Iain McClure has been writing plays ‘on and off’ for the past 40 years But he is also a child psychiatrist, and after coming away from the world premiere of his latest play, I felt like I needed counselling! There are no holds barred in…
I can’t think of anyone who hasn’t seen the film The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, starring Judi Dench and Maggie Smith, and its sequel. Not to mention the TV series which involved celebrities travelling to India to see if they’d like to retire there. Deborah…
Shows based around a band’s songs can sometimes be lacking in any real content; the storylines vacuous and the characters unconvincing. Not so in this powerhouse of Scottishness. And I’m not talking tartan and shortbread! Runrig’s name has been synonymous with the best of Scottish…
When Scottish writer and performer Gary McNair told Billy Connolly he wanted to make a show about him, he said, ‘Can you not wait till I’m deid?’ But McNair needed him to know just how much he matters to Scotland. And so he set off…
Russian literature is hardly the stuff of fun and frolicking (and the f-word)! But in the hands of Scottish playwright and actor Lesley Hart, Leo Tolstoy’s epic story explodes into the 21st century with much mirth and madness, together, inevitably, with not a little misery.…
Neil Gaiman is a writer of ‘fantastic fiction’ whose characters find the Holy Grail in an Oxfam shop, encounter comedic lover Harlequin in a diner or sit next to a god on a plane. So we’re prepared for anything when this National Theatre production begins…
The devil's advocate? Behind its beautiful, Victorian exterior, Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum is a powerhouse for new and groundbreaking work. And in this experimental piece, writer and performer Tim Crouch even questions the future of theatre. In years to come, he says, anthropologists will wonder at…
Storytelling is part of our DNA. If we were lucky enough, our parents read us stories at bedtime when we were children. Now sleep apps offer us that same escapism. But professional storytelling is an art, and Mara Menzies wins awards with her rich, colourful…
How are your snow-making skills? That’s the first thing you’re asked to do before multi-award-winning (and the Edinburgh Royal Lyceum's artistic director) David Greig’s madcap musical unleashes itself in what is said to be ‘the most sophisticated interior in Edinburgh’, the University of Edinburgh’s Playfair…