Published: May 23rd, 2013
 Publicity shoot at Craigmillar Castle. Photo © Robert Fuller. Church Hill Theatre
Wed 22 – Sat 25 May 2013
Review by Thom Dibdin
A strong and straightforward telling of the relationship between Mary Queen of Scots and her cousin, Queen Elizabeth the first of England, rises out of Edinburgh People’s Theatre’s production at the Church Hill Theatre until Saturday.
Liz Lochhead’s play, which premiered in 1987, is a mythologising account of that relationship. An examination, using verse and a fine, inquisitive eye (through her chorus character, La Corbie, the Crow), of how it is a reflection of Scotland’s relationship with England – itself a relationship based as much on myth as on reality. … Continue reading Review – Mary Queen of Scots Got Her Head Chopped Off
Published: May 16th, 2013 * * * A twist of meta-dunnit
 Matthew Thomson (Clifford Anderson), Pat Hymers (Sidney Bruhl) and Jennie Davidson (Muyra Bruhl) Photo © Marion Donohoe Church Hill Theatre
Wed 15-Sat 18 May 2013
Review by Thom Dibdin
Cutting like a honed knife, Ira Levin’s murder thriller is as intense and satisfyingly tricky as it ever was when it was written in the late seventies.
Deathtrap aspires to be the perfect two act thriller, as its own circling, self-aware script boasts at the outset. It has the right ingredients: one set, five characters, a juicy murder in the first act, plenty of twists in the second and enough comedy throughout to keep it light.
And the play delivers on the promise, even though its knowing post-modern deconstruction is not as trendy as once it was. So too, for the most part, does Leitheatre under the direction of Rosalind Becroft. … Continue reading Review – Ira Levin’s Deathtrap
Published: March 21st, 2013 * * Cartoonish capers come awry
 Adam Pringle (Finch) and Josephine Heinemeier (Hedy LaRue). Photo © Alan Potter/Edinburgh Music Theatre Church Hill Theatre
Tue 19- Sat 23 March, 2013
Review by Thom Dibdin
Frothy, frivolous and fun, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying is a wryly comic look at the treadmill of big corporate enterprise in post war America.
First staged in 1961, Frank Loesser’s music and lyrics are considered to come only second to his work on Guys and Dolls. It’s packed with cartoonish characters and up-tempo – if instantly disposable – tunes. And it is all based on Shepherd Mead’s 1952 novel of the same name.
When it comes to the music, Edinburgh Music Theatre get it pretty much spot on in their production of the show, which is at the Church Hill Theatre until Saturday. … Continue reading Review – How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying
Published: March 8th, 2013 * * * Big but brash
 The Red Rat Girls – with Spider (Judith Neeson) in purple- performd Bring On The Men. Production shot © The Bohemians Church Hill Theatre
Tue 5 – Sat 9 March 2013
Review by Thom Dibdin
There’s no holding back by the Bohemians in their production of Jekyll and Hyde the musical, which is up at the Church Hill Theatre until Saturday.
Big voices, high volume and grand set pieces are the order of the evening, with Jonathan Collins in particularly strong voice in the title role of this musical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella.
Indeed, his big high, ending note of the musical’s big hit, This is the Moment, is a moment in its own right. Climbing up to the back of the stepped stage over the duration of the song, Collins hits, holds and lets the note float – for so long that you begin wondering if he will ever let it go.
If it is a high point, in many senses, of the production, it also gives … Continue reading Review – Jekyll and Hyde the musical
Published: January 30th, 2013
 Alex Poole as Bernardo (right) leads the Sharks in their goading of the Jets. Photo © David Monteith-Hodge at Photographise Church Hill Theatre
Tue 29 Jan – Sat 2 Feb 2013
Review by Thom Dibdin
Gasps of astonishment echoed around the Church Hill Theatre on the opening night of Edinburgh University Footlight’s compelling and raw production of West Side Story.
Which is no mean feat in such a well known show – it happend on more than one occasion too. Those who don’t know the musical itself will surely be familiar with its source material of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
In West Side Story the Montague-Capulet conflict of “fair” Verona is transformed into one between two youth gangs in a poverty stricken area of 1950s New York. The Jets are first-generation Polish American immigrants and the Sharks are the more recently arrived Puerto Rican’s. … Continue reading Review – West Side Story
Published: December 24th, 2012
 Anne Mackenzie (Princess Baldrobadour), Gordon Braidwood (Abanazar), Sarah Armes (Aladdin), Will MacIver (Widow Twankey) in a publicity shot for EPT’s 2012 pantomime, Aladdin. Church Hill Theatre
Review by Thom Dibdin
You are never far away from a song and a dance up at the Church Hill Theatre, where Edinburgh People’s Theatre have added a few good local twists to a recent Joe Graham script of Aladdin.
Which is as you would expect with direction and choreography from the Mandy Black. The dance troupe, from her own dance school, are well-drilled and always up for a tap routine or butterfly show-dance. And EPT’s big chorus are there to give it some vocal support.
Which is not to mention a magnificently choreographed dance of the seven veils from dame Widow Twankey. The backing medley, working from Right Said Fred’s I’m Too Sexy to Carly Rae Jepsen’s Call me Maybe, allows Will MacIver to begin to show his capabilities.
Thanks to Graham’s script – an off-the-peg number published in 2011 – this is a show which contains most of what you would expect in a pantomime. Unfortunately, Graham has a pedestrian attitude to the way they are all put together. … Continue reading Review – Aladdin
Published: November 16th, 2012
 Alison Kennedy as Sadie (left) and Jane Black as Barbs. Photo credit: Marion Donohoe Church Hill Theatre
Review by Thom Dibdin
Liz Lochhead’s delicious comedy of motherhood and friendship gets a solid production from Leitheatre up at the Church Hill Theatre until Saturday.
The text is all there under Matt Mason’s direction as Jane Black takes on the role of Barbs Marshall – a successful Glasgow hair-salon owner and celebrity hairdresser who is fast approaching 40 and beginning to realise that she has completely forgotten to have any children.
The setting is Barbs’ Merchant City flat – nicely realised with a trendy late-nineties minimalism by designer Stephen Hajducki. Here, on her big leather sofas, Barbs begins to come to terms with her need for a child and to resolve some of the conflicts of her relationships.
While this is a potentially hilarious play, of the kind that can leave you gasping for breath, it is not gag-a-minute stuff. The laughs are there, but Lochhead is … Continue reading Review – Perfect Days
Published: October 26th, 2012
Published: October 25th, 2012
 Blair Grandison (George), Fraser Jamieson (Robbie) and Paul Inglis (Sammy) and the principal cast from Allegro’s 2012 production of the Wedding Singer. Publicity photo: Kirsty Sutherland Church Hill Theatre
Review by Thom Dibidn
Packed with bounce and swaggering with confidence, Allegro’s production of the Wedding Singer is a hearty – and slightly unexpected – treat up at the Church Hill Theatre all week.
Based on the 1998 film of the same name, it stars Fraser Jamieson as Robbie Hart, the wedding singer of the title, whose cheesy patter and down home lyrics make all his weddings go with a fizz.
Until his own wedding that is. When his fiancé of seven years, the gorgeous, pouting and totally obnoxious Linda (Mairi Beaver) ditches him at the alter. By letter. And in the ensuing heartbreak the poor lad becomes incapable of performing at a betrothal without breaking into vitriolic attacks on love and all who are in it.
It’s not Checkhov, but it has the same predictability. If someone … Continue reading Review – The Wedding Singer
Published: October 20th, 2012
 Rhona Smith as Dodger (L) and Jacob Merchant as Oliver in Balerno Theatre Company’s production of Oliver! Photo credit: Alkisti Terzi. Church Hill theatre
Review by Thom Dibdin
A great children’s chorus and some top performances of the big set pieces make the Balerno Theatre Company’s production of Oliver! – at the Church Hill Theatre till Saturday – well worth the ticket. If you can get a ticket for the sell-out run, that is.
There’s a jaunty, chirpy and entirely chipper Artful Dodger – Rhona Smith on the night I saw it – and a performance from Michael Davis as Fagin which plays to the strength of the material, not to the gallery.
There are some superb moments from the ensemble, too. The electrifying tingle to the back of the neck with the orphans first enter, tromping from the back of the auditorium in surly ranks, is not just all present and correct but continues well into the opening number Food Glorious Food.
Yet for all that this gets the things right you would hope for … Continue reading Review – Oliver!
|
On Edinburgh’s Stages this week:
Latest posts about Edinburgh’s amateur companiesLatest EdFringe-related posts |
