Tuesday, February 4

Scotland

After the Turn: The Mystery of Bly Manor, Online @theSpaceUK
17Aug By Paul DownhamNo Comments
Scotland

After the Turn: The Mystery of Bly Manor, Online @theSpaceUK

Nine Knocks Theatre’s After the Turn: The Mystery of Bly Manor is a modern retelling of Henry James’ classic novella, The Turn of the Screw. Written and directed by George Cooper and Ellie Hardwick, it is a delightfully creepy interpretation of a classic and well-loved ghost story. The piece opens with a black screen and overlapping voices giving an ominous feeling from the start. Presented as a series of filmed interviews edited in a documentary style, the show ingeniously incorporates the framing device used in James’ original work, incorporating the first person narration of Theodora (Eilidh Gibson) as a series of video diaries presented to the programme by her friend, Marcus Bryson (Brian Weldich). We learn that Theodora was hired as a Nanny by Jonathan Bly (Stan Wildish) to ...
Read More
The Silly and Unnecessary Variety Show – Virtual Edinburgh Fringe
13Aug By Paul DownhamNo Comments
Scotland

The Silly and Unnecessary Variety Show – Virtual Edinburgh Fringe

Online comedy is difficult. You know that awkward pause in a live show where no one laughs at a joke and there's just silence? That's what you get all the way through. Even the best comedians struggle to deal with this lack of atmosphere and streaming live over the internet means that things can and do go wrong. Lori Hamilton cleverly addresses this at the beginning of her performance, inviting us to take a drink or snack to fill those awkward gaps. Her show is broadcast live from her home in New York, and "produced" by her two cats. She flits between different characters and video content, with a touch of added whimsy. Was it silly? Absolutely. Was it unnecessary? Perhaps. Her style isn't one that particularly works for me, but it did have that touch of Fringe nostalgia - stum...
Read More
When Judas met John: Songs of Dylan and Lennon – Online@theSpaceUK
12Aug By Paul DownhamNo Comments
Scotland

When Judas met John: Songs of Dylan and Lennon – Online@theSpaceUK

With the Edinburgh Festival cancelled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic some of the venues are supplying a virtual festival for those of us who are missing out on our annual pilgrimage to Scotland. I have been going to the Fringe for over a decade. It is an experience like no other as you spend every day going from comedy to drama to music to magic and then to some act you can’t quite classify but they were really quite good. You basically live in a bubble of creativity away from normal life and all its attendant worries. It is such a tragedy the festival is not taking place but thankfully The Space venue in Edinburgh is holding a virtual festival with some of the shows that would have been staged there this year. One of those shows is this one exploring the music of B...
Read More
Adventures with the Painted People – Pitlochry Festival Theatre/BBC Radio 3
10Jun By Paul DownhamNo Comments
Scotland

Adventures with the Painted People – Pitlochry Festival Theatre/BBC Radio 3

Leading Scottish playwright David Greig’s first play since 2013 was going to be the centrepiece of the new season at Pitlochry Festival Theatre until Covid-19 forced them to close their doors. But the virus has forced theatres to become much more agile so Adventures with the Painted People has been rejigged to be part of their online Shades of the Tay offer, and not surprisingly given Greig’s reputation BBC Radio 3 snapped it up for their Arts in Quarantine series It’s the same story set in 86AD as disgraced Roman officer and wannabe poet Lucius is captured by the fierce Picts lead by Caledonian witch with a heart Eithne, who is keen to use her captive to negotiate a peace with the disciplined legionnaires who are massacring their wild menfolk. By a quirk of theatrical luck Ei...
Read More
4Jan By Roger JacobsNo Comments
Scotland

Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of) – Royal Lyceum Theatre

For anyone who battled through Jane Austen’s ‘Pride & Prejudice’ at school - or university - this play is for YOU. If you spent those hours-you’ll-never-get-back watching one of the film or TV adaptations, hurling abuse and shouting increasingly colourful language into the mouths of the characters, this script is for YOU. To witness this irritating novel set about with such irreverent relish was a filthy pleasure. Never mind what legions of readers and viewers have wanted to tell Lady Catherine De Bourgh to do, this play - via The Best Ever Mr Darcy - finally does it. How? First off, we’re introduced, not to Mr and Mrs Bennet, but to six of Longbourn’s servants clad in white utility smocks and DM’s (Dear Young Team, that’s a brand of footwear, not a form of soshal meeja); the sto...
Read More