What's in Kelvin's Head

There are a couple of other Montezuma reviews out there: Conrad Wilson in the Herald liked it. (4 stars – no mention of the dog) Rowena Smith in the Guardian hated it. (2 stars – no mention of the dog except in comments) Conrad Smith also hated it. (2 stars and concern for the dog’s [...]

Montezuma by Carl Heinrich Graun to a libretto by Frederick II, King of Prussia Rating: This review should appear in due course on the Opera Britannia web-page. King’s Theatre, Edinburgh – 14 August 2010 Despite a somewhat slow start to proceedings, this Edinburgh Festival production of Montezuma was an inventive, surprising and ultimately very enjoyable [...]

Rating: A very last minute dash took me to the theatre last night, having won a pair of tickets on twitter earlier in the afternoon. (I’m fast becoming fixed in my opinion that theatre and opera should, like the NHS, be free at the point of delivery). The dash was rewarded with an evening of [...]

Rating: Clap your hands if you believe in stage magic. The National Theatre of Scotland’s latest show is full of big set piece theatrical experiences that make for an exciting if occasionally puzzling evening. Peter Pan comes home to Scotland in an extravaganza, which locates the Darling household in Edinburgh and Neverland as a place [...]

The following review also appears on Opera-Britannia.com Rating: It is not difficult to see why performances of The Adventures of Mr Brouček are something of a rarity. The eponymous Brouček is whisked through time, space and circumstance in an opera whose score is at once challenging and beguiling. Scottish Opera’s collaboration with Opera North makes [...]

Above the stage in this play by the National Theatre of Scotland there floats a large, mirrored ceiling. In this update, the action has all been plucked from the Andalusian countryside of Lorca’s original and been thrust kicking and screaming into Glasgow’s East End underworld. How well does this 70 year old Spanish play hold [...]

The opening of the new exhibition sh(OUT) opened tonight. I made it to the opening bash, it being my day off. (I still take a day off in Holy Week lest I make it not unto the end). I’m pleased that GoMA and Glasgow City Countil run these social justice themed exhibitions every couple of [...]

The libretto of HMS Pinafore has at its centre a character, in the form of Sir Joseph Porter, who has risen to a status far exceding his talent. There was a certain irony then in the casting of Mr John Savident who, though he looked the part, was wading way out of his depth and [...]

Stephen Daldry’s production of An Inspector Calls is a thundering, brooding, iron-clad show which makes for a very safe bet on a February Friday night in Glasgow. It is a delight that in such a manicured production as this, the play still shines out as being interesting in itself. Notwithstanding the big-bucks set and the [...]

Perhaps the most surprising thing about this version of Educating Rita was that it emphasised the fact that the play has become something of a period piece. The academic’s room has no computer, essays are delivered by hand not e-mail, student work is written in handwriting. The ideas are rather dated too. A new English [...]