I don’t think Frances Poet intends her play to be depressing. She has a dry wit, a vigorous way with words and moments of theatrical exuberance that point away from that. But she doesn’t make things easy. Still, the Traverse’s flagship Edinburgh festival show, involves a woman housebound with chronic pain, a man in the closing moments of dementia and a couple with a stillborn baby. And let’s not forget the dog that has to be put down. [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).