Points of view: theatre, comedy and news
Every so often causes and social problems cycle through the public’s attention, fighting for spotlight in the 24 hours news cycle. Shining a light on an issue that has largely been left on the periphery, Nathan Charles’ When the Fun Stops, Try Again? is an interactive and audience participation-based performance piece on gambling and addiction.
Lianna Holston’s Haha, Oh God defies expectations to such an extent that it is truly remarkable what she has achieved in this hour She achieves the seemingly impossible and proves the extent in which comedy and creativity can thrive. As the saying goes, diamonds are made under pressure.
If there is one expectation and truth about Rhys Nicholson’s comedy shows, is that whatever happens in the room, whatever jokes are told, it will always be a memorable experience, and Big Huge Party Congratulations is no different.
Apart from Will Robbins’ penchant for the odd pun or one-liner, the majority of the muted humour in With the Best Will in the World lends itself to a rather stilted hour where we constantly fight to stop our thoughts from wandering elsewhere.
The tenement walls of Edinburgh are full of ghost stories, multiples of haunted houses in the one city. In Haunted House, Eleanor Morton talks about just the one - the city at large- and the spirits that flock to its streets every August.
Tarot: Shuffle is a sketch comedy show that uses the mystical power of tarot and fate to pull the hour together.
All that glisters is not gold in Bebe Cave’s The Screen Test, as she peels back the curtain on the mirage created by history and myth surrounding the film industry in the mid-1900s.
Written by Nadia Fortini and directed by Catrin Ody, this particular play is set over the course of an all-nighter, as interns Lola (Natasha Vincent), Penelope (Maya Moravec) and Chad (Anzi DeBennedetto) clean out the physical office space and position that they’re competing for. The relationships between these characters are very quickly and deeply established, and over the course of the show, they constantly shift and develope, to the point where the subtext of interactions between characters pretty much screams at us. There are quite lengthy periods where we are lulled into a kind of rhythm by the repetitive tasks - it suits the show well in creating a kind of realism in terms of establishing setting and context within a limited space and time, but these moments perhaps go on for longer than necessary and quickly move from novel.
They say that there’s no genius without a touch of madness and Alexander Bennett’s Emotional Daredevil has both in barrels.
Teresa Livingstone’s Delighted is such a playfully sarcastic show where she seems to find new levels of social observationism to share with us.
Pepper & Salt 