Edinburgh: Five Star Reviews

"Creator Brett Bailey has been fearlessly uncompromising in his approach. The experience in the exhibition hall is entirely without comfort. Confronting us with the appalling realities of Europe's colonial past – the stuff I definitely wasn't taught at school – isn't just some kind of guilt trip." (Five Stars)

The Guardian - read full review

"In Exhibit B, as in no other piece of art I have seen, we are part of the show, not only gazing but gazed at, measured and judged.

"The sense of sorrow and shame is overwhelming, along with a liberating sense that something that had to be said has been said, with a decisive and terrible eloquence." (Five Stars)

The Scotsman - read full review

"The stage and costume designs are impeccably detailed, and the whole exhibition is underpinned by a haunting choir singing live.

"It's traumatic. It's edifying. It's essential. Spare 20 minutes to witness 300 years of persecution." (Five Stars)

Edinburgh Festivals magazine - read full review

"Christina Bianco makes her UK debut in her uniquely brilliant diva cabaret impression show, Divallusion. Teaming up with Velma Celli, the pair take us through a journey of diva songs and impressions that leave the audience in awe of the performances." (Five Stars)

What's On Stage - read full review

"A highlight was a memorable homage to Aussie star Sia's 'Chandelier' video (complete with glittering body stocking). The duo's onstage chemistry keeps the humour bouncing back and forth, and makes their obvious talent shine all the more brightly. Fabulous in every sense of the word." (Five Stars)

Three Weeks - read full review

"There is a vast range of stars that she has in her repertoire and it's a thrill to close your eyes and feel like we are sitting in a room listening to Judy Garland singing Somewhere over the Rainbow." (Four Stars)

Broadway Baby - read full review

"Munro's script is the star. As well as illuminating Scotland's history of distancing itself from England while uniting with Scandinavia and France, these plays all capture something elusive about Scottishness: that potent mix of individual spirit, darkness, alcohol and loyalty that can seem so foreign to the rest of Britain. Often, the writing is just very funny." (Five Stars)

The Telegraph - read full review

"This narrative driven piece achieves what Munro set out to do by being utterly human while showing a world of cold plotting and bloody treason in the pursuit and the holding of power told in Scots voices of now." (Five Stars)

Edinburgh Guide - read full review

"The play races along, helped by an atmospheric staging in modern language, featuring a deeply symbolic, menacing, 25-foot high sword, plus audience on stage behind the actors." (James I, Five Stars)

British Theatre Guide - read full review

"Things are only kept afloat for two reasons. First, Queen Margaret played superbly by The Killing favourite Sophie Gråbøl is, like her two predecessors, the kind of power behind the throne that should be running the country. Secondly, Scotland appears to have been politically stable for at least a decade and a half, allowing the King to chase around after anything in a skirt (or even a kilt)." (James III, Four Stars)

British Theatre Guide - read full review

"On the Chinese Pole, on the trapeze, and on each other, they demonstrate the same inch-perfect technique borne out of endless repetition and rehearsal – laced with a little unhinged madness." (Five Stars)

The Scotsman - read full review

"Beyond traces an intimate path between grace and baseness, offsetting sensual choreography – Billie Wilson-Coffey’s exquisite, vulnerable aerial silk solo – with a wild feeling of letting-go." (Five Stars)

The List - read full review

"It's comical and works a subtle narrative string throughout the entire piece: here they are, the performers, going beyond the human, beyond the animal, they're themselves, about as strange and superhuman as you can get." (Five Stars)

Broadway Baby - read full review

"The choir are every bit as much a part of the action on stage as the dancers, performing their own routines, or parodying the ballet to extract a laugh from their rapt audience. The standing ovation said it all; a truly joyful and transporting experience." (Five Stars)

Edinburgh Festivals magazine - read full review

"The best of them feels exhilaratingly new-minted, in classically shaped jumps and turns that are earthed to a percussive African energy – fierce feral moves that are part human, part animal." (Four Stars)

The Guardian - read full review

"[Ladysmith Black Mambazo] are a constantly generous presence, and their 11th-hour line-up across the width of the entire stage – those voices soaring out as never before – is a thing of simple but stirring beauty." (Four Stars)

The Telegraph - read full review

"With fantastic musical references from Beiber to Bette Midler taking in all the very best - and very worst - of pop, musicals, pop culture and fashion there just aren’t enough superlatives to describe the experience of an hour with Frisky & Mannish." (Five Stars)

Broadway Baby - read full review

"There are of course their fantastic vocals, cunning mash-ups and over-the-top stage personalities but this time there is more. As the show is about excess, they indulge themselves and happily the audience goes along for the ride." (Five Stars)

British Theatre Guide - read full review

"The pair re-imagine letters from Sinéad O’Connor to a horde of pop stars, interrogate songs that could be considered feminist anthems, host a game of Know Your Lord(e)s, and generally try to pack in more chart references than a Radio 1 Sunday night slot." (Three Stars)

Fest magazine - read full review

"All of the actors play their roles convincingly – Julian Sands gives a very sensitive and convincing performance, and Robert Vaughn’s delightful appearance as ‘the Yank who saves the day’ reminds us of how many other nations bravely joined the war effort and the scale of their losses." (Five Stars)

Edinburgh Festivals magazine - read full review

"The testimonies are taken from a cross-section of military and civilian society, including privates and officers, an American soldier, and – perhaps most moving of all – one of the women whose lives were forever changed by the war." (Four Stars)

Edinburgh Spotlight - read full review

"The stories may not reveal anything you didn’t already know, but combined with Nick Bicât’s original score, moving WW1 songs and a changing backdrop of paintings of the trenches, they will still force a lump into your throat." (Three Stars)

The Stage - read full review