Beldina onstage at the SAY Awards Dear Beldina, I resisted doing this for years because I didn’t know how to start, to be honest. I can’t believe it was November 5th, 2021 when we lost you. Typing these words even now, it’s still almost impossible to process this fact. I think about you often, andContinue reading “Dear Beldina”
Tag Archives: Theatre
Terence Was A First Class Stamp
Terence Stamp has passed away at the age of eighty seven and we must doff our caps to this versatile English actor. He could do theatre, he could do film. He was masterful in ‘Far From The Madding Crowd’, ‘Poor Cow’ and Passolini’s ‘Theorem’. He brought gravitas to Zod in ‘Superman’ and had a lateContinue reading “Terence Was A First Class Stamp”
Accessing The Fringe
Navigating the Edinburgh Fringe can be a Sisyphean task at the best of times, as the population of Edinburgh doubles and almost every available space transforms into a venue or site specific performance space. So it can be an altogether different kind of nightmare for disabled people, in terms of accessibility. Old buildings generally haveContinue reading “Accessing The Fringe”
Bard In The Botanics 2025 Season
Bard in the Botanics announces the new programme for 2025 season. The endlessly gripping and inventive team return with more suspense, humour, grit, mystery and romance this Summer. Images: A Midsummer Night’s Dream; Romeo and Juliet, Doctor Faustus, Sherlock Holmes: A Scandal in Bohemia Bard in the Botanics has today announced details of its 2025 season,Continue reading “Bard In The Botanics 2025 Season”
Film Review: Maisie
There’s a certain kind of Drag on the UK that doesn’t involve death drops and pole dancing. Instead, it falls within the pantomime, vaudeville theatre and cabaret tradition: think singing the songs from A Chorus Line, rather than lip syncing to Lady Gaga. Lee Cooper ‘s warm and low-key film offers the exemplar of thisContinue reading “Film Review: Maisie”
Freelancer’s Blues
It isn’t easy being a freelance arts writer. While I’m fully aware there are worse jobs to have (I previously worked in a call centre, a hotel and in retail, uggghhh) there are a few issues with this bizarre occupation. Firstly, some publications insist that they will pay you, only to renege at the lastContinue reading “Freelancer’s Blues”
Vintage Films: Cabaret
If Sally Bowles was around today, she’d most likely be chronically online, binging on TikTok make-up tutorials and dance crazes.She’d be oblivious to the outside world, unaware of the conflicts in Ukraine and Israel, or the orange menace that is Trump. Bob Fosse’s film has endured, because the theme of “divine decadence” amid the encroachingContinue reading “Vintage Films: Cabaret”
Oh No, It Isn’t/Oh Yes, It Is: Good Panto/Bad Panto
Panto, pantomime in its shortened form (like porno, ha ha ha!) is where kids in the UK often first witness theatre. Sadly, it’s often the ONLY theatre they ever see, because it’s mostly bloody awful. Don’t fight me on this, I’ve been a critic almost fifteen years now, and have seen more panto than many,Continue reading “Oh No, It Isn’t/Oh Yes, It Is: Good Panto/Bad Panto”
Lucifer Over Lanarkshire: Rocky Horror Sucks
Every year at the Samhain, or Halloween, season, musical theatre lovers break out their basques, fishnets and eyeliner and strut to theatres to see ‘The Rocky Horror Show’. Created by Richard O’Brien in the seventies, it fused glam rock with kitsch horror and has become a staple of repeated stage and screen experiences worldwide. ButContinue reading “Lucifer Over Lanarkshire: Rocky Horror Sucks”
(From Across The Arts Archive) Theatre Review: A Respectable Widow Takes To Vulgarity at Oran Mor,Glasgow
Arts:BlogTheatre Review: A Respectable Widow Takes to VulgarityPOSTED BY ACROSS THE ARTS ON FEBRUARY 26, 2013, AT 10.09AMLorna Irvine is charmed by a comedic parade of profanities. Like Pygmalion in reverse, Douglas Maxwell’s new play for Oran Mor and the Traverse upends familiar theatre troupes and tickles them into submission. The delightful duo of JoannaContinue reading “(From Across The Arts Archive) Theatre Review: A Respectable Widow Takes To Vulgarity at Oran Mor,Glasgow”