Posts Tagged ‘review’
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 MoreFringe: A timely reminder of historical horrors
A young woman rescues a drowning man on a beach in South America and the ensuing conversation between the two reveals the true nature of the man – and why he is what he is. This is not a play about the well documented mass murder and experimental atrocities committed by Josef Mengele, it is…
Read MoreFringe: Any job will do in entertaining Not Quite
Cassie Symes and Georgina Thomas are 2016 graduates from CENTRAL drama school. Not Quite is written and performed by the two artists. It is an amusing and well observed comedy about the absurdities of interviewing for that first tenuous grip on the job ladder. With pithy wit it regales us with their desperation for employment.…
Read MoreFringe: Bringing prohibition USA to Edinburgh
For those that don’t know the work of Damon Runyon he was a short story writer that encapsulated the prohibition era in America. His colourful characters were gangster and hustlers with wonderful 1930’s names such as Harry The Horse and Good Time Charlie. Runyon’s work is best known as the basis to the musical Guys…
Read MoreFringe: One man and his bagpipes with a sad end
Thunderstruck is a one man show written and performed by David Colvin who acted in the acclaimed play The Black Watch. David tells the story of Gordon Duncan and how this Highland genius bin cleaner of a bagpiper changed his life. Gordon Duncan was, like so many exceptionally talented musicians, gifted with both the classical…
Read MoreFringe: A production of two halves – and it’s superb
BalletBoyz is an outstanding production. The production is presented in two halves, Them and Us, both choreographed and executed perfectly to the accompanying music score by Charlotte Harding and Keaton Henson respectively. ‘Them’ explores individuality of movement, ‘Us’ explores human connections. The all-male dance troupe are metronomic in their precision, graceful in their movement, expressive…
Read MoreA look at what goes into making fine furniture
In this large but stunningly illustrated and compelling autobiographical tome, artist Rupert Williamson dissects the organic process which came to define his work as a fine furniture maker. The mildly dyslexic designer embraced futurism in the early 1970s with gawdy, bulbous, curved structures, desperate to topple the establishment – which for a designer at that…
Read MoreA love affair with wild life and the barn owl
Jim Crumley is one of the country’s premier wildlife writers and this small but perfectly formed book shows why. The writer looks back on his ethereal encounters with the barn owl and its aptly heart-shaped face, which he has always cherished as part of his life-long affiliation with nature. Even living in Dundee as a…
Read MoreThe secrets of Leith revealed in new publication
Leith, often overlooked today, has had an exciting and prominent part to play in Scottish history. Secret Leith gives a visual walkthrough of the burgh, describing in intricate detail the history behind the then major port and industrial area, providing the reader with an insight into the civil wars and production past. Gillon uses early…
Read MoreThe Trojans brought to the stage by war survivors
Real-life innocent survivors of a conflict are to tell the story of The Trojans at this year’s Fringe. Hiba is standing in the garden of the council house she shares with her family in Milton of Campsie, near Glasgow. It’s a long way from Syria, the country they fled after Hiba’s school was shelled by…
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