Info on Reviews of Shows at the 2010 Festival

The main objectives of this page are to:

• tell you where you can find reviews on the web
• provide a summary of those shows which have scored most marks with the critics
• detail some of this year’s awards
• provide links to selected summaries of the festival by the critics
• summarise our own thoughts on the shows that we managed to see
• provide links to selected Visual Arts, Jazz & Blues and Film festival reviews.

Where to Find 2010 Reviews

There are a plethora of sources to satisfy even the most voracious consumer of reviews. Of course the critics vary from the professional to the semi-pro, the student, the enthusiastic theatregoer ... and all shades in between.

The following list will be updated as it becomes clear precisely where reviews can be found on any given site.

Scotsman
The Guardian
The Stage
Chortle (comedy)
Fest
OnstageScotland
BritishTheatreGuide
The List
FringeReview
Viewfromthestalls
Whatsonstage.com
The Herald
The Telegraph
EdinburghGuide.com
The Independent
Edinburgh Festivals Magazine
ThreeWeeks
BroadwayBaby

Here is a minor rant about the layout of review lists on some of the websites.

Most Critically Acclaimed Shows (Fringe and EIF)

There are simply too many shows and too many reviews to attempt a list of links to them, even an abbreviated one. Instead, I focus on producing periodic lists of those shows that the critics liked best. In 2010 they are based on reviews from 12 sources, varying from mainstream media outlets to established festival websites.

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 that 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 criterion for a show to be considered for the following list is that it must have had at least three reviews … which is not easy.

Here is the eighth and final iteration of the list - published on Saturday September 4th. Several notes ... from the fifth iteration onwards changes will only be made to accommodate late shows / concerts on the International Festival; established comedians sometimes tend not to get many reviews and so may not appear in the list - presumably it is assumed that they will get full houses whatever; successful shows returning for a second year tend to get few reviews; shows and concerts on the International Festival sometimes get few reviews and so may not appear on the list; and finally, I use the categories that shows appear in in the programmes - which is sometimes a bit problematic, e.g. should Daniel Kitson's show be in comedy rather than drama?

Drama. Daniel Kitson: It's Always Right Now Until It's Later, The Gospel at Colonus, Djupid (The Deep), The Crying Cherry, Do We Look Like Refugees, Lockerbie: Unfinished Business, Our Share of Tomorrow, The Author, The Girl in a Yellow Dress, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Roadkill, Sub Rosa, Pedestrian, Running on Air, Lorca is Dead, The Silver Darlings, Decky Does a Bronco, Expectations, An Evening with Dementia, Honest, Jordan, No Child, Freefall, Sometimes I Laugh Like My Sister, Beautiful Burnout, Bound, Hot Mess, Penelope, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Speechless and Imperial Fizz.

Comedy. Bo Burnham, The Boy with Tape on His Face, Kevin Eldon, Bridget Christie, Des Bishop, John Bishop, Greg Davies, Tim Vine, Celia Pacquola, Ian D. Montfort, Chris Addison, Emo Philips, Jason Cook, Miles Jupp, Sarah Millican, Stuart Goldsmith, Jeremy Lion Goes Green, Gyles Brandreth, Colin Hoult, Andrew Lawrence, Barry and Stuart, Keith Farnan, Magnus Betner, Paul Sinha and Geraldine Quinn.

Dance & Physical Theatre. Grupo Corpo, Agua, Harlekin(mime), The Big Smoke, Tabu and Inside.

Music, Musicals and Opera. Idomeneo, La fanciulla del West, Bliss, Royal Concertgebouw and The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Children. White and Just Macbeth.

2010 Awards

There are a growing number of awards which will all be mentioned in this section when they are announced. The Scotsman Fringe Firsts and The Glasgow Herald Angels, the major awards, are handed out weekly while the remainder are given towards the end of the festival.

The Scotsman Fringe First awards for new writing. The week 1 awards have been announced: Speechless adapted by Linda Brogan and Polly Teale, Bryony Lavery's Beautiful Burnout, Renny Krupinski's Bare, Catherine Wheel's White, DC Jackson's My Romantic History and Stewart Permutt's Real Babies Dont Cry. The Week 2 awards are: David Benson's Lockerbie: Unfinished Business; Daniel Kitson's It's Always Right Now Until It's Later; Jesse Briton's Bound; Laura Mugridges' one woman show Running On Air; Do We Look Like Refugees; Enda Walsh's Penelope; and Roadkill. The Week 3 awards are: Doon MacKichan for Primadoona; Jack Thorne for Bunny; The Traverse for Flesh and Blood and Fish and Fowl; Frances Ya-Chu Cowhig for Lidless; and RashDash's Another Someone.

The Glasgow Herald Angel awards. The week 1 awards have been announced. The Herald Archangel is the actor Jack Klaff who is currently appearing in Jack the Knife at Assembly. The Herald Angels are Richard Michael (Jazz musician); John Retallack's Company of Angels for Apples; Cora Bissett's Roadkill; Andy Manleys' show for Catherine Wheel's White; and Canada's 2B Theatre for Invisible Atom. The Little Devil award goes to Remarkable Arts for meeting the technical demands of Sub Rosa. The week 2 awards started with the Archangel award to Liz Smith, press and marketing supremo at Assembly. The Angels were: choreographer Lemi Ponifasio for MAU's Tempest: Without a Body and Birds with Skymirrors; veteran conductor Gunther Schuller for the RSNO concert of American music; Bear Trap Theatre for Bound; choreographer Janice Parker for Private Dancer; Varieté Velociped for The Butterfly Effect; and Forest Fringe co-director Deborah Pearson for Like You Were Before. The Little Devil award went to Bear Trap Theatre for deftly handling a fire alarm during one show. The week 3 awards: Joanathan Mills, the artistic director of the International Festival, is the Archangel; Angels are Grant Smearton for Bette / Cavett; Little Bulb for Operation Greenfield; Katrina Caldwell for The Songbird; Bell Shakespeare for Just Macbeth; and Michael Marra, songsmith from Dundee. The Little Devil award goes to Bill Kyle for coping with flooding problems at The Jazz Bar.

Foster's Edinburgh Comedy Awards: best comedy show - Russell Kane; best newcomer - Roisin Conaty; panel prize - Bo Burnham.

The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence at the Fringe: Scott Kyle for Singin’ I’m No a Billy, He’s a Tim (best actor); Mercy Ojelade for Roadkill (best actress); Do We Look Like Refugees?! for Beyond Borders Productions Ltd (best ensemble); and Caroline Horton for You’re Not Like the Other Girls Chrissy (best solo performer).

Edinburgh International Festival Fringe Prize 2010: Meow Meow and Roadkill.

Amnesty International’s Freedom of Expression award: Cora Bissett's Roadkill.

The Carol Tambor Edinburgh to New York award: Peter Bramley's Ovid's Metamorphoses performed by Pants on Fire.

Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe award: Karen Koren who runs The Gilded Balloon.

Holden Street Theatres award: Jesse Briton’s Bound and Cora Bissett’s Roadkill.

Total Theatre awards: Sex Idiot presented by Bryony Kimmings/Escalator East to Edinburgh (emerging artists / company); White presented by Catherine Wheels at Traverse@Scottish Book Trust and Tabu presented by Nofit State (physical and visual theatre); Roadkill presented by Ankur Productions/ Pachamama Productions, The Author presented by News from Nowhere at Traverse Theatre and 30 Days to Space presented by Bootworks Theatre (innovation); and David Bates, Speigelmaestro of The Famous Speigeltent (significant contribution to theatre).

Arches Brick award for emerging talent: Me and the Machine for When We Meet Again (Introduced as Friends) at Forest Fringe, and ThickSkin with their production of Davey Anderson’s Blackout.

Malcolm Hardee comedy awards: Robert White (comic originality), Bo Burnham (act most likely to make a million quid) and Stewart Lee (best publicity stunt).

FringeReview awards. Outstanding theatre shows: Gothenburg English Language Production's Expectations; and Do We Look Like Refugees?! - a Beyond Borders Productions featuring the Rustavelli Theatre, Tiblisi and National Theatre Studio.

Other awards include Threeweeks Editors' Awards, MTM:UK Musical Theatre Awards, Mervyn Stutter's Spirit of the Fringe Awards, and the Allen Wright Awards for Journalists.

Punters' 2010 Visit

We took in 24 shows and 3 art exhibitions during our one week visit to Edinburgh. A brief summary of our thoughts on what we saw:

• a better than average year
• best drama show - The Girl in the Yellow Dress
• best "Edinburgh" play (tight, well-written and well-acted show for a small cast in a small space) - Jordan
• best verbatim theatre - Do We Look Like Refugees?! and Lockerbie: Unfinished Business
• best storytelling - Daniel Kitson's funny and poignant It's Always Right Now, Until It's Later
• best comedy - Tim Vine for a very professional and impressive show - quite how he remembers all the puns we do not know
• best dance / physical theatre - Grupo Corpo with Harlekin (mime) a close second
• choral music - The Sixteen at GreyFriars Kirk
• best visual arts - Impressionist Gardens which we felt was the most coherent exhibition than we have seen at the National Gallery since the Warhol exhibition in 2007. Another World, a showing of the Modern Art Gallery's entire Surrealist collection, was also enjoyable
• biggest disappointment - Caledonia. Very thin drama. Calling it Brechtian ... well Bertolt must be turning in his grave
• this year's "turkey" was Martin Creed's art exhibition at the Fruitmarket Gallery. It's only saving grace was the musical stairs
• best sales pitch ever for a Fringe show - apart from the obligatory flyer we were offered 20,000 dollars to see Allegations. When we explained that unfortunately we no longer had any space in our schedule the nice young man allowed us to keep the 20,000 dollar bill. I should add that we are talking about Zimbabwe's currency and so $20K dollars would not be worth a great deal; indeed the bill is no longer legal tender.

Edinburgh Art Festival

Links to selected reviews:

Date Posted	Review
13th July 2009	Christen Købke, Danish Master of Light in The Scotsman
14th July 2010	John Squire:Nefertiti in The List
14th July 2010	Very short review of Another World in The Herald
18th July 2010	Full review of Another World in The FT
31st July 2010	Joan Mitchell in The FT
2nd Aug 2010	Impressionist Gardens in The Telegraph
7th Aug 2010	Comprehensive review of Impressionist Gardens in The FT

Edinburgh Jazz & Blues Festival

Links to selected reviews:

Date Posted	Review
2nd Aug 2010	China Moses in The Scotsman
3rd Aug 2010	Salsa Celtica Big Band in The Scotsman
3rd Aug 2010	Kevin Mackenzie's Vital Signs in The Scotsman
4th Aug 2010	An Evening with Joe Temperley in The Herald
4th Aug 2010	Brian Auger's Oblivion Express in The Herald
4th Aug 2010	Ken Mathieson's Classic Jazz Orchestra & Duke Heitger Play Louis Armstrong in The Scotsman
4th Aug 2010	Laura MacDonald / Martina Almgren in The Scotsman
5th Aug 2010	Havana Swing in The Scotsman
5th Aug 2010	Orchestre National de Jazz in The Scotsman
5th Aug 2010	Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra: Swinging for Basie in The Scotsman
5th Aug 2010	Festival of Swing in The Scotsman
5th Aug 2010	Malcolm MacFarlane Octet in The Scotsman
5th Aug 2010	Hypnotic Brass Ensemble in The Scotsman
6th Aug 2010	Tommy Smith in The Scotsman
8th Aug 2010	GOL in The Scotsman
9th Aug 2010	Curtis Stigers, Edinburgh Jazz Festival Orchestra, Django a la Creole and Stornoway in The Herald
9th Aug 2010	Tom Bancroft's Band of Eden and Eric Burdon & The Animals in The Herald

Edinburgh Film Festival

Links to selected reviews:

Date Posted	Review
16th June 2010	The Illusionist in The Telegraph and EdinburghGuide.com.
17th June 2010	The Illusionist, Lucky and Boy in The Scotsman.
17th June 2010	The Last Rites of Ransom Pride in Blogcritics.org.
17th June 2010	Skeletons in The New Current.
17th June 2010	Pelican Blood and Huge in Obsessedwithfilm.com
18th June 2010	Pelican Blood in The Independent
18th June 2010	Skeletons, Huge and Out of the Ashes in The Telegraph
18th June 2010	World's Greatest Dad, Pelican Blood and Red Hill in The Scotsman
18th June 2010	And Everything Is Going Fine and Cherry Tree Lane in Obsessedwithfilm.com
18th June 2010	The Last Rites of Ransom Pride in Cinema Blend.
19th June 2010	Winter's Bone, The People vs George Lucas plus And Everything is Going Fine in The Scotsman
19th June 2010	The Runaways in Blogcritics.org.
20th June 2010	Outcast in Blogcritics.org.
20th June 2010	Toy Story 3 in stv.tv.
21st June 2010	The Red Machine in Den of Geek
21st June 2010	The Extra Man in Obsessedwithfilm.com
21st June 2010	A critical view of the 2010 EIFF by Andrew Pulver in The Guardian.
22nd June 2010	Monsters in Blogcritics.org.
23rd June 2010	Chase The Slut, World's Greatest Dad and The Man Next Door in Den of Geek
23rd June 2010	Mai Mai Miracle in EdinburghGuide.com
23rd June 2010	Jackboots on Whitehall in Den of Geek.
24th June 2010	My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? | The Kid | HIGH School | Obselida | The Good Heart in The Scotsman.
25th June 2010	Mr. Nice | Police, Adjective | Cherry Tree Lane in The Scotsman.
25th June 2010	Donkeys in Edinburghguide.com
26th June 2010	Scotsman's thoughts on the 2010 EIFF.
27th June 2010	The Independent's views on the 2010 EIFF.
28th June 2010	Third Star in The Independent

The Film Festival awards included: the Michael Powell award for best British feature film to director Nick Whitfield for Skeletons; PPG award for best performance in a British feature film to David Thewlis for Mr. Nice; Projector.tv best new international feature to Ryan Piers Williams for The Dry Land; best feature documentary award to Laura Poitras for The Oath; and the Standard Life Audience award to Get Low. All the awards can be found here.