Scotland

Writer: Robert Tressell Director: Neil Gore Reviewer: Edie Ranvier Robert Noonan, Irish sign writer, painter and decorator, was only 40 when he died in penury of tuberculosis, and was buried in a pauper’s grave in Liverpool. But his literary legacy as Robert Tressell, author of an impassioned 1,600 page manuscript about the injustices of capitalism which he called The Ragged ...

Adapter: Lee Hall (based on the screenplay by Marc Norman & Tom Stoppard) Director: Phillip Breen Reviewer: Dominic Corr We all know the life and loves of William Shakespeare, don’t we? One tale you may not know however is the impassioned romance of Shakespeare and Viola De Lesseps. The two star-crossed lovers embark on a burning, yet undeniably troubled affair. ...

Composer: Giuseppe Verdi  Librettist: Francesco Maria Piave Director: Matthew Richardson Conductor: Rumon Gamba Reviewer: Dominic Corr Seduction, tangled with an overbearing father all play a part in the turmoil of Rigoletto, the hunchbacked jester. The 1851 libretto opera has been revived by the Scottish Opera following Matthew Richardson’s 2011 production. Now, fully escaping its historical censorship, Rigoletto can serve to ...

Writer: Joan Littlewood's Theatre Workshop Director: Sally Lyall Reviewer: Gareth Davies In the centenary month of the end of the First World War, Edinburgh's Captivate Theatre present a welcome revival of this classic satire on the horrors of that conflict. First devised in the early 1960s by Joan Littlewood's innovative Theatre Workshop, the play was a ground-breaking combination of comedy ...

Writer: Rona Munro Director: Richard Baron Reviewer: Dominic Corr Janet Horne, the last woman to be legally executed in the British Isles, arrested in Dornoch Scotland is the subject of Rona Munro’s The Last Witch. Alone with her claw-handed daughter, Janet fends for the pair in the Highlands. Her charms, herbal remedies and manipulation tricks those into offering scraps of ...

Writer and Director: Debbie Isitt Music: Nicky Ager and Debbie Isitt Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys The clocks have gone back, Hallowe'en and Bonfire Night are over, so, of course, Christmas is here. Seven weeks early, but who's complaining when it's the stage version of Bafta Award-winning Debbie Isitt's hugely loveable 2009 movie, Nativity? For those familiar with the big-screen trilogy, the stage ...

Writer: Sylvia Dow Director: Muriel Romanes Reviewer: Gareth Davies In our age of consumerism, where acquisition and accumulation have become life goals, it is all too easy to find ourselves surrounded by stuff we don't really want, or need. Magda (Carol Ann Crawford) has been living amongst her years of accumulated stuff, threading her way through a maze of her ...

Writers: Henry Lewis, Jonathan Sayer, Henry Shields Director: Mark Bell Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys The mighty Mischief Theatre return. Hoorah! On the heels of their world-wide success with The Play That Goes Wrong (Olivier Award-winning, a run on Broadway and around the globe and several UK tours) and Peter Pan Goes Wrong (West End, UK tour and a screening on the ...