Scotland Reviews

Writer: Jenni Fagan Director: Debbie Hannan Reviewer: Dominic Corr Panopticon: noun. A historical building, most often a windowed prison turning in on itself, allowing a sense of visual connection. The inhabitants are on view at all times. Never really themselves, their thoughts the only thing kept apart from their keepers. It is also the titular building in which Jenni Fagan’s ...

Writer: Hannah Lavery Director: Eve Nicol Reviewer: Dominic Corr “Tick the box which most applies to you”. We don’t even consider it, do we? Many theatre-goers in Scotland will tick a box without so much as a thought. Often white. Often Scottish, or Irish or British - what though, when you apply to multiple boxes? When you become an inconvenience ...

Book: Patricia Resnick Music & Lyrics: Dolly Parton Director: Jeff Calhoun Choreographer: Lisa Stevens Designer: Tom Roger Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys 9 to 5, the 2008 musical based on the hit 1980 movie starring Dolly Parton, Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda, would seem on the surface to be a strange choice for a West End revival and UK tour in 2019. ...

Book: Alexander Dinelaris Featuring Music by Emilio & Gloria Estefan & Miami Sound Machine Director: Jerry Mitchell Reviewer: Dominic Corr Well, this was a surprise… There is no short supply of reasons to celebrate the life and achievements of Gloria Estefan, or indeed, husband Emilio. Above and beyond being ‘catchy’, Estefan’s contribution, not only to the structure of genre music ...

Writer: J. B. Priestly Director: Stephen Daldry Reviewer:  Tom Ralphs Much beloved by anyone setting the syllabus for English exams, An Inspector Calls is one of those rare things, a play that works as a piece of entertainment but also delivers a telling social commentary with convincing characters and believable situations. That it remains a regular feature in theatres, rather than ...

Writer: Bruce Norris Director: Michael Emans Reviewer: Dominic Corr The world never really changes, does it? The balance of offence, acceptance and hate simply shifts - given time, it will no doubt shift back. In a turbulent time, opinions which lay dormant are now unearthing themselves. Shifting from a culture in which the first black man was sitting in the ...

Writers: Matthieu Delaporte & Alexandre de la Patellière’s Adapter, Translator & Director: Jeremy Sams Designer: Francis O’Connor Reviewer: Lauren Humphreys Matthieu Delaporte and Alexandre de la Patellière’s 2010 play Le Prénom was a hit of such magnitude it spawned not only a big screen French version in 2012 but a German film incarnation in 2018. Jeremy Sam’s translation, What’s in ...

Writer: Oscar Wilde Director: Dominic Dromgoole Reviewer: Dominic Corr Finding itself deep in Wilde’s portfolio of writing, A Woman of No Importance finds itself a lesser-known, though by no mean less accomplished, piece. Dominic Dromgoole’s adaption of Wilde’s satirical take on vice, gender and expectations is an accessible piece, with a razor wit Wilde himself would find pride in. In ...