The Dundee Rep Ensemble’s latest production, The Snow Queen, in association with Noisemaker, is an enchanting Christmas epic. Based on Hans Christian Anderson’s classic, the show tells the story of Gerda, a young girl who must rescue her friend Kai after an ice-cold mirror shard falls in his eye and he is captured by the Read More
There’s a difficult question you immediately have to answer if you want to review a pantomime: is it fair to apply serious criticism to something that is, for all intents and purposes, ‘just a bit of fun?’ This is, after all, not a ‘serious play’ by any stretch of the imagination – it’s a parody Read More
Kennedy’s Children, by Robert Patrick opens in a New York bar. The year is 1975. The month, February, is the one usually considered the most depressing all over the northern hemisphere. The day is St Valentine’s Day. Six lonely characters inhabit the set, including the barkeep. The play tracks the lives of five archetypal Americans Read More
Dundee Rep Theatre’s latest production is Gagarin Way (2001), Gregory Burke’s debut play. Set in Fife and telling the story of two downtrodden factory workers who kidnap a member of senior management as a form of protest, and the security guard who becomes entangled in their scheme, the play expertly walks the knife’s edge between Read More
To say that Dundee has had a lot going on of late would be a gross understatement. There have been Penguin Parades, new festivals springing up, an influx of performances from the country’s top musical acts and yes, that iconic building by the waterfront. But lodged into the spaces in-between these significant events is ‘The Read More
In this the second centenary year of the publication of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Patrick Sandford’s stage adaptation of Shelley’s novel must have appeared as an ideal tribute. Perhaps that was why Lip Theatre Company, Dundee University’s own student-run drama society, chose it as their first production for the new academic year. In truth, however, director Read More
The director of The Macbeths, Dominic Hill, is not new to adapting the famous play. Having directed the play in the past, including an operatic version, Hill now turns his attention to one of its central themes, focusing on its most compelling relationship, that between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. The Macbeths is a concentrated dose Read More
Dundee’s Rep brings Levin’s gripping thriller to life with well-executed drama and suspense leaving you wishing that it was more than just two acts. Deathtrap holds the record for the longest-running comedy thriller on Broadway; Ira Levin’s play uses simplicity of character and setting to create a compelling and unexpected piece of work. Described as Read More
The audience of eight alight themselves expectantly on a handful of deck chairs, next to a caravan. A young woman comes out and introduces herself as Catherine. She makes a game of guessing our names and getting us to guess the names of each other. She cheerfully admits that this is like one of those Read More
This Dundee Rep and Poorboy co-production has genuine ambition that is apparent from the moment you first read the advertising for the play to the final bow of the necessarily extensive cast. That is not stated in a way that is intended to condescend. It is meant as a compliment in that they are trying Read More