Coffee-Table Notes

A Glasgow theatre forced to close after the owners of their premises decided to develop the space into student flats has found a new home. Theatre 118, named after the company’s former premises at 118 Osborne Street in Glasgow’s city centre, looks set to reopen in a former office block in Port Dundas. With the venue set to launch in November, an opening programme of theatre, comedy and live poetry is already in place.   The volunteer run company has also secured a ten-year lease for the 4,500 square foot Payne Street building, enabling it to be able to plan ahead while providing a long-term home for what they describe as a growing community of artists and audiences.   With an emphasis on affordability, Theatre 118 aims to provide cheap access to the space for artists. For audiences they will operate a pay what you want scheme, with ticket prices starting from £3 for events at the 100 seat theatre the company is in the process of building.   Rehearsal space and offices wil...

Scottish theatre is on something of a roll just now in a series of hit shows that mark something of a return for big plays with big ideas that don’t tell you what to think. Long may it continue.   Tristan & Yseult  Citizens Theatre, Glasgow until 3 October; Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh,  2-24 October . Theatrical maverick Emma Rice scored an international hit back in 2003 with her epic take on the much adapted mediaeval romance about an illicit liaison between a Cornish knight and an Irish princess. If that sounds old hat, thing again, as Rice transforms the ancient yarn into a circus-like caper that roars with life in the show’s first outing for almost a decade in this latest reboot by Rice’s own Emma Rice Company.   The Steamie His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen until 3 October. King’s Theatre, Edinburgh,  5-10 October ; Pitlochry Festival Theatre,  20-24 October ; Alhambra Theatre, Dunfermline,  29-31 October ; King’s Theatre, Glasgow,  2-1...

When the Citizens Theatre reopened its doors in August 2025, the spruced up Gorbals based emporium promised much for what lay beyond its new glass frontage. Here, after all, was a Glasgow institution that was back after seven years following the building’s first ever major redevelopment since the building first opened as a theatre in 1878. This new makeover was to make it fit for purpose for twenty-first century audiences and artists alike.   Starting as it meant to go on, the Citz’s opening statement on stage came with Small Acts of Love, Frances Poet’s epic drama that looked at the aftermath of the 1988 Lockerbie bombing. Poet’s script was developed out of interviews with survivors and families of those whose lives were changed by the tragedy forever. Created in association with the National Theatre of Scotland, and featuring new songs by Ricky Ross, the result was a big, ambitious production, full of heart.   After seven years without a stage to call his own, artistic direc...

Edinburgh’s festival season may be over, but there is still plenty going on across Scotland’s stages as autumn seasons kick off in earnest with a series of big plays with big ideas. Wiping My Mother’s Arse Pitlochry Festival Theatre until 5 September. Last chance to see this long overdue revival of Iain Heggie’s rewritten sit-com style dark farce first seen at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 2001. Set in a care home, Heggie’s play navigates what follows when long-term patient Andrene’s son, Derek, turns up to see her with his gobby new girlfriend Kath in tow. With Andrene being looked after by nurse Larry, a not so merry go round of secrets and lies ensues in a play that is revealed as a Scottish heir to Joe Orton’s Entertaining Mr Sloan, as well as revealing Heggie as a writer way ahead of his time.      Irvine Welsh’s PORNO Albany, Greenock, 5 September; Eden Court Theatre, Inverness, 12 September; Tivoli Theatre, Aberdeen, 14 September; Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling,...

As the Fringe draws to a close this week, there is still plenty to see. The ten shows listed here are essential, and there is a lot more besides.   Stand Up if You’re Here Tonight Underbelly Bristo Square until 31 Aug, 4.40-5.35pm.  An under the radar delight came with American writer John Kolvenbach’s solo play, which sees actor Jim Ortlieb give a charmingly eccentric turn as he invites the audience to connect in a post Covid plea for humanity that is part pop psychology self help routine, part performance lecture and part private confessional.     Supposing:  Traverse Theatre until 30 Aug, various times.  Zinnie Harris’ new play for the Traverse shows what happens to an ordinary everyday woman after she falls down a hole in the road and starts having visions, is soundtracked by a Greek chorus in her head and develops a righteous fury at the world at large. Harris’ own production sees a magnificent Nicole Cooper bring Harris’ mercurial writing to life as a...