... Sooans Nicht Theatre Workshop Granite tough, the Scots accent is here as thick as the Sooans por ridge and, some might say, practi cally needs subtitles. It contributes to the Sooans night atmosphere, the winter solstice the world holding its breath. A mother, her son and her niece, in their remote farmhouse, are pro foundly affected by the eerie magic of this night, with its potent atmos ...

... Good acting is play's saviour Chaplaincy Centre Bonhoeffer 1945 Actor and writer D Paul Thomas brings clarity and integrity to this rather unpersuasive fictionalised biography of the wartime theolo gian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer. His character died at the hands of the Nazis after being implicated in an abortive plot to kill Hitler. Thomas' play finds him manacled in his cell, awaiting charges. ...

... Clownfish Serenade Moray House Kabaret Two movements make up the Clownfish Serenade, the first about tea addiction and the sec ond about cigarette and song lyric addiction. Tea Time Follies stars a woman chained to a bucket con taining song lyrics, a woman addicted to tea, and a preten tious frilly-shirted singer. Bums Itself is basically a barter for song lyrics with cigarettes, involv ing ...

... Dze-Ya? Demarco Foundation Dundee A complex meshing of surrealism and symbolism are integral ele ments in this production which is based on two works by the Belarus playwright Alekhnovitch, one about the inevitability of death, the other about the KGB. There are issues, too, pivoting on the question of national identity and the resurgence of a native language. Which makes it all appear pretty ...

... No Spring Chickens Diverse Attractions Scots ballads, folk tales and Gaelic songs give the dominant Celtic flavour to this charming col lage of music, verse and story telling, performed most pleasingly by Marie-Louise Napier and her sister Kirsteen Cumming. Parents and children form the common thread from the mother warning her daughter against the ways of men to a Scots father arranging ...

... Voices from the High School South Bridge Resources Centre Specially written for teenagers and originally intended for the 'Fame' school of acting in New York, Voices from the High School is enthusiastically presented by a young and noisy cast from Hawaii. It is not so much a straightfor ward play, but a series of amusing sketches about being young and growing up too fast that will seem real ...

... Seeing sense in the lunacy Assembly Rooms Corky and the Juice Pigs -History of Comedy From bearskinned caveman ram- blings interrupted by the world's first heckler lobbing a stick, to the exaggerative comic brains of Sean Cullen. Greg Neale and Phil Nichol as Corky and the Juice Pigs in the nineties, comedy is chronicled here. It's basically a skit show with a running theme to try to make ...

... Plant Hunter Royal Botanic Garden Mouldering in the Botanic Garden's vaults are the diaries and pho tographs of Joseph Rock, chancer, explorer of Tibet, anthropologist, collector and botanist. Until they are edited and published, we will have to make do with this fascinat ing and fanciful account of his life, written by Toby Gough and Jason Hertman with more than a passing nod to the Tibetan ...

... Lord of the Fies Bedlam Theatre Marooned alone on a desert island a group of British schoolboys all too quickly abandons common sense and civilised behaviour for the law of the jungle. William Golding's classic tragedy of reversion to bar barism, written in the aftermath of Nazism, strikes a fresh chord in this era of Bosnia and Chechnya. Big Spirit Theatre Company's powerful adaptation into a ...

... The Skull Southside Philip K Dick's novels make great films like Bladerunner and okay films like Total Recall, but can the atre capture that authentic sci-fi feel of futuristic nightmare? It can cer tainly try. With a plot that has an aching similarity to the twisted, 'didn't think that would happen' sto ryline of the film Twelve Monkeys, The Skull tells of a man sent back to the past to ...

... Three in the Morning c With a 12.30am start, Three in the Morning is most certainly not a show for the sleepy. But for those who enjoy free whisky and enthusi astic acting, this well crafted play (with dialogue that sounds like it came straight out of a Tarantino movie) is one to see. The story begins at 3am, the morning after Valentine's Day in a scruffy hotel reception. Buzz the bell-boy, a ...

... Jabberwocky C too Antic Disposition has put togeth er a gyring, gimbling children's show, inspired by Lewis Carroll's poem Jabberwocky. It is a loose dramatisation which manages to make sense of the poem's non sense and carry an ecological sting in its tale. Somewhere in fantasy land the villagers are taking too many fruits from the forest and giving nothing back. As the source of their ...