Author: The Reviews Hub - Scotland

Writer: Duane Kelly Director: Katie Jackson A conversation between Cezanne ( Mark Coleman) and fellow artist Degas ( Fergus John McCann) starts the play, humorously portraying something of the relationship between the two men. This quickly moves into the main thread which is a ‘magic’ brush capable of transporting one in time. McCann also plays one of Cezanne’s sitters, a gardener Germaine,  who finds himself in the future, 2016, enticing a young struggling female artist, Nora Baker (Elaine McKergow), not male as the brochure states, to take the ‘brush’ and so the time transition occurs when she finds herself in…

Writers: Linsdey Williams and Peter Kerry Director: Joyce Branagh The simplicity of the set with two bookcases, a plethora of suitcases and a keyboard belies the complexity of the show. A cast of six tumble animatedly onto the stage in the blackout arguing and freezing when the lights go up. The audience are connected with and involved from the off, actually been given a part, props and directly addressed to, they love it. Audience won over, the cast of six then race through a plethora of classic novels in under an hour, played in a variety of ways: Moby Dick…

Writer: Bert Coules and Tim Marriott Director: Bert Coules Serious violin music plays as Watson (Tim Marriott) descends the stairs with a stick from the back of the auditorium opening the play with a dramatic entrance. Drama continues as he reads a piece from his writings. Marriott then breaks this ‘drama’ with a humorous comment relaxing into his life memories. ”An old soldier with a few bruises and a story to tell”. He begins with his home background, education and Afghanistan experiences. The lighting and sound effects (Bert Coules) add greatly to the atmosphere, setting each scene perfectly; the acting,…

Writer: Sonya Kelly Director: Sara Joyce We’re renowned for it; queuing. We’re rather good at following orders in this country; an understanding of the unwritten doctrine of etiquette and ensuring others who perhaps don’t grasp the concept are made aware of how things are done here. There are no favours, no hand-me outs, and certainly no skipping. Everyone is equal in a queue: the professors, the accountants, the servicemen and students, even those who took 63 buses to enter this nation. They need to wait their turn. That’s just how it is. Right? And, at first, The Last Return plays out like…

Created & Choreographed by Alan Cumming and Steven Hoggett Oh, but what a dreich evening, thunderstruck, with nought but misery lingering in the air. The silhouette of a lanky haired fella’ seems to brave the torrents atop the distressed boards with not but his clothes, his paper and quill, perhaps you know him? Robert. Rabbie. Burns. Scotland’s bard. Scotland’s favourite. Scotland’s original bad boy rock star Gesture marred to word, together, locked in an eternity of recitation, Alan Cumming extends himself to the letters, ballads, and sonnets of the man in the cascading rain, the wispish and woeful Burns, captured…

Writer: Lauryn Redding Director: Bryony Shanahan Maybe it’s the misery deep down, but we’re sick to the back teeth of shmaltzy romances and gooey eyes. Where songs burst with the chipper of lovebirds, and the watery thin narrative makes way for jukebox musical melodies and antics. Lauryn Redding’s Bloody Elle isn’t one of those love stories. The blisteringly magnificent identity of Bloody Elle and the frankness and tender way in which love is explored – even dissected, crammed full of those difficult-to-capture butterfly moments means one thing: this is gig theatre that channels beauty into the intimate and sweat-stained pits of the…

Writer:  Michael John O’Neill Director: Katherine Nesbitt The determination to maintain an intimate monologue to the level This Is Paradise offers is a rare feat of theatre. Even the most prolific monologue pieces suffer their ebb and flow of quality. But not this. Michael John O’Neill’s script is something remarkable. Upon the request of a desperate young woman, Kate chooses to give away the one thing her friends, family, and country have been longing for; peace. In choosing to help this stranger, Kate agrees to aid the man who promised to ruin her. This is Paradise is a tale of the ramifications of…

Writer: Tabby Lamb Director: Jamie Fletcher The idiom of a ‘voice of a generation’ comes with a lot of flak but is possibly the most refreshing and kindest way – Tabby Lamb’s Happy Meal is precisely the voice of a generation, one of social media’s explosive impact, and the homogenising of Trans rights, lives, and the emergence of Trans stories which flow more into the ‘traditional’ genres of Romantic Comedy. As the world changes, from MySpace and Bebo to Facebook and Twitter, the attitudes, positions and insights into Gender studies and body dysmorphia is as complex a minefield, as the spam folder on your…