Intolerable White Noise Turns 60
✮✮ John Osborne's Look Back In Anger Old Fitz Theatre | Sydney directed by Damien Ryan and Lizzie Schebesta Jimmy is a very angry young man, and in Look Back In Anger we are subjected to a series of his incessant, long and very tedious rants that prove themselves to be ultimately ineffectual and highly irritating. At one point, he insists “that voice that cries out doesn’t have to be a weakling’s does it?” 1956, it seems, was a completely different time. Today, a white man
National Youth Theatre at 60
✮✮✮✮ James Fritz's The Fall Bola Agbaje's Bitches Fin borough Theatre | London directed by Matt Harrison | Valentina Ceschi To celebrate its 60th birthday, the National Youth Theatre is presenting three new plays at the Finborough. The first deals with old age; the second, racism in the internet age; and the third, which premieres on August 24, stages Mohsin Hamid's Booker-shortlisted novel, The Reluctant Fundamentalist. In September, there's also a huge NYT gala performance,
Not Quite Cabaret, Not Quite Theatre
✮✮ Bonita Brisker's Bonita & Billie Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh The show begins with a series of photographs of Billie Holiday projected onto a screen, Bonita Brisker lying on sheets of black satin with white flowers in her hair. Then she wakes up. Late for her concert she dashes around her dressing room preparing to go onstage. She is breathing heavily, seemingly confused – a scene which is far too long and becomes a little uncomfortable. She then appears in concer
Back to School
✮✮✮ 1/2 Cora Bissett's Glasgow Girls Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh directed by Cora Bissett In 2005, a group of seven schoolgirls from Glasgow launched a campaign against the treatment of asylum seekers in their city after the detention of one of their school friends. They specifically targeted issues of child detention, dawn raids and sudden deportation, which affected many of their neighbours and peers. Cora Bissett, director of Glasgow Girls came up with the idea t
Don't Forget to Smile
✮✮✮✮ Charlotte Josephine's Blush Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh directed by Ed Stambollouian A circle of red carpet in the middle of the stage, lit up with large square lamps. On each side, a desk, one for the male performer, one for the female. It feels like a boxing ring or a red carpet: a place of exposure, competition and fame. But these things aren’t always glamorous. Sometimes they are heavy with shame. Written by Charlotte Josephine, the play that unfolds is a s
No More Mr Nice Guy
✮✮✮✮ 1/2 Camilla Whitehill's Mr Incredible Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh directed by Sarah Meadows Mr Incredible follows a man who thinks he is just that – incredible. Adam wanted Holly and he got her. Why shouldn’t he? He’s got a decent job and a flat. He’s good looking – he’s an all round nice guy. He deserves her. Doesn’t he? Camilla Whitehill’s script builds like a wave, slowly but inevitably pushing the play towards its grisly conclusion, when all our preconcepti
In Your Face... And On It, Too
✮✮✮ In Your Face Theatre's Trainspotting Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh directed by Greg Esplin & Adam Spreadbury-Maher Trainspotting is one of the few cases where I believe the film does justice to the book, transformed into a cult sensation at the hands of Danny Boyle. But what of this interactive theatre version, co-produced by In Your Face and the King’s Head Theatre? Bright lights flash, aggressive beats thud; smoke seeps its way out of a room packed with bodies.
The Magic of Memory
✮✮✮✮ Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie Edinburgh International Festival | Edinburgh directed by John Tiffany Director John Tiffany is quickly gaining more widespread fame, thanks to his role in the long-anticipated Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. Whilst that continues to stir up flurries of attention in London, his no less magical, 2013 production of Tennessee Williams’ The Glass Menagerie gets its European premiere up at the Edinburgh International Festival. The act
A Woman Undone
✮✮✮ Abi Zakarian's Fabric Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh directed by Tom O'Brien Leah loves fabric, whether that’s her special silk red dress, fine tweed or the material of her wedding dress. She works in a posh clothes shop, selling bespoke suits to rich men. This is how she meets her husband Ben, showing him a swatch book of all the best fabrics. His mother doesn’t trust her, but her family tells her not to ‘mess this one up’. Leah wryly observes that: ‘no-one is goo
Scorched By the Law
✮✮✮ 1/2 Stacey Gregg's Scorch Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Edinburgh directed by Emma Jordan Stacey Gregg’s powerful new play explores the treatment of gender-curious young people in the eyes of the law. Amy McAllister plays Kes – a young woman who has always thought of herself as more like a boy. She likes playing video games and in those, you’re free to be whoever you want to be and Kes is always a dude. She doesn’t fancy Ryan Gosling – she wants to be him – and so when she
