Author: The Reviews Hub - Scotland

Writer:  Tim Crouch Director: Karl James and Andy Smith It’s an odd feeling, writing your career obituary. But elements of writer and performer Tim Crouch’s Truth’s A Dog Must Kennel undoubtedly conjures a more morose feeling of the Fringe’s (and Theatres) return and future – one of apprehension and squandered opportunity. One where the bleakness of King Lear, the impending doom and war slither into the contemporary, as Crouch’s latest production into the metatextual nuance of theatre begins to question the why and what now of our craft. In reverence to the spirit of Truth’s A Dog Must Kennel, in…

Writer: Uma Nada-Rajah Director: Debbie Hannan The royal vizier, the second-in-command, the confidant; if there is one thing to know about politics – someone else is always pulling the string. The white cliffs of Dover, is there a finer representation of these Isle’s welcoming borders? Well, for some, the welcoming part is a detraction. And the closure of said border is also a selling point. In her bid to become the country’s leader (how remarkably topical), Home Secretary Asiya Rao’s major policy announcement campaign hits a snag – just a little one, quite literally. As a parcelled baby washes ashore,…

Writer: Matthew Bulgo Death, politics, sex, famine, puppets, identity, metamorphosis, puppets, circuses, musicals, cost-of-living, immigration, puppets. The Festival Fringe is a lot. And sometimes – the humbleness of uplifting stories with spectacular visuals and harmonies is precisely the tonic we need to breathe. Where the stakes aren’t the end of the world, but of one family’s harmony – a universally told tale of grief, healing, and legacy, regardless of if you hate them or adore them. That’s exactly what Matthew Bulgo’s Blood Harmony is. A family-orientated story of loss, not only of (loss of) life but the bond of three sisters and…

Directors: Hamish MacDougall, Julian Spooner, Matt Wells Clown is a widely known and loved art – a pure form of storytelling – or so you thought. Project Dictator takes the expectation of clowning and thrusts the audience into a whirlwind of unexpected chaos. This new piece from returning Fringe company Rhum + Clay, commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, is an unpredictable yet fitting addition to Pleasance’s programming this year. The audience is closely packed and greeted by live electronic music (composed and performed by Khaled Kurbeh). Onstage is a red curtain and a small prompter screen that hangs just over…

Writer/Director: Pollyanna Esse 20 Minutes of Action is a verbatim re-telling of a controversial American sexual assault court case from emerging company Lionheart Theatre. This one-hour play is written from the statements and transcripts of the victim, perpetrator, and their families. A cast of seven carefully repeat their words, calling the audience to action and simultaneously delivering a message of solidarity to all women and victims of sexual assault. The cast are all onstage as the audience enters, and a hush falls without any effort, evoking the pregnant silence of a courtroom. They move through the details of the case,…

Writer/Director: James Ley Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Boy loves boy, boy ditches boy, boy reconnects with himself, boy hitches up and trails across the landscapes of Scotland searching for unsolicited sex in his newly christened Volkswagen…oh, you have? Perhaps, if you were lucky, you caught James Ley’s utterly grim, boisterous, and raunchy Wilf back in December at the same Traverse Theatre. But this time, they’ve brought more. Snappier direction, more jokes, tighter sphincters scripting and buckets more lube. On its initial outing Ley’s piece was met with a division of sorts from crowds; those who adored its…

Writer/Director: Seón Simpson and Gina Donnelly Previously a part of Summerhall’s online Fringe in 2021, Seón Simpson and Gina Donnelly’s production makes an in-person appearance – and by Jesus, was this worth the wait. Uncompromising, unapologetic, and unfiltered, Two Fingers Up grabs audiences by the unmentionables and shakes their understanding (or lack) of sex, pleasure, and female puberty until you start to rattle. Challenging the systemic ideology of previous generations’ concepts of how to act, what to shave, who to like, what not to touch, and consent, the best way you can – with a laugh. From the dreaded school ‘talk’ to self-discovery to…

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…