside ...

Writer: Gail Louw Director: Vik Sivalingam Reviewer: David Guest South African politics in a post-Apartheid setting provides the edgy background to exciting new work The Ice Cream Boys at Jermyn Street Theatre, a small venue which constantly manages to strike oil. A boyish banter combines with cut-throat confrontation as two old rivals meet in the waiting room of a hospital ...

Writer an performer: Richard Gadd Director: Jon Brittain Reviewer: Stephen Bates As an Edinburgh Comedy Award winner and an accomplished actor, Richard Gadd has been acquiring a degree of celebrity status that could draw unwanted attention from over-enthusiastic fans. However, the terrifying and apparently true story that he has to tell, one of obsession and transgression, has nothing to do ...