Coffee-Table Notes

3 stars   Like any actress, Maria Teresa Creasey would like to be immortal, forever in the hearts of those watching her on stage and screen. Given that her profession is a vampiric one, the protagonists of which suck on the fleeting moments of fame before the paying public move on to another scream queen, this is probably a big ask.    As it is, Creasey opens her show lying on the floor bound and gagged and forced to muffle her way to asking someone on the front row to release her. Once freed, Creasey hits the ground running in an increasingly mercurial mash-up of edgy stand-up, mid-life crisis and lip-synching to dialogue from assorted scary movies.   Developed as part of Soho Theatre Labs, Creasey’s interpretations are beamed live onto a screen prior to a blood and guts song and dance routine that suggests she might yet live forever.   Pleasance Courtyard until 23rd August, 11.10pm. The List, August 2025   Ends         

4 stars   The earth moves, the clouds part, and the gates of Heaven open in this new lo-fi musical that sees the gospel according to the Church of Garth decree that the entire congregation wear butt plugs at all times. Built for comfort they are not, but when corks are popped and asses unfrozen, those not doing God’s bidding fly off into the ether like a burst balloon. Bearing witness to this are teenage BFFs Luke and Connor, who embark on a mission to kill off the sinners en route to filling the holes in their own lives.    The Lord moves in mysterious ways in this scurrilous new musical written and performed by Jake Brasch and Nadja Leonhard-Hooper, aka the American Sing-Song company. As they lay bare their fantastical narrative from behind a keyboard and enough Foley equipment to soundtrack War of the Worlds with - yes - gay abandon,  all hail the second coming, and go easy on the lube.    Underbelly Cowgate until 24 August, 8.20pm.  The L...

4 stars   Alabaster DePlume bounces on stage like a hippy Tigger for his intimate Edinburgh International Festival show. The sofa and bean bag arrangement for the audience is as perfect as the patchwork of rugs set up for the artist also known as Angus Fairbairn to hold forth as the other Mancunian maverick to headline Edinburgh.   Drawing from his recent A Blade Because a Blade is Whole album, DePlume’s mix of spiritual jazz saxophone and homespun poetic wisdom is given low-slung texture by wordless vocalist Mikey Kenney, Rozi Plain on bass and drummer extraordinaire Seb Rochford. The sitar on the ground goes teasingly untouched until the end of the set, but when finally used makes for an unforgettable finale.    Inbetween, DePlume’s guru-like euphoria gives way to an acknowledgement of EIF’s current sponsorship issues by somehow managing to praise both the pro Palestine protesters and EIF. The next number incorporates a recording of a Ramallah marketplace that adds...

Summerhall  Five stars    The world has changed since Pussy Riot first bombarded their way in to Edinburgh in 2018 to win a Herald Angel award. Back then, key member of the anarchic balaclava clad Russian art collective Maria Alyokhina transformed her experiences on the frontline into an incendiary piece of multi-media punk theatre. This followed a high profile trial after Alyokhina and two other members of the collective were imprisoned after performing an anti Putin action in a Russian Orthodox Church. The result, adapted from Alyokhina’s memoir, Riot Days, and performed by Alyokhina with a well-drilled band of actor/musicians, was an urgent piece of in-yer-face agit-prop.   Seven years on, the fifty-minute compendium of autobiographical monologues, Brechtian captions, documentary film footage, primitive martial beats and industrial sturm und drang is brought bang up to date with a new band and fresh material. The former features vocal upstarts Olga Borisova and Ta...

4 stars   When Victoria Melody gets hold of an idea, she doesn’t let it go. After shows about Northern Soul and dog shows, Melody’s latest obsessive outing charts her fascination with the seventeenth century English Civil War. Having developed a particular interest in the Diggers, the band of agrarian rebels who rose up across several battles to argue for a fairer society, Melody joins a historical re-enactment society.    Unfortunately she accidentally joins the wrong side, which is why she greets the audience dressed in the authentic uniform of a Royalist musketeer. This doesn’t stop her instigating a mini revolution of her own, as the local grassroots initiative where she is artist in residence rises up to ward off developers and town planners.    Melody is an all too human polemicist, who pokes fun at her own failings as she joins forces with the community she helped create. Prime movers of these different strands are represented by large-scale photographs o...

3 stars   When Wayne Stewart decided to walk 650 miles from the north to south of France by himself, the fifty-odd days in the wilderness that followed taught him a thing or two.  Space, the difference between being lonely and alone, and about being in the moment wre all in the mix. This record of the work sees Stewart move between reading extracts from his travel journal from the time and a retrospective view of his experience, fusing therapy and stand-up theatre to get to the heart of who he is.    Raised on a diet of Elvis and peaches, and suffering from a broken heart and depression, as Stewart tramps his way across fields and roads, wherever he looks he finds himself embraced by the colour yellow. Out of this comes a candid performance in a show that wears its heart on its mustard coloured sleeve.    Zoo Southside until 24 August, 12.25pm. The  List, August 2025   Ends     

4 stars   Shakespeare may not have been known for his Samba moves, but that hasn’t stopped the Brazilian Cênica company from serving up his tale of star-crossed lovers in bite-size cabaret style form. The fact that Romeo and Juliet is also the nickname for the post-dinner Brazilian snack of cheese and guava speaks volumes. Opposites attract.    Throw in the greatest hits of best selling Brazilian crooner Roberto Carlos, aka ‘the king’ - like Elvis, Elton and the Beatles rolled into one, apparently, pop pickers - and the scene is set for a piece of serious fun that looks at conflict, cultural division and colonialism in a cross language, cross genre confection.    With seven people on stage doubling up as the band in Fagner Rodrigues’ wild production, the result of this contribution to this year’s São Paulo Showcase is a bilingual feast. It may start early doors, but it’s never too early to carnival. Just desserts all round. ...