There’s nothing more disappointing than turning up to a gig to find that the headlining band have cancelled due to illness, except when you decide to stay to check out the support acts and then wonder why you bothered.
To be honest The Webb Brothers had a lot to live up to; not only had OK [...]

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The problem with adaptations of famous films, and indeed books, is that you already have a preconceived idea of how it should play out. What is a decent play can be ruined simply because you wanted to see your favourites recreated on stage. These problems are inherent with any stage adaptation, so it’s clear that [...]

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Fringe comedy splits in to two definite groups - the big boys who sell out and don’t really need to be here and the newbies who are slogging their guts out in order to get somewhere. The latter category is the most unpredictable and is made up of some true geniuses, some hapless losers and [...]

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Hal Cruttenden, as his name suggests - and by his own admission - is an upper-middle class wimp. He also happens to sound exactly like Tony Blair, but don’t let that put you off, because unless our Perma-smile PM also has an uncontrollable fear of mice, that’s where the similarity ends.
There’s no paucity of high-quality [...]

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John Ryan is not your normal comedian. He’s smart enough not to breeze into the Edinburgh Fringe wiv ‘is cockney accent, full of ‘geeza’s and ‘kna wha ah mean’s, and take the piss outta the Jocks. He doesn’t take the stage at 3am to try and placate drunken yobs baying for blood, nor does he [...]

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Set in a post-holocaust America, Square One plays out the grim realisation of the fears of the Cold War. The Orwellian style future allows the government the ultimate control and tells of their tyrannical reign through television .
We experience ‘Patriotic Variety Hour’ a concept as terrifying as it is hilarious. Here the will of the [...]

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“Is anyone having trouble following the plot of The Tempest?” queries aging 19th Century character actress Mrs Kemble halfway through her tour de force play reading. Well, yes – she is. Everyone else in the room is too delighted by the show to care.
Billed as her last reading ever, the true tempest tonight is the [...]

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Japanese punk singer and ”Kamisaibai Ya” (paper theatre) practitioner Kazuko Hohki wants to tell you a story. Partly it’s a traditional Japanese folk tale about a man who falls in love with a crane. Partly it’s the true (-ish) story of how Hohki fell in love with an Englishman, who may also be a duck, [...]

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It is difficult to adequately describe the painfulness of this production. Pantomime at its worst is probably a good start. The recipe is; not just one but two incredibly camp and bitchy gay men that can only be described as queens, one horribly overacted horsey English type woman with New Age fever, and an ‘Oirish’ [...]

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It could be suggested that comedians playing in 600-seater venues isn’t very Fringe, but if anyone has earned the right to play to the grandeur of the Assembly Rooms” Music Hall it’s Rich Hall. He’s trod the boards of some of the dingiest venues in town, paid his dues and won the Perrier, but, despite [...]

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