Edinburgh International Festival

Writer: David Greig Composer: Gordon McIntyre Director: Kate Hewitt Reviewer: S.E. Webster A whole decade has passed since acclaimed playwright David Greig’s Midsummer first premiered at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. Since then the play has toured across the world from New York to Seoul. 2018 now sees this fun, carefree musical theatre production return to the city of its ...

Reviewer: S.E. Webster Against a silhouette backdrop of Edinburgh’s iconic landmarks, Letters Live, the final instalment in the 70th anniversary programme of the Edinburgh International Festival, makes its Festival debut. A combination of surprise performances from famous stage and screen actors and written correspondence by often famous, eminent or simply downright funny people,  makes for a compelling evening of spoken ...

Writer: Alan Ayckbourn Director: Annabel Bolton Reviewer: S.E. Webster Incredible though it may sound, 2017 is actually Alan Ayckbourn’s debut at the Edinburgh International Festival. The prolific playwright, whose plays have been translated into more than 35 languages, is finally treading the floorboards at the Festival with his new work The Divide. Having united with the Old Vic and handed ...

Violin: Nicola Benedetti Composer: Franz Schubert, Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák Conductor: Iván Fischer Reviewer: S.E. Webster As 2017 marks the pivotal 70th anniversary of the Edinburgh International Festival, it seems more than fitting that Nicola Benedetti, a home-grown talent from West Kilbride in Scotland, should be performing on the Usher Hall stage alongside the Budapest Festival Orchestra. For the ...

By JOHN KENNEDY The majestic central column in St.Andrew’s Square lent a magnificent viewpoint for the venerable, dynastic godfather of 19th Century civil engineering, Robert Stevenson, grandfather of Robert Louis. Tonight it was very much “Beam me up, Scottie”. They were the Edinburgh lighthouse family who shone a beam of guiding global vision. Skipping the laser light fantastic, Standard Life’s ...

  One of the world’s most iconic arts festival, The Edinburgh Internation Festival, turns 70 this year. John Kennedy reports from Edinburgh on the launch of the anniversary edition programme. The panoramic scene-stealing Church of Scotland Assembly Hall on The Mound was an appropriate venue for the 70th-anniversary launch of Edinburgh’s International Festival Programme. The corporate design branding following again ...