Reviews & features: Edinburgh Festivals

The Gentleman of Leisure

Engaging and sharp

Tom Neenan and Nish Kumar are The Gentlemen of Leisure, bringing you an energetic and enlightening hour of satire and silliness. Although a little more on-stage chemistry between the pair wouldn’t go amiss, the duo are engaging and sharp, and pull off…

Nat Luurtsema

An agreeable debut with a twist

There was nothing in the pre-publicity material to suggest that In My Head I’m a Hero would take the turn that it does, and this is to Nat Luurtsema’s credit. A fairly humdrum but perfectly agreeable show about being a tea-loving daydreamer who wanted…

John Robins

A master of humour over jokes

John Robins is a floppy-haired chap with an earnest demeanor and an appreciation of life’s pleasurable minutiae - he spends his introduction talking about the wonders of his new digital camera, which also functions as a digital recorder so he can listen…

Felicity Ward

Has to inflate embarrassing mishaps into excruciating humiliations

Being less a ‘moron’ (her word) than a victim of circumstance, Felicity Ward has to inflate mere embarrassing mishaps into excruciating humiliations to get her desired reaction which, with some neat turns of phrase, she does. Aware that her brave but…

Others

Impressive piece of verbatim theatre exploring the modern media

Jemma and Kylie, two thirds of the Paper Birds, perch in an armchair and speculate about Nazim, an Iranian woman Jemma’s been corresponding with by post. Maryam, the third Bird, plays Nazim, updating her performance to reflect her colleagues…

Gordon Southern

An enjoyable hour with a cheeky chap

On the night we popped into Southern’s show, the audience were a touch rowdy. Still it gave him chance to display his well-honed crowd-control skills. Audience pacified and on with the show, one with the theme of borders, inspired by his Australian wife…

Terry Alderton

There’s probably a joke here for all tastes

Watching Alderton is like channel-flipping between several different acts and finding that, by a million-to-one fluke, the composite experience makes perfect sense. ‘You can’t please everybody all of the time,’ chides his Gollum-like alter ego; but with…

EIF show Caledonia discusses banking and Scottish nationalism

Darien colony tale retold at Edinburgh International Festival

The last time the National Theatre of Scotland was on an Edinburgh International Festival stage they told, in 365, small, beautiful half-stories about teenagers, played by unknown actors - living in the forgotten corners of public life. That was in…

Lars Husum and his novel My Friend Jesus Christ

A wild and bizarre slapstick farce

Given that My Friend Jesus Christ reads like a Dogme movie, you can’t help but feel Lars Husum’s time working as a dramaturge at Lars von Trier’s Copenhagen film production company Zentropa fed into his debut novel. ‘It’s not conscious, but I see your…

Impressionist Gardens

A remarkable exhibition of iconic, influential works at The National Galleries

The National Galleries of Scotland’s ambitious exhibition brings together around 100 paintings focusing on the garden as subject for impressionist painters: remarkably the first show of its kind to have been held anywhere in the world. It’s hard to…

Cabaret Chordelia - Making a Song and Dance

Cabaret with a heart and mind

Company Chordelia is known for its willingness to push the boundaries of modern dance and strike an emotional chord. Something which looks set to continue when they bring their latest performance Cabaret Chordelia to the Fringe. Described as an…

Top 5: Authors You'll Have Seen on Telly

Charlotte Square's more recognisable faces

Pauline McLynn It’s probably the kind of thing that really irks an author trying to break out from the shell of their most recognisable role, but with McLynn, all you can really think about is Mrs Doyle determinedly offering a cup of tea with the words…

Morecambe

Show-stopping comic tribute

This funny-sad account of the life and death of the man who was dubbed Britain’s ‘comedian of the century’ is already a big hit with Fringe crowds. It’s fair to assume that the prospect of seeing the late, great Eric Morecambe brought back to life on…

David Bainbridge

Debunking the myths surrounding teenagers

Vilified, hated, dismissed, feared and ridiculed, with a reputation blackened beyond damage limitation by even the deftest of spin doctors. Teenagers may be the least fashionable or genial of causes to champion, but that is exactly what David Bainbridge…

Milestone

Provocative exhibition accompanying a live stone-carving project

Entering the quad of the Edinburgh College of Art feels a bit like discovering yet another ill-placed tram construction site. The air is full of the drone of power tools, and dust clouds settle in your hair and mouth. Milestone is an unconventional…

Silviu Purcărete’s 'Faust'

The veteran Romanian director tackles Goethe

Silviu Purcărete doesn’t do things by halves. Last time the veteran Romanian director was in Edinburgh was almost two decades ago with a version of Ubu Rex. The production was a massive take on Alfred Jarry’s absurdist classic. Since then he brought a…

Sammy J and Heath McIvor's puppetry for grown-ups

Forests, Dreams and Postcards from Purgatory in two new shows

My favourite moments are when puppets break on stage,’ laughs puppeteer Heath McIvor, the man literally pulling the strings behind Sammy J in the Forest of Dreams, the cult adult puppet show which prepares to return to the Fringe this year. ‘There’s…

Julian Lloyd Webber and the Edinburgh Youth Orchestra String Ensemble

Another unlikely Fringe debutante in the shape of cellist Lloyd Webber

Five firsts at the Fringe for Edinburgh Youth Orchestra which breaks fresh ground this year with its new string ensemble of leading players, both past and present. With cellist Julian Lloyd Webber as director and soloist, its Fringe debut also features…

Circus Oz: 30th Birthday Bash

Acrobatics with an Aussie accent

Characters in colourful costumes exchange banter with the audience, the live band plays a constant stream of Gogol Bordello-like polka and one act involves a dramatic take on Frankenstein's monster. This isn't your average circus. Far more theatrical…

5 Questions - Leon Conrad

5 things you think good children’s theatre should do: Make it magical – make it funny – make it witty – make it fun; and make it pretty difficult for people not to lose themselves in the story. 4 reasons why people should come to Aesop The Storyteller…

Foe play - Class Enemy

Edinburgh International Festival

In times of both war and peace, Haris Pasovic has created crucial theatre. Malcolm Jack speaks to him about taking a story set in 1970s Brixton and plunging it into contemporary Sarajevo.

Swede Dreams - Britt Ekland

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

A true icon of the 60s and 70s, Britt Ekland has lived a life of glamour and glory. She tells Liz Joseph why she’s telling the Fringe her story and how she keeps from feeling her age.

Ivan Brackenbury

There’s something hauntingly familiar about Ivan Brackenbury. It could be the fact that this inappropriately jolly hospital radio DJ is so uncannily accurate a creation. Or it might just be that, with his headphones on, foot firmly lodged down the back…

Hitlist: Festival Art

The best exhibitions in the Edinburgh Festival

Anita Loos retrospective

Anita Loos was an intellectual brunette who wrote about dumb gold-diggers. As a major retrospective of her work hits the Festival, Paul Dale explores her legacy