Reviews & features: Theatre, Mark Fisher
- Filtered by:
- Mark Fisher
- Theatre
It’s So Nice explores relationship between Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I
23 Jul 2012
French performers are aiming to throw light on history at Edinburgh Fringe
Talk about coals to Newcastle. Barbara Sylvain and Lula Béry are a French/Belgian double act who thought it’d be a good idea to bring a show about Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I to Scotland. The 16th-century tale of the francophone Mary and her…
Peter Michael Marino discusses Desperately Seeking the Exit
23 Jul 2012
The writer/performer who’s hoping to turn a stage disaster into a Fringe success
It’s a classic case of triumphing in the face of disaster. In 2007, Peter Michael Marino’s adaptation of the Madonna movie Desperately Seeking Susan, opened in London’s West End and, after devastating reviews, crawled through 13 days before closing…
How to make your Edinburgh Fringe show a success
19 Jul 2012
Author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide Mark Fisher dispenses good advice
A couple of years ago, I was commissioned by Methuen Drama to write The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide, a 280-page manual published earlier this year and described by Lyn Gardner of the Guardian as "a wonderfully practical but also inspirational book…
Interview: Playwrights David Greig and David Harrower share a bill at Edinburgh Fringe
11 Jul 2012
Scottish playwrights share a bill at Edinburgh for first time
It took centuries of endeavour before the first man ran a four-minute mile. Yet as soon as he did, it happened again just two months later. Since Roger Bannister broke that barrier in 1959, many athletes have done the same. That, says playwright David…
The tragic number - Fringe shows charting the musicians who died aged 27
11 Jul 2012
Trio of Edinburgh Fringe shows explore the haunted number
John Kielty is sitting in an Edinburgh bar, listing the supernatural properties of the number 27. ‘It’s the cube of three; three being the original magic number,’ he says. ‘The moon orbits the earth every 27 days. The sun revolves on its axis every 27…
Théâtre du Soleil's epic Jules Verne-inspired 2012 Edinburgh Festival show
11 Jul 2012
Serge Nicolaï on Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (Aurores)
Multi-talented actor Serge Nicolaï tells Mark Fisher why four hours is positively speedy in the egalitarian and epic world of Ariane Mnouchkine and Théâtre du Soleil
One Thousand and One Nights
22 Aug 2011
Flagship EIF production feels like a rediscovery of a lost classic
There’s a tremendous life force pulsating through director Tim Supple’s reclamation of these ancient folk tales. It’s a life force that exists, most palpably, for Houda Echouafni’s Shahrazad, whose survival depends on her ability to spin a yarn and…
(g)Host City
18 Aug 2011
Edinburgh audio tours from spoken word performers
First thing in the morning, I’m standing on top of Calton Hill looking out to Arthur’s Seat, Princes Street and the Pentlands. It’s a view I never tire of, but on my headphones Jenny Lindsay is giving a different message. ‘Edinburgh, you old tart,…
Und
17 Aug 2011
Tough play with the meaning stressed out
Howard Barker is a playwright loved by academics for the challenges thrown down by his knotty ‘theatre of catastrophe’ and by actors for the chance to get their tongues round his muscular language. His writing is tough, poetic and…
Emergence
17 Aug 2011
Death becomes the Pachamamas
It’s always tricky to deal with grief on stage. By its nature, it is an emotion that comes after the fact, making an audience feel it has missed out on the main event. It cannot be resolved in the way any other dramatic conflict is resolved. This…
The Golden Dragon
12 Aug 2011
Global stories to take away
Roland Schimmelpfennig’s 2009 play, a bit hit in Germany, is a gift for a director. His characters are blank canvases with names such as ‘The Young Woman’ and ‘The Man Over 60’. Much of their dialogue is written in the third person, stage directions…
Allotment
11 Aug 2011
Sweetly observed play taking place on a real allotment with free cup of tea
Whatever happens to Dora and Maddy, the chalk-and-chips sisters at the heart of Jules Horne’s sweetly observed play, you know they will be outlived by their surroundings. The soil beneath their feet, the weeds that have persisted for millions of years…
Man of Valour
8 Aug 2011
Mime and punishment
Haven’t we been through this before? Wasn’t it some time in the 1970s we stopped being dazzled by mime artists? Didn’t we pretty quickly realise the means of telling a story are never as interesting as the story itself? It seems not in the case of…
101
8 Aug 2011
Group hugs, cult chants and it’s all your fault
Back with three new immersive scenarios after causing a stir last year, the 101 team show just how compelling theatre can be with the most elementary of resources. No special effects, no set, scarcely anything you’d call a costume and yet the young…
Elegy
8 Aug 2011
Moving story of a flight from persecution
The last time Douglas Rintoul was in Scotland was to direct a revival of David Greig’s Europe at Dundee Rep. There’s something of the flavour of that migratory play in this powerful production for the internationally minded Transport company, as actor…
The One Man Show
5 Aug 2011
Late-night high-tech deconstruction with Jaffa Cakes
So post-modern it hurts, The One Man Show is a piece of theatre about watching a piece of theatre. It has a mysterious start, a set of emotional states, a philosophical moment where we cough and eat sweets, a cheesy musical interlude and a point when we…
Uncompromising take on One Thousand and One Nights at 2011 EIF
7 Jul 2011
Centrepiece theatre production of Edinburgh International Festival 2011
It begins in classic once-upon-a-time style. 'A long, long time ago lived two kings who were brothers,' goes the opening line of One Thousand and One Nights. 'The elder, King Shahrayar, ruled India and Indochina. The younger, Shahzaman, ruled…
Theatre, music and dance highlights from the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival
7 Jul 2011
The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, Semiramide and King Lear among picks
The Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) has been a benchmark for quality and innovation in the performing arts since its inauguration nearly 65 years ago. This year artistic director Jonathan Mills builds his programme around the multi-faceted…
Porgy and Bess
22 Aug 2010
French company take Porgy and Bess to the Deep South
When Opera de Lyon’s Porgy and Bess is remembered, it will be for the extraordinary multimedia staging by the directorial double-act of Jose Montalvo and Dominique Hervieu. It isn’t only that we get 50-odd performers on stage - the dancers giving it…
The Edinburgh Fringe shows taking human trafficking as a theme
29 Jul 2010
Roadkill and Lost Boy amongst Fringe shows telling refugees' stories
A celebrity endorsement works wonders for your box office and all power to Shatterbox for getting Emma Thompson to put her name to its production of Fair Trade. But that show is only the most high profile in an unprecedented wave of Fringe productions…
Little Black Bastard deals with horrific Australian childhood
29 Jul 2010
Noel Tovey puts disturbing past of poverty and crime on stage
It is the ultimate rags to riches story. Yet the tale Noel Tovey tells about himself is more distressing than any version of Cinderella. It is a narrative that shocked even his closest friends when he chose to tell it to the world in Little Black…
More Light Please delivers emotional take on economic migration
27 Jul 2010
One-woman Fringe show drawn from experience of moving from Poland to Ireland
Natalia Kostrzewa is sitting in the courtyard of Warsaw’s Teatr Praga, enjoying the early evening air. She’s just performed her one-woman show, More Light Please, drawn from her experiences of moving to Ireland, and is delighted to have delivered it in…
Freefall captures mood of bewilderment moments before death
27 Jul 2010
Dublin theatre group's Fringe show captures mood of the times
It would be misleading to say the latest play by Dublin’s Corn Exchange was about the credit crunch, the collapse of the Celtic Tiger and the scandals within the Catholic church, but those events were playing out when Freefall was created last year and…
Diciembre finds dark humour in Chile's Pinochet years
16 Jul 2010
Teatro en el Blanco go back to basics with politically engaging EIF production
The Pinochet years continue to leave a deep scar on the Chilean psyche. Playwright Guillermo Calderón tells Mark Fisher why Diciembre tackles some dark memories but still finds humour in his nation’s tortured past
Ontroerend Goed bring Teenage Riot to the Edinburgh Fringe
15 Jul 2010
Renowned Belgian theatre group explores teenage angst
Everyone who visits Alexander Devriendt in the rehearsal room says he must be crazy. He is 33 years old, yet he thrives on working with the most exuberant of teenagers. ‘It’s not about wanting to stay young, I don’t think about it,’ says the Belgian…
