Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Voices Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-226 5138) The after-dinner speech is not normally one of life's more galvanising rituals, but Voices - a show from Theatergroep Hollandia - uses this stuffy convention for a lethal exercise in subversion. With an intensity reminiscent of Wallace Shawn, Jeroen Willems stands at the head of a table littered with empty bottles and half-finished desserts, and delivers a series of soliloquies, mesmerically metamorphosing into different contemporary figures - a businessman, a criminal - for each. A vision of utter nihilism, performed with corrupt relish. Paul Taylor
Voices Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-226 5138) The after-dinner speech is not normally one of life's more galvanising rituals, but Voices - a show from Theatergroep Hollandia - uses this stuffy convention for a lethal exercise in subversion. With an intensity reminiscent of Wallace Shawn, Jeroen Willems stands at the head of a table littered with empty bottles and half-finished desserts, and delivers a series of soliloquies, mesmerically metamorphosing into different contemporary figures - a businessman, a criminal - for each. A vision of utter nihilism, performed with corrupt relish. Paul Taylor
Thunderstruck Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-226 5138) The four performers in Blake Brooker's compellingly peculiar (as opposed to peculiarly compelling) production of Daniel Danis's play narrate a story that's a cross between The Beverly Hillbillies and some immemorial folk tale. It is presented from the distorted perspective of three brothers - backwoods orphans whose adoptive parents were fried to a crisp during an electrical storm. When the story turns to how the brothers cope with their newly-comatose sister, you're left feeling that the show is a powerful promo for lightning conductors. PT
The Donkey Show The Pleasance, Edinburgh (0131-556 6550) A Midsummer Night's Dream, set to a loud Seventies soundtrack and performed in a club. It sounds ghastly, I know, but it's the kind of performance that you dream of at the Fringe. The gender-bending cast look fabulous in their glittery get-up. Titania, a masked fantasy figure done up in thigh-high boots, is drugged not by flower juice but by heroin cooked up on a giant spoon. Her love scene with Bottom is certainly climactic and possibly the filthiest thing the Festival has ever seen. Witty, smutty and inventive, it's a glorious overhaul of Shakespeare's sappiest comedy. Fiona Sturges
Barbaric Comedies King's Theatre, Edinburgh (0131-473 2000) The play's author, Ramon del Valle-Inclan (1866-1938), is still largely unknown in this country, but is now given the high-profile treatment in this new version by Frank McGuinness. Over multiple changes of location, we follow Don Juan Manuel de Montenegro (a powerful if uncharismatic Mark Lambert) on his epic journey from satanic tyrant to a sort of Galician Lear, who leads a band of beggars to the ancestral house that his greedy, vicious sons have taken over. A good production, but one that whets your appetite to see Valle-Inclan performed by his compatriots. PT
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments