Author: The Reviews Hub - Scotland

Writer: Tim Firth Director: Joanna Read Training days. Excursion missions. Trust exercises. Does anyone enjoy mandatory work events like these? If they do, they’re the ones to avoid at the office party. A reimagining of their comedic play Neville’s Island, Tim Firth adapts their work for an all-female cast, following similar structural and narrative threads, tweaking others into Sheila’s Island. After triumphantly declaring their success with solving the work-issued cryptic puzzle clues, Marketing Manager Sheila proudly lands (well, sinks) the boat on the coast of a small island in the Lake District. A training weekend with work, Sheila’s team of…

Based on the work of William Shakespeare Director: Dominic Hill Shakespearean Opera – it’s a nightmare of a concoction, merging two gigantic forms of artistic expression, running the risk of overwrought emotion or needless complexity. More often than not, the scroll of failures outweighs the pleasant experiences. And then there are productions like Scottish Opera’s Midsummer Night’s Dream – a damn fine balance of exceptional magnitude, clever, and touching – ingeniously capturing the bard’s work, while infusing a contemporary and accessible edge to their show. Dominic Hill’s triumphantly original marvel continues the success Hill demonstrates, being the third operatic adaptation…

Writer: Vlad Butucea and Hope Dickson Leach Director: Hope Dickson Leach Cinematography: David Liddell Adapted once more, Robert Louis Stephenson’s Gothic Novella – The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde is a literary juggernaut, a cultural icon with an impact that drives itself into the English language’s understanding of duality, private life – and perhaps most significantly the dredged up remains of Scottish nationalism vs Unionist ideals. The Ghosts of Leith Theatre, resurrected once more to draw the muck and mirth of the city into the realms of live performance from Scotland’s cream of the crop, with an understanding not…

Writer: Richard O’Brien Director: Christopher Luscombe A miserable, wet, wet night in the middle of the abyss. A broken-down car and two young lovers lost in the woods, with not but a castle on the road to freedom. But in search of a phone, denizens of a dangerous and troubling nature are afoot for the pair. A pastiche of the schlock B-movies of his youth, Richard O’Brien’s Rocky Horror Show establishes the musical in the lavish eccentricities we have come to expect from the film and original stage play. O’Brien’s production decorates the usual rock n’ roll hits with pops…

Writer: Ronald Harwood Director: Terry Johnson In a play that centres around an actor who refuses to contemplate not performing in spite of being obviously unwell, it was perhaps the ultimate irony that, for the opening night of the show at King’s Theatre, Julian Clary missed the performance due to illness. In his place, Samuel Holmes stepped up to play the title role of The Dresser alongside Matthew Kelly as Sir. Sir is the self-centred Actor Manager of a touring theatre company in the 1940s. His dresser is Norman, but the role of the dresser goes far beyond ensuring Sir…

Writer: C S Lewis Director: Michael Fentiman Composer: Benji Bower & Barnaby Race Based on Original Direction/Devising: Sally Cookson It has been winter for one hundred years, but now, Spring is returning. And while you may be forgiven with mistaking this land of tundra and lamplight for the brisk Scottish night, Edinburgh welcomes an entirely different realm of magic with The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. C. S. Lewis’s story of the Pevensie children Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, evacuees from London who find more than they bargain for with their new host, Professor Kirk. Eccentric, curious, and all the while…

Book, Music & Lyrics: Jim Steinman Director: Jay Scheib Roaring into Edinburgh, the streets may never be the same again. It’ll certainly take a while to remove the tire tracks. Enveloping the Playhouse with its leather-clad embrace – Bat Out of Hell lands to thunderous applause and much revelry. A dystopian fairy-tale, a manipulated and twisted Neverland where the thrill of youth counterbalances the tyranny of capitalistic authority – communicated through the legacy of juggernaut Jim Steinman & MeatLoaf (Michael Lee Aday), we descend into the depths of Obsidian, where The Lost find themselves forever eighteen – under the crimson glare of…