Skip to main content

Hercules The Bear

The Studio, Edinburgh

Three stars


As Scotland’s legends go, the one about the wrestling bear who became an international superstar is up there with the best. Even better, the story of how professional grappler Andy Robin and his wife Maggie bought the bear as a cub and welcomed it into the bosom of the family is all true.  

 

Younger generations who never witnessed Hercules during his colourful lifespan can use this brand new play presented by the Tenterhooks company as an entry point into his life and times with Andy and Maggie. This fifty-minute child friendly confection was brought together by company member and lead artist on the show Fergus Dunnet. Hercules is brought to life by way of a set of ever expanding puppets by Dunnet and Gretchen Maynard-Hahn, all operated and inhabited by Suzie Ferguson.

 

Co-directed by Dunnet and Emily Reutlinger, the show was devised with Ferguson and fellow performers Diane Thornton as Maggie and Ben Winger as Andy. The result is a charming dot to dot of Hercules’ greatest hits, from becoming Robin’s sparring partner in the ring to being hailed as a TV and film star. All this builds towards what was arguably Hercules’ most famous moment in the spotlight when he went missing on Benbecula for over three weeks while filming an advert for toilet paper.

 

With barely a word spoken, the series of set pieces are moved along by brief snippets of radio broadcasts, while a colourful and versatile set switches from family vehicle to inflatable wrestling ring with ease. While there is plenty more to be told about the adventures of Hercules, this as good a starting point as any to make acquaintance with the most human bear who ever lived.


The Herald, October 2nd 2025

 

ends

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...
1 comment
Read more

The Passage – Hip Rebel Degenerates: Black, White and Red All Over

Prelude – The Power of Three   Fear. Power. Love. This life-and-death (un)holy trinity was the driving force and raisons d’être of The Passage, the still largely unsung Manchester band sired in what we now call the post-punk era, and who between 1978 and 1983 released four albums and a handful of singles.    Led primarily by composer Dick Witts, The Passage bridged the divide between contemporary classical composition and electronic pop as much as between the personal and the political. In the oppositional hotbed of Margaret Thatcher’s first landslide, The Passage fused agit-prop and angst, and released a song called Troops Out as a single. The song offered unequivocal support for withdrawing British troops from Northern Ireland.    They wrote Anderton’s Hall, about Greater Manchester’s born again right wing police chief, James Anderton, and, on Dark Times, rubbed Brechtian polemic up against dancefloor hedonism. On XOYO, their most commercial and potentially mo...
Post a Comment
Read more