The Guardian 27 November 2022

The temperature is rising in Middle Perth. Nobody says it in so many words but the opening salvo of songs tells you all you need to know: Walking on Sunshine; Hot in Herre; Hot Stuff; (Feeling) Hot Hot Hot. Becky Minto’s designs point in the same direction: everything is bathed in an unseasonal orange, offset by the lime-green tartan trews.

You wouldn’t know if from the tightly choreographed routines and the all-round air of jollity, but this is a Jack and the Beanstalk for the age of global heating. If panto plot points are your thing, look away now, but it turns out Kirsty Findlay’s intrepid young Jack is not only making an attempt on Beinn Mucklemichty, the least climbable peak in the land, but on a mountain of fossil fuel. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).