The set conjures up theatre from a bygone era. A wooden puppetry gantry with a variety of red and white curtains seems to bring to mind Victorian/Edwardian times. The use of surtitles before each scene creates the sense of the silent movie age. A series of performances are played out, with the inevitable denouement of puppets meeting their demise in a series of ways, breathtaking in creativity. At times reminiscent of Monty Python, Spitting Image, The Goodies, The Young Ones

Spies Like Us are no strangers to Edinburgh Fringe. Their reputation is established as avant-garde, physical theatre story-tellers. Their set is typically minimalist : a desk, a doorway and 5 telephones. All is not as it seems though. The doorway becomes a phonebox, the desk a blackboard. The telephone lines become existentially an extension of anxiety and stress. All may not be as it seems generally, in fact. Speed Dial is performed by five actors, all in differently colour

Douglas Adams, coveted and bestselling author, is perilously close to an apparently unmissable publishing deadline. So much so, that his publicist has locked him in a hotel suite and refuses to release him until he finishes the manuscript. Douglas Adams will need no introduction to many people, his reputation as one of the greatest and adored writers of the twentieth century being beyond debate. At the moment we meet Adams in his hotel suite, his Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Ga

A young man forms part of a Lancaster bomber squadron, going out on yet another raid towards the end of World War II. The play conveys parts of the overall journey, with the plane being in almost constant mortal danger. John, the Wireless Operator , carries out his duties on the plane out of self-preservation and loyalty to his fellow crew-members. However, he is both terrified and wracked with guilt at the devastation wreaked upon the vulnerable population which he can easi

Hitman And Her is an engaging and funny tale of a jilted wife trying to arrange a hit on her husband, weaving undertones of homage to Harold Pinter, Samuel Beckett and The Italian Job . What happens if you stray from your comfort zone ? A woman arrives in a pub and invites herself to join a man, to whom she is apparently unknown. Their clothing and demeanour would suggest that they have very little in common. But, very much in keeping with a theme of this production, all is

Bible John was the moniker given to a serial killer operating in Glasgow in the late 1960’s. He murdered three women he had encountered at a popular dancehall. Fifty years later, with the crimes still unsolved, four women develop a fascination with the events and turn amateur sleuth. This is a highly competent and engaging piece of theatre, performed by a talented ensemble and adeptly directed by Lizzie Manwaring. At surface level, the piece centres around the bond forged be

James Wormold is a British expat in post World War II Havana. A single father, facing a daily uphill struggle to run his vacuum cleaner business, he is unexpectedly employed by the British Government to seek out and report intelligence and also to recruit agents. While his desire to not let down his homeland provides some motivation, more importantly the windfall allowance granted eases his financial difficulties, allowing him to achieve elevated status within the community.

These are troubling times. Globally, it seems that conflict, armed, political or economic, and general fractiousness are on the rise, irrespective of your political viewpoint. North Korea. Trump. The rise of nationalism in many European countries. And Brexit. The philosopher Santayana observed that those who fail to heed the lessons of history are condemned to repeat them. An Elephant In The Garden relates the tale of an ordinary family living in Dresden. In the years leading