Fringe: No place to Hyde in a great one man show

Michael Tonkin-Jones is a busy performer – in this one man show,Hyde and Seek, he demonstrates considerable skill, playing all the characters, he sings, is a puppet master and dances too. The play is based on Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and narrated by Albert, the stage door manager of a theatre who is…

Read More

Fringe: Going coco-nuts for improvised fun and laughs

I’m not usually a fan of improvised comedy, it can so easily retreat into crudity or banality. Not from this cast of five, they are intelligent, fast, fun to watch and very funny. A word is thrown out from an audience member and they are off. How they manage to navigate from ‘somewhere in Europe’,…

Read More

Fringe: An early show that’s worth getting up for

White Girls is one of the earlier shows of the day and well worth setting your alarm clock to make sure you go. The show tells the tale of naive voluntourism within the Calais Jungle refugee camp. This could have turned into a political rant at the incompetence and uselessness of global governments. It wasn’t,…

Read More

Fringe: True stories of an incredible life well lived

There are some people that can make their lives complicated, there are others for whom life is complicated, then there is Fiona Goodwin. The title of her monologue, A Very British Lesbian, gives it away: she is a lesbian. Everything conspired to keep her in the closet, her religion, her country and her mother’s desire…

Read More

Fringe: To entertain so well is certainly Le Coup

To be super rich would be a wonderful thing, to drift from private yacht and then to soar the heavens in private jets – how nice. But what do you do to entertain your equally rich friends who have seen and done everything before? It’s obvious, you hire the troupe of Le Coup! This production…

Read More

Fringe: Who dictates the news in The Nights

If I were a playwright, I would like to write like Henry Naylor. Henry Naylor has been described, correctly, as ‘one of our best new playwrights’. He writes like Hemingway, not a word is wasted and he has that extraordinary ability to fill up the imagination without verbosity. The story deals with the shambolic fall-out…

Read More

Fringe: A Brexit comedy as funny as Brexit itself

Lolly Jones: I Believe in Merkels was advertised as comedy with niche burlesque. It was neither. The show consists of a series of TV news reports projected overhead on a screen of EU politicians and their commentary during the May years as Prime Minister. Between these Lolly Jones provides a hackneyed commentary as repeated and…

Read More

Jody is whisky brand ambassador for Scotland

The co-owner of a Scots cocktail bar has taken on the role of first ever Monkey Shoulder whisky brand ambassador to Scotland and the North.  Independent family distillers William Grant & Sons UK has confirmed the appointment of Jody Buchan, co-owner of Kin Edinburgh. With a wealth of industry experience and knowledge, not only has Jody…

Read More

Fringe: Lucie Pohl offers a mixed bag of laughs

Okay, here’s a few things you should know about stand-up comedian Lucie Pohl. Firstly, she’s a short (5ft 1in) and hyperactively talented German-born New Yorker who dances like no-one’s watching and is inventively potty-mouthed. Despite being pint-sized, this failed former actor (her words) nevertheless exudes the sort of charisma which registers on Geiger counters. She…

Read More