Theatre
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Horse of Jenin / NowhereThursday, 14 August 2025
The Horse of Jenin, Pleasance Dome ★★★★★ Alaa Shehada bounds onto the stage, all muscular energy and swaggering self-confidence, for what’s effectively a cross between stand-up and solo theatre. Is it wrong to joke about Palestine? Definitely... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Fit Prince / UndersignedWednesday, 13 August 2025
The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here)), Pleasance Courtyard ★★★★They’ve created an affectionate but merciless send-up of Princess Di; they’ve lampooned Gwyneth Paltrow, her... Read more... |
Tom at the Farm, Edinburgh Fringe 2025 review - desire and disgustMonday, 11 August 2025
As shockingly beautiful as it is horrifyingly brutal, actor Armando Babaioff’s deeply Brazilian adaptation of thriller Tom at the Farm leaves a rancid taste in the mouth and harrowing images seared on the retina. It’s a show to shock and provoke,... Read more... |
Works and Days, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - jaw-dropping theatrical ambitionSunday, 10 August 2025
With the sheer density of theatrical creations jostling for attention across Edinburgh’s festivals, there’s no shortage of arresting stagings, innovative visuals and powerful, memorable design. (Just take Cena Brasil Internacional’s shocking Tom at... Read more... |
Every Brilliant Thing, @sohoplace review - return of the comedy about suicide that lifts the spiritsSaturday, 09 August 2025
The Fringe piece Duncan Macmillan devised with Jonny Donahoe in 2014 has since been round the world and back, finally landing in the West End. It feels as freshly minted as ever.The premise is simple: a performer takes an audience through the story... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Beautiful Future is Coming / She's Behind YouSaturday, 09 August 2025
The Beautiful Future is Coming, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★Flora Wilson Brown’s epoch-straddling, climate change-themed six-hander had a run at the Bristol Old Vic before transferring to the Traverse Theatre for its Fringe residency. It shows: this is a... Read more... |
Good Night, Oscar, Barbican review - sad story of a Hollywood great's meltdown, with a dazzling turn by Sean HayesFriday, 08 August 2025
Back in the day, when America’s late-night chat show hosts and their guests sat happily smoking as they shot the breeze for a growing audience, the most sought after guest was Oscar Levant. No longer a household name except to fans of vintage... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor / Alex BerrWednesday, 06 August 2025
Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor, Pleasance Dome ★★★★Henry Naylor doesn’t hold back in his latest Fringe offering, an entertaining monologue in which he examines The Sun’s treatment of Elton John in the 1980s, an era when tabloids... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Lost Lear / ConsumedTuesday, 05 August 2025
Lost Lear, Traverse Theatre ★★★★A rehearsal room; a tense preparation session for a production of King Lear, provocatively gender-swapped; a troublesome diva in the title role; and a near-silent understudy barely able to contribute.Dan Colley’s... Read more... |
Make It Happen, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - tutting at naughtinessMonday, 04 August 2025
You could distinctly hear the murmurs of recognition from the Edinburgh audience – responding to knowing mentions of the city’s Leith and Morningside areas, the building of Royal Bank of Scotland’s immense Gogarburn HQ, the institution’s towering... Read more... |
Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: I'm Ready To Talk Now / RIFTSunday, 03 August 2025
I’m Ready to Talk Now, Traverse Theatre ★★★★There are, inevitably, certain challenges when reviewing a one-to-one immersive show that’s already pretty much sold out its entire Edinburgh Fringe run (though there are rumours of some last-minute... Read more... |
Top Hat, Chichester Festival Theatre review - top spectacle but book tails offFriday, 01 August 2025
After 76 years, you’d have thought they could’ve come up with a better story! Okay, that’s a cheap jibe and, given the elusive nature of really strong books in stage musicals, not quite as straightforward as meets the eye.More of that later and, let... Read more... |
