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Ash, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh Festival, 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *

Cast: Hamish Adams-Cairns, Lisa Marie Berg, Roxanne Browne, Alice Devlin, Harry Kearton, Paul Tonkin.

You were never alone with a Strand cigarette, smoking Marlborough suggested that you were ready for adventure, Camel that there was a touch of the old colonial lurking in you and as for Players or Capstone full strength, that touch of a small cough that came along with the birds singing the dawn chorus was arguably only ever really to be expected. Smoking is bad for you of that there can be no doubt but millions round the world still enjoy the taste of the habit and the sight of the grey Ash that collects in any make do ashtray.

Ash, Theatre Review. Zoo, Edinburgh Festival, 2016. full post

(456 words, estimated 1:49 mins reading time)

Generation Zero, Theatre Review. Zoo Southside, Edinburgh Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Jordan Turk, Francesca Dolan.

The initial joy of the Edinburgh Fringe is never truly lost, it always manages to find a way to sparkle anew each time a visitor finds themselves on the path to potential desire and the world of fluttering, butterfly-like dreams. The Edinburgh Fringe is such that it creates writing heroes from out of nowhere and the first-timer, the one who takes a chance on a play that they have undertaken and is rewarded by gentleness and spirit, is the one to be applauded with stout resolution.

Generation Zero, Theatre Review. Zoo Southside, Edinburgh Festival 2016. full post

(416 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Moonface, Theatre Review. Zoo Southside, Edinburgh Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Molly McGeachin, Lucy Managan, Grace Church.

Life is not predictable, you are not able to look into a crystal ball and gaze with wonder at what will be, the children you will have, the career you will end up in, the friends you will fall in love with and those that will stay the course forever.

Life is a series of accidents that somehow manage to form together a relationship with Time and it is Time that plays with the minds of three women in the superb Edinburgh Fringe show at Zoo Southside, Moonface.

Moonface, Theatre Review. Zoo Southside, Edinburgh Festival 2016. full post

(396 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Names, No Rank And A Number.

It is the sound of another

name call, the roll of the tongue

of another insult

that leads me to believe that humanity

is headed

down a path

in which

people will find the quiet

thinning out

of people such as me,

to be good for humanity;

it is only a matter of time

before they go from name call

to roll call.

 

Ian D. Hall 2016

Permanent link to this post (70 words, estimated 17 secs reading time)

Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets Do Shakespeare, Theatre Review. Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10

A star of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, a riot of respectful impertinence and one of the ultimate must see’s of the entire month of August, never mind that rare glimpse of sunshine that has long gone past or in Olympic year the sight of carnivals in exotic cities, the real draw is in watching Kev F. Sutherland’s brilliant creation, Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets Do Shakespeare.

Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets Do Shakespeare, Theatre Review. Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Fringe 2016. full post

(417 words, estimated 1:40 mins reading time)

Patrick Monahan: That 80s Show, Comedy Review, The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

It was the decade of big hair, of shoulder pads and Dynasty, of power dressing, Dallas and sweat bands, the 80s may have been responsible for many ills that many remember but it was also a decade that for those who swam in its swirling mists with glee and possible terror will never forget.

Patrick Monahan: That 80s Show, Comedy Review, The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival 2016. full post

(412 words, estimated 1:39 mins reading time)

Wendy Wason, Comedy Review. The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival 2016.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 7.5/10

We are all Matryoshka Dolls, the space in which we inhabit on the Earth only made possible because of all the people we are inside, the separate pieces that make up us, whether it be father, son, nephew, art lover, or mother, daughter, wife and comedian, we are all made up of small pieces of us that decrease in size till you hit that final Babushka, the tiny and brimming with potential human that is frail, afraid and hopeful, sometimes even just excited to get out of the house.

Wendy Wason, Comedy Review. The Gilded Balloon, Edinburgh Festival 2016. full post

(394 words, estimated 1:35 mins reading time)

Edinburgh.

I feel steeped in your history

Athens

of the north

each time I breathe

in the rain,

that rusts my armour

yet builds my arsenal.

I feel your beauty

and I desire

nothing more

to be soaked to the skin,

dripping wet

on a boundless summer’s day,

to feel the chill of North Sea

air warm me

as snow swirls in August

and the sweat of Christmas Day

applauds,

Athens has nothing on you

Siren

and I am rocked

Edinburgh. full post

(92 words, estimated 22 secs reading time)

Marcella, Television Review.

Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10

Cast: Anna Friel, Ray Panthaki, Nina Sosanya, Nicholas Pinnock, Charlie Covell, Sinéad Cusack, Jack Doolan, Harry Lloyd, Tobias Santelmann, Jamie Bamber, Patrick Baladi, Ben Cura, Ian Puleston-Davies, Emil Hostina, Susannah Wise, Imogen Fairies, Laura Carmichael, Stephen Lord, Yasen Atour, Jasmine Breinburg, Florence Pugh, Nick Hendrix, George Barnes, Andrew Lancel, Maeve Dermody.

The art of the Noir is to keep the viewer or reader guessing long enough that they doubt their own verdict, their own deductive reasoning and to question further their own possible prejudices of one suspect or another. It is an art fully utilised by the writers of the series Marcella and one that really got under the skin as each episode progressed.

Marcella, Television Review. full post

(450 words, estimated 1:48 mins reading time)

Rudolph Herzog, A Short History Of Nuclear Folly. Book Review.

There are some things which are beyond a simple marking measure, the absurdity of the race for nuclear destruction is arguably the biggest one, whatever the book that discloses information on humanity’s insatiable greed and need to destroy itself, is surely beyond any yard stick of simple pleasure. As long as it completely factual, as long as it truly makes you angry that there are those since World War Two that have looked to the nuclear question as the be all and end all of life’s niggling conundrums, just how to get along without killing each other over ideology.

Rudolph Herzog, A Short History Of Nuclear Folly. Book Review. full post

(561 words, estimated 2:15 mins reading time)