Coffee-Table Notes

Royal Lyceum Theatre Four stars    The drums beat loud in this mighty rendering of a 14th century epic Middle Eastern narrative poem. Passed down the centuries in various guises, it is reimagined here from a Syrian version by Palestinian writer/director Bashar Murkus and dramaturg Khulood Basel of their Haifa based Khashabi Theatre. With the seven performers already on stage and welcoming audiences as they arrive, the result over the next life affirming three hours is a gorgeous mash-up of storytelling, dance and a wonderful live score led by drummer Rami Nakhleh and singers Rana Baransi and Abed Zoabi.    The story they tell in Arabic with English surtitles - The Epic of Bani Hilal  or السّيرة الهلاليّ - is an awfully big adventure that takes in battles of love, war and an eternal quest for new lands to call home. Out of this comes a contrary beauty that comes from a joyful and playful delivery by the cast as they act out each chapter o...

King’s Theatre Four stars    Roll up! Roll up! America may not be the greatest show on earth in Geoff Sobelle’s tragicomic depiction of a big top in free fall, but oh, what a night. The acrobats have somersaulted off into the distance, the ringmaster has gone west, and with only the clowns left behind and left to their own devices, the lunatics appear to have take over the asylum, But at least they have an audience, so of course they’ll provide the entertainment, albeit in all its shambolic, falling apart glory.    There’s nothing subtle in Sobelle’s latest work, an Edinburgh International Festival commission following the American physical auteur’s previous visits in 2018 with HOME and 2023 with FOOD. What there is in Clown Show’s 100-minute construction is a meticulously madcap series of ensemble routines that take familiar gags only to upend them beyond the regular pratfalls to self destruct on a grand scale.  Lined up in search of approval from the lifesize ...

Church Hill Theatre Four stars    The title of Greek auteur Mario Banushi’s devastating meditation on death, family and the baggage left behind comes from the Albanian restaurant his father ran, and which translates as Restaurant of Kindness. Kindness isn’t the first thing that comes to mind in the 70 minutes that follow, as Banushi lays bare the agony of a family’s grief in a series of set-pieces that become increasingly ritualistic.   On designer Sotiris Melan os’ tiled wall set, Banushi steps out of the shower having cleansed his sins for a funeral. Once suited and booted, he sits beside a row of grieving women. This is heightened by the remarkable singing voice of Savina Yannatou, whose improvised lament is a wracked howl that at points sounds drawn from the same guttural well as Greek/American virtuoso, Diamanda Galas.   A jacket torn from the earth where the body is buried hangs on the back of a chair. One of the women who has just attempted to f...

Theatre Royal, Glasgow  Four stars    Darkness becomes Gina Gionfriddo’s new stage version of Thomas’ Harris’ 1988 novel. The second in the author’s Hannibal Lecter quartet saw the most erudite of incarcerated cannibals gnaw his way into mass consciousness by way of Jonathan Demme’s 1991 film version. More than three decades on, Gionfriddo returns to the book to pick over the horrors anew. The fact that Lecter isn’t the villain of the piece but its conscience speaks volumes about the age in which he was sired.    In Harris’ tale of rookie FBI agent Clarice Starling’s search for a serial killer nicknamed Buffalo Bill who skins his victims, we enter a 1980s where the fallout of therapy culture has left a lot of psychological damage in its wake.    In Nikolai Foster’s touring production that began life at the Curve Theatre Leicester, John Partridge’s Lecter may initially lack charm as he is wheeled on like some caged exhibit, but his dangerous presen...

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...

The Studio Four stars    Something is cooking in Jaha Koo’s culinary dissection of exile, and it smells very much like home. For Koo, this means South Korea by way of Berlin, Brussels and beyond. Scenes of dancing neon on the roads and in the skyscrapers are projected on to a triangular tent construction that Koo eventually unfolds to build a pojangmacha, a portable street food stand that becomes Koo’s stage, kitchen and sanctuary.    Grabbing a couple of audience members from the front row à la 1970s TV cookery show The Galloping Gourmet, Koo proceeds to cook and feed them several courses of Korean delicacies. As he does so, a memoir of Koo’s very personal journey unfolds, taking in conflicts local and global en route to finding his way back to a very different South Korea.    In what is already a bittersweet taster, Koo’s story is helped along, first by a snail, then by a gummy bear, and finally by an electric eel. These all appear in animated form on scr...

Scottish Parliament Four stars   A winter coat and a kept promise isn’t too much to ask for in this theatrical installation that looks at the iniquities of the care system through the voices and experiences of those who have been through it. The National Theatre of Scotland’s main contribution to Edinburgh’s festivals season is an interactive critique of a failed system which isn’t looking like it’s going to get better any time soon.   An initiative led and scripted by playwright Nicola McCartney, One Hundred Voices forms part of Caring Scotland, a three-year listening project that has recorded and documented the experiences of Care Experienced people across the country. From this premise, audiences are navigated through an audio-visual tour of the care system in all its institutional messiness. Our guide - officially, at least - is Brian, an industry professional who does things by the book. Brian speaks to us through headphones, and is assisted - unofficially - by Kayla, who...