Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: This is Mary Brown, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott ★★★★ “There was a tree,” says Winsome Brown at the beginning of her one-woman autobiographical play, in which she gives a warm and funny insight into her relationship with her mother and other family members, single-handedly bringing together the many …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Some Big Some Bang, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott ★ There is a beautiful orange tree on stage, but beneath it a man is bemoaning that his new baby is exceptionally ugly. Since this baby is a rolled up in a piece of cloth, it’s difficult to judge, but …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: The Misfit Analysis, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott ★★★ This is “a live art exploration into the mind of Cian Binchy” a caption says at the start – before Cian arrives in a wheelchair (which he later discards), carrying a pot plant and mini-windmill combo. While rotating a can …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Bedsocks and Secrets, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott ★★★ AN OLDER woman, Ella, is half-undressed and crying. Beside her, her two Geordie care workers are holding on to her clothes, chatting about who’s dating who and where they’d like to go on holiday. As the woman, confused, asks where …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Jekyll, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott ★★ “BE YOURSELF,” and “I am what I am” say the signs on the wall. This radical reimagining of Robert Louis Stevenson’s Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde in a sinister, stylised dystopia, which revolves around a controlling motivational speaker (Hyde), has a lot …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Mrs Shakespeare, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★ What if William Shakespeare was a woman? And how do we know that he wasn’t? These may sound like ridiculous questions, but beneath the superficial irreverence of this one-woman show is a small-scale subversive comedy about the lack of female voices …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: The Cupboard, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★ Shortlisted for this year’s Les Enfants Terribles Award, this young company, with their smoky black eye make-up, seem to have been heavily influenced by the popular group’s work. But while this piece isn’t as slick as Les Enfants’ shows, it is …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe dance review: By the Bi, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★ Described as a “provocative step forward in the movement for social equality”, this is a well intentioned but on-the-nose exploration of being bisexual and dealing with society’s expectations and prejudices. Earnest and at times accusatory dialogue addressed directly to the …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Broken Biscuits, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★ Two best friends, torn apart when one’s son gives his life to save another’s in Afghanistan. While Rita sits crying behind her front door, drinking wine and downing pills, Maggie speaks to her from outside through the letterbox, trying to persuade …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Bortle 8, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★ In A tiny room at the very top of the Counting House, we are trying to find true darkness. Sailing in the ship of writer and performer Chris Davis’s imagination, accompanied by a bubble machine and Dumbo the elephant, we go …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe music review: Love Birds, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★ A certain kind of person buys lovebirds – one who doesn’t find the idea of hearts and flowers romance sickly but uplifting, and this lightweight little musical is no different. Revolving around the unlikely relationship between a love bird and a …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Quiet Violence, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★ The room smells of deep heat, but Sophie Rose tells us this isn’t a physical performance; it’s just that the company from upstairs use the space to warm up in. However, it is about the physical and non-physical things that we …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: Hair Peace, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★★ “It’s just like wearing another woman’s knickers that have been washed.” That’s how hair extensions are described at the start of Victoria Melody’s one-woman show in which she attempts to trace the origins of the three disembodied “ponytails” of human hair …

Edinburgh International Festival music review: En Avant, Marche!, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★★ An older man stands, awkward, on an empty stage, cymbals in hands, trying to find the right moment to bring them crashing together. Really, he wants to play the trombone – his instrument of 30 years – but he is …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: A Matter of Life and Debt, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★★ This is a hyper-imaginative and wildly ambitious production that feels like it’s been created by writer Samuel Masters after he had a particularly bad experience with an insurance company and decided to respond, as you do, with …

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre review: The Long Road to Mrs MacIntyre’s, reviewed by The Scotsman’s Sally Stott. ★★ Mrs MacIntyre’s is a super independent coffee house on the Royal Mile and the ambitious little show performed here, by amiable but slightly frantic Yorkshire woman Ruth Worth, uses tape recordings in a highly innovative way to …