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 The finale for In The Same Boat in Southern Light Opera's production of Curtains © Southern Light Opera Royal Lyceum Theatre
Review by Thom Dibdin
It is unclear whether the book for Curtains, Southern Light Opera’s latest offering which is at the Royal Lyceum all week, is brave or simply foolhardy. But it certainly leaves its performers with a mountain to climb.
Not content with killing off its leading lady within five minutes Curtains goes on to describe the body of the hardworking, faithful theatre critic in the most vicious terms imaginable.
All of which is fair play and nicely ironic comment, to be honest, from a writing team that includes Rupert Holmes, music by John Kander and lyrics by Red Ebb. Less easy to master is the musical within the musical: Robbin’ Hood, which is just coming to a calamitous ending on its opening night as the curtain of Curtains rises.
Playing “bad” with any real conviction is a notoriously difficult art to master. The problem is making clear where the effected discords, missed cues and poor staging stop, and … Continue reading Review – Curtains
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Traverse Theatre
 Umar Ahmed (Manar) and Christopher Simon (Ayman) in Damascus-Aleppo. Photo: Play, Pie and a Pint Review by Thom Dibdin
Lunchtime theatre returns to the Traverse with a production of such rich complexity that it is not so much fit to be accompanied by a pie and a pint but a three course meal and an after-dinner brandy.
David Greig, the curator of the current Play, Pie and a Pint season, whet the appetite for middle eastern theatre with the brilliantly inventive Dear Glasgow – a collection of letters to the people of Glasgow from Middle Eastern writers – a fortnight past.
Delivered by Scottish writers – including somewhat confusingly on the day I saw it the Scotsman‘s chief critic Joyce MacMillan (who acquitted herself most admirably) – Dear Glasgow gave a taste of what life is like in modern Egypt, Syria and Palestine.
It is a world which confounds expectations. A world where … Continue reading Review – Damascus-Aleppo
NTS artistic director takes up post with Royal Court
 Vicky Featherstone By Thom Dibdin
Vicky Featherstone, inaugural artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland is leaving to take up the post of artistic director at the Royal Court in London.
Featherstone will take up her new position in Spring 2013 and will continue to lead the National Theatre of Scotland until the end of 2012. She initially took up the position in November 2004 and pioneered the company’s innovative “theatre without walls” to great critical acclaim.
Commenting on her involvement with the NTS, Featherstone said: “It is a life-changing experience to be the person to set up a new national theatre. As I have said many times, the National Theatre of Scotland is part of a continuum of theatre. All we have done and are doing within the Company is made possible by the richness of Scotland – its people, its geography, its brilliant complexity.
“And there are so many stories yet to tell, so many artists yet to tell them and so many people yet to be thrilled by what theatre is. It is an honour beyond words to have played a part in setting up something which is so great. It is a privilege to have seen the astonishing team at the National Theatre of Scotland grow into … Continue reading Featherstone to leave NTS at end of 2012
CATS eye-up Glasgow and Dundee but not Edinburgh
 Maureen Beattie is nominated for her performance as Sister Ursula Mary in 27 at the Royal Lyceum. Photo: © Richard Campbell By Thom Dibdin
Edinburgh Theatres have been largely passed over in the nominations shortlists for the Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland, announced on Thursday 10 May.
The annual awards, chosen by Scotland’s theatre critics, are now in their tenth year. Any professional theatre production, substantially produced in Scotland in the 12 months from May to April is eligible. This year, a total of 202 productions were considered, with 123 were eligible for the best new play award and 36 for best show for children and young people.
Joyce McMillan, the Scotsman critic and CATS co-convenor, said: “This year’s CATS nominations celebrate a dazzling range of work, created by more than 20 companies across Scottish theatre. The list emphasises the growing creative impact of the National Theatre of Scotland. It also celebrates the continuing … Continue reading Critics Awards for Theatre in Scotland nominations announced
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 Will Featherstone, Holly Morgan, John Cummins, David Sturzaker, Jo Herbert, Claire Bond, Mary Doherty Anne Boleyn Globe Theatre Festival Theatre
Review by Thom Dibdin
The Globe Theatre comes stomping over the border for an audacious final date of its UK tour of the smash hit Anne Boleyn.
In Howard Brenton’s big, pugnacious script, the ascent of Anne Boleyn into the court of Henry 8th is painted with strokes so bold that the effects of her astute politicking are seen to colour the actions of James IV and I, some 70 years after her beheading.
This is historical drama with an unabashed political edge – but handsomely entertaining with it.
James, it seems, is the key to understanding Anne. Indeed, it is through his eyes as he arrives in London to take on the English crown that Anne’s contemporaneous influence is seen. And the action slips easily … Continue reading Review – Anne Boleyn
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 Publicity image for Standing Stanes by Robert Ballantine. © Gary Daniell Photography Review by Thom Dibdin
Piling the improbable on top of the possible, Siege Perilous has created a delightfully retro eighties comedy for the inaugural play in its new home at Leith Malmaison.
Robert Ballantine’s Dundee-set Standing Stanes is the fantastical little tale of unemployed Craig Hunter who has a vision to build a new henge of standing stones at a remote beauty spot.
Pitted for and against him are the vested interests of the local community. And while his girlfriend Kim is finally persuaded of the idea – particularly when he announces that they will get married the opening ceremony on midsummer day – she is not alone in her admiration of his physique.
If this is light and frothy stuff, director Andy Corelli ensures that it is told with just the right combination of the mischievously mocking with the brow-furrowingly serious. … Continue reading Review – Standing Stanes
Shrigley’s “Sort of Opera” to appear on The Space
 Gavin Mitchell and Pauline Knowles in Pass the Spoon, a "sort-of opera" by David Shrigley, David Fennessy and Nicholas Bone. © Tommy Ga-Ken Wan By Thom Dibdin
Pass The Spoon, the collaboration between David Shrigley, Red Note Ensemble and Magnetic North, is to be streamed live over the internet on Sunday night from its performance at London’s Southbank Centre.
The live stream is being produced through The Space, the new “live, free and on-demand” arts website which hit the news when it opened on May 1, largely through placing legendary Radio 1 DJ John Peel’s record collection online.
Pass The Spoon is the first event to be streamed live on The Space. It will be followed by the Breakin’ Convention hip hop streetdance festival from Sadlers Wells on Monday.
The live stream of Pass The Spoon will take place from the 7.30pm performance at London’s South Bank Centre on Sunday, 6 May. The Space intend to add the performance to its on-demand repertoire from the end of May. It would remain available at least until the end of October.
Dani Rae, the show’s producer, welcomed the announcement. She told the Annals: “The beauty of it for us is that it is ‘non-geo-locked’ so we can … Continue reading Live stream for Pass The Spoon
EdG&SS Animated over the Fairy Opera
 Main image for Iolanth, from Edinburgh Gillbert and Sullivan Society. Image copyright Tom McDermott By Thom Dibdin
The Edinburgh Gilbert and Sullivan Society are making a virtue out of a crisis this week as they move from their usual venue at the King’s into the mighty space of the Festival Theatre for their production of Iolanthe.
Central to the move is the use of the theatre’s technical facilities. The company will use two huge projectors to screen professionally produced animation from Tom McDermott to help tell the story – which pits the supernatural powers of the Fairy Queen against that greatest of Britain’s traditional institutions: the House of Lords.
The company’s long-time director Alan Borthwick told the Annals that while the approach is a totally new one for the company, it is still within the traditional values of G&S.
“We have got a nice big company of over 70 people, so we wanted to … Continue reading G&S Updated for 2012
Catherine Wheels picks up another nomination for White
 The original cast of Ian Cameron and Andy Manley in White by Catherine Wheels Theatre Company. Photo © Douglas McBride By Thom Dibdin
Catherine Wheels’ White, the multi-award winning show for two to four year-olds, has been nominated for a Unique Theatrical Experience award in the prestigious Drama Desk Awards in New York.
The production appeared at the off-Broadway New Victory Theater for a month-long residency last October when Naomi Watts, Liev Schreiber and Sarah Jessica Parker were in the opening night audience.
White is a collaboration between Catherine Wheels, writer and performer Andy Manley, and performer Ian Cameron. It is directed by the company’s Artistic Director Gill Robertson and designed by Shona Reppe.
Gill Robertson told the Annals: “It is wonderful to be nominated and we are the only children’s production to be so. This is the second time we have been nominated as … Continue reading White Nominated for New York Award
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 Tupele Dorgu, Stefan Booth, Ali Bastian and Bernie Nolan in Chicago Edinburgh Playhouse
Review by Thom Dibdin
The cynical tale of murder, greed, corruption, exploitation, adultery and treachery – “all those things we hold near and dear to our hearts” as Go-to-hell-Kitty so memorably foretells – struts back into town looking as good as it ever did.
All the familiar elements are there to portray the sleazy underworld of the roaring twenties in Chicago. The hot, skin-tight lingerie outfits, the even-hotter ensemble of singers and dancers to wear them, and a truly sizzling jazz-infused on-stage band are all present and absolutely correct.
Not to forget the required complement of small-screen celebrities to add a cynical note of postmodernism to a tale which makes much of the celebrity culture of the courthouse, where the more gruesome your murder – and the less likely your innocence – the more likely you are to get off.
In place are Ali Bastian strutting out Strictly style as murderess Roxie Hart; Tupele Dorgu of Corrie fame as her rival the double-murderess Velma Kelly; and … Continue reading Review – Chicago
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