Review: John Peel's Shed, Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars In 2002, John Osbourne won a competition. His tagline summing up John Peel’s Radio One show – “Records you want to ...

Review: Minsk 2011, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for The Independent A man unfurls the Belarusian flag. He is bundled off by a gang of men in thick-soled boots. The same fate awaits...

Review: Tonight Sandy Grierson Will Lecture, Dance and Box, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars A call to sincerity in a world of upwards inflections, raised eyebrows and winking emoticons, this slippery, unclas...

Review: The Simple Things in Life, Fuel Sheds/Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars With so much of so little consequence at the Fringe, FUEL offer a more reflexive attempt at something insubstantial...

Review: The Invisible Show II, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Marking a radical shift for Fringe veterans Red Shift, this live-broadcast headphone drama seeks to blend into the ...

Review: Botallack O'Clock, The Half Moon in Herne Hill

Written for Time Out There was almost a movie of Roger Hilton's life with John Hurt playing the obscure abstract artist. Thank heavens h...

Review: The Oh Fuck Moment, St George's West, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars In a single second of realisation, your sweat glands burst. You can actively feel your pupils dilating. Your throat...

Review: Audience, St George's West, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Spoiler alert: If there's any conceivable chance that you might see Audience either at the Fringe or beyond, pl...

Review: The One Man Show, C Venues, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Man, some say, is the only animal that can act and what a nasty piece of work that makes him. At least it does for ...

Review: The Table, Pleasance Dome, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars More interesting for its playful forms than any content they hold, The Table is a delightful, but insubstantial, p...

Review: Doris Day Can Fuck Off, Zoo Southside, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Greg McLaren will tell you that this one-hour oddity is all about communication and miscommunication. It’s best not...

Review: The World Holds Everyone Apart, Apart From Us, Underbelly, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Just when you think it’s safe to disregard Stuart Bowden’s cutesy comic book storytelling, it creeps up and kicks y...

Review: The Caroline Carter Show, Zoo, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Caroline Carter falls between the two stools on which she and Barney, the guitarist she’s recently found in a nearb...

Review: Mission Drift, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars To create a little chunk of Vegas in the middle of a drizzling, miserable Edinburgh is something of a miracle. Yet ...

Review: I'll Show You Mine, Lion and Unicorn Theatre

Written for Time Out With the theatrical swarm migrating to Edinburgh, London audiences are liable to feel left out. Be thankful, then, for ...

Review: Thirsty, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Addressing the cocktail of reasons for drinking, the Paper Birds portray alcohol less as a stimulant than a simulan...

Review: Man of Valour, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars Demonstrating the art of the deceptive blurb, Man of Valour ’s entry in the Fringe Programme neglects to mention th...

Review: 2401 Objects, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars On the 4th December, 2009, Henry Molaison’s brain was divided into 2401 slivers of grey matter. Fifty-five years be...

Review: A Slow Air, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars David Harrower’s two-hander is an intricate portrait of neglect and decay, in which untended cracks become unbridge...

Review: The Perils of Love and Gravity, Bedlam Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars If ever a show needed to pick a side, it’s this confused offering from Michael Keane and Christopher Brett Bailey. ...

Review: I Hope My Heart Goes First, St George's West, Edinburgh Fringe

Written for Culture Wars “I haven’t got any experience of romantic love,” says fourteen year-old Adam, banished to the back of the stage for...

Review: The Lady of Pleasure, White Bear Theatre

Written for Time Out James Shirley's 1635 comedy shows a husband scheming to correct his wife's behaviour, but it is less taming a s...

Review: Double Feature: Introduction, National Theatre

Written for Culture Wars On account of London Road ’s blistering success, which led to a Summer extension in the Cottesloe, this double, dou...

Review: Edgar and Annabel, Double Feature, National Theatre

Written for Culture Wars A man walks into a kitchen, announcing himself to a woman preparing food: “Honey, I’m home.” She turns to greet him...

Review: The Swan, Double Feature, National Theatre

Written for Culture Wars As in Edgar and Annabel , no-one’s saying what they really mean in DC Moore’s The Swan , a raucous elegy to an ingr...

Review: Nightwatchman, Double Feature, National Theatre

Written for Culture Wars Prasanna Puwanarajah’s ambitious monologue probably overreaches itself, trying to tackle sport, family, national id...

Review: There Is A War, Double Feature, National Theatre

Written for Culture Wars Tom Basden, once of the celebrated sketch troupe Cowards, is growing in confidence as a playwright. His first, Part...

Review: The Beauty Queen of Leenane, Young Vic

Written for Culture Wars To judge from Martin McDonagh’s modern classic, first seen in Galway before transferring to the Royal Court in 1996...

Review: Four Dogs and a Bone, Phoenix Artists Club

Written for Time Out What is it they say about people in glass houses? If you're going to produce a satire portraying the film industry ...