Writer and Director: Ryosuke Hayazaka It is fair to describe The Unluckiest Girl in the World as a little oddity. At well under an hour it is certainly short and the approach taken by writer / director Ryosuke Hayazaka is at times, strange. Aged 27 and working in Human Relations Yamanoura describes herself as The Unluckiest Girl in the World. Her fiancé vanished the day after proposing and she finds it hard to dump her current boyfriend despite his infidelity and habit of borrowing, but not repaying, money. When strolling in the street Yamanoura inevitably steps in gum. True to…
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Writer: Chezdan Mills Director: Max James Walker Chezdan Mills achieved a degree of notoriety on the reality TV show The World’s Strictest Parents as a fish-out-of-water gay teenager living with a very religious American family who preached anti-gay sermons in their church. It is tempting to be glib and say the experience was the making of him as Mills went on to earn a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Film Production ( at Salford University- just a brisk walk from tonight’s venue) and has now produced a short LGBTQ+ comedy series Conversations with my Therapist for release on streaming…
Writer: Peter Arnott Director: Hannah Bradley Croall The interrogation of Sir Roger Casement by an official, as depicted in this play, can be viewed as a microcosm of the conflict between Irish nationalists and the British Empire, on the brink of the Easter Rising in 1916. But it’s much more than that. In a Q&A after the opening night’s performance, playwright Peter Arnott cited the complexity of Casement and his story as the element that first attracted him to tackle the subject. In a superbly cast and performed revival of the play originally commissioned for the centenary of the Rising,…
Director: Daniele Rugo Life Support is the most powerful, urgent film you are ever likely to see. International doctors speak directly to camera over the course of some fourteen months as they return again and again to offer help to hospitals in Gaza. While they undoubtedly risk their own lives, their vision remains steadily on the people they are trying to help. Each speaks calmly and candidly, stressing the importance of being there to advocate for Gaza and to bear witness to the ongoing atrocities. Beneath the calm observations of Daniele Rugo’s documentary, a collage of talking heads and footage…
Many young people have come to know of Julie Fowlis through the music for the Disney movie Brave and for some that’s an introduction to Scottish Gaelic. Judging from the stalwarts of the local Gaelic community, including teachers from the city’s Gaelic Medium Education schools, who are in the room, many are attracted by her use of our national language. This Scottish tour is unusual, as instead of the traditional format of a support band and then the main act, Julie Fowlis has two sets with a special guest appearing in the second half. Unlike most bands who tour to…
Writer: D.C. Jackson Director: Johnny McKnight Can a strong cast save a story that keeps going round in circles? Johnny McKnight’s direction gives D.C. Jackson’s My Romantic History a lively start at the Tron Theatre, and with Julie Wilson Nimmo among the cast, there’s every reason to expect a smart, funny Scottish rom-com. For a while, it delivers exactly that. But the play eventually loses its momentum. The story follows Tom and Amy as an office romance develops almost by accident, with the action shown from both of their perspectives. That structure works well at first, because it lets the…
Music: Queen Lyrics: Queen Writer: Ben Elton Director: Rhonda Scott Based on the music of Queen and written by Ben Elton, who obviously has quite a quirky imagination, We Will Rock You follows the story of Galileo (Alex Donelly) as he realises he is a rebel, the futurist Global Soft Corporation, in the world of iPlanet where he lives has tried to do away with old-fashioned rock and roll only left their people with manufactured music. The rather stunning Killer Queen (Deborah Townsend) has her heavy man Khashoggi (Stephen Summers) chase away Galileo and fellow misfit Scaramouche (Emmah Chibesakunda) and…
A new and ambitious theatre company is about to stage its debut production, a revival of Peter Arnott’s Shall Roger Casement Hang? Originally presented in 2016 at the Tron Theatre in Glasgow, the play has not been seen in Scotland since – until now. Union Theatre Company will perform the work at Hill Street Theatre in Edinburgh this June. Two of the company’s founders, Hannah Bradley-Croall and Gregor McElvogue, took time out from rehearsals to explain their mission and why they’ve chosen the Arnott piece as their first offering to the public. “Union has been founded in the wake of…