SCOTLAND THEATER REVIEWS

Labeled the most important piece of contemporary Scottish literature, Lewis Grassic Gibbon's 1932 novel Sunset Song is an ongoing frontrunner of nationwide school curricula. Now this haunting coming-of-age narrative returns, reimagined beautifully for live theatre....

Based on the classic Tim Burton movie and featuring the hauntingly beautiful music of Danny Elfman and Terry Davies, Bourne and his New Adventures Company return to this witty, bittersweet story of an incomplete boy left alone in a strange new world....

When social worker Hana has to deliberate upon Bingo’s case for the custody of his daughter, his unusual hobby as a ‘doo-man’ catches her off guard. Through him, she is flung back into the world of pigeon keeping....

When her husband returns victorious from the battlefield with a prophecy that he is to become King of Scotland, Lady Macbeth will stop at nothing to make their darkest ambition a reality....

Jamie New is sixteen and lives on a council estate in Sheffield. Jamie doesn’t quite fit in. Jamie is terrified about the future. Jamie is going to be a sensation. Supported by his brilliant loving mum and surrounded by his friends, Jamie overcomes prejudice, beats the bullies and steps out of the...

Porno lives up to its opening line: sequels are never as good as the original. Edinburgh's infamous pack of misfits (Renton, Bigbie, Sick Boy and Spud) reunite ten years after their appearances in the award-winning Trainspotting. They're all grown up, and surpisingly still alive....

Ten years after his award-winning memoir, Damian Barr revisits his past onstage with the National Theatre of Scotland in Maggie & Me. This brave piece recounts growing up gay in the straight world of Margaret Thatcher's working class Britain... among the Ravenscraig steelworks of Motherwell. Barr e...

In the summer of 1962, Sir Laurence Olivier invited lighting designer Richard Pilbrow to 'sort out the bloody awful lighting' at Chichester Theatre two days before it opened. Pilbrow replied there was nothing he could do in so short a time. 'Well, you're no bloody use, are you?' Olivier quipped....

Cross-dressing, guns, psychiatry, politics, incest, adultery and accidental overdoses interlace in Joe Orton's final and most subversive play. Unfortunately to a modern audience it feels dated....

A surreal chaotic comedy following a misfit family from Glasgow’s fringes as they prepare a party to say farewell to a beloved black-market animal....

After spellbinding success in the Edinburgh Fringe, the not-safe-for-work musical parody Unfortunate dives into Glasgow to stage a revolutionary queerification of Disney's 1989 movie The Little Mermaid. ...

This divine revival of the iconic movie follows nightclub singer Deloris van Cartier (Landi Oshinowo), whose life takes an unlikely turn after she witnesses a mobster murder. Seeking refuge in a holy convent, she poses as a nun revamping the sisters' struggling choir... despite protests from the aus...

An intense and well filmed release of an atmospheric production of Macbeth. Showing in cinemas from 2 May....

‘Bridezilla’ Amber and her fiancé Gary are desperate to find the perfect venue for her their upcoming wedding when the peculiar Lady V offers up her seemingly ideal estate....

In a world where quiet facts are repeatedly drowned out by loud opinions and with calamity around every corner, do we rock paper scissors for not just the right to be heard, but the right to survive?...

A Raw Material and Capital Theatres co-production, James V: Katherine continues the theatrical series with the vivid historical storytelling of the previous instalments, set during the reigns of Scotland’s generations of Stewart kings. James V places a lesser-known female historical figure front a...

Who Pays the Piper is a new tragicomedy exploring what it’s like to fall in love with music and who gets to make their ambitions into reality....

Two small-town kids from the middle of nowhere became the biggest folk heroes in all America. They craved adventure—and each other. Their names were Bonnie and Clyde....

Em, a young queer Scot, is on the bonnie banks of Loch Ness when they encounter the fabled monster…only Nessie sincerely wishes that they wouldn’t use the word ‘monster.’...

His first publication went viral (once again, in a way) when Mr Jeremy Strong of Succession fame featured it in his GQ interview about his essentials, saying he swears by it. Declan Donnellan succeeds at describing the indescribable, putting the ephemeral art of acting on paper in another gem of a b...

Another bloody serious comedy from BOP, makers of the hilarious My Left Right Foot – The Musical....

Shō and the Demons of the Deep is a visual adventure story about overcoming fear, climate crisis and how the actions of one generation can affect the next. Designed for everyone aged 8+, the show is inspired by the picture book of the same name by Annouchka Gravel Galouchko....

Discover the remarkable story of the Drifters and the truth about the woman who made them. From the highs of hit records to the lows of legal battles and personal tragedy, Faye Treadwell is the legendary manager of The Drifters who refused to give up on the group she loved....

Based on Khaled Hosseini’s international bestselling novel, adapted by Mathew Spangler and directed by Giles Croft, this haunting tale of friendship spans cultures and continents and follows one man’s journey to confront his past and find redemption....

Adam Kay is the doctor-turned-comic who secured paramount success with his show and book 'This is Going to Hurt'. In his latest piece based on his new book, the audience undergo another emotional rollercoaster as Kay recounts the laborious laments of being an NHS frontliner. See what our critic...