Reviews & features: Reviews

Giacinto Palmieri

This stilted performance was a pile of sweaty meatballs

Due to Palmieri’s comically strong Italian accent and the manic whirring of several fans, it was hard to determine precisely how funny this gentle narrative about nationality and language was or wasn’t. Respect to the man for his charm, and attempting…

Unmythable

Infectiously energetic trio enthralls kids and adults alike in hour-long sprint through classical my

The action opens on the Argot where an overly zealous Jason, and his less competent shipmates, is on his way to fight the man-eating dragon that never sleeps and claim the golden fleece in order to prove himself to be a hero. Along the way, the…

Thirsty

Powerful physical evocation of the relationship between women and alcohol

In a bathroom, on a hen night, two boozed-up young women dance, shriek and hector the audience, the epitome of Booze Britain. In one of the three toilet cubicles Shane Durrant sits astride the porcelain throne surrounded by music-making accoutrements.

Oh, the Humanity and Other Good Intentions

Marvellous quintet of short plays with excellent performances

Marvellous quintet of short plays with excellent performances Isn’t self-consciousness a ball-ache? It ups the ante, rather, as if all eyes are on you and you’re barely making sense, let alone delivering the goods, and you still haven’t found what…

Thread

Poignant site-specific evocation of life and loss

After the success of last year’s Allotment, Nutshell Theatre returns with an immersive evocation of nostalgia, memory and love as the forces that bind us together in the second part of their thematic trilogy. The audience is invited to the Burntisland…

Lucy Porter

A set down to its bare bones

While it may have been slightly dispiriting for Lucy Porter to hop out on stage to a less than packed auditorium, there's little in her jovial demeanour to suggest crushed hopes. To spend an hour in Porter's company is akin to having a litre of Jelly…

Edinburgh Art Festival surrealist exhibition Another World leaves potential unfulfilled

Impressive, if surprisingly straightforward, collection of surrealist works

For a source so rich in departures for radical flights of enquiry, this presentation of surrealist paintings, objects, journals and sculptures is alarmingly straightforward. By marrying a host of mesmerising works by the likes of Dali and Magritte to a…

Jungle Book: The Next Chapter

Monkeying around with Kipling’s classic

Rudyard Kipling’s fables are part of the collective national psyche, so this follow-up from Glenn Elston and the Australian Shakespeare Company has a lot to live up to. The story picks up when Mowgli, now grown, returns to the jungle to visit Baloo.

BUG Hosted by Adam Buxton

Entertaining but unchallenging music video presentation

The usually BFI-based BUG organisation’s remit is to celebrate ‘global creativity in music video’, and in that respect, this show succeeds admirably. Videos from acts as diverse as US indie-rockers Manchester Orchestra, electro artists The Chase and…

Shylock

Gareth Armstrong and Guy Masterson take us behind the mask of Shakespeare’s Jew

In a festival overflowing with one-actor shows, Gareth Armstrong’s Shylock, performed by Guy Masterson – a much-loved master of the Fringe monodrama – stands out as a work of real quality. The script, which is offered to us by the character of Tubal…

Debbie Does Dallas - The Musical

There’s a very fine line between a send-up of a ropey cultural item and something that’s just plain ropey. Almost from its shrill opening bars it becomes crystal clear that Debbie Does Dallas – The Musical has crossed the line. The fundamental…

Wonderland

Vanishing Point investigation into dark erotic fantasies and internet porn is a huge disappointment

Vanishing Point's latest production finds the Glasgow-based theatre company in combative form, delving into internet pornography's seedy demi-monde and confronting audiences with their own desire for erotic titillation. Despite some stylish moments…

Hey, Piano Bar Lady!

Musical comedy taking it back to 80s New York via New Zealand

New Zealand singer Linn Lorkin is perched at her keyboard, tousled red hair, whimsical expression and billowing patchwork dress suggesting she’s quite the eccentric dame. Now in its second year at the Fringe, her one-woman biographical show is a…

The Snail and the Whale

Tall Stories' Donaldson adaption is imaginative and heartfelt

Tall Stories are no strangers to the inside of a Julia Donaldson picture book, having made their name on the children’s theatre circuit with The Gruffalo over ten years ago. Since then, they’ve tackled The Gruffalo’s Child and Room on the Broom, and…

Obsession - A Life with Magic

Winning performance Ian Kendall, whose obsession with magic stems from Asperger’s Syndrome

Ian Kendall sits front and centre as the audience files in, greeting everyone in turn and encouraging people to fill up the front rows. He throws in a few neat tricks while people are still entering; it’s this casual attitude to performing a set is what…

Andrew O'Neill

Comedic view of metal music and culture

If Andrew O'Neill's poster description "occult comedian" suggests an evening of witty witchcraft, that's not what he's serving at this year's Fringe. He's a metalhead, and wears all black clothing (and owns a black beach towel), but he's a long way from…

Lee Nelson

If his game is satire he keeps it well hidden

Simon Brodkin seems to have carved a niche for himself as mouthy chav Lee Nelson, and what’s not to love about him shouting, swearing and crotch-grabbing? The mind boggles. If you’re prone to a boggling mind, or are hot on sentence conjugation, this one…

Nude

Non-gratuitous meanderings for art’s sake

Don’t worry, there is no gratuitous nudity in Nude, just two actors flexing and posing their naked bodies in close proximity to the front row. But it’s all done in the name of art, and the context of a life drawing class, in which the reluctant audience…

Stonewall

Doubtless huge progress has been made regarding gay rights in recent decades but there are still reports of gay people being persecuted across the world.

David Trent - Spontaneous Comedian

Unoriginal, uncontroversial, unfunny

This schoolteacher has come to the Fringe with plenty of hype behind him but his multimedia Spontaneous Comedian is a befuddling affair. You know someone is in trouble when they constantly refer to jokes that usually get bigger laughs (slap on wrist…

Temper Temper: The Pain of Desire

Weimar rock ‘n’ roll from an unforgettable performer

The edges between live concert and theatrical performance bleed together in this full band show instigated by creative director Wendy Bevan. It begins as we await outside, the sound of piano flourishes being prepared echoing through the…

Boy in a Dress

Thought-provoking and fabulous drag-related cabaret

Androgynous, third-gendered, ginger beauty La JohnJoseph makes a show-and-tell of the idea that all identity is a performance, and none more obviously than that which occurs on the stage, with his conflagration of gender theory, drag performance and…

Blink

Web romance drama tingles magnificently before swerving into cliché

For 40 minutes, Blink tingles. Jonah and Sophie’s peculiar relationship tickles like a feather on a foot or champagne bubbles at the back of your throat. Jonah likes to watch. Sophie needs to be seen. They fall in love from afar, conducting their…

The Boom Jennies: Mischief

Great chemistry hampered by a poor script

The Boom Jennies are three accomplished performers with great chemistry and good timing. What lets them down here are a poor script and weak punchlines. Each sketch features three middle class women blustering around and politely remonstrating with…

Hiroshi Sugimoto: Lightning Fields and Photogenic Drawings

Breathtaking exploration of both photography and science

To say that Sugimoto's contribution to the Edinburgh International Festival is striking would be an understatement. This is the first time these works have been displayed in Europe. The Japanese photography pioneer’s huge analogue 'Lightning Fields…