This show might easily have been a final assessment piece on an MA in Contemporary European Theatre. You can tick off the influences of Beckett, Pirandello, Artaud and Brook in a fairly predictable avant-gardist collage of existential quips, grotesque physicality and random dangling objects (unused). There is evidence of strong performing ability, particularly the female […]

Part of the Escalator East to Edinburgh programme, Shams’ Thin Ice is, on the one hand, an adventure story detailing a mission of Arctic exploration and scientific discovery, and, on the other, the story of a romantic love triangle. Set in May 1940, Thin Ice flows effortlessly between the past and the present, moving from the discovery of the […]

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik is an elegant and touching piece of solo theatrical storytelling that effortlessly fuses digital projection, puppetry and live music to draw you into a very idiosyncratic visual world. The focus on stage is a large round screen, reminiscent of the round window of a space ship, or a bubble, and beautifully […]

The name of The Mechanical Animal Corporation suggests the company are fundamentally interested in considering the human being from an evolutionary perspective, and in this particular ‘bio-theatre experiment’ they explore connections between art, genetics and human violence. As it is, the piece holds the potential to provoke much post-show reflection on the implications of the […]

Theatre Témoin and Cie. Traversière’s The Fantasist depicts the extremes of bipolar disorder as experienced by an institutionalised young woman rendered with conviction and physical virtuosity by the central performer. Well-structured as an engaging and coherent story, the piece still leaves plenty of space for interpretation, and contains enough elements of humour and inventive staging to keep […]