Latest news with #JEEZUS!
Edinburgh Live
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Live
Sweet moment Edinburgh Fringe performer proposes to partner during show
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info A performing duo got engaged during their show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in a sweet clip captured by an audience member. Sergio and Guido are in the middle of a run at the festival, performing their show JEEZUS! at the Belly Button stage in the Cowgate. During Thursday nights show, those in the audience got more than they bargained for when Sergio got down on one knee. The couple met in 2019, and had dreams of writing a musical together. Now they've not only achieved that, but will be looking forward to a wedding. The adorable footage shows Sergio making a speech at the end of the show as they hold hands, before proclaiming: "I think part of this musical is about what people teach you about love. "What you taught me about love is that it's a choice." Sign up for Edinburgh Live newsletters for more headlines straight to your inbox He then pulls out a ring, and the cheers and applause from the audience drown out his proposal - but Guido clearly heard it. After the proposal, Sergio said: "Guido and I met 5 years ago and started dating in early 2020 and almost immediately moved together because of Covid. Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages "We used to take long bike rides in lockdown and dream about writing a musical someday. JEEZUS! is that musical! Inspired in my experience growing up queer in Catholic Latin America. "It's about an altar boy that falls in love with Jesus Christ, but is in its core a play about love and how the people in our lives teach us how to love and what love means. "One thing that Guido taught me about love, is that it is a choice, so I wanted to say to him I choose him every single day, and proposing whilst we are doing what we love most felt exactly right!"
Scotsman
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Four and Five Star Edinburgh Fringe Theatre 2025: Here are 13 shows the Scotman critics have loved you can still get tickets for this weekend
It's approaching the end of the first week of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the reviews have been pouring in. With the physical programme containing over 3,350 shows across 265 venues, it can be a daunting task to work out what exactly you are going to see. At The Scotsman we review hundreds of shows every year, with the best receiving a sought-after four or five star rating. This year we have only awarded two theatre shows the perfect five stars so far, but there have been many more that have earned four stars. More importantly, several of those still have ticket availability for this weekend (August 8-10) so you can go and see what all the fuss is all about. Here are 13 five and four star theatre shows our team of critics would recommend you see this weekend. 1 . A Brief History of Neurodivergence You'll have to be quick to see the first theatre show The Scotsman awarded five stars to this year. A Brief History of Neurodivergence ends its run on Sunday, August 10. There are still tickets left for the show at C alto at 1.50pm. What we said: "A Brief History of Neurodivergence is a performance that everyone should see." | Contributed Photo Sales 2 . JEEZUS! There are still tickets left for every show of JEEZUS!, running until August 24 at the Underbelly Cowgate at 6.50pm each day. It's the other theatre show we've awarded the rare perfect five stars. What we said: "Yes, JEEZUS! will shock and offend, and it sets out to do just that. In the end, though, its joyful, even sentimental celebration of love beyond ecclesiastical trappings of power might bring a tear to the eye of even the most devout." | Contributed Photo Sales 3 . Red Like Fruit Moving onto the theatre shows that have been awarded four stars by The Scotsman's review team and Red Like Fruit. The play, which this week won a Scotsman Fringe First Award, is on at various times at the Traverse until August 24 - and has ticket availability for every date. What we said: "Michelle Monteith as Lauren, and David Patrick Flemming as the actor-reader, deliver two performances so beautifully pitched and timed that Moscovitch's words shine through with a magnificent clarity." | Contributed Photo Sales 4 . Kanpur: 1857 You can still get tickets for every performance of Kanpur: 1857 at the Pleasance Courtyard each day at 3.40pm - running until August 24. What we said: "With a little light-touch historical information projected behind the action, and powerful live accompaniment from brilliant Scottish tabla musician Sodhi, the show emerges as a fascinating hour of reflection on the psychology of colonialism, and the related politics of gender." | Canva/Getty Images Photo Sales
Scotsman
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Watch the surprise moment Fringe performer proposes live on stage
The couple's award-winning musical comedy is the first show they've put on together Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Two performers are engaged after a surprise proposal live on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe. Sergio Antonio Maggiolo got down on one knee to propose to his partner, Guido García Lueches, in the final moments of their award-winning musical JEEZUS! at the Underbelly Cowgate on Thursday night. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It was very overwhelming. We don't usually do speeches at the end of the performance, we usually run away,' said Guido, who said they had no idea about the proposal. 'So when he told me not to run away, I was like why?' 'It was a lovely surprise.' Peruvian-born Sergio and Uruguayan-born Guido met in 2019 and now live together in South London | The Scotsman Sergio first had the idea to propose when visiting his family in Peru at the start of the year. 'We'd been joking about it a for a while. Guido was in Peru, and I thought about doing it then. Then at some point I thought, well, we're going to the Fringe, that would be a fun thing to do,' he said. 'It's our first show together, so it just felt very special.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad The pair's musical, which received a five star review from The Scotsman, is inspired by Sergio's experience of growing up as a queer person in a strict catholic society in Latin America. Sergio plays a young alter boy who falls in love with Jesus - and is battling his internal conflict in the run up to his first holy communion. Meanwhile, Guido deftly flits between the boy's family, the priest and Jesus himself. 'It's funny, it's sexy and it's silly. But ultimately it's about love, our love,' said Guido. 'We're making people laugh throughout the whole thing, but then at the end we kind of reveal that we're together.' Sergio invited some of their friends to show to watch the proposal, but Guido had no idea it was going to happen | The Scotsman Sergio proposed with a ring passed down from his mum. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'It was really to get that blessing from her. I think the fact that she got super excited about it, I was like ok maybe I will do this then,' he said. 'It's so cute. We're literally telling a story about your mum,' added Guido. JEEZUS! won the Edinburgh Untapped Award this year, designed to discover and support hit-making talent at the Festival Fringe.
Scotsman
07-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Picking Up Stones: An American Jew Wakes to a Nightmare + more
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... THEATRE JEEZUS! ★★★★★ Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61) until 24 August Any Catholics of a nervous disposition, look away now. Actually, make that anyone who's easily offended by ecclesiastical lust, the appropriation of godly symbols for (ahem) alternative uses, or getting turned on by Christ on the cross. On second thoughts, even if you find those ideas shocking, you should probably still go. Not only for the blisteringly good performances from Peruvian Sergio Antonio Maggiolo and Uruguayan Guido García Lueches, the show's creators (we'll come back to them). But also because, despite its in-your-face sacrilege and gleeful blasphemy, the loud, proud and profoundly queer JEEZUS! actually deeply loves the church – or at least the greater love that lies beyond the institution's worldly trappings – even if it rips to shreds its destructive attitudes to homosexuality. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Little Jesús grew up in Peru and always knew he was a bit different. He's down to be altar boy at his first communion, but he knows he's developed… well, let's say a particular form of love for his namesake, the crucified Christ. He's trying to follow the strict path laid down for him by his army father, but will his soul be eternally damned, as his priest informs him, if he goes through with the communion without confessing his forbidden desires? Sergio Antonio Maggiolo and Guido García Lueches in JEEZUS! | Contributed Maggiolo is a winning Jesús, capturing poignantly the boy's early wonder and developing guilt and shame as his internal conflicts kick in, while García Lueches multitasks excellently across the boy's family, priests and even a simpering, coy Christ himself. They're blazingly, apparently tirelessly energetic across the show's breakneck scene changes and hot, Latin-infused musical numbers (even Carl Orff gets a pompous takedown). But director Laura Killeen's steady hand – combined with appropriately biblical chapter headings for its parody Catholic ritual of a structure – ensures clarity among the riotous chaos, and also that all its targets are effectively skewered. That includes us, the audience, who clearly know next to nothing about Peru's brutal recent history, so Maggiolo and García gratifyingly fill us in with a darkly witty number. Yes, JEEZUS! will shock and offend, and it sets out to do just that. In the end, though, its joyful, even sentimental celebration of love beyond ecclesiastical trappings of power might bring a tear to the eye of even the most devout. DAVID KETTLE THEATRE Picking Up Stones: An American Jew Wakes to a Nightmare ★★★☆☆ theSpace @ Surgeons Hall (Venue 53) until 16 August Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Kudos to writer and performer Sandra Laub, the American Jew of the title, who attempts to grapple with the intractable ongoing situation in the Middle East with open-hearted compassion and understanding for all innocents. The attacks of October 7th 2023 are her catalyst, but crucially her perspective is informed by Palestinian friends as much as Israeli ones. Using real and imagined conversations with friends and historical figures, she illustrates a sense of both the history behind and the current horror of what's happening. The table before her is covered with pebbles, one painted with a Palestinian flag and one with an Israeli, and she moves them around randomly as she speaks, seemingly recreating patterns of conflict and connection. Horrified, she empathises with the victims of October 7th, but also with the mothers of Palestine and their children, who have no post-traumatic stress disorder because their trauma is ongoing and unceasing. Structurally the piece is episodic, flitting between thoughts and vignettes, but when it chooses to settle on a train of thought, for example a difficult imagined conversation with former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir, it feels focused and instructive. The cycle of revenge is a theme Laub returns to, and the words of Hillel the Elder – 'that which is hateful to you, do not do to your fellow man' – resonate once they're spoken. DAVID POLLOCK THEATRE Chunky Jewellery ★★★☆☆ Assembly Rooms (Venue 20) until 24 August It's not unusual for artists to lay themselves bare on stage, but in Chunky Jewellery, Natasha Gilmore and Jude Williams take self-disclosure to a whole new level. This touching celebration of female friendship is a reminder (should anyone need it) of just how unflinchingly resilient women can be in the face of adversity. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Jude Williams and Natasha Gilmore in Chunky Jewellery | Contributed Both stalwarts of the Scottish stage, Gilmore (dancer/choreographer) and Williams (singer/performer) spend the show recalling and reenacting a year when life threw a sackful of rocks at them. A period when there were wonderful gains (newborns), deep losses (a mother, sleep) and heartbreaking desertions (both their partners), all faced wearing the grey blanket of tiredness. Such autobiographical candour gives the piece an undisputed authenticity and rawness, but somewhat inevitably leads to reduced universality. This is their story, their pain, and although there are obvious relatable moments, we stay on the edge of the narrative. Until a powerful closing scene where Williams' adorns Gilmore with necklaces, whilst reciting a long list of qualities and services she gifts to those around her. These hold true of so many women, and offer a beautiful moment of connection. KELLY APTER THEATRE A Minor Theft ★★★★☆ Playground 2 at ZOO Playground (Venue 186) until 16 August Heartbreaking and vulnerable as protagonist Sophie, Beth Mullen paints us a vivid picture of a deeply flawed – yet still sympathetic – young woman who has just done the unthinkable. After witnessing a mother smoking cigarettes and nursing a vodka coke, uninterested in her young baby bouncing around in a flimsy pram, Sophie is spurred into action: stealing the baby when the mother goes to pick up her wage packet. While the show's title lays its subject matter bare, Mullen still manages to imbue us with a mounting sense of dread as Sophie makes her decision and deals with its consequences. We follow Sophie as she carries the baby – rechristened Clementine, due to the fruit motif on the onesie she's wearing – to Asda for some new clothes, and then to Ikea for an impromptu nap. She cradles a coat to evoke the weight of carrying a small child, musing on the joy and wonder of holding a tiny human in her arms. Eventually, the rationale behind her otherwise-incomprehensible actions becomes clear: her very young niece, Jane, has died unexpectedly, plunging Sophie into unspeakable tragedy. Suddenly, the righteous anger regarding what she perceives as the stranger's inadequate parenting makes sense, as she rages over Clementine's broken arm and bruised jawline. We never learn whether these injuries were deliberate or accidental, but in the end, it doesn't really matter – the cosmic injustice of Jane's death persists regardless. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A Minor Theft approaches such difficult subject matter with great tenderness; the seemingly-simple set and plot give Mullen the space she needs to tell Sophie's story with the nuance it deserves. Every line, delivered with complete conviction, gives us the impression of a woman come undone with grief – and yet, as Sophie's police interview comes to an end, we still see a glimmer of hope. ARIANE BRANIGAN THEATRE Pour Decisions ★★★☆☆ Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236) until 16 August All is not what it seems after a work party filled with one too many vodka and orange cordials. Frankie wakes up the next morning, to find a dead body behind the bar and absolutely no memory of how it got there. From this, the dark comedy with a cast of two spirals into an increasingly absurd and hilarious situation. Jess is effortlessly cool, more concerned with drinks and cheesecake than the corpse on the floor. Frankie, sweet on the surface, is secretly running a side hustle stealing and reselling items from the bar. Together, the pair are chaotic, charming, and the actors have a strong, believable onstage chemistry. Much of the comedy is grounded in the set which is a simple bar with stools and a few beer taps. Cleverly, we never see the full dead body, just a pair of lifeless legs sticking out which is a visual gag that pays off on quite a few occasions. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad While the pacing keeps things moving, the tension doesn't always match the stakes, as there's an odd calm in the air. Still, the creeping absurdity builds nicely, especially with the near-arrival of the vermin eliminator. His bizarre jingle and appearance via Ring doorbell is strangely effective and perfectly sums up the non-seriousness of this silly and sharp play. SUZANNE O'BRIEN
