Reviews

Kings Theatre, Edinburgh - 04 to 08 November 2008

Wuthering Heights is so called, meaning atmospheric tumult. Thus, the scene is set high on the Yorkshire Moors for a story of stormy passions that has endured 160 years. Read more »

Kings Theatre, Edinburgh - 28 October to 01 November 2008

Adapted from Erich Maria Remarque’s book, All Quiet on the Western Front was screened by Lewis Milestone in the series of anti-war films in 1930. Almost 80 years later, this play still faithfully depicts the ravages of war. The story begins in a German high school, where classmates are encouraged, beguiled and even shamelessly railroaded by their zealously nationalistic schoolmaster to enlist and fight for the Fatherland in the Great War. Read more »

News

In high streets across the country the trees are out, the tinsel’s up and the lights are on. So as the festive season fast approaches, we tell you which fairytale is being told where.

Aderdeen
Peter Pan - His Majesty’s, Rosemount Viaduct, AB25 1GL. - 06 December 2008 to 04 January 2009
Any Dream Will Do contestant Keith Jack is to play Peter Pan, while Aladdin favourites Alan McHugh and Jordan Young are to rekindle their double-act in the roles of the Dame and Smee. Alan Fletcher, the iconic and legendary Dr Karl from Neighbours is set to shiver your timbers as Captain Hook.

Ayr
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs - Gaiety, Carrick St, KA7 1NU. - 27 November 2008 to 31 December 2009
A traditional family pantomime with all the requisite thigh-slapping fun.

Dundee
Beauty and the Beast - Dundee Rep, Tay Square, DD1 1PB - 01 December 2008 to 03 January 2009
In Beauty and the Beast we encounter two worlds: the domestic world of Beauty’s family and another world, stumbled across by her merchant father: a place of great riches, dominated by the tragic Beast. Beauty’s adventurous spirit takes her on a journey into the strange world of the beast away from her family and ultimately to love.

Edinburgh
Aladdin - King’s Theatre, 2 Leven Street, EH3 9LQ. - 28th November 2008 to 11 January 2009
Pantomime favourites Allan Stewart and Grant Stott in a spectacular and unmissable production’. of Aladdin. This year Allan, Grant and the rest of the cast will share the stage with a special co-star - Edinburgh’s first ever 3D Genie.

Glasgow
Cinderella - King’s Theatre, 297 Bath Street, G2 4JN. - 29 November 2008 to 18 January 2009
Gerard Kelly, Karen Dunbar and Andy Gray star in the ‘magical pantomime adventure’ with sensational costumes, dazzling song and dance numbers and amazing effects.

Inverness
Aladdin - Eden Court, Bishops Road, IV3 5SA. - 01 December 2008 to 03 January 2009
Aladdin and his magic lamp return for a festive outing along with his mother Widow Twankey, Wishee Washee and The Beautiful Princess Jasmine. Starring Keith Warwick (’My Parents and Aliens’).

St Andrews
Cinderella - Byre Theatre, Abbey Street, KY16 9LA. - 03 December to 27 December 2008
Poor Ella is in trouble. She dreams of dancing at the Royal Ball where the handsome Prince Fraser Campbell Wright is looking to find his one true love. But her days and nights are taken up looking after her ugly sisters FiFi and FouFou and their infamous Dame Academy. As the evil Madame DeMon attempts to rule over the pantosphere, Ella’s time is running out.

- Joseph Pike

Edinburgh’s King’s Theatre, together with Qdos Pantomimes producers of Aladdin, will be supporting BBC Children in Need this Christmas as special audience collections will take place at selected performances during the pantomime run. Read more »

Theatrical legends Ian McKellen and Patrick Stewart will appear in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh from Monday 13 to Saturday 18 April. Artistic Director of the Theatre Royal Haymarket Company Sean Mathias will direct the play, which will tour the UK prior to its London opening in April. Beckett’s Waiting for Godot exploded on to the London stage over 50 years ago when it shocked as many people as it delighted. The story follows two consecutive days in the lives of tramps, Vladimir (Patrick Stewart) and Estragon (Ian McKellen), who divert themselves by clowning around, joking and arguing, while waiting expectantly and unsuccessfully for the mysterious Godot. Read more »

Gossip

The Walworth Farce, the play that Enda Walsh premiered at the Traverse Theatre at last year’s Edinburgh Fringe, receives it London premiere next month at the National Theatre, where it joins the NT Cottesloe rep from 24 September 2008 (previews from 18 September). And there’s every chance that The New Electric Ballroom, the play that the Irishman has brought to the Traverse for this year’s Fringe, will follow the same route South.

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Budd Schulberg, the 95-year-old author of the Oscar-winning 1954 movie classic On the Waterfront, flew in to Edinburgh this past weekend for Saturday’s opening of Steven Berkoff’s new stage adaptation, which runs at the Pleasance Grand until 25 August 2008. Speaking to Whatsonstage.com, Schulberg said he was highly “impressed” with Berkoff’s stylised rendition of the story of New Jersey ex-prize fighter Terry Malloy. This version is, said Schulberg, “the best I’ve ever seen on stage”.

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Features

Dominic Hill became the Artistic Director of Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in January 2008, where his first production was Fall by Zinnie Harris in the Summer’s Fringe Festival. He was previously Artistic Director at the Dundee Rep where productions included the multi-award-winning Peter Gynt. Read more »

There is something inherently uncanny about an empty theatre. Row upon row of vacant seats, a deep darkness where there should be light, a heavy silence when there should be noise, and the great expanse of the bare stage seem almost unnatural. We can easily understand then why theatres, those places of culture and spectacle, are transformed by the imagination into sites of horror and hauntings. Edinburgh’s Festival Theatre is no exception, with its own history of strange goings-on. Read more »