Info on Reviews of Shows at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival

The main objective of this page is to tell you where you can find reviews on the web. The second objective is to provide a summary of those shows which have scored most marks with the critics. I will also provide a list of my own personal favourites.

Where to Find 2006 Reviews

• Scotsman
• Guardian though this page seems to contain more recent reviews
• BroadwayBaby.com
• Times
• Skinnyfest
• ThreeWeeks (need to register)
• EdinburghGuide.com
• The List
• Glasgow Herald but beware that items are archived to a subscription service after 2 days
• The Independent includes some reviews written by readers
• Daily Telegraph (though not many)

Most Critically Acclaimed Shows (Final Update – 23rd August 2006)

Let me start off by stating the obvious: there are many enjoyable shows which never make these lists. We have seen many “minor classics” in Edinburgh over the years, many of which went largely unnoticed by the critics. Indeed, we have a number of shows in our planned schedule for this year that have had little publicity during the “preview season”. So, do not be a complete slave to reviews: listen to the “word on the street” and perhaps try something different – you might be pleasantly surprised.

The minimum requirement to get onto the following lists is that a show must have had a minimum of three reviews, which is not easy.

There is no doubt that this year’s “hot” show is Black Watch.

Theatre

• Black Watch
• Particularly In The Heartland
• Improbable Frequency – with music
• End of the Rainbow – with music
• The Receipt
• Tom Crean – Antartic Explorer
• My Name is Rachel Corrie
• Unprotected
• Food
• Radio
• Brick Walls
• Gizmo Love
• The Regina Monologues

Dance / Physical Theatre

• Sclavi: Song of the Emigrant – music with raw physicality
• Into The Hoods – dance / theatre
• Hysteria – physical theatre
• Knots – dance
• Tapeire – tap dancing

Comedy

• We are Klang
• Doug Stanhope
• Phil Nichol
• Adam Hills
• Terry Alderton
• C-90 - this is in the theatre section of the programme but it is comedy as far as I am concerned.
• Tim Minchin

Personal Favourites

My particular favourites that did not manage to make the above lists are:

• Terre Haute (Theatre) – an excellent two-hander (well-acted, typical Edinburgh vignette)
• Ketzal (Dance) by Derevo is rightly playing to full houses, despite some curiously mixed reviews
• PumpGirl (Theatre) – solid Bush Theatre show where the three characters use monologues rather than dialogue
• Allegiance (Theatre) – despite most of the critics carping about the use of scene setting performed by the director
• Bill Bailey (Comedy) – typical Bill Bailey
• In Pursuit of Cardenio – another typical Edinburgh piece – improvisation on the theme of historical plays (a sort of “Who’s Line is It Anyway?” for the theatre)
• John Hegley (performance poet) – typical John Hegley
• Ron Mueck (art exhibition) – includes a very interesting video on how he builds his sculptures.

Favourites that did make the above lists are: Black Watch, Improbable Frequency, The Receipt, Food, Hysteria, Unprotected, Into The Hoods, End of the Rainbow and C-90.