Edinburgh Festival

Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe. In communities across the country, families, loved ones, and clinicians support people suffering with substance addiction. Multi-award winners Tortoise in a Nutshell present Concerned Others, an intimate tabletop performance that shares the stories of critically underheard voices. Accounts that paint us as a nation struggling to recognise a deadly culture of shame, ignorance and misunderstanding surrounding addiction and drug-related death. Immersive soundscapes, shoebox installations, turntables, micro-projection and 32mm figures combine to create a multi-textured piece exploring a defining crisis.

Have you ever been through a breakup? Did that breakup happen while you were trying to give each other some “space” through long distance? Are you currently living in the house next to your ex’s parents, who are trying to be nice but want you to leave? Sophie Santos is ready to tell us all about it in Sophie Santos . . . is Codependent. 

A girl with sunflowers in her eyes. A cabin with a view of your mother’s grave. The disorder known as optimism. Not subjects you would expect from your average comedian. But Lucas O’Neil is no average comedian, as proven in his brilliant new show, Lucas O’Neil: Emotional Man.

What do you look for in a potential partner? Someone who loves to relax at home? Someone who knows what they’re doing in life? Someone with a happy family? If so, you and Philipp Kostelecky don’t have much in common.

Funny and distinctively Beckettian, Deuteronomy is about everything and nothing. The two men tackle the meaning of life, eternal damnation, and heavenly salvation the same way they discuss the differences between apples and peaches.

Ambling between cheaply crafted stock characters and expanding only the lesser interesting ones, the project needs work desperately. The topic has the potential to make for a provocative and arresting comic drama about the fallout of the system, but, so far, it doesn’t show it.

At this stage, it might be a bit wobbly, but promises great potential. It’s a portrait of toxic masculinity and female empowerment, a personal reflection of the horrors experienced during the regime. Mostly, it’s genuinely amusing. Alminas spins a yarn full of peculiar characters and relentless social commentary. She just needs to tinker it appropriately.

Written and directed by Luke Thornborough, this production hails from New Zealand with wit and charm, offering a bleak look into survival. After empty chit-chat about embarrassing music and food, the two characters dig into spirituality and science. Kat Glass and Courtney Bassett give stellar performances in a production that could be trimmed slightly for the benefit of its pace. It’s a contemporary space Odyssey.

It’s so rare to be surrounded by the complete absence of light, that part alone is a treat in itself. Truthfully, it’s slightly alarming at the start, but once you relax into it, you’ll come to appreciate all the different elements that make the production and the absolute brilliance of the company. To be able to tug at a person’s deepest instincts is an astounding success.

A collection of funny characters accompanies Sophie as she discovers her where she comes from. Directed by Rob van Vuuren and boasting a number of awards in their native country, Île is a good-hearted look at what makes us, us.

17 Minutes is a well-crafted and emotional piece, elevated by its attention to detail in both stage design and in the cast’s performance as they bring a devastated community and fraught relationships to life. Rubens’ slow spiral as he copes with the consequences of his choices is paced to perfection, with exceptional performances by the cast as a whole. A standout in a sea of comedic pieces, 17 Minutes is an excellent and moving addition to The Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

A minimalist set and tiny venue require extraordinary actors, and Michael Matthews’ Blue absolutely delivers.

Hailing from Australia, Elisa Riddington brings her solo show, Child of Sunday, to the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the Free Fringe programme. The backdrop of the show on entry is a cross-shaped stained glass window with light pouring through. 

Everyone has a part to play in the fight against the climate crisis, even comedians, Stuart Goldsmith argues. His lighthearted hour at the Monkey Barrel gently encourages the audience to consider the climate and their everyday actions.

It’s hard to believe there are any origin stories that haven’t been explored yet at this stage given the success of previous shows such as Unfortunate at multiple Fringe venues, but there is still one, tiny tale to be told: that of a certain fairy from JM Barrie’s Peter Pan and how she ended up so small. 

Big Fish is one of two shows presented by students from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. The musical is an adaptation of the 1998 Daniel Wallace novel and 2003 Tim Burton film of the same name. The screenwriter John August then worked with composer-lyricist Andrew Lippa to adapt the piece for the stage in 2012, with this version directed by Tom Cooper.

As bass blasts through the speakers of the cave-like intimate theatre, Elle Dillon-Reams bursts onstage in a sequined jumpsuit, limbs pulsing in time to the rhythms. HoneyBEE, a solo performance combining spoken word, dance, gig theatre, physical theatre, and storytelling maintains this electric festival energy throughout. 

Abridged from Eileen Atkins’s play, the four-hander shows the visceral longing shared by the two women. With strands of personal letters and diary entries, they cross the thin lines between admiration, affection, and attraction.

The Titanic has been in the news quite a lot this year with its endlessly fascinating, tragic story. When a third-class passenger accosts the chairman of the White Star Line as he tries to spot his family on the quay before the crossing, an unlikely friendship starts. One a reverent from Scotland, the other a well-bread gentleman who’s proud of the work he’s done.

Pretentiously meta and absolutely bland, the piece is a paceless trudge. While the character alludes to sexual misconduct, by the end we still don’t know what happened. It’s not suspenseful, it’s merely frustrating.

Truly Siskind-Weiss’s father died when she was ten years old. Since then, her life has been divided by that watershed. In a tender monologue where she tries to make sense of death, Siskind-Weiss mourns the person she could have been. Grown up too quickly but still treated like a child, she now yearns for a simpler time when she could simply be reliant on someone.

It’s all a bit chaotic and disorganised narratively, with an unfortunate lack of poetry in the text itself. While Malseed takes an individual approach to her story, she doesn’t really say much of what lies behind the events. Belfast is painted like a dangerous city, but the causes for that are left up in the air.

What did our critic think of OH MY HEART, OH MY HOME at Summerhall?

It’s Midsummer’s Eve, and a young man is ready to plunge into the Thames to make his sacrifice. As we stand alongside him, we dive into British mythology and pagan beliefs as he goes on a journey defined by backhandedly bitter irony. Nathaniel Jones writes an ancient fable suspended in time, addressing the lies we tell ourselves in our attempts to romanticise our memory.

A deeply intimate performance by Robyn Hunter peels off the layers of bereavement and explores the reactive coping mechanisms we get wrapped up in. With effortless observational humour and a sadness only broken by bitterness, the piece unravels the fragmentation of the grieving experience through the eyes of a young woman.