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Edinburgh Reporter
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Alan Cumming and Forbes Masson reunite in The High Life musical
The original cast of hit Scottish sitcom The High Life are to reunite after 30 years for a new musical based on the legendary BBC Scotland comedy. Siobhan Redmond, Forbes Masson, Alan Cumming and Patrick Ryecart will star in The High Life The Musical – Still Living It, the first production announced, for the National Theatre of Scotland's 20th anniversary programme in 2026. Continue reading here Like this: Like Related
The National
28-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
All we know about the The High Life reunion musical to tour Scotland in 2026
The High Life was first introduced to TV audiences in an initial pilot in 1994, and then in a series of six episodes which were broadcast in early 1995. The series is currently available to watch on BBC iPlayer. The new show, set to tour in 2026, is being presented by National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep Theatre in association with Aberdeen Performing Arts and Capital Theatres. The High Life, first commissioned and broadcast by the BBC, centred on the crew of the fictional Air Scotia airline. In the upcoming musical, Air Scotia has been sold and the crew are fighting for their future. When and where will The High Life musical tour in Scotland? The production will tour Scotland in spring 2026, almost three decades after the series was screened.
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Scotsman
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Scottish circus festival show cancelled after 'performer injury' in 'stunning' aerial display
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... A festival circus act described as a 'stunning aerial show' has been cancelled after one of the artists was injured during a performance. The planned three-day run of The Unlikely Friendship of Feather Boy and Tentacle Girl at the Edinburgh International Children's Festival (EICF) was cancelled at the weekend ahead of the festival's official opening night on Monday. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad EICF said the cancellation of the two-person performance by Vee Smith and Sadiq Ali, which features aerial displays in harnesses and modern circus-style performance, was due to 'performer injury'. It is understood Mr Ali had to attend accident-and-emergency (A&E) after an afternoon show in Johnstone on Wednesday last week and has been advised by doctors not to perform. Commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland, the show was due to run on Monday and Tuesday nights and Wednesday afternoon. The Unlikely Friendship of Feather Boy and Tentacle Girl was due to be performed this week. | Edinburgh International Children's Festival A statement from the Catherine Wheels Theatre Company and the Edinburgh International Children's Festival said: 'It is with a sad heart that we have had to cancel the performances of The Unlikely Friendship of Feather Boy and Tentacle Girl at the Children's Festival, due to performer injury. We know this is disappointing news for the artists involved, our audiences and ourselves, but the health of the performer is paramount. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad 'We are lucky that the show Grown Ups from Belgium, an absurd tragi-comedy about what happens to grown-ups when children are not looking, is able to step in at the last minute for the opening night of the festival tonight.' The show is also due to be performed during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in August, when it will be part of the Made in Scotland showcase. The statement added: 'For those with tickets for the performances, we will be in touch with information on alternative shows or refund options. The Unlikely Friendship is performing at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of Made in Scotland, so an opportunity to see the work will still be possible. We hope to see some of you at the other inspiring and joyous shows taking place at the Children's Festival this week.' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Aimed at children aged nine and over, the show tells the story of a girl who wants to be a monster and a boy who wants to fly. The description in the festival's brochure said: 'Exploring the universal yearning to belong and sharing the joy of friendship, this is a dynamic and visually stunning aerial show.' A performance of the same show, due to take place in Glasgow's Tramway as part of Dance International Glasgow, was also cancelled last week, as was a second evening performance in Johnstone Town Hall on Wednesday last week. The hour-long EICF performance was due to be staged at the Assembly Roxy.
The Courier
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Courier
Star of brassy new play 'knocks it out the park' as Keli heads for Dundee and Perth theatres
Both the play and the star bite off slightly more than they can chew, and that's part of the fun of Keli. The National Theatre of Scotland's brand new touring play, which began in Edinburgh last week and will next be seen in Dundee and Perth. Set in a fictional Scottish ex-mining town halfway along the M8, a lot of people from similar towns and villages in Fife and across the Central Belt will recognise the setting. The place's glories are behind it, and teenage Keli's (Liberty Black) days are filled with working in the local supermarket and struggling to look after her mentally unwell mum (Karen Fishwick) alone. Yet Keli lives for playing tenor horn in the local brass band, a remnant of the town's colliery days, and she's really good at it. When a chance comes for the band to play the Royal Albert Hall in London, it's make or break – but with the pressure she's under, Keli seems likely to break. Seeing what Martin Green, one-third of celebrated folk trio Lau, does with this self-penned play which stems from a fascination with the brass bands around his local area in Midlothian. The results are a mixed bag, with the inclusion of a dragged-up rave sequence in the heart of London and a ghostly visitation by long-dead local brass band legend Willie Knox (Billy Mack) amid designer Alisa Kalyanova's stark coalmine set suggesting the play's trying to do too many things at once. Yet there are real moments of beauty, especially in the way four players (including MD Louis Abbott, of indie group Admiral Fallow) provide a haunting soundtrack throughout, with director Bryony Shanahan cleverly placing tenor horn player Andrew McMillan alongside Keli when she 'plays'. Incredibly, this is young actor Liberty Black's professional stage debut, and she knocks it out of the park, bristling with tension, dark humour and anxious energy. Similarly, young Olivia Hemmati also steals her scenes as blunt, vaping shopworker Amy and posh London raver Saskia. The finale, a hymn to the uplifting social power of music soundtracked by a real brass band (Whitburn or Kingdom, depending on when the play's seen), is also incredibly uplifting. It's almost worth the admission alone. You're looking for a heartwarming, Brassed Off-style tale of working class grit and determination. Keli is uplifting in its own way, but its darker, more dreamlike style and the sweary Scots dialogue give it an edge all of its own. 3/5
Times
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The Fifth Step review — Jack Lowden is staggeringly good
Less is definitely more. When I saw this David Ireland two-hander at the Edinburgh International Festival last summer, I couldn't help feeling that Ireland, a writer who loves shock tactics — think how Ulster American, which was revived in London not so long ago with Woody Harrelson, ends in a bloodbath — had thrown in too many extraneous elements. The revised version at London's Sohoplace is leaner and all the more compelling. It certainly helps that the director, Finn den Hertog, an associate artist at the National Theatre of Scotland, gets such intense performances out of the Slow Horses star Jack Lowden and Martin Freeman (replacing Sean Gilder, who was equally impressive in Edinburgh). Lowden is staggeringly good as a young loner, Luka, all jitters and tics and swear words, who is trying to pull himself out of an alcoholic spiral. Freeman impresses too as James, the adviser who is trying to help his protégé through the 12-step programme to sobriety. What emerges is no conventional tale of overcoming adversity but a morally ambiguous account of shifting power dynamics. When the two men begin their casual conversations, armed with cups of coffee, it seems that James is firmly fixed in the role of the rational older protector who fought his own demons long ago. We get the impression that Luka, who longs to have a woman in his life, could well be swapping booze for a kind of religious mania. In his programme notes, Ireland explains that he went to Alcoholics Anonymous in his twenties. And after years of considering himself an atheist, he had a religious reawakening during lockdown. It's fitting that the play opens with a spartan recording of a heart-on-sleeve ballad by Johnny Cash, an artist who had his own battles with faith. Lowden presents us with a man whose mind is running at speed but going nowhere, like a car stuck in neutral. Freeman takes on the challenge of digging into an apparently unflappable character who only slowly reveals his inner thoughts. • Read more theatre reviews, guides and interviews By the end, we're much less sure that James has the upper hand. Luka confronts his sense of shame, sometimes in comically brutish language (his definition of marriage is having 'pussy on tap'). What we see of James's inner life begins to seem less serene than we first thought. Ireland conveys all this through memorably jagged exchanges bathed in redeeming black humour. The Edinburgh production featured an elaborate revolving set. Things are much simpler at the in-the-round Sohoplace: the two actors roam a space littered with only a handful of chairs and a small table. Ireland has also jettisoned a climactic scene in which James ends up in hospital. The result is simpler yet freighted with a greater sense of unease. Things are left unsaid, and that, paradoxically, gives us more to ponder.★★★★☆90minTo Jul 26, Follow @timesculture to read the latest reviews
