The Telepath and the Conjuror is a magic show performed by husband and wife team Mark and Emily. I don’t know how they performed what they did and how their sleight-of-hand tricks worked and …

Shallowspace Cryotech Feverdream tells the story of a human stuck in deep space and controlled by a computer. These might seem to be all far-fetched ideas born from the Sci-fi genre. However, as AI…

Stuck in the basement of a funeral director’s, sisters Shannon and Jodie feel trapped and bored. Aspirations of performing on X Factor are the only way they can see out of there, as singing a…

Human civilisations might have progressed further but attitudes to anyone who is Gay have gone backwards in the futuristic play Ants and Other Strong Things. The world is now run by the Internation…

This is a beautifully written and well-crafted story by Joshua King is performed brilliantly by actress and comedian Jasmin Gleason. Philomena is one of the estimated 11% of Irish women who helped …

A Bad Taste Comedy team. A Bad Taste Show offers a selection of comedy sketches that border on and crossover into bad taste. Although apparently on the day I saw it the audience was quieter than in…

Barefoot in black combats and a pink top, Alice excitedly enters the stage with infectious energy and begins an impromptu audience interaction to launch her story. She’s a waitress, originally from Louisiana, but has now found herself in England. The rapid-fire tour of her young life so far then ensues. Her descriptions allude to a youth spent in a geographically idyllic place.

Four Door Theatre brought Sex and God by Linda McClean to the Edinburgh Fringe. A powerful and moving play that is designed to be thought-provoking. Everyone will know one of these characters as at…

A shy girl in pink checked pyjamas and ankle socks clutches a model pink brain and talks to the queuing audience about how she is training to be a neurosurgeon. Leading us into the venue space a makeshift bed lies unmade center stage. From here Riley begins her first calm and unpretentious monologue. She’s studying for her dream career as a neurosurgeon and she lectures with casual confidence on how exactly the brain functions.

A pledge is ushered into the initiation process of a college fraternity. ‘Scrotal Recall’ is labelled and subjected to intense humiliation and objectification. The process is repeated and its ceremony furthered at various points throughout the production. As dark vignettes these are noisy, brutal and unnerving moments but they serve the system. There is authority, there is violence and there is threat.

Arlan taunts his cat Jefferbelle with a cucumber and a cellphone. Jeffers is quite the star on Tik-Tok and just one more video of his cuteness will satisfy Arlan’s lust for social media likes. He pets him, tickles him and generally adores him; he is after all his best friend. The scene switches. Shira plays the accordion and reads to her feline friend, Iris but ‘Rissy’ is a different beast; she’s a house cat.

Soon to be 22-year-old Kit is a clerk in a post office. She might be busy with administrative tasks and phone calls, but this is no ordinary office. This is the hub of the pigeon postal service at Dovecoat Parva. There’s a reminder board telling her to ‘Keep Coo…’ - the village debate on the future of the service is 10 days away and from here the avian jokes pile up thick and fast.

Some shows are born great, some shows achieve greatness, and some shows have greatness thrust upon them. Ponder the classic quote then ask yourself if you’re a fan of Coldplay? Do you know their classic song, Yellow? Not to say it’s overused but if not, you’re going to know it by the end of this show. There’s a yellow tie, a yellow clipboard, some yellow tracksuit trousers and potentially more other yellow objects that I missed buried away in the corner of the theatre and practically watching this show from the wings.

Stepping away from the usual Magic show formula. Mason King brought a new style of show to the Edinburgh Fringe called The Mind Spy. King blends magic, mystery and mind-reading which he was inspire…

All Arya wants to do is eat her chips. Dressed in dungarees, her hair is messily piled on top of her head. A single chair and a table are present on the stage. The lighting is basic and neutral. A baby cries and so begins an involved character study of postpartum depression and paranoia. The representation of the child is a small bundle of wool and cloth.

Two heroes; long forgotten but pillars of an epoch. On a simply set stage, Hollywood silent movie star Douglas Fairbanks waits for his friend Charlie Chaplin in a heavenly restaurant. He’s been waiting for over 37 years; Fairbanks passed in 1939 and Chaplin in 1977. At some point around 1900, Charlie Chaplin trod the boards of the Gaiety Theatre in Leith with the clog dancing troupe ‘The Eight Lancashire Lads’.

A stranger washes up on Uig on the Isle of Skye. It’s purportedly 1970 and the lighthouse is closing down. The tight knit community is fragile. Everything is falling apart. The audience enters to the cast symbolically waving torches wrapped in blue plastic carrier bigs. This simple introduction sets a tone. Actors bustle in shock, the discovery of the stranger ensues, and the audience is engaged through a frantic commotion.

For Lisa, Dani and Jen the financial pressures of drama school reign supreme. The showcase was everything but as the event looms, it’s importance fades. The minutiae of tuition delivered under scrutiny and constant criticism is exposed. The overbearing voice of the tutor snipes through the speakers. Unseen but damning the actor’s lives are made or broken by the instruction given.

Baker Street Ladies is set in 221B Baker Street reception room Mrs Hudson, Mary Watson and Irene Adler are all trying to pin down the famous detective Sherlock Holmes while they visit they each des…