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Updated: 29th October

Edinburgh Festivals Review 2008
Edinburgh's Festivities (probably) won't descend into street fighting and anarchy in 2009 As the ho...
Dorian Gray Review
Master storyteller Matthew Bourne sees his productions as a ‘way in' to dance. Judging by his ...
Sketchatron Review
Sketch-comedy gets a rough deal. With no acts of this genre nominated for the If.comedy awards, and ...

School Of Comedy Review
Kids swearing! And performing rude jokes! Thankfully, the pupils within The School of Comedy far exc...
Kate Nash Review
When the doors for Kate Nash's 'hot gig' at Edinburgh's Corn Exchange opened at 7.30 a wave of high-...
Will & Greg Review
Impressively charming duo Will & Greg (half of last year's Ugly Kid) have created another success wi...
Janice Galloway Review
As Janice Galloway strode onstage in a flamboyant pink and black '50s dress and winked at the audien...
Clever Peter Review
The press release and image for Clever Peter indicate that this group used to be a quartet. The depa...
P.I.E. Review
What would Jessica do? ask Emma Bettridge and Liz Hague in reference to Murder She Wrote hero Jessic...
The Caravan Review
Taking site-specific theatre to its logical conclusion, Look Left Look Right's new show based on ver...

Aluminum Show Review
  1. What makes acts such as the Blue Man Group and Stomp! so effective and impressive is their incredibly tight and rigorous performances, with everyone involved knowing what is coming next. This kind of ...
Little Red Review
  1. This imaginative piece of writing weaves its tale of the devastating effect of dementia in amongst the childhood fairytales using a traditional cottage setting, aided by the damp, musty air of the Bab...
Barbershopera! Review
  1. There is a sense in which a performance with a high risk-factor, such as acapella close harmony singing, is engrossing mainly due to the boldness on display. We are enraptured because, depending on ou...
Itsoseng Review
  1. Mawilla walks into the wasteland which used to be the shopping centre of his town, Itsoseng. He is dragging a metal case, containing all his belongings, and he is carrying with him his blue suit, whic...
Will Self Review
  1. What impresses most on hearing Will Self talk for an hour is the man's ability to maintain his sardonic verbosity at all times. The North London writer is in Edinburgh promoting his new novel the Butt...
  1. As this year's hectic month of culture draws to a close - click for here our video. There's also time to have a look at the winners a selection of this year's awards: If.comedy ...
  1. Everyone We Know is a touching, sweet and naive journey through friendship and companionship. Based on verbatim dialogue and using technology inventively to engage the audience it is thankfully never ...
  1. ‘We interrupt this music to warn you that this material may not be suitable for those with a weak heart'. Or apparently those over the age of 18, as my friend Andy and I surveyed the 2000 or so ...
  1. Complete with pink and blond mohicans, the well known faces of Japanese comedy duo Gamarjobat are back for another show of physical comedy and audience interaction. Their style is cheeky and charming ...
  1. Geeky can be endearing but Sandling misses the mark and his show is uncomfortable, lacking in structure, and decidedly lacking in laughs. He ponders whether this third part of his VHS trilogy will be ...
  1. Edinburgh's Royal Botanic Gardens make for a welcome sojourn from the city centre's streets crammed with frazzled Fringe goers and persistent promoters. Nestled among the beautifully landscaped and pl...
  1. This suavely dressed 11-person ensemble all the way from the States (allegedly) offers its audience a lot, not a little, of everything from dancin' on our feet to swayin' in our seat . After only a ti...
  1. The stage, as it appears before the start of The Third Condiment, gives audiences a good idea of what to expect. Three bean bag chairs rest on the floor while behind them on a small ikea table sit an ...
  1. Playing in the darkness of the Pleasance Courtyard Cavern, the Reduced Edinburgh Impro Show, are marking themselves out as one of the best improvised comedy groups at this years festival. The premi...
  1. This year the International Book Festival have pulled off a coup, stealing Mark Watson from the funny lot up the road. However, putting a comic on the bill is no sign of dumbing down; the affable Wels...
  1. Deborah Frances- White new offering this year teaches us how to attract the opposite sex, in a highly amusing show which combines stand up with a masterclass in the rules of flirtation. The performer ...
  1. Bouncing out to Jus' A Rascal, Dizzee met the expectant Liquid Room crowd on Thursday and the chants of ‘Dizzee, Dizzee, Dizzee F**ing Rascal' that became more and more frenzied as his arrival b...
  1. The Canadian artistic partnership of Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller has been a fixture of the international installation art scene since the early 1990s, and this exciting collection of their w...
  1. Mark Watson's 2007 show, Can I Briefly Talk To You About The Point Of Life?, was one of the best shows I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. Starting from within the audience and charming the 300 stro...
  1. ‘It's a book reading' Hall explains to a slightly bemused audience. I thought I came here for stand-up. Rich Hall, it appears, is feeling a pang of ‘comedic pressure' in his life, and find...
  1. Having never been on one of Edinburgh's Tour buses it's hard to tell how interesting they'd be - and how quickly the idea of an open-top bus on the East coast of Scotland would be exposed as lunacy. P...
  1. Potency is a fast paced and slick site-specific play in Edinburgh sports club. The disconcerting power of both America's largest private army in Iraq and the media combines and contrasts with an energ...
  1. It's a sign of a burgeoning genre that the Shrimps use the abbreviated ‘Improv' in their title, safe in the knowledge that they will be understood by a public increasingly aware of the comedy fo...
  1. Few comedians can exude the wit and charm of Clive James. In his typically laid back fashion (and M&S stylish ensemble) we are guided through his thoughts about a variety of subjects; from the Olympic...
  1. Felix promises to stick to what he knows. What he knows is middle-of-the-road comedy for middle-aged people, by a middle-of-the-road-and-middle-aged man. Never edgy or interesting, he skirts over stab...
  1. Slick and stylish sketch-comedy troupe Idiots Of Ants (marvellous pun intended) return to Edinburgh fresh from a string of TV appearances including the best sketch about Facebook you're likely to see....
  1. Exuding charm and with an abundance of charisma, Tom Allen is our host for an hour of storytelling. His relaxed and inoffensive delivery is certainly a brilliant remedy to the abundance of abrasive co...
  1. The Golden Ticket Winner has been announced! Congratulations to Charles Manson from Edinburgh who enjoyed the following prizes Fringe -Two tickets to the if.comedies awards ceremony, featu...
  1. Whew! Russell Howard's chatty laugh extravaganza is absolutely exhausting, in a good way. He's scarily at ease as he tirelessly zig-zags his audience in a rollercoaster of random tales, interupting th...
  1. Dublin's Project Arts Centre commissioned David O'Doherty to write something for kids that wasn't “crappy” and ‘I Can't Sleep' was the result. Audiences can look forward to nearly an...
  1. Being a keen historian, and alleged descendent of James Watt, Andrew O'Neill's Totally Spot on History of Britain held great promise for your reviewer. Unfortunately the show served as a good warning:...
  1. Special School, hats on jam jars and sneezing during oral sex: Fabbri's material is a lot of things, but it is not intelligent. This is one of the main ideas in a show exploring stupidity. Why is it, ...
  1. Arriving at the suitably stale Appleton Tower you would be forgiven for feeling a little nervous of what you've let yourself in for on a rainy Tuesday. Office Party is intimidating and awkward, hilari...
  1. A powerful piece of theatre telling the stories of volunteer members of the SS, Ruhe has all the more impact because of the very banality of its verbatim accounts. Interwoven with the music of Shubert...
  1. It must be daunting for rehearsed acts to see this show and be confronted with the sheer energy and imagination produced with such finesse by an improvised show, made up on the spot night after night....
  1. If.comedy's 2007 winner Brendon Burns returns to Edinburgh and the gentile surroundings of the Assembly Rooms with a show that features a pointless and overblown beginning like no other you're likely ...
  1. It has become rather du jour for comedians to integrate video footage into their shows. At times, this can create very funny and clever moments (see Idiots of Ants or Glen Wool) but Pam Ann takes this...
  1. Leaving the Pleasance Courtyard and being taken to an underwhelmingly sterile conference centre down the road does not normally make for a promising start to a show. Luckily, what awaits the small aud...
  1. Steam is a brash and showy musical rehash of the classic 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and I can only assume the origin of the title stems from the fact that steam rhymes with dream, with the rest of th...
  1. Class Enemy left me with a headache. No, not a metaphorical one, a real one, because I've just spent the best part of two hours staring at a small screen instead of watching a piece of theatre. Br...
  1. A high-octane, snappy hour of sketches all taking place in the same hotel room, this show restored my faith in the genre after having seen several disappointing attempts elsewhere. Four young men play...
  1. What a shame if you went to this show under any misapprehension that it had anything at all to do with the celebrated film and TV show. Apart from the choice of name for ‘Hotlips', the missing f...
  1. Trite, forced rhyming language and rigid, two-dimensional acting were what was on offer in this duologue. A couple escape the city with its dirt, stress and terrorism and move into a dream house by th...
  1. Comedians often strut around the Fringe being offensive for the sake of it. Much of the time this provokes an audience reaction funnier than the actual joke, or simply grabs a headline. Thankfully Nic...
  1. Francesca Beard is a known poet and runs workshops and master-classes in creative writing for school children and adults. Obviously a very creative and capable woman, why then has she created a childr...
  1. As men and women glided and writhed around each other's bodies and glitter wafted and pulsed into the air around them, this promised to be a stunning show. And, for the most part, it really was. Dance...
  1. In these troubled international times, with Russia resurgent and recession looming, we would do well to remember how little things change. In the west for example, there is often a Whiggish tendency t...
  1. Loosely based on Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray, this dance duet represents an older man's infatuation with a younger man, their concern for beauty and youth, and the young man's spiralling ...
  1. This is an astonishing and eclectic music odyssey by the Bostonian jazz musician, Stan Strickland. Strickland takes the audience on an imaginative and intense journey through his past memories. His st...
  1. Harry! is based on Hamlet in much the same way that West Side Story is based on Romeo and Juliet. When Harry, an art-loving dreamer, hears about his father's death he finds himself drawn back into the...
  1. When Sarah Kane's final play premiered at the Royal Court in 2000, only months after her suicide, her rambling, poetic text of undefined characters still had the power to shock (and scandalize) theatr...
  1. Being Yerma is a daring adaption of Lorca's 1934 folk tragedy, performed by the Italian ensemble Teatro Dei Borgia. This is a play which brings to life the sense of danger and creative energy which un...
  1. This gory tale of a vigilante murderer dishing out justice to priests who abuse children is well told in an engaging and confrontational performance by Owen O'Neill. O'Neill's style is slick, bol...
  1. The publicity for this show sells it as something rather more exciting and unusual than it is – “a climber hangs halfway up a Siberian rock formation. His name is Hal. And he's screaming.&...
  1. A comic-book style tale of intrigue, politics and corruption centred around a new, terrifying, cure for cancer this darkly funny and original adventure story oozes playful wit and panache. Admittedly...
  1. Company, one of Stephen Sondheim's best loved and most successful musicals, is both musically and stylistically very hard to pull off. The songs are technically difficult as well as being nuanced and ...
  1. Johnny Depp: Renaissance man, pirate, sex god and less than adequate barber. He can even play the guitar! What a guy! No doubt he will one day get his rightful place in the pantheon next to Dante, Sha...
  1. Saunders is now a celebrity – he played on Sky Poker this year and almost won. He uses this as the start of his show, mentions the lump on his testicle that made him feel a little too aware of h...
  1. The Angel and the Woodcutter is a traditional Korean folktale. An angel comes down to earth and is found by a woodcutter and his besotted mother. The angel and the woodcutter fall in love, making the ...
  1. So energetic he's exhausting to watch, Monahan is a confident – to the point of being cocky – performer. He rushes onstage giving high-fives left, right and centre and looks like the cat t...
  1. Rarely do the titles of comedy shows correspond in anyway with their content. It is rarer still to have a comedian that has not only done his research, but has helpfully provided us with a bibliograph...
  1. It was always going to be a brave move to cast such a controversial celebrity like Michael Barrymore for such an ambitious role, as comedy giant Spike Milligan. This is especially the case when consid...
  1. Saturday night telly is all about fairly bland, family-friendly, safe entertainment, so you would expect a similar style of fun from one of its newest and biggest stars. Omid Djalili doesn't disappoin...
  1. Big Brother is an obvious and easy target for all satirists and because of this any show professing to tackle the issues of this phenomenon is going to have to go beyond the jokes that audiences have ...
  1. All eight performers in The Oxford Imps come across as intelligent, likeable and competent. They also possess the hallmark quality of good improvised comedy troupes – that of being highly energi...
  1. This is a deliciously abstract and richly metaphoric piece of theatre brought to The Fringe by a Czech physical theatre company. A young man steps into an old man's shoes and starts the magic as he vi...
  1. Eric Koller's claim to be “like Mr Bean on acid” should serve sufficiently to warn most away from his comedy. However, those who venture into the Hill Street Theatre undaunted will be gree...
  1. One of the very best shows at this year's Fringe comes from the Central School of Speech and Drama, whose students and graduates have devised this spectacular and experimental piece of work. Based on ...
  1. Writer and performer Jane Arnfield knows a thing or two about the Killing Fields, working as she does for the Documentation Centre of Cambodia, a non-profit organisation dedicated to collecting and re...
  1. An elemental static surrounds Mortal Engine. It is a visually stunning symphony of light and noise, sucking us into a world of pulsating energy, lighting storms and ominous drones. In the beginnin...
  1. Like most poets John Hegley begins at I. In the case of the Luton bard though, this signals not introspection, but a continuation of the ‘animal alphabet' left unfinished from last year. Marc...
  1. A comedy show is something that can sometimes make you uncomfortable-either because the comedian is causing you to feel this way on purpose or for the silent moments when you know they're struggling f...
  1. In a mesmerizing show that movingly traces African influences in Brazil, the stage covered with downright radiant dancers announce to the room that "This is our Brazil." The next hour is chock full of...
  1. Musicals, like enthusiastic little weeds, seem to be sprouting up from every unimaginable crack at the Fringe. No subject seems too bizarre to touch on, be it cannibalism or in this case an historical...
  1. Based on a true story, Cannibal! The Musical tells of the only reported incident of cannibalism in the history of the United States. Yes, one of those musicals. Alfered ‘Alfred' Packer sets out ...
  1. Samantha Bloom has by no means made things easy for herself. Taking a 50 minute slot in the sizeable White Belly armed with little more than a modernist poem and accompaniment from cellist is certainl...
  1. Given the production line nature of the fringe, it's pretty normal to find comedians introducing themselves. What's not usual however, is for a comic to present an introduction in the third person so ...
  1. Jenni Murray's new book, Memoirs of a not so dutiful daughter, tells of her turbulent relationship with her mother, her love for her father, both of their deaths and, in the same year, her battles wit...
  1. In the Pleasance's new space The Undergrand (a former air-raid shelter), the theatre company goose, goose gander have created a composite piece of site-sympathetic theatre on the the importance of hom...
  1. This racy romp of a musical takes us from Adam's realisation that blissful fornication with Eve is going to produce a lot of brats he's not sure he wants, right through the dating game, marriage, pare...
  1. This is a unique and intriguing show with an incredibly talented cardsharp who also has a commanding stage presence. Guy Hollingworth narrates the story of Milton Andrews, fellow cardsharp whose brill...
  1. A painfully slow beginning takes the audience into a mental asylum where three women are confined. One woman has a thing for spitting out pebbles and touching water, another had been raped and tries t...
  1. Sit back, relax, don't be afraid, Simpy Fancy is going to whisk you away from its tiny, stifling venue to a magical land where brothers and sisters have psychic connections, time occasionally runs bac...
  1. What is madness? Can we say with any certainty that one man is sane and another insane? Where do we draw the line? Borderline provokes some interesting questions in this respect by presenting us with ...
  1. This thoughtful and very worth adaptation of an Evelyn Waugh short story, is an impressive effort from a young, talented and independent cast. Senility gets the better of the elderly Lord Moping who i...
  1. A tragic quality surrounds clowns and supply teachers everywhere. Both put careers on the line in front of often tired, uninterested audiences, and attempt to entertain/teach. Luke Toulson, himself a ...
  1. If you're in a really daft mood then perhaps this show will be more your cup of tea than it was mine. Two women cavort about telling the tale of D'Artagnan's first liaisons with the other musketeers. ...
  1. Victims of Duty is Eugčne Ionesco's obscure and surreal play containing nice, cultured Madeleine and husband Choubert, who quite enjoy discussing theatrical ideologies in their comfortable home. They ...
  1. Given the prevailance of vaudeville, circus and some distinctly old style stand-up, one can only assume this years festival is thronging with people wishing they were born in another era. Further evid...
  1. This adaptation of Edith Nesbit's children's fantasy book held the audience's attention throughout. This is no mean feat when most of them were under seven. The tinkley, dainty music and the flickerin...
  1. Broadly speaking banning smoking in public bars was a good idea; I no longer come out of the local tavern smelling like an ash tray, and my eyes are no longer filled with soot. Yet cabaret may never b...
  1. Lady Garden is a great, light-hearted way to pass an hour or so during this unusually scorched Sunday afternoon. The six young ladies that make up Lady Garden are full of a risqué wit that manages to ...
  1. Club Noir claims to be the world's biggest burlesque club, and whether or not that is true, there is no doubt that it presented one of the Fringe's most tedious and uninspiring events - thoroughly dev...
  1. You will not enjoy this show. But that is exactly the point of this award-winning company's 7th production. The Factory deals with the experience of dying in the Nazi Gas Chambers; as a member of th...
  1. If you don't know the writing of Chuck Palahniuk, you should, you're missing out. His writing is dark, subversive, funny, and as he says, ‘romantic'. If you haven't heard of him then you will ha...
  1. A rather stuttery start finds Matt Kirshen relying on all too familiar jokes about how young he looks – shtick which, after a few years on the stand-up circuit, he should have moved past. As he ...
  1. Is it OK to do an extended, stereotypical Japanese impression? This is not, unfortunately, the question that Sara Standring wants us to consider. It was, however, the only thing running through my min...
  1. Heavily scripted and awkward, this show was a self-indulgent excuse for a B-list celebrity to show off. As she rambled on about her life, she would sporadically leap backstage, grab a pointless prop a...
  1. As beer began to flow in the Cabaret Bar, the audience was greeted with a host of eccentrically dressed gentlemen clutching their instruments and grinning from the stage. The Bastard Children of Austr...
  1. Plastic takes place in the atmospheric cellars underneath the Pleasance courtyard, one of the Fringe's quirkier venues. The audience is not seated, instead we are led from room to room to discover a s...
  1. Twisted country and western music with a hysterically deadpan, longhaired cowboy, Wilson Dixon's show is one not to miss. He sings about life – it's like “a salmon swimming upstream: hard ...
  1. A woman who would ‘rather eat a Toblerone than have sex', Fiona O'Loughlin captures the look of despair in the eyes of many mothers above a certain age. Listening to her rant about her giant Cat...
  1. This show is bafflingly odd – it must be hard to envisage but imagine a monologue that somehow manages to include papier-mâché skulls, hysterical laughter and a hint of audience interaction. It ...
  1. Very, very funny is one way to describe this show. Exhausting is another. Just watching Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert rant his way through the various topics that incite his righteous indignation is a k...
  1. Even before The Great American Trailer Park Musical begins the audience are in no doubt as to where they are. A banner proudly declaring ‘Welcome to Florida' hangs as a backdrop to pastel mobile...
  1. The much-loved grand master of the weird and the other-worldly, Iain (sometimes, ‘M'...) Banks, was welcomed again to the International Book Festival as a familiar friend. His ‘double lif...
  1. By the end of her show, every audience member either wanted to marry Maeve Higgins or, at the very least, wanted to be in her kitchen stroking her cat and eating her home-made cake. She's an endearing...
  1. An hour of ensemble story telling for children, We All Fall Down narrates plague-stricken England and one village's desperate attempts to escape death. Simon, an unpopular orphan, is sent down to hell...
  1. The hero of the ‘Tartan Noir' returned to the Book Festival this year looking beyond the maverick Edinburgh detective that brought him his huge success. With the apparent culmination of twenty ...
  1. The ingredients: Two massive egos, an uncanny bird impression, an upside-down bicycle, a virtual world and a tank of water mixed with a lot of loud music and flashing lights. The result: one awesome s...
  1. It's hard to know what to make of Scott Capurro. He's trying so very hard to offend you that it seems almost churlish not to oblige him. Certainly he has more walk-outs than any other comedian I've ev...
  1. Following last year's successful ‘Birdwatching', likeable comic Alex Horne turns his attention to all things neological in what he's inventively termed ‘Wordwatching'. His plan is to come ...
  1. Life as the foremost Palestinian poet must have inured Mahmoud Darwish to the tragedy of the continuing relevance of much of his work. However, even in death, context was not done playing tricks. ...
  1. We continue, like moths to the flame, to be drawn to celebrity names in lights. This is maintained by giant reality TV factories, producing pre-packaged glitterati and whisking them onto the covers gl...
  1. Written by Fringe First winner Joel Horwood, this is by far the best thing I have seen this year at the Festival, which might be surprising, given the name of the show. It is a humorous yet realis...
  1. It is true, Juliet Meyers does have strange ears: there's a little, natural hole in the cartilage hidden behind her unruly mop of curls. Her claim to fame was made even more unimpressive than it might...
  1. This is fringe theatre at its best. The audience of eleven is bundled into an aging camper van and then encouraged to cram themselves into the limited seating and spend an hour with two Polish émigrés...
  1. The self-confessed ‘second drunkest man in the drunkest band in the world' has traded in his rock-star lifestyle for this civilised corner of Charlotte Square, to talk of his autobiography A Bit...
  1. A bizarre and complicated insight into the minds of two severely funny men, The Pajama Men had the audience guffawing, making silly noises and staring with bewilderment at what unfurled before them. T...
  1. Watching brilliant shows is one of life's great joys. Unfortunately for the Cholmondeleys and the Featherstonehaughs, they won't experience this one: firstly they're in it and secondly, well, they're ...
  1. Allan Ahlberg's much loved characters – Biff the Boxer, Robbie the Robber and Mrs Plug the Plumber – are brought to the stage in this children's show. We are taken into Mrs Wobble's front ...
  1. I have only once visited a gay club. This was something which I only gradually realised after half an hour of deciphering why so many males had turned up in lipstick and for what reason ‘Chicago...
  1. Soweto Gospel Choir have already toured in five different countries this year and performed forty two concerts, and yet they are still the highest energy production I have probably ever seen on stage....
  1. Jeff Kreisler looks a little tired and confused. Playing to a half full meeting room in the basement of Edinburgh Police Club (functioning presently as Stand 4) he'd be forgiven a slight feeling of be...
  1. As the audience enter The Purple Cow in Bristo Square, they are transported to a land of weird and wonderful puppetry, wicked clown faces and grim stories of the sticky end of various undesirable chil...
  1. Somewhere between cartoon and theatre, Slick is a fast-paced and colourful tale unleashing the cruel potential of adults and the celebrating the heroic efforts of trodden-on children. Little Malcom ha...
  1. Olivia Neville didn't make me laugh – in fact she made me want to cry. Or even give her a hug during this 40 minute mess. Obviously a very talented actress, with fantastic characterisation and d...
  1. Featuring the grand comedy of spelling success “SUCKSESS” as well as someone who looks a tiny bit like Madonna makes for a weak show. Unfortunately these were the highpoints of The Guru, a...
  1. For those of you who don't know what a Behemoth is, it is a large monster mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Not that there's any need to know that, but it sets the tone of a show tows the line between co...
  1. Ciaron and Owen get naked on stage: shock horror! Luckily though, the humour of the show far surpasses the cheap gimmick of full-frontal nudity. The show centres on the internal monologues of these tw...
  1. In our current secular age we like to think that entertainment has advanced from the public executions, gladiatorial games and visits to the asylum, for an ogle at the local loonies, that have permeat...
  1. Food and theatre are vastly more linked than one would think as celebrated actor, director and author Steven Berkoff demonstrates in his new book. My Life in Food tracks several memorable eating exper...
  1. “We don't need help from humans. Let typhoons do what they can. For though they may cause their share of pains, the greatest of terrors is man.” Kurt Weill and Bertol Brecht's stridentl...
  1. Fast becoming a fixture at festivals all over the U.K. Silent Disco makes for a very enjoyable and unusual (if rather overpriced) Fringe night out. The music is all pumped through the headphones provi...
  1. There were no major trials and tribulations either in or about this Czech opera, written by Smetana and playing at the Festival Theatre. A show in two acts, the story revolves around two widows living...
  1. Judgement of Paris is an interesting attempt at combining Homer's Iliad with nineteenth century Parisian burlesque, Can-Can included. We are initially presented with a sensually stimulating display of...
  1. Little more than a tiring mix of bland observations about modern youth culture and schmaltzy light-weight ballads about friendship, love and being true to yourself, Departure Lounge nonetheless kept a...
  1. Danny Robins has a theory: The proliferation of music festivals over the past couple of years has been so rapid that, on current trend, we will all have our own personal Glastonbury some time in the v...
  1. The fringe is full of angry comics. Enraged yet still eloquent stand-ups however, are more of a rarity. Andrew Lawrence should be congratulated on holding firm a position in the latter ranks. After...
  1. As Luke Wright steps onto the stage you'd be forgiven for thinking you were about to witness an hour of blabbering from a particularly cocksure adolescent. A baby face, a smart fitted suit and an enth...
  1. Lucy Porter is feeling cheerful. Pretty, petite, barefoot, she pads about in front of a backdrop of kittens and ducks, promising a ‘happy show'. It is that – she barely breaks her smile in...
  1. The romantic, classical ballet of Giselle closed with a standing applause Saturday evening in appreciation for the production's ethereal quality evident in both movement and in the interpretation of t...
  1. Barrie Kosky's International Festival debut, Poppea was a sumptuous, witty and intelligent re-staging of a Monteverdi opera, punctuated by new arrangements of Cole Porter's best loved songs. Kosky's o...
  1. There has been a lot of negative press about teenagers recently. So when I was asked to review the adolescent show ‘Once and For All We're Gonna Tell you Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen', I was...
  1. Two Germans, an Arab and a black guy walk into a comedy venue. A Jewish comedian, Lewis Schaffer, welcomes them and invites the Germans to the first row; they oblige. The comedian proceeds to fire off...
  1. Conor McPherson's rambling tale of a drunken Irish theatre critic who, increasingly dissatisfied with his life, runs off to London only to befriend a house full of Vampires is witty and endearing, but...
  1. Dealing flimsily with a whole range of serious issues – including child abuse, mental illness, suicide and murder – Torn Out Pages is a weak script blandly realised by mediocre performance...
  1. The horrors of sex trafficking are a complex, sensitive issue, and The Paper Birds' new show tackles this weighty subject with aplomb. The three performers devised the piece based on their own researc...
  1. Jarlath Regan is a likeable enough fellow who has a cheery outlook on life and plods along trying to offend as few people as possible. Nice, he certainly is but...funny? He has always backed his way o...
  1. There is no doubt that Tom Wrigglesworth is a likeable chap. He greets the audience quite comfortably as we file in, making little comments and strumming a guitar. It's a lovely way to start a show, a...
  1. Encouraging an audience to sing along to power rock ballads as they enter a venue must be a sure fire way of getting people on-side. It also served as warm up before our musical slating of Tom ‘...
  1. As slight and flimsy as a penny dreadful, this exhibition of cover art from the various prints and reprints of Ian Fleming's most famous series of books provides little beyond superficial interest. Ri...
  1. With the meaningless pomp and bonhomie of the Olympics giving Beijing the chance to present a freshly-scrubbed face to the world, ‘China: A Photographic Portrait' is an exhibition all the more i...
  1. Although dramatically cut and altered from Shakespeare's original, this version of Pericles is as unique as it is entertaining. The company have used dance and movement to convey a story that is often...
  1. It's mid-August and the festival is already a bit exhaustive for us reviewers. Some of what I've seen, I've yawned through, watched the clock through or spent the entire time trying to make sense of t...
  1. In a world where blowing raspberries saves fireflies' lives and plant pots encourage a schoolboy to time travel, anything would seem possible. The Sun Dragon is a truly magical hour of storytelling. G...
  1. Sa-Choom is a Korean dance musical with a big cast of young people. The performance has the potential to be a five star show as each performer has skill and energy bursting from every pore. They are l...
  1. There is little, if anything, about Carl Hiaasen's knockabout adventure novel Lucky You which makes it particularly ripe for theatrical adaptation. The story of JoLayne Lux, a Florida woman who wins t...
  1. On face value the idea of a camp, Glaswegian comedian, in a trademark leather kilt seems an irresistible combination. Yet much to my disappointment this luke warm performance failed to reach any expec...
  1. Comedians have, of late, attached many bells, whistles and flashing lights to what is essentially a simple art of making people laugh. Throw as much musical talent, money, sound systems and industrial...
  1. Is it possible to love a place in the same way that one can love a person? Can a human being's longest and most fulfilling relationship be with the place they call home? Daniel Kitson, in writing and ...
  1. In an increasingly connected world the idea of an inescapable blood tie to our past, something stronger than borders or reason, sits uneasily in multi-cultural society. It unnerves us to challenge an ...
  1. Taking their inspiration from the much celebrated movie Grease, Drags Aloud offers us a hilarious and racy parody on American teen life. The ensemble cast mime along to the musical hits and selected c...
  1. Tony Parsons is clearly enamoured with Asia. He's set his latest novel, My Favourite Wife in China where a hard working British lawyer is lonely without his wife and small daughter and finds himself s...
  1. Exciting young company Pangolin's Tea-Time are back with the follow up to the show Haozkla that arrived at the Fringe to massive critical acclaim in 2006. With expectations high it is a shame that the...
  1. Tea Dance is a unique opportunity for the ticket holder to BE the show rather than just an attendee. Smack bang in the middle of the open-air patio inside the Pleasance Dome, my dance partner and I ar...
  1. Steve's favourite venue in Edinburgh is this very portakabin by the men's toilets at Pleasance. Unfortunately for him, it isn't an audience's, as the sparse crowd take their seats to see not the tall ...
  1. As the audience find their seats, the circus performers mill about and amuse themselves. One performer in a bright red suit jovially hits people with foam tubes and starts a fight with a six year old....
  1. “Hands up who's read one of my books?” asks Colfer to a full house on the first day of the Edinburgh International Book Festival. The response is about 80% to which the retort is that &lsq...
  1. There can be few comics in the world who are louder than Phil Nichol. This seems like dubious praise indeed, but it is to the Canadian's credit, that he is able to use his over-sugared-toddler persona...
  1. One of three productions being staged by the Weaver Hughes Ensemble, the Six Wives of Timothy Leary is just as the title suggests, played out with an admirable economy of form. In a technique reminisc...
  1. Welcome to Britain in 2013 where Glastonbury has become a Guantanamo-style prison camp, the BNP has merged with the BBC, and our basic human rights are being undermined by aggressive anti-terror laws ...
  1. Reasonable Doubt is a play about the shifting nature of truth written by a lawyer, perhaps the best qualified professional to deal with such a theme. Mitch and Anna meet up in a penthouse hotel suite ...
  1. At the start of Feasting on Flesh the cast parade onto the stage to a song. The chorus asks ‘what do you want from us?' The crowd collected in the Assembly Music Hall at 10:30 are, it appears, n...
  1. This play tells the story of a couple in the 1950s, a teenage mother-to-be who just wants the boy she slept with to think she's pretty, and her twins whose bickering and rivalry as they grow up draws ...
  1. An hour of mediocre stand-up comedy was commenced by McPherson who plodded his way through a series of shallow one-liners mostly about different nationalities or cultures. His spontaneity was somewhat...
  1. Wil Hodgson is the Tracy Emin of comedy. His muse? Himself and his past. More specifically , the ambivalence caused by loathing the stifling British town from which you had the misfortune to be spaw...
  1. Reginald D Hunter, creator of last years Fringe show ‘Pride & Prejudice & Niggas' comes back with a title he admits is more neutral, but a show much more ‘f**ked up'. Certainly the audien...
  1. This was an uncomfortable hour of cheap innuendo and poorly worked gags. Christine and Neil Hamilton arrive in true Butlins' style and proceed to produce entertainment that any discerning Redcoat woul...
  1. Yasser Mansour bursts into the dressing room. He's due on stage in under an hour to play Shylock in the Merchant of Venice, yet his briefcase, containing the prosthetic nose which he sees, not totally...
  1. Munnery is one of the Edinburgh Festival's institutions and he is back once again at an old favorite, the Stand Comedy Club, a venue perfectly suited to his style of comedy – intimate, relaxed a...
  1. As the shadow of an almost spherical gut, spindly legs and large clown shoes emerge from a piercingly bright light on stage, it is clear the audience is in for something mesmerizing. Al Seed is a mast...
  1. A celebrated American playwright faces imprisonment having written a controversial play the government has interpreted to be inciting terrorism. The Patriot Act is a conversation between the playwrigh...
  1. Art is something we enter mainly on an emotional level, usually being physically separated from the process and end product. With Sanford Wurmfeld's E-Cyclorama however the viewer is immersed ...
  1. Stephen K Amos leaps and shimmies his way onstage and exudes an incredible energy that he maintains throughout the next hour. He's simply a great comic, he couldn't look more at home behind a micropho...
  1. To be honest when queuing up for this show I had a sinking vision of an hour spent willing the ground to open up and swallow me as the other 30 or so audience members who sparsely covered the relative...
  1. Rare are the shows that appear to cater for children yet actually hold a huge amount of appeal for adult audiences. It is clear from the offing that Woodley has been heavily influenced by the Chaplin ...
  1. “Distract the f***ers” instructs Jonny in a moment of panic, and they certainly do. As such The Jonny & Joe show is one that's hard to define: not really a sketch show ...
  1. With superb performances, direction and writing, this play is an absolute gem. The style of Noel Coward is used to mingle the jolly, unsuspecting Britain of the 1940s with terror-filled modern warfare...
  1. Men can be split into three categories, one promiscuous character informs us, “gay, married or pricks”. This is about the level of intellect and depth you can expect from the rest of this ...
  1. It's late July 1890 in Paris, a week ago Vincent Van Gogh committed suicide, and now his brother, Theo, wants to set the record straight. This monologue carries the air of a lecture, in which the arti...
  1. Chris Cox is a young and very talented trickster. He uses a combination of psychology and magic to entertain and read the minds of a bemused and impressed audience. He mixes live trick...
  1. This comic play takes us to a brownie hut where an excited Brown Owl waits for a 25 year reunion with her old brownie pack. As she waits, and waits, she tells us about each of the girl...
  1. Last year, stand-up and craft-enthusiast Josie Long called her show ‘Trying Is Good'. This year, although actually titled ‘All of the Planet's Wonders (Shown in Detail)', i...
  1. At the tender age of 28, Miles Jupp has already cast himself in the mold of the disgruntled ageing male. Whether this is an early application for retirement on Radio 4, or simply and an acknow...
  1. Dull, unbelievable and simply bad, this play made me despair at its lack of anything worth watching. If there had been a freshly painted wall, I would have been watching it. The play i...
  1. Twenty years in Catchphrase, periods of time in the army, a youth detention centre and working as a touring boy-soprano all make Roy Walker an interesting and amusing speaker. He is from a generation ...
  1. It's odd to see members of an audience get visibly excitable before a comedian's entrance. We usually sit expectantly, conversing with our neighbour or twiddling our thumbs. Yet Tim Minchin achi...
  1. The Bird and The Bee are two plays designed to function together, telling two sides of the same story and approaching the prickly issue of teenage suicide from two different angles. They fu...
  1. On a night so rainy that a severe weather warning has been broadcast, any comic is up against it to get so much as a chuckle from a diminished and sodden audience. However it doesn't ...
  1. A moving tale of grief, injustice and uncertainty, Sherman Cymru's new production is (although not ground-breaking) brave, slick and powerful. Part family tragedy, part court-room ...
  1. A gruff, bearded bear of a man, Wool introduces his show with film footage of him in a string bikini. He's newly single after a recent divorce and his bitterness and relief contrastingly shine through...
  1. We have fourteen words [...] for cruelty, but only one for hope. Zinnie Harris' new play presents us with a cruel, bleak and utterly chilling world. She deals with the trial of four...
  1. Pitched as a play which ‘captures Britain as it crashes from the euphoria and promise of the 2012 Olympics announcement into the devastation of 7/7', Simon Stephen's script is on...
  1. Having been so impressed with Ferguson's other play ‘The Plan' last week, I was expecting equally great things of this one. Unfortunately, ‘Heart and Sole' lacks the spark and wit that Fer...
  1. A slide clicks into place to introduce the first disaster, American Airlines Flight 1572, and immediately creates a palpable sense of tension. The pilots are unsettlingly calm, unawa...
  1. Both incisively simple and deliciously complex, Mark O'Rowe's exquisite Terminus is bold, ambitious storytelling at its absolute best. Three beautiful, witty and evocative stories inte...
  1. From the surreal opening scene jam-packed with excessive and uncomfortable nudity to the even more bizarre closing monologue recited over the All Black's Haka, Foreskin's Lament is &n...
  1. Jason Byrne had the audience in stitches with his endearing silliness and his ability to take any subject, shake it, twist it and run away with it into his little land of fancy. He ties himsel...
  1. A bewitching and incredible interpretation of one of Shakespeare's most popular plays, this is a production no other could match for imagination, creativity and weirdness. The lovers are infinitely en...
  1. Edinburgh is famous for its history and its comedy; Elizabeth and Raleigh provides both in a medley of cross-dressing, singing, and slideshows. At first we are welcomed by Sir Walter Raleigh (Miles Ju...
  1. Iraq, immigration and racism - three themes which have stormed their way into many theatrical ventures in the last ten years and as such three themes which have already found their own clichés and tro...
  1. This one man show offers us a biographical portrait of the infamous newspaper tycoon from the intimate space of his study. As Philip York enters on stage with what looks like a stuff...
  1. There are no surprises with the Edinburgh Tattoo's 59th season other than that it continues to be a simply unmissable spectacle. With an awe-inspiring staging (in the form of the Edinburgh Castle es...
  1. If recent political mutterings are to be trusted the subject of absent fathers is once more good cause for public hand wringing. Motherland, running in a dank cavern in the underbelly, clearly has som...
  1. Kate's act is like a damn good night at a cheesy pub, full of music, Liverpudlian humour and impressions of irritating people. But it can get a bit old if you already have a general ...
  1. The promotional material for Up the Republic! features very prominently a quote from public beard stroker Christopher Hitchens, declaring that the show catches an atmosphere and context in French poli...
  1. Lynn Manning was shot and blinded in an L.A. bar at the age of 23. This is his story. The monologue is both written and performed by Manning who delivers a meandering tale of abject poverty, abuse and...
  1. In a world which recently received Wall-E with open arms the likes of Ireneusz Krosny look set to inherit all. In fact the ‘fun for all the family' tag may as well have been invented with his sh...
  1. Fast becoming Fringe favourites, The Penny Dreadfuls are back with their latest show, Aeneas Faversham Forever, which sees them leaving their sketch comedy roots (and one of their number) behind in fa...
  1. No doubt eager to follow up his boys' successes at the previous two Fringes, Pappy, a mysterious benefactor, has answered the prayers of a fan-base somewhere between ‘cult' and ‘rather hef...
  1. From the opening image the cast of Before We Remember set out their visual manifesto: stage front, a woman, apparently lost, gazes wonderingly at some discarded shoes, while behind her, lifted onto th...
  1. Ben Moor presents us with a strange and intriguing tale where a diary has the power of prophecy and a man has developed procrastination to an art form. He takes on the characters of a failing but chee...
  1. A jazzy medley of political fun-poking, this was a toe-tapping treat that made me laugh out loud. After the success of last year’s Tony! The Blair Musical, the melodious MPs are back but this time Ton...
  1. Two security guards eat pot noodles and guard an old tower block that no one will ever want to buy or move into. The building is home to deadly flies, a kind of female ‘Thing' from ‘The Ad...
  1. It is now over five years since British and American troops entered Iraq, and it remains a hot topic at the fringe. In Conflict voices the results of interviews carried out with American veterans retu...
  1. Lynn Ferguson, as a kind of sassy female grim reaper, counts deaths on a blackboard, and switches between ‘Ave Maria', Reggae singer Shaggy's ‘Angel' and news reports on the radio. Her pla...
  1. In the final hours of the Edinburgh Jazz Festival, an endearing homage is paid to a late great virtuoso in the Stephane Grappelli Centenary Concert. A mature crowd of jazz afficionados are entranced w...
  1. The tale of Scaramouche Jones, a clown on the cusp of death, sees an aging performer tell of the adventures, trials and tribulations of his life. Set on the eve of the millennium, Scaramouche recounts...
  1. Fringe favourite Ed Byrne returns to Edinburgh with a newly energetic and consistently funny performance, reminding the audience of the talent that got him where he is today. Where other comedians fai...
  1. This lacklustre two-hander from the Arches Theatre Company is an uninspiring hour of weak jokes and shallow characterisation structured around a dreary and unimaginative narrative. The tale of two sai...
  1. The story of an all-American girl who breaks away from her traditional upbringing in a well respected Wyoming family and finds herself falling off the rails, Maggie Simpson's script for her one-woman ...
  1. Perhaps catering more for art enthusiasts than casual viewers, Foto is a thoughtful, intelligent and carefully structured exhibition which, unfortunately, becomes repetitive rather quickly, and is not...
  1. The latest offering from renowned New York theatre collective TEAM, Architecting is a bold, impressive and vibrant theatrical whirlwind which slides deftly between a host of exquisitely complex narrat...
  1. Applauded and abhorred in equal measure since her spectacular entrance in to the art scene in the 1990s, Tracey Emin's retrospective cements her status as one of British art's most important, divisive...
  1. Jimeoin informs us before his routine that the beginning is usually a bit ordinary and indeed ‘ordinary' can be applied to much of the shows material. Yet it quickly becomes apparent that the ba...
  1. ‘Half the people standing at the Cross of Edinburgh were mad without knowing it' was Adam Smith's supposed quip to a friend on the Royal Mile. Certainly few comments are more apt for Edinburgh a...
  1. Berkoff's typical anti-naturalistic style is put to the test by this working class tale made so famous by Elia Kazan's film. Terry Malloy wants a better life than that of a longshoreman carrying out s...
  1. Jason takes us through the ten years of his career as a stand-up and how his hate of unintelligent dolphins got him there. We learn about his beloved old Ford Escort, his family relationships, and his...
  1. A deafening, messianic opening heralds the arrival of The Improverts to this years Fringe, who bound onto stage with matchless energy and enthusiasm. Scenes are improvised, and the players zeal for pe...
  1. ‘Anyone pop ‘Es'?' Paul Tonkinson is met with embarrassed silence ‘Cocaine?' Indeed like many a man coping with the trials of a mid-life crisis Tonkinson tries very hard to appear bo...
  1. A chair hangs ominously from a sharp, over-sized meat hook and a naked bulb glares at the expectant audience. Anticipating dark figures, mutilation or human humiliation, it is a surprise to see a chap...
  1. The rickety set and purposefully homemade look gives this puppetry piece an endearing storybook feel. The smoky-faced storytellers of ‘The Dead Lands' lead the audience through Lilly's magical a...
  1. A calm, heartfelt opening leads the audience into the farcical tale of a Jewish paediatrician's life, who considers it best to come out as gay rather than admit to his overpowering mother that he plan...
  1. Lee Nelson returns to Edinburgh for a second year. The creation of Simon Brodkin, Nelson is the pint chugging, Lambert and Butler smoking south-London wide-boy who endeared himself to audiences last f...
  1. WITH her shock of white-blonde hair, bright green eyes and impressive height, it is impossible to ignore Lynn Ferguson, award-winning actress, stand-up comedy star, playwright and mother of two young ...
  1. Sometimes when you involve the audience you'll say something off the top of your head that seems funny but actually will turn the whole room – on two occasions in the last ten years I've repeate...
  1. If you’re passionate about food and drink, Foodies at the Festival returns for a second bumper year of top chefs and the very best of Scottish and international produce If you fancy seeing top Scot...
  1. Whether you're looking for down and dirty laughs or something a bit more highbrow, Jonathan Trew suggests something to suit every taste Aeneas Faversham Forever Pleasance Courtyard July 30 &ndash...
  1. If music be the food of love, get ready for romance says Mark Fisher ALEKO AND SEMYON KOTKO Usher Hall, August 24, 8pm An evening of Russian classics as the Mariinsky Opera and Orchestra perform...
  1. Whether you’re looking for cutting edge modern dance or classical ballet, there’s a world of choice at the festivals says Kelly Apter AUGURY AND ENTROPY C Soco 1 – 9 Aug 6.50pm Choreographer Her...
  1. Looking for something to sink your teeth into? Mark Fisher rounds up the best and brightest dramas competing for your attention ABSOLUTION Assembly Rooms July 31-Aug 25 (not 11, 18), 6.05pm Co...
  1. Whether you're nine or 90, the festivals have something for everyone. The kids can meet their favourite authors or make up stories of their own, giggle along with their own stand-up comedians or enjoy...
  1. If getting lost in a good book is your style, Mark Fisher brings you a selection of the best authors who'll be visiting this August, from Louis de Bernieres to Sir Sean Connery TARIQ ALI IN CONVERS...
  1. Chance meetings with guerrilla artists, thoughtful retrospectives of a lifetime's work and the latest pieces by up-and-coming stars: there's art on show every which way during the Festival 39 Hugh...
  1. Good comedy never goes out of fashion, as these performers who take their inspiration from history prove Described as “a lady whom time had surprised” by Sir Walter Raleigh, Elizabeth I...
  1. Camille O'Sullivan is an actress and singer whose interpretations of songs by Jacques Brel, Nick Cave, Kurt Weill and Tom Waits have earned her five star reviews from Edinburgh to Sydney. Q. How sh...
  1. In typical fashion, you wait years for a big Brazilian dance show to come to the Fringe, and then two come along at once. Both Balé de Rua and Capoeira Knights: Warriors of Brazil fuse music and dance...
  1. Alongside the return of Rich Hall's Perrier-winning jailbird Otis Lee Crenshaw, two shows from bitch supreme Joan Rivers and the fearsome Doug Stanhope's one-off performance for a single brave audienc...
  1. Growing numbers of US talent scouts attend the Fringe each year. But a few UK-based comedians have already made an impact in the land of free speech and no heckling. Omid Djalili Despite playin...
  1. As one of the world's most exciting choreographers, Ohad Naharin is in constant demand. Which is why in 2003 he decided to give up his job as Director of Batsheva Dance Company to pursue other project...
  1. Before Eric Cartman dropped his first swear word there was Cannibal! the Musical, the college movie that showed the world exactly where Trey Parker was going Along with Matt Stone, Trey Parker is b...
  1. Join the stars and win the ultimate prize: a ticket to a main event at each of the festivals – opening nights, awards and plenty of fireworks! The prizes: Fringe Two tickets to ...
  1. By turns brilliant, controversial and crazy, Tracy Emin's work divides public opinion. Patrick Elliott, curator of the first retrospective of her work, discusses her impact on the world of art This...
  1. Forget Poppea, Barrie Kosky is taking us on an altogether darker journey with The Tell-Tale Heart Barrie Kosky is back, and this time the purists needn't worry. When the maverick Australian directo...
  1. You know you've made it when Vanity Fair comes calling, and an exhibition of portraits from the magazine's pages shows just how iconic an image can be “Getting your own photo shoot in Vanity ...
  1. Mary, Queen of Scots was a much-misunderstood monarch, says author Philippa Gregory A FLAME-HAIRED femme fatale or a romantic fool doomed to die tragically because she loved not wisely but too well...
  1. Try not to faint; Chuck Palahniuk's readings have been known to bring audience members to their knees Let's hope the smelling salts are close at hand during Chuck Palahniuk's Book Festival appearan...
  1. As comedy's golden boy Russell Howard would be quite justified in turning into a diva, but he's not quite ready to pitch a fit over sandwiches Thanks to sell-out Fringe runs, if.comedy nominations,...
  1. He's notorious for his exuberant, edgy re-stagings of classic stories, so it's no surprise that choreographer Matthew Bourne has turned his attention to fame itself Celebrity is a mask that eats in...
  1. Charlie Higson's young Bond books have given a whole new lease of life to Ian Fleming's creation. He tells us why the spy is so appealing to younger readers It's impossible to escape the fact that ...
  1. A moving play explores recordings of conversations between pilots during air emergencies The most talked-about shows on the Edinburgh Fringe in recent years have been all talk. While television has...
  1. From gigs in prisons and across faith divisions in Belfast to howling at the moon, it's clear Andrew Maxwell is no ordinary stand up Ask many a performer why they chose to do a gig in a high securi...
  1. Pugilistic theatre legend Stephen Berkoff is learning from his childhood heroes for his adaptation of On the Waterfront Even at 71, Steven Berkoff has lost none of his fighting spirit. It would be ...
  1. Private shows for Elton John? All in a day's work for Pam Ann, who's taking in-flight service to dizzy new heights The alter ego of Australian Caroline Reid, Pam Ann is an air hostess whose bad at...
  1. Dark, uncompromising drama about suicide from the mind of a playwright on the brink is given new life by a fearless young company Live fast, die young, leave a beautiful corpse. So it goes with eve...
  1. Rigmor Gustafsson first picked up a guitar when she was just seven. Since then she's broken America and is a chart-topper in her native Sweden It's rare for European jazz musicians to gain acceptan...
  1. With a passion for local ingredients and an adoration of fresh seafood, it's no wonder prize-winning chef Roy Brett loves working in his native Scotland Romance might not be the first thought to e...
  1. So you think women aren't funny? Watson and Oliver are going to prove you wrong For some comedians living the dream might mean lifting the if.comedy main prize. For others, it could be starring in ...
  1. Despite the contentment her children have brought her, playwright Zinnie Harris can't forget the pain and suffering in the rest of the world Zinnie Harris has dedicated her new play for Edinburgh's...
  1. It was an offer prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvilli couldn't refuse – to return to her native country and revitalise its national company At the tender age of ten, Nina Ananiashvili was forced...
  1. Louise Rennison feels lucky to think like a 14-year-old girl. Just don't let her speak to any American investors ... It's no surprise that Louise Rennison has been so successful at creating the fun...
  1. He famously put the freak back into freakshow, as the ringmaster of a bloody, funny circus. Now Jim Rose is back with a burlesque extravaganza sure to disgust and delight. The last time Jim Rose wa...
  1. A new exhibition celebrates the similarities and differences between the French and Scottish Impressionist movements. Although visitors to this year's summer exhibition at the RSA can look forward...
  1. Get your mullet combed and your denim hotpants on, it's time to hitch up to The Great American Trailer Park Musical Eva Price was drawn to the show because of the name. How could she go wrong with ...
  1. Shakespeare a bit dry and boring? Not when legendary company Footsbarn get a hold of him. It's a few years since I read the original, but I'm fairly sure Shakespeare didn't have a gag about the pet...
  1. David Murray may be the most prolific saxophonist of his generation, but he's not stopping any time soon. With over one hundred and thirty albums to his name, David Murray might be excused for rega...
  1. It's a risky idea: telling the same story from two perspectives across two different plays. But then teenage suicide is a risky, complicated subject. In an environment where many venues offer two-f...
  1. It's not every travelling show that can celebrate 30 years in showbiz, but Circus Oz are inviting Fringe audiences to the party. A lot has happened in the 30 years since Circus Oz first took to the...
  1. Michael Barrymore went from beloved TV star to pilloried tabloid figure overnight, but there's no way he's giving in to self-pity. When Michael Barrymore takes on the role of Spike Milligan in the ...
  1. The phenomenal success of the Tattoo is partly down to its ability to bring people together, thinks Major General Euan Loudon. There is a display case in the offices of the Edinburgh Military Tatto...
  1. Bestselling author Tony Parsons made his name writing warm stories about modern manhood in London, but researching his latest novel took him much farther afield Tony Parsons' years as a journalist ...
  1. Loved by audiences and hated by critics in equal measure, Danny Bhoy steadfastly refuses to compromise his comedy for fame. As sure as Danny Bhoy will sell out this Edinburgh Fringe, critics will s...