Review: Christmas Dinner – Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh

First published in The Times, Monday December 13 2021

FOUR STARS

Amid this year’s seasonal feast of pantomimes, musicals and comedy shows, the Lyceum, Edinburgh, is serving something altogether different. Christmas Dinner is a new play — written by Robert Alan Evans and produced in association with Catherine Wheels, a leading children’s company — that seeks to celebrate no less than the redemptive power of theatre itself.

Review: God of Carnage – Tron Theatre, Glasgow

First published in The Times, Monday March 13 2017

Three Stars

Yasmina Reza’s most famous play, the frequently revived Art, depicted a friendship tested to breaking point following the acquisition of a large, completely white painting. In Gareth Nicholls’s new production of Reza’s recent hit comedy, God of Carnage, most of the set, created by Karen Tennent, is itself a dazzling white canvas. The furniture and fittings sparkle, like something out of an interior designer’s vision of heaven. Refreshment is served on a white tray bearing gleaming espresso cups and plates.

Review: The Iliad – Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

First published in The Times, Wednesday April 27 2016

Three Stars

A stage version of The Iliad, scripted by Chris Hannan and directed by Mark Thomson, is a mouth-watering prospect. The playwright has form when it comes to adaptions of the classics, having penned multi-award-winning productions of Crime and Punishment and The Three Musketeers, while Thomson, who is stepping down as artistic director of the Lyceum, is at his best when marshalling large ensembles through rich, intricate stories.

Review: The Crucible – Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh

First published in The Times, Monday February 22 2016

Four Stars

Over the past decade the director John Dove has made the work of Arthur Miller a regular fixture of the Royal Lyceum’s repertoire. As well as offering strong, compelling productions of the acknowledged classics, including Death of a Salesman and All My Sons, he has also staged rare revivals of neglected works such as The Price and The Man Who Had All the Luck.

Review: Fat Alice – Òran Mór, Glasgow

First published in The Times, Thursday April 2 2015 

Four Stars

Playwright Alison Carr is one of the breakout members of the Traverse 50 – the group of new talents discovered and nurtured by Scotland’s new writing theatre as part of its half-centenary celebrations. Fat Alice may be her first fully realised work, but it’s an impressive calling card, sly and audaciously offbeat, showcased to strong effect in Joe Douglas’s snappy production.