... King of the Halls: A Rags to Drag Story Southside Courtyard Alison Yates and Claire Mace, in their Rags to Drag story of Rose Packett, feature the exhaustive biography of Rose, of humble ori gins, who makes it to the top of the Victorian music halls when she dis covers that her destiny lies in drag. On the way up through seedy Victorian showbiz, leaving behind the pom show and the odd spell in ...

... Waking Thoughts Quaker Meeting House William Beckford, the 19th century English nobleman, Gothic novelist and eccentric, carried on a long relationship with the Portuguese youth Gregorio Franchi. Jonathan Weightman's two-character play suggests that, in defiance of cliche, it was the beautiful youth who pro vided love and spiritual support to the older man. Despairing at the delays in building ...

... Blue Skies Quaker Meeting Hall John, an artist blinded by a mug ging, must face a life without his most essential sense and ulti mately without his sense of self. Those around him offer little guid ance. A doctor is coldly analytical about his prospects. His girlfriend, worn out by his rages, leaves. A social worker gets too personally involved. Meanwhile, dreams point him in unacceptable ...

... Hamlet in the Mirror Theatre Workshop At first it looks like a one-man show being improvised on the spot by a failed actor. Then it turns into a rather erotic two-hander between the actor (Manuel Dionis-Bayer) and an attractive young man (Ivan Ugalde) who wants to learn acting. Self-indulgent, daring piece of gay theatre taken a bit further than usual, we think. Act I ends, and some alienated ...

... One man's boo to Goose Green Assembly A Soldier's Song Just like so many good songs. Guy Masterson's one-man show lays bare the emotional trauma of an individual. But this is not about love or relationships, it is about war and mutilation and the only music to be heard is the crack of a sniper, or the repetitious thud of artillery fire. Based on Ken Lukowiak's book of the same name, it takes ...

... Crooked Teeth Hill Street Theatre Drawing on the traditions of a well-made play, Hollywood adven ture stories, storytelling and mime, Crooked Teeth is a remarkable example of devised theatre, techni cally well-performed, imaginatively directed and thoroughly entertain ing. Dealing with the archetypes of a villain and a hero in deliberately unpredictable ways, it is a drama of pursuit on many ...

... Last Night a Boyband Saved My Life Old St Paul's Church and Hall This rock/pop fairytale about an adolescent girl's erotic dreams and her obsession with a pop band, cre ated by In Your Space Productions, is consciously used by the company as a vehicle for ultimate celebration of pop culture. In addition, it bla tantly states its message too all your problems will be resolved through getting ...

... Paul Thorne Pleasance Bean. Some bloody girl with a stu pid nickname who sat with her three tipsy pals, giggling right through Paul Thome's set. He started off with a gentle, poignant, amusing song on acoustic guitar about his love, and blondie asks him some question that kills the vibe. One for Girl Power, eh? She wasn't lobbed out so Thome stuck at it, reminiscing about his love, and ...

... That Golden Moment Theatre Workshop That golden moment will come when everything lines up in perfect harmony and your ambitions and dreams come true. Franklin is a dis abled ex-boxer, raising his orphan nephew Boomer and investing all his unrealised boxing ambitions in him. His partner Jessy has left her husband and son, believing Franklin's promises that he'll take her up and out, when ...

... The Open Haund Chaplaincy Centre Edinburgh 1790s is the elegant set ting of this delightful Scots comedy of errors by Gavin Bolus, performed with sustained zest by the entire Caveat Theatre Company under Ron CatteH's direction. Samuel MacNare, a wealthy and proudly charitable merchant, finds that simultaneously entertain ing his naive nephew George who keenly propagates French Revolutionary ...

... Crazyface Edinburgh College of Art In the dark at 9pm, the large, grassy courtyard creates a wonder fully creepy marriage to Velvet Jacket's sprawling adaptation of Clive Barker's play. It also helps when the lead character, grave digger Tyl Eulenspiegel. alias Crazyface, is perfectly cast in the form of Phillip Cotterill. With his wide eyes, whitened jaw and red nose under a brown cloth cap, ...

... The Bert Fershners Gilded Balloon II Two men wearing crash helmets and white costumes resembling those of Evil Knievel. On pogo sticks. Bouncing in time to Gonna Fly Now by Bill Conti, as featured in the feature film Rocky II (the bil where he runs up all those stairs with the kids chasing him). This is the essence of the Bert Fershners. I have no idea where the name comes from, bui ultra-zany ...