Having a very large selection of shows to choose from in the city centre, it is hard to convince oneself to make the journey to St Ninian’s Hall, almost 20 minutes by bus away or £7 by taxi. Most Fringe shows last around one hour, so an almost 3 hour-show in the “outskirts” of Edinburgh, can make anyone look somewhere else. To top it off, ‘A tale of two cities’ is not a comedy nor an extrambotic, weird or exotic experience but a Charles Dickens classic.
But, alas, they are amazingly well delivered over 2 and a half hours of outstanding performances and extremely resourceful play acting which will delight the brave who make it to St Ninian’s Hall.
The first act, from the “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” until the beginning of the French Revolution, is a perfectly orchestrated introduction to the story, the characters, the relationships and the history of the time. The second part has the audience sitting at the edge of their chairs enjoying every sentence, gesture and inflection of the actors voices as the story crescends to the powerful ending.
There isn’t a single weak link among the whole cast. If they only had a bigger cast, so they would not have to play several roles (which sometimes confuses the audience) or a larger stage, so the actors not performing could hide, they would have to stop performing at the Fringe altogether, as they could not possibly be tagged as amateur anymore.
If you want to see what breathtaking theatre is, don’t miss ‘A tale of two cities’.
5/5 
Agueda Grarko
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