Laurel and Hardy
The Guardian 8 June 2022 Movie director Leo McCarey has a proposal for producer Hal Roach. He has seen Oliver Hardy and Stan Laurel acting in the same silent short,…
Red Ellen
The Guardian 10 April 2022 Director Wils Wilson casts a number of tall actors in Caroline Bird’s play, but one performer towers above them. Like her character, headstrong, passionate and…
Giles Terera on The Meaning of Zong
The Scotsman 1 April 2022 Such was the wealth of material Giles Terera came across when he started work on The Meaning of Zong, he thought he might have two…
The Scent of Roses
The Guardian 9 March 2022 Where do we draw the line between a white lie, an infidelity and a Trumpian fantasy? When does being economical with the truth become a…
Stagehand takes centre stage in Lyceum Christmas show
The Scotsman 30 November 2021 You can see why someone might feel down about Christmas. Last year, celebrations were all-but cancelled. This year, the fog of Covid uncertainty has yet…
Life Is a Dream
The Guardian 3 November 2021 Segismundo has just woken up in a palace, having spent his life holed up in a tower. In Pedro Calderón’s extraordinary Spanish golden age drama, he…
Black Diamonds and the Blue Brazil
The Guardian 21 July 2021 Who doesn’t love an underdog? When Brora Rangers played eight-times Scottish cup winners Hearts in March, they enjoyed a perfect David-and-Goliath victory. The part-time team…
Hindu Times
The Guardian 26 May 2021 Body-swap comedies are big in the cinema. From the mother-daughter switch of Freaky Friday to the boy who finds himself an adult in Big, Hollywood…
John Byrne: ‘If I don’t laugh when I’m writing, it gets tossed out’
The Guardian 21 April 2021 If you were in Edinburgh during the 1977 festival there were two shows you couldn’t miss. One was the revue Beyond a Joke starring a young…
Lyceum Christmas Tales
The Guardian, 9 Dec 2020 How many ways are there to tell a story? The Lyceum comes close to an answer in this Advent masterclass in narrative technique. In the…