Monthly culture, August 2025
Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 08:50 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranth01AUG25: Macbeth (Shakespeare) -- Wilton's Music Hall
Designed for outdoor performance, it's full of exaggerated movements and dramatic lighting. The only colour onstage is RED. (Great use of red ribbons denoting blood.) Seven actors take on all the parts -- sometimes difficult to determine who's who, especially as we were at the back of the stalls. (Macbeth was killed by Malcolm -- the same actor who played Lady Macbeth...) I could hear the line breaks, which vexed me. Nice music, and great design.
07AUG25: Official Secrets (Hood, 2019) -- Netflix
About the courage of whistleblowers, and why you should never trust spellcheck. The happy days when we thought Bush was the worst US president ever... Kiera Knightley and Matt Smith are both excellent, Knightley in particular: she's really matured as an actor.
08AUG25: Weapons (Cregger, 2025) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Seventeen children from teacher Justine's class mysteriously flee their homes at 2:17am one night: one small boy, Alex, does not join them. Justine (Julia Garner) tries to investigate despite being presented as obsessive and unstable. There is a gay school principal (Benedict Wong) and a terrifying Amy Madigan. No happy endings, lots of death, rather miserable.
EDINBURGH 2025
19AUG25: The Cyclops (Acting Coach Scotland) -- Annexe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall
A play about toxic masculinity, men's mental health ('how am I supposed to continue when the strongest guy I knew wasn't strong enough?') and estranged brothers: saw this because of the mythology aspect, which was (a) present but (b) made little sense -- I didn't see the connection with the main plot. Powerful production though, with some really charismatic actors.
19AUG25: Mitch Benn: The Lehrer Effect -- Underbelly
Sheer coincidence, apparently, that Lehrer died after Mitch Benn had spent six months putting this show together... It was splendid, though. I especially liked 'The Old Dope Peddlar' done in the style of Lou Reed, 'The Elements' with sixteen new ones, and 'We Will All Go Together When We Go'. ('When the president is mental we can all go accidental'). Mitch Benn has been diagnosed with autism (and ADHD?) and thinks Lehrer might have been autistic too.
19AUG25: Women of Rock (Night Owl Shows) -- Grand Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Cover versions of rock classics by women, starting with Sister Rosetta Tharp and progressing through Joplin, Quatro, Heart, Runaways, Patti Smith and Tina Turner ('Addicted to Love'). Vocalist Reine Beau is awesome and very much in character, vocally and physically, for each singer. Particularly impressed, obviously, with Patti Smith. Performance punctuated by commentary, which was on the nail. I haven't seen a Night Owl Show before but absolutely will again.
19AUG25: Iphigenia in Tauris (Intothedark / Euripides) -- The Annexe at Paradise in The Vault
Saw this in preparation for Blackheath Halls Opera's production of Gluck's Iphigenia en Tauris (of which more in the September reviews). Cut down to essentials: three young female actors and a variety of masks. 'Two men have come past the clashing rocks'... 'on the altar the last Greek blood is long dry'. Athene explains that it's all Apollo's fault.... This production would have been better if we couldn't hear the band (and the dancers) upstairs so clearly...
20AUG25: A Poem and a Mistake (by Cheri Magid, performed by Sarah Baskin) -- Assembly Rooms
Another show based on Classical myth. The title is from Ovid's line about his exile. Baskin plays Myrrha, a young classicist: she argues with her (voiceover) professor about the number of rapes in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and he is transformed into ... well, Myrrha. And that catalogue of transformations is brought to life on stage. Baskin's body language is so eloquent! It's a play, a monologue, about the shock and violence of the change, the need to change. I really liked this.
20AUG25: Arachne (Britt Anderson, Whisper Theatre) -- Britt Anderson, Whisper Theatre
Yep, more mythology! One-woman show about the rivalry and friendship between Arachne and Athene. Anderson is mostly being Athene: she begins by choking on a spiderweb until she agrees to talk about Arachne. Often extremely funny ('Prometheus wants mail? Sure, as long as it's the eagle that de-livers': Zeus molesting a sheep with a lightning-bolt penis) and an interesting take on the myth of friends who become foes.
20AUG25: Miriam Margolyse -- Edinburgh International Conference Centre
National treasure! She talked about Dickens ('he created 2,000 characters -- more than any other author' and she did 50 different accents for the audiobook of Bleak House). Her motto: never settle for less. What she would say to Trump? 'Fuck off, cunt face'. (Making America Ghastly Again.) The worst thing about this show was queuing to exit the Conference Centre afterwards...
21AUG25: Monstering the Rocketman (Henry Naylow) -- Pleasance Dome
We missed the first five minutes due to schools (which go back earlier in Scotland and emit pupils en masse at the time we needed to set out) but it was easy enough to catch up on the premise: Naylor's monologue is the account of a young red-top journalist who's part of the Sun's dirty campaign against Elton John, and slowly recognises the rampant homophobia of Kelvin McKenzie's attacks. Really powerful stuff, and a historical document: remember when we got most of our news from 'tomorrow's chip wrappers'? As Naylor points out, the chip-eating public ingested the ink and by extension the bile... And the final line is 'we are all Kelvin McKenzie now', which: ewww.
21AUG25: Circa - Wolf -- The Lafayette at Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows
Strength, control, flexibility and above all trust. Six men and four women (the women lift the men as well as vice versa). Guardian review with photos
21AUG25: Canvas of Sound (Tazeen Qayyum, Feras Charestan and Basel Rajoub) -- The Hub
In which Qayyum meditatively inscribes calligraphy on a big white canvas, while musicians improvise: themes are أمل amal (hope), عدل adl (Justice), كرم karam (kindness) and سلم silm (peace). Restful but, for me, not really engaging. There were projected graphics which vexed me by being slightly off centre, grrr.
22AUG25: From Primordial Soups to Primates in Suits (Dr David Jones) -- South Gallery Annexe at Dovecot Studios
Dr David Jones is a rainforest ecologist and the 6th most important expert on termites ('very flatulent'). This was an entertaining, fast-paced and funny account of life on earth. Probably 5 billion species have ever existed. There are probably 10-15 million species of beetle extant - of which only about 400,000 have been scientifically described. I also discovered, via Dr Jones' slides, the Edible Museum. Hurrah!
22AUG25: Bolero (Kinetic Orchestra) -- DB3 at Assembly @ Dance Base
Finnish dance ensemble. Two very sinewy, silent, male dancers rehearsing a strenuous routine to Bolero, framed by their coach who berates and belittles them throughout. I could have done without the coach tbh, but the dancing was magnificent.
22AUG25: Iago Speaks (Rumpus) -- Big at theSpaceTriplex
Another highlight: a two-man show. One is the jailer, who enters and finds a huge pool of blood which he needs to mop up. The other is Iago, whose last line in Othello was 'From this time forth I never will speak word'. Echoes of Waiting for Godot as the jailer recites random lines from random plays, wonders why he can't remember much, and then notices the audience -- we are, apparently, invisible to Iago. Who does indeed speak. There's a play within a play, stories happening over and over, and a shocking denouement that brings us full circle. Really impressive.
23AUG25: Bacchae (Company of Wolves) -- Upstairs at Assembly Roxy
A one-man show, with Ewan Downie: minimal props, multiple voices, song and chant in the original Greek: everything dances, shakes, rocks. I would never have thought that a man tipping a bottle of water over his head -- when he describes the blood flowing -- would give me the shivers.
23AUG25: Figures in Extinction (Nederlands Dans Theater) -- Festival Theatre
The first third of this, where the dancers evoked extinct animals, was splendid, evocative, varied: the second part 'and then you come to the humans', was about the human brain, with a voiceover from a neuroscientist. I did not connect as much with this section. The third part, 'Requiem', featured the five stages of human decay. The dead are timeless. The dead surround the living.
I am never sure if I 'get' modern dance.
23AUG25: Pop Off Michelangelo (Blair Russell Productions) -- Udderbelly at Underbelly, George Square
Very queer and very funny, with excellent songs: the 'plot' concerns Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci trying to be gay without attracting the attention of the fearsome Savonarola in her -- I mean their -- Temu frock. Brilliant atmosphere, very enjoyable.
Should have quit while I was ahead...
23AUG25: As You Like It: A Radical Retelling (Cliff Cardinal) -- Church Hill Theatre
This was certainly radical. If I'd been near the end of the row I would have left, despite the risk of being heckled from the stage: quite a few people did leave. Spoiler: this was not As You Like It. Cliff Cardinal talked about colonialism, not all of it entirely applicable to an Edinburgh audience. ('Have you ever had an indigenous person in your house?' Noooo, there are no Picts available. If even they count.) Best line: 'I lied to you and took your money: how does it feel?' Actually, it feels disappointing, a low note on which to end my festival week. Refunds were available: I did not choose to request one.
28AUG25: Thursday Murder Club (Columbus, 2025) -- Netflix
Like about 5 other people in the Western world, I have remained immune and oblivious to the publishing phenomenon that is The Thursday Murder Club. Coming to it fresh in movie form, with a cast that reads like a who's-who of film (Mirren! Brosnan! Tennant! Grant! Pryce! Kingsley! Imrie! -- I even recognised most of them!) and a splendid country-house setting, I enjoyed the film immensely: Elizabeth's MI6 past, emotional support llamas (and llama farmer drama), plenty of cake, and very few obviously-unwell people in the high-end retirement home. Not the most solid murder mystery, plot-wise, but great fun.
29AUG25: The Roses (Roach, 2025) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Remake of The War of the Roses, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as feuding married couple. Ivy is a chef, Theo an architect. When his career comes (literally) crashing down, her restaurant becomes a massive success. Things turn nasty. Kate McKinnon (playing a heterosexual woman) complicates matters when trying to help. At the otherwise-happy ending, the drawbacks of a smart home system become apparent.
I did enjoy this, and found Cumberbatch more engaging than usual. Colman is a National Treasure and was utterly splendid. Great supporting cast including Allison Janney and Ncuti Gatwa.
Designed for outdoor performance, it's full of exaggerated movements and dramatic lighting. The only colour onstage is RED. (Great use of red ribbons denoting blood.) Seven actors take on all the parts -- sometimes difficult to determine who's who, especially as we were at the back of the stalls. (Macbeth was killed by Malcolm -- the same actor who played Lady Macbeth...) I could hear the line breaks, which vexed me. Nice music, and great design.
07AUG25: Official Secrets (Hood, 2019) -- Netflix
About the courage of whistleblowers, and why you should never trust spellcheck. The happy days when we thought Bush was the worst US president ever... Kiera Knightley and Matt Smith are both excellent, Knightley in particular: she's really matured as an actor.
08AUG25: Weapons (Cregger, 2025) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Seventeen children from teacher Justine's class mysteriously flee their homes at 2:17am one night: one small boy, Alex, does not join them. Justine (Julia Garner) tries to investigate despite being presented as obsessive and unstable. There is a gay school principal (Benedict Wong) and a terrifying Amy Madigan. No happy endings, lots of death, rather miserable.
EDINBURGH 2025
19AUG25: The Cyclops (Acting Coach Scotland) -- Annexe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall
A play about toxic masculinity, men's mental health ('how am I supposed to continue when the strongest guy I knew wasn't strong enough?') and estranged brothers: saw this because of the mythology aspect, which was (a) present but (b) made little sense -- I didn't see the connection with the main plot. Powerful production though, with some really charismatic actors.
19AUG25: Mitch Benn: The Lehrer Effect -- Underbelly
Sheer coincidence, apparently, that Lehrer died after Mitch Benn had spent six months putting this show together... It was splendid, though. I especially liked 'The Old Dope Peddlar' done in the style of Lou Reed, 'The Elements' with sixteen new ones, and 'We Will All Go Together When We Go'. ('When the president is mental we can all go accidental'). Mitch Benn has been diagnosed with autism (and ADHD?) and thinks Lehrer might have been autistic too.
19AUG25: Women of Rock (Night Owl Shows) -- Grand Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Cover versions of rock classics by women, starting with Sister Rosetta Tharp and progressing through Joplin, Quatro, Heart, Runaways, Patti Smith and Tina Turner ('Addicted to Love'). Vocalist Reine Beau is awesome and very much in character, vocally and physically, for each singer. Particularly impressed, obviously, with Patti Smith. Performance punctuated by commentary, which was on the nail. I haven't seen a Night Owl Show before but absolutely will again.
19AUG25: Iphigenia in Tauris (Intothedark / Euripides) -- The Annexe at Paradise in The Vault
Saw this in preparation for Blackheath Halls Opera's production of Gluck's Iphigenia en Tauris (of which more in the September reviews). Cut down to essentials: three young female actors and a variety of masks. 'Two men have come past the clashing rocks'... 'on the altar the last Greek blood is long dry'. Athene explains that it's all Apollo's fault.... This production would have been better if we couldn't hear the band (and the dancers) upstairs so clearly...
20AUG25: A Poem and a Mistake (by Cheri Magid, performed by Sarah Baskin) -- Assembly Rooms
Another show based on Classical myth. The title is from Ovid's line about his exile. Baskin plays Myrrha, a young classicist: she argues with her (voiceover) professor about the number of rapes in Ovid's Metamorphoses, and he is transformed into ... well, Myrrha. And that catalogue of transformations is brought to life on stage. Baskin's body language is so eloquent! It's a play, a monologue, about the shock and violence of the change, the need to change. I really liked this.
20AUG25: Arachne (Britt Anderson, Whisper Theatre) -- Britt Anderson, Whisper Theatre
Yep, more mythology! One-woman show about the rivalry and friendship between Arachne and Athene. Anderson is mostly being Athene: she begins by choking on a spiderweb until she agrees to talk about Arachne. Often extremely funny ('Prometheus wants mail? Sure, as long as it's the eagle that de-livers': Zeus molesting a sheep with a lightning-bolt penis) and an interesting take on the myth of friends who become foes.
20AUG25: Miriam Margolyse -- Edinburgh International Conference Centre
National treasure! She talked about Dickens ('he created 2,000 characters -- more than any other author' and she did 50 different accents for the audiobook of Bleak House). Her motto: never settle for less. What she would say to Trump? 'Fuck off, cunt face'. (Making America Ghastly Again.) The worst thing about this show was queuing to exit the Conference Centre afterwards...
21AUG25: Monstering the Rocketman (Henry Naylow) -- Pleasance Dome
We missed the first five minutes due to schools (which go back earlier in Scotland and emit pupils en masse at the time we needed to set out) but it was easy enough to catch up on the premise: Naylor's monologue is the account of a young red-top journalist who's part of the Sun's dirty campaign against Elton John, and slowly recognises the rampant homophobia of Kelvin McKenzie's attacks. Really powerful stuff, and a historical document: remember when we got most of our news from 'tomorrow's chip wrappers'? As Naylor points out, the chip-eating public ingested the ink and by extension the bile... And the final line is 'we are all Kelvin McKenzie now', which: ewww.
21AUG25: Circa - Wolf -- The Lafayette at Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows
Strength, control, flexibility and above all trust. Six men and four women (the women lift the men as well as vice versa). Guardian review with photos
21AUG25: Canvas of Sound (Tazeen Qayyum, Feras Charestan and Basel Rajoub) -- The Hub
In which Qayyum meditatively inscribes calligraphy on a big white canvas, while musicians improvise: themes are أمل amal (hope), عدل adl (Justice), كرم karam (kindness) and سلم silm (peace). Restful but, for me, not really engaging. There were projected graphics which vexed me by being slightly off centre, grrr.
22AUG25: From Primordial Soups to Primates in Suits (Dr David Jones) -- South Gallery Annexe at Dovecot Studios
Dr David Jones is a rainforest ecologist and the 6th most important expert on termites ('very flatulent'). This was an entertaining, fast-paced and funny account of life on earth. Probably 5 billion species have ever existed. There are probably 10-15 million species of beetle extant - of which only about 400,000 have been scientifically described. I also discovered, via Dr Jones' slides, the Edible Museum. Hurrah!
22AUG25: Bolero (Kinetic Orchestra) -- DB3 at Assembly @ Dance Base
Finnish dance ensemble. Two very sinewy, silent, male dancers rehearsing a strenuous routine to Bolero, framed by their coach who berates and belittles them throughout. I could have done without the coach tbh, but the dancing was magnificent.
22AUG25: Iago Speaks (Rumpus) -- Big at theSpaceTriplex
Another highlight: a two-man show. One is the jailer, who enters and finds a huge pool of blood which he needs to mop up. The other is Iago, whose last line in Othello was 'From this time forth I never will speak word'. Echoes of Waiting for Godot as the jailer recites random lines from random plays, wonders why he can't remember much, and then notices the audience -- we are, apparently, invisible to Iago. Who does indeed speak. There's a play within a play, stories happening over and over, and a shocking denouement that brings us full circle. Really impressive.
23AUG25: Bacchae (Company of Wolves) -- Upstairs at Assembly Roxy
A one-man show, with Ewan Downie: minimal props, multiple voices, song and chant in the original Greek: everything dances, shakes, rocks. I would never have thought that a man tipping a bottle of water over his head -- when he describes the blood flowing -- would give me the shivers.
23AUG25: Figures in Extinction (Nederlands Dans Theater) -- Festival Theatre
The first third of this, where the dancers evoked extinct animals, was splendid, evocative, varied: the second part 'and then you come to the humans', was about the human brain, with a voiceover from a neuroscientist. I did not connect as much with this section. The third part, 'Requiem', featured the five stages of human decay. The dead are timeless. The dead surround the living.
I am never sure if I 'get' modern dance.
23AUG25: Pop Off Michelangelo (Blair Russell Productions) -- Udderbelly at Underbelly, George Square
Very queer and very funny, with excellent songs: the 'plot' concerns Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci trying to be gay without attracting the attention of the fearsome Savonarola in her -- I mean their -- Temu frock. Brilliant atmosphere, very enjoyable.
Should have quit while I was ahead...
23AUG25: As You Like It: A Radical Retelling (Cliff Cardinal) -- Church Hill Theatre
This was certainly radical. If I'd been near the end of the row I would have left, despite the risk of being heckled from the stage: quite a few people did leave. Spoiler: this was not As You Like It. Cliff Cardinal talked about colonialism, not all of it entirely applicable to an Edinburgh audience. ('Have you ever had an indigenous person in your house?' Noooo, there are no Picts available. If even they count.) Best line: 'I lied to you and took your money: how does it feel?' Actually, it feels disappointing, a low note on which to end my festival week. Refunds were available: I did not choose to request one.
28AUG25: Thursday Murder Club (Columbus, 2025) -- Netflix
Like about 5 other people in the Western world, I have remained immune and oblivious to the publishing phenomenon that is The Thursday Murder Club. Coming to it fresh in movie form, with a cast that reads like a who's-who of film (Mirren! Brosnan! Tennant! Grant! Pryce! Kingsley! Imrie! -- I even recognised most of them!) and a splendid country-house setting, I enjoyed the film immensely: Elizabeth's MI6 past, emotional support llamas (and llama farmer drama), plenty of cake, and very few obviously-unwell people in the high-end retirement home. Not the most solid murder mystery, plot-wise, but great fun.
29AUG25: The Roses (Roach, 2025) -- Greenwich PictureHouse
Remake of The War of the Roses, with Benedict Cumberbatch and Olivia Colman as feuding married couple. Ivy is a chef, Theo an architect. When his career comes (literally) crashing down, her restaurant becomes a massive success. Things turn nasty. Kate McKinnon (playing a heterosexual woman) complicates matters when trying to help. At the otherwise-happy ending, the drawbacks of a smart home system become apparent.
I did enjoy this, and found Cumberbatch more engaging than usual. Colman is a National Treasure and was utterly splendid. Great supporting cast including Allison Janney and Ncuti Gatwa.
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Date: Tuesday, September 30th, 2025 08:01 pm (UTC)