The Guardian 19 April 2020
Five from Inside, Traverse, Edinburgh, online
Many theatre-makers have responded to the coronavirus lockdown by seeking to re-create a sense of community. Whether it’s the Zoom-based talking heads of the Show Must Go Online’s Shakespeare marathon, the collage of images in St Helens Theatre Royal’s Rapunzel: The Lockdown Panto or the bring-your-own-laughter-track banter of the Stand comedy club’s weekly mixed bills, they are using the internet as a conduit for the shared experience. [READ MORE]
The Guardian 1 April 2020
Edinburgh festival’s cancellation will be felt not just around the city but the world
The story used to be about how enormous the Edinburgh fringe had become. As long ago as 1961, theatre director Gerard Slevin argued it would be “much better if only 10 halls were licensed”. Ever since, pundits have predicted the bubble would burst. But it has continued to grow. In recent years, the Fringe Society has taken to underplaying the enormity, believing size isn’t everything. The figures, though, are hard to escape. In 2019, there were 3,841 shows in 323 venues. [READ MORE]
The Guardian 16 March 2020
Barefoot in the Park, Pitlochry Festival Theatre
It’s the second half of Neil Simon’s comedy when things kick off. After the sweet-tempered wisecracks before the interval, the mood has turned sour. Corie and Paul are newlyweds and their six-day marriage is faltering. In Elizabeth Newman’s production, the two of them circle each other in a ferocious dance across Adrian Rees’s set (all 1960s pastel pink, yellow and turquoise with a backdrop of West Side Story fire escapes). [READ MORE]
The Guardian 16 March 2020
The Metamorphosis, Vanishing Point, Tron Theatre, Glasgow
Of all the shows to have been affected by the Covid-19 outbreak, it is ironic that Vanishing Point’s Kafka adaptation should have been one of the first. A co-production with Emilia Romagna Teatro Fondazione, it was due to have had its premiere at the 2020 VIE festival in Cesena at the end of February. The lockdown in Italy put paid to that; the entire festival was pulled. [READ MORE]