Coffee-Table Notes

With Herald panto critic Mary Brennan already hotfooting it around the shows of the season, there is alot going on, with a smorgasbord of seasonal fare likely on your doorstep, as outlined below. There is even some non-panto action opening in theatres great and small to see the year out in suitably dramatic fashion.   Baltic Cumbernauld Theatre until December 24. With Cumbernauld Theatre under threat of closure after being turned down for funding, now is probably the time to show some support for one of the most vital arts organisations outside the cities. Jerry Taylor’s new pantomime for Ginger and Jester Productions brings home a very snowy show, as young Elsbeth sets out from the land of Glenfrost to rescue her brother from the clutches of the Snow Queen. Cue a quest loaded with a talking snowman called Nolaff, who’s lost his sense of smell, a seven-foot Yeti and a whole load of storms weathered as Elsbeth discovers her magic powers.     A Christmas Carol Platform, Eas...

James Brining has had quite a couple of weeks. First up, the artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh opened his first show since he took up office six months ago after picking up the baton from David Greig. Brining’s eloquent, witty and really rather lovely production of Chekhov’s play, The Seagull, stars Caroline Quentin as Arkadina, an actress of a certain age who holds court in the midst of a changing society as her would-be playwright son explores the shock of the new.   While Brining’s production was in rehearsals, the Lyceum  announced Lyndsey Jackson as new Executive Director, with Brining becoming the theatre’s sole Chief Executive following the departure of Mike Griffiths. Jackson will take up her post in January after departing her  role as deputy chief executive of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society. Her appointment at the Lyceum comes following five new board members taking up post earlier this year.   On the artistic side, this week...

As the theatre season moves into November, Christmas shows and pantomimes prepare to open for the festive season. More of that in December, but there is plenty to see in shows great and small before things kick in towards the end of this month.   A Play, A Pie and a Pint Oran Mor, Glasgow, November 3-22. Glasgow’s lunchtime theatre phenomenon brings their latest season to a close with three brand new shows. Death of An Influencer (November 3-8) sees Matt Anderson’s play focus on a bit part actor upstaged by his social media star son in a comic drama about success and failure within the family. Gravity (November 10-15)  sees Kevin P. Gilday set his new play in an about to be demolished high-rise block where one man refuses to leave. Only social worker Joanne can save the day. Finally,   Strangers in the Night (November 17-22) is a play by Alan Muir set in a retirement village where two people find solace in each other’s stories before one of them must decide whether to lea...

War Horse  Festival Theatre, Edinburgh until October 11. In a month of big hitters, the latest Edinburgh visit for the National Theatre of Great Britain’s staging of Michael Morpurgo’s 1982 First World War set anti war novel about a young boy and his horse remains a remarkable theatrical feat. Featuring life-size puppets from South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, Marianne Elliot and Tom Morris’ original production was first seen in 2007, with Katie Henry picking up the baton for this current outing. As the Herald said in its review when the show galloped into Glasgow earlier this year, the bond between boy and horse ‘provides a totem of hope in a world of despair throughout a still powerful production.     The Glass Menagerie  Dundee Rep until October 18;  Citizens Theatre, Glasgow, October 21-25; Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, November 4-8. Tennessee Williams’ semi autobiographical 1944 play based around a dysfunctional family living in a St. Louis t...

A Play, a Pie and a Pint  Òran Mór , Glasgow. Season begins September 1.  Glasgow’s renowned lunchtime theatre phenomenon returns with a new season of twelve brand new plays accompanied by the beverages that gives this Glasgow institution its name. It opens with Wallace, Rob Drummond and Dave Hook’s brand new hip hop musical looking at Scotland’s stories beyond the Braveheart mythology and Saltire patterned face paint. Other potential treats include Our Brother, Jack MacGregor’s drama about `Scottish Marxist Malcolm Caldwell, who was shot dead after interviewing Cambodian dictator Pol Pot; Feis, Anna McGrath’s story about a struggling dance school; The Glasgow Poisoner, a true crime story by Tom Cooper and Jen McGregor; and Cheapo, Katy Nixon’s study of what happens when two teenagers play chess in their local KFC. All of which sounds well worth feasting on.     A Toast Fae The Lassies Pitlochry Festival Theatre until September 24 . Robert Burns has been lionised in ...

If all the world’s a stage, Cliff Cardinal has moved things further than most in his attitude towards Shakespeare. Billed as As You Like It – A Radical Retelling, on paper, at least, Cardinal’s Edinburgh International Festival debut sounds like a deliberate exercise in ripping up the theatrical rulebook. Whether anyone actually does like what Cardinal brings to his performance remains to be seen, but they should probably leave all expectations at the door.   “ Cliff is a very unique, important Canadian artist ,” says Chris Abraham, artistic director of the Toronto based Crow’s Theatre, who commissioned Cardinal’s new work. “W hen we came out of the pandemic in Canada, it was really important for us, after a period of cultural reckoning that was a global cultural reckoning in the theatre, to think about the practices that we use in making theatre, our relationship to audiences, and the habits, traditions and expectations of our audience.’   Cardinal’s commission chimed with rep...

The two big Edinburgh International Festival shows thus far may have finished their runs, but both James Graham’s Make it Happen , and Belgian company FC Bergman’s Works and Days have left their mark. The former was a Spitting Image style satire of the 2008 banking crisis, focusing on the role played by disgraced RBS head Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin. Co-produced by the National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep, Andrew Panton’s production also starred Brian Cox as the ghost of Adam Smith. The latter was a wordless invocation   On the Fringe, Karine Polwart’s Windblown , an exquisite meditation on a dying palm tree in the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, has also finished its run at the Queen’s Hall, With any luck, Raw Material’s meticulously put together evocation of Polwart’s song cycle will return. In the meantime, there is still plenty of life on the Fringe, with the following some of the best on show.   She’s Behind You Traverse Theatre, various times until August 24 Johnny ...

Make it Happen Brian Cox returns to the Scottish stage for the first time in a decade to play the ghost of Adam Smith in this brand new play by James Graham that focuses on the fallout of the 2008 financial crash and the disastrous played by disgraced Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Fred ‘The Shred’ Goodwin. With Sandy Grierson as Goodwin, this collaboration between the National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep is Graham’s latest drama drawn from real life incidents. Following the likes of Brexit: The Uncivil War (2024) and Sherwood (2022), it’s well worth the risk. EIF. Festival Theatre until August 8, 7.30pm (not August 3). August 2, 6, 9, 2.30pm.       She’s Behind You Johnny McKnight’s reign as twenty-first century queen of Scottish pantomime has long been established, both as a writer of more than thirty shows and playing dame umpteen times over the last twenty years. Originally a performed lecture at the University of Glasgow, McKnight’s opus has been developed wi...