Reviews: The Match Box – Byre Theatre, St Andrews; Company – Aberdeen Arts Centre

First published in The Times, Monday February 5 2018

The Match Box: Four Stars

Company: Three Stars

Frank McGuinness, the Irish playwright, is as celebrated for his translations of classics, including tragedies by Sophocles and Euripides, as he is for original works such as Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme. His monologue, The Match Box, first performed in 2012, has a vividly described contemporary setting but the questions it asks are as old as civilisation itself.

Review: Grounded –Byre Theatre, St Andrews

First published in The Times, Sunday March 13 2016

Four Stars

Firebrand, the theatre company based in the Borders, has a knack for identifying new plays that are destined to become contemporary classics. Recent work includes revivals of Lucy Prebble’s The Effect, which focused on guinea pigs in a drugs trial, and The Great Train Race, Robert Dawson Scott’s comedy about rival rail companies, both written only within the past four years.