Edinburgh Festival
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Ode to Joy / WilfFriday, 19 August 2022
Ode to Joy (How Gordon Got to Go to the Nasty Pig Party), Summerhall ★★★★★You receive a glossary on your way in to James Ley’s high-voltage, high-camp Ode to Joy in the ancient, steeply raked lecture hall-cum-theatre of Summerhall’s Demonstration... Read more... |
Salome, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Gardner, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - orchestral majesty triumphsWednesday, 17 August 2022
It is quite some years, if not decades, since the Edinburgh International Festival had any claim to be a festival of staged opera. This year we have had just one – Garsington Opera’s bewitching Rusalka – surrounded by a handful of concert... Read more... |
Room, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - decadent, extravagant, and somewhat mystifyingTuesday, 16 August 2022
"I feel I owe you an explanation." That much James Thierrée concedes partway through his sprawling, freewheeling, dream-like, hallucinatory Room in Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre. By which stage, most of the audience was probably in agreement. It’s a... Read more... |
Chineke! Chamber Ensemble / Martineau & Osborne / SCO, Marshall, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - great musicians, not always great musicMonday, 15 August 2022
What happens when great musicians play weak music? I couldn’t help but think about that while I listened to the musicians of Chineke! Chamber Ensemble (★★) on Friday morning in Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall. Chineke! was founded to provide opportunities... Read more... |
Counting and Cracking, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - ambitious, powerful, but sadly under-attendedSaturday, 13 August 2022
First, a bit of housekeeping. Maybe it was the three-and-a-half-hour duration, or maybe the unfamiliar Sri Lankan subject matter, or maybe even the very un-festival-like hot weather that put people off an evening inside Edinburgh’s Lyceum Theatre.... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Temping / Work.txtFriday, 12 August 2022
Temping, Assembly George Square Studios ★★★★Sarah Jane is away in Hawaii. But don’t worry – she’s left plenty of instructions for your day temping in the actuaries’ office, checking voicemails, answering emails, updating spreadsheets. After all, it’... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2022 reviews: Every Word was Once an Animal / Tim Crouch: Truth’s a Dog Must to KennelThursday, 11 August 2022
Every Word was Once an Animal, Zoo Southside ★★★★Ghent-based theatre company Ontroerend Goed have been prodding and provoking Fringe audiences for years, sometimes forcefully – as in 2001’s controversial, confrontational, crowd-baiting Audience – or... Read more... |
Rusalka, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - sumptuous rendition of a watery fableThursday, 11 August 2022
The last-minute indisposition of your leading lady is enough to give festival directors palpitations, let alone their audiences, now forewarned by the dreaded email thudding into inboxes. And so it was that Andrew Moore, Head of Music at the... Read more... |
Burn, Edinburgh International Festival 2022 review - bold, risky, sometimes bafflingMonday, 08 August 2022
In retrospect, all the clues were there. A star actor embarking on a new performance genre; a fresh reappraisal of one of Scotland’s cultural icons; a hi-tech production of sumptuous video and prop trickery; a dance score from a major name in new... Read more... |
Edinburgh International Festival 2021: Anna MeredithTuesday, 24 August 2021
She’s an artist who’s impossible to define. Producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist, Anna Meredith has a musical mind that cannot keep still. Her latest studio album, Fibs, which was released in 2019, is a genre-defying blend of electronic and... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2021: StillSaturday, 21 August 2021
Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end all benders in order to work out what or who they’re for. Young Gilly has a poorly pug named Mr Immanuel Kant, but can’t face having it put... Read more... |
Elisabeth Leonskaja / Goldmund Quartet, Edinburgh International Festival review - established and emerging stars shine brightSaturday, 21 August 2021
A gem in Edinburgh International Festival’s classical music programming has always been the Queen’s Hall series. Hosting some of the finest chamber musicians on the international stage, that venue has seen countless incredible, more intimate... Read more... |
