Reviews

King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

It’s no surprise Matthew Bourne picked Edinburgh and its International Festival to launch what will likely be another of his bestselling ‘dancicals’. Sixteen years ago in the very same King’s Theatre his production of The Nutcracker had its premiere and signalled the beginning of a meteoric rise that would propel him to worldwide success. Read more »

Underbelly

The Bee, whilst just half of The Bird and the Bee at the Smirnoff Underbelly, is not noticeably so. Each play having been written by different writers means that you get, in effect, two different stories and two different perspectives. Read more »

Edinburgh Playhouse (EIF)

Writer David Harrower spoke in an interview a month or so prior to this production about how most of the script was still unwritten at that time, as the truths being brought out by the young actors made most of his work seem out of touch with reality. Certainly, it is a frighteningly difficult task to try and encompass the varied experiences of the many teenagers in care in Scotland today in a balanced and yet dramatically interesting way, but the resulting collection of stories, abruptly-told tales of lost and confused youths making their first steps into the outside world, seems as if it could have benefited from a longer writing period. Read more »

News

The Edinburgh International Festival drew to a close on Sunday (31 August), after a year which has seen record numbers of ticket sales as well as the biggest-selling dance show in the festival’s history, Matthew Bourne’s Dorian Gray (See News, 22 Aug 2008). Read more »

In the wake of a box office crisis that nearly toppled this year’s festival and a subsequent ten percent drop in ticket sales, Edinburgh Fringe director Jon Morgan (pictured) announced his resignation today (28 August 2008), with immediate effect.

Morgan only took over the role last June (See News, 26 Mar 2008), but in a statement issued today, the former executive producer of Manchester’s Contact Theatre said that he’d been considering the move “for some time”. His decision, according to the statement, is not a result of failures at this year’s festival, but rather a personal choice so that he can return to his “first love” of producing.

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Winners of the If.Comedy, Herald Angels and The Stage awards were all presented over the weekend, bringing to an end a busy few days of Edinburgh awards announcements (See News, 22 Aug 2008). Read more »

Gossip

The Walworth Farce, the play that Enda Walsh premiered at the Traverse Theatre at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, receives it London premiere next month at the National Theatre, where it joins the NT Cottesloe rep from 24 September 2008 (previews from 18 September). And there’s every chance that The New Electric Ballroom, the play that the Irishman has brought to the Traverse for this year’s Fringe, will follow the same route South.

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Budd Schulberg, the 95-year-old author of the Oscar-winning 1954 movie classic On the Waterfront, flew in to Edinburgh this past weekend for Saturday’s opening of Steven Berkoff’s new stage adaptation, which runs at the Pleasance Grand until 25 August 2008. Speaking to Whatsonstage.com, Schulberg said he was highly “impressed” with Berkoff’s stylised rendition of the story of New Jersey ex-prize fighter Terry Malloy. This version is, said Schulberg, “the best I’ve ever seen on stage”.

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Features

Niamh Perry and Keith Jack are two of the youngest discoveries from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s last two offerings of reality TV casting on BBC One. Now, 17-year-old I’d Do Anything finalist Perry and 19-year-old Jack, runner-up on last year’s Any Dream Will Do, have teamed up to star in a new musical, entitled Only the Brave, which receives its world premiere at this month’s Edinburgh Fringe. Read more »

The Edinburgh Fringe – now, in its 62nd year, comprising a record-breaking 2,088 shows – is the world’s largest arts festival, even without its illustrious parent, the Edinburgh International Festival (EIF). How on earth do you make sense of Edinburgh in August? Theo Bosanquet has compiled our top picks of shows to watch out for this month. Read more »