Stars of Scenes for Survival, National Theatre of Scotland

The Guardian, 27 May 2020

THERE’S a special joy in seeing a familiar character in an unfamiliar place. Take John Rebus. Solitary curmudgeon he may be, but Ian Rankin’s Edinburgh detective is a man engaged in his world, be it the city mortuary or the Oxford bar. Take him out of that world, as Rankin does in John Rebus: The Lockdown Blues, and you have a character in search of definition.

Self-isolating during the Covid-19 crisis, this Rebus is left with nothing but memories, beer bottles and his record collection to fill the time between socially distanced visits from protege Siobhan. It’s simultaneously funny and sad. [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).