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Jo Tomalin

Aug 12 2025
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The Quiet Earth Beneath

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
www.ForAllEvents.com
August 12 2025


The Quiet Earth Beneath

Casey Jay Andrews invites us into her space at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. The setting is different from the usual rows of seats, which is intriguing. In fact, looking around the space a musician is set up at one end of the large rectangular space with an impressive array of instruments and technology, Andrews stands at the other end next to a microphone on a stand, and there is a theatre ghost light center stage with one row of chairs in a large oval shape. While this sounds like a functional description so far, what we experience during the next hour is rather special!

Andrews takes charge speaking to us alternately at the microphone on the stand and then holding the mic as she moves around the space. This is her world, her creation and she is genuine in her approach. She does have a compelling performative presence and switches to her lower key self when moving around the space closer to us. She sets up stories of the underworld, imagined and real as well as poignant moments of truth from her deep self.

The story is well written with strong descriptive moments yet complex as Andrews weaves different aspects of stories or parallel thoughts together. A story about Sienna with a yellow suitcase staying in a strange B&B with fickle room numbers unfolds while Andrews layers the show with her own experiences of the underworld, literally as a young cave explorer in South Wales.

Jack Brett, the outstandingly creative musician plays his original music throughout the spoken word storytelling which adds other world quality to this performance – and adds so much more to the atmosphere. His mix of beats, rhythms and melodies complement Andrews’ spoken voice so well and add an unusual feeling and imagery as if an epic film is being created and playing out in front of us.


Andrews is an award-winning writer performer whose prior shows at fringe festivals have been acclaimed. She is also a designer with an impressive portfolio of cutting edge theatre design projects. In her own shows Andrews is able to bring all these imaginative strands together to create what is the reason we go to the theatre, to experience something else, to come out having been transported and this is what Andrews does. There is much quality in Andrews’ work and she opens her heart and whisks us away, away from our lives and thoughts and somewhere else!

For More Information:
https://www.caseyjayandrews.com/ 

Aug 11 2025
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Theatre Re’s The Nature of Forgetting at Edinburgh Fringe 2025!

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

The Nature of Forgetting

What does a piece of clothing mean to a person? Is it the color or comfort it gives – or something else? Memories are special to all of us and dementia means that they may become fragments of what they were originally.


We first see coat racks, tables and chairs, and a young woman and a man, Isabella and Tom. They interact and eventually Tom – sensitively played by Theatre Re Founder and Artistic Director Guillaume Pigé – remembers what to do as he puts on a coat or a jacket…flashbacks tell the story. Tom’s memories are vivid as he goes back in time to school days, friends and teenage romance – all brought to life by the dynamic cast of four actors who play all the characters.
 
Live music onstage comprising a drummer and keyboardist play vibrant to melodic music that underscores and adds dimension to this mainly wordless devised play. Gentle yet vivid music plays while Tom remembers earlier times in his life and varying volume, tempo and rhythms support the storytelling well. This early scene is beautifully created and is the foundation for the story of The Nature of Forgetting.



Seamless transitions and the quality of the physical and visual storytelling form an exceptionally well crafted and performed show.
 A scene of Tom with his mother helping him get ready for school and the subsequent journey supported by rhythmic music is strong imagery. The cast of four actors create several characters with gestures and posture changes to delineate them through their movement dynamics effectively.


When things go off kilter the very smart choices of a combination of awkward movement with sound, that build progressively, show how Tom’s memory is being affected. This series of episodic movement is subtle yet arresting in its simplicity and poignancy. A tender and lively scene with an outstanding movement sequence is when Tom is younger and is swept off his feet by a woman – it’s a glorious and evocative moment of a full life experiencing all that life offers.


Lighting helps to suggest atmosphere and mood really well and brief sound effects evoke the time and place. Tom incorporates interesting quirky movement and gesture as an adult and stops and starts as the movement device affecting his memory seems to disconnect it and be frustrating to Tom. This scene is particularly moving and well crafted.


Theatre Re take their time to tell this story and the cast emote physically and emotionally with expressive and precise movement and gestures. The range of emotional moments come from unexpected moments from Theatre Re – when less accomplished work will use literal thinking on which to base gestures. This play is extraordinarily well developed and performed and is a masterclass of story crafting and refinement. Poignant, moving and wildly inventive devised theatre that is dramatic, emotive artistic and human. This heartfelt exploration of a difficult subject has it all. Exceptional! 5 Stars!

More Information:
https://www.theatrere.co.uk/

Aug 11 2025
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Peregrinus at Edinburgh Fringe!

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Peregrinus

KTO Theatre from Poland presents Peregrinus at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe at Summerhall. Peregrinus starts with dramatic imagery and deliberate immediacy! Wearing their uniform of neat business suits, white shorts and ties, about eight office workers appear in front of us. They line up in formation and take their turn kneeling and putting on giant masks. Standing in front of us the image is not only fascinating but also the similar expressions of huge masks suggest a group of Everyman. Immediately these employees know where to go and what to do and they share with us a day in their lives by getting very busy slickly moving in circles, or intricate patterns while encountering different reactions from each other.

Physical gestures say it all and there is no need for actual words, so the performance of Peregrinus can be understood by anyone of any language. They each pull a large silver suitcase on wheels so this is very relatable to anyone who travel and have those nifty four wheel rolling suit cases. However, these rollers have special powers!

Peregrinus is an original devised show performed by KTO Theatre from Poland that tour a repertoire of different shows internationally. Peregrinus is also co-financed by the Minister of Culture of Poland. KTO Theatre has been under the leadership of co-founder Jerzy Zon for 48 years and Zon created and directed Peregrinus with choreographer Eryk Makohon, inspired by a poem by T.S.Eliot about modern life and its traps. Underscored by vibrant music throughout this is a complete performance that is visually vivid but is also inspiring.

First, for those of us who appreciate original physical theatre it is a triumph of expression and physical storytelling; second, this is a highly entertaining show! The characters came from the grassy Meadows near Summerhall where they interacted playfully with people for about thirty minutes, some of whom following them into the Summerhall courtyard performance area for the start of the show.

Blending satire, spectacle with dynamic movement and choreography, the story shows this group of office workers setting off for work from their homes and what happens when they arrive at work to the end of their day. They travel, sit together, have lunch and do their work almost in unison yet each has their own character traits. It’s a vivid and sometimes playful image of life that we can each reflect and respond to in order to preserve our individuality.

There are some improvised moments that are fun and add depth to the characters and the show. At these times there are individual flashes of personality such as when one of the characters after a brief interaction, motioned to someone in the audience to “call me!”

If you see one show at the fringe, see Peregrinus!

More Information:
https://teatrkto.pl/

Aug 10 2025
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Pickled Republic at Edinburgh Fringe 2025

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Pickled Republic

Ah, the life of a tomato! What are its hopes, dreams and more important, what are its upcoming realities? Doom, to be sure! Or is it? Ruxandra Cantir portrays one of these spirited vegetables to help us understand its plight! A tomato in a garden, next to a fence covered in sprigs of foliage. Voiceovers advise us to wash vegetables but to leave them some breathing room! Cantir’s contorted body of the tomato, in a tomato costume complete with a tomato stalk beret, leads this veggie to lament about life in a florid monologue with spicy attitude! This is a sad, tragic character indeed!

Using witty comments, shrieks, cabaret songs, comedy and fun ridiculousness Cantir changes costumes and characters, wears masks, shimmering dresses, and more to entertain. And entertain she does! After an uneven start with content this is zany and whacky stuff that brings laughs and guffaws as she struts around in support of veggies. With a sweater stretched over her head showing her face and a quif of green hair she approaches the audience with a singular voice and personality. There is some interaction with one or two audience members that is simply lovely, she somehow gains our trust and we dip into her world willingly!

This is part stand up and part clown and her wit and full on enthusiasm grows on you. There are a couple of running jokes with announcements of “fork”, or are the warnings? Just go with it! And there’s Eric the carrot, other relatives and then we get to the Pickle!

Now an imperious pickle limbers up and shows expert skills moving around the space, it’s all impressive from here on, if a bit hilariously ghoulish. Life happens what can we say! Cantir tops it all with a final image of a character introduced earlier. It seems time passed and these veggie will continue to appear – and disappear with the cycle of life. Expect the unexpected and enjoy what unfolds in the global pickled republic! Recommended! 3 Stars!

More information:
https://www.ruxandracantir.com/pickled-republic

Aug 10 2025
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Works and Days at the Edinburgh International Festival 2025

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Works and Days



Works and Days is produced by FC Bergman / Toneelhuis and presented by the Edinburgh International Festival, August 2025 at The Lyceum. FC Bergman’s reflection on the poem Works and Days from the Ancient Greek poet Hesiodos “on living on and with the land” and all of the circumstances between birth, life and death is the starting point for this piece. FC Bergman is a four-person collective that creates site specific productions and installations that focus on themes of the working person.


The collective comprises Stef Aerts, Joe Agemans, Thomas Verstraeten, Marie Vinck who are the Directors, Dramaturgs & Set Designers. They also perform in Works and Days together with additional cast members Susan De Ceuster, Gert Goossens, Fumiyo Ikeda, Maryam Sserwamukoko.


A superb set piece center stage suggests a rusty plough from long ago. In fact, we are being taken back to when people lived on and from the land. The cast of eight characters wear unmatched work clothes in gray and brown tones with costume design by An d’Huys are clearly at home in this stark environment.


This is a world where farmers forge tools with their bare hands and use only body strength to work across fields – sometimes pushing a well used plough to rip up the earth. Others sew seeds as they follow the ploughed earth. Drum beats help the community work together to raise the heavy timber framework of a barn. They find an unsuspecting chicken who gives the townsfolk an egg, the chicken joined in the with sounds and we enjoyed watching its chirruping! Everyone works here to earn a living of the basics, food and a roof over their heads.


From a sacrifice nailed to a pole shows they are really living off the land and use everything – unlike the waste that is produced from our busy lives today. However, this is an offbeat, abstracted expression of daily work and its rituals that is certainly intriguing. Musicians onstage provide the rhythmic strength for everyone to be able to haul up timber structures. Visually, this is theme, design and lifestyle is very appealing and it takes a while to get in step and focus while trying to forget our appendages of technology that most of us insist on carrying around day and night!


While the homesteaders dress up their house with colorful fabric the story reflects how much we pay attention to worldly goods, when we have access to them. However, these townsfolk revere the huge statues of the future by their naked bodies coiling around them. Curious organ music plays at times, or a wonderful haunting tenor sax and more, which add so much to this life before our own reality, from composers and musicians Joachim Badenhorst and Sean Carpio. In fact this is a reality check for us to consider, knowing that there are still people living in these simple times relying on the tried and true farming and harvesting methods, without the technology that we rely on so much today. Highly Recommended!

 4 Stars!


More information:

Edinburgh International Festival
https://www.eif.co.uk/

Aug 09 2025
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Dance People at Edinburgh International Festival 2025

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Dance People

Maqamat, the French-Lebanese contemporary dance company in collaboration with Cie Omar Rajesh present the World Premiere of Dance People at the Edinburgh International Festival, August 2025. Set in the beautiful Old College Quad, choreographers Omar Rajeh and Mia Habis create an innovative promenade performance with their dance company – that also invites the audience to mingle, sometimes join in and become part of the experience!


Ten dancers including Rajesh and Habis move around the huge quad space in combinations of solos, duets and small groups. Sometimes the entire ensemble dances together to original pieces set to vibrant music with dramatic lighting and roaming sets. Their aim is not only to offer a joyful experience but to also welcome the audience in to be more than passive observers. In fact, from the beginning, the space is open for the audience to roam around, watch – or to be among the set pieces comprising huge metal structures with lights and a musician. This sets up an interesting dynamic where audience members are participants when invited and are free to watch all of the production from anywhere in the quad. People are guided by the advance of the tall metal structures that sweep around us, pushed by the company opening or moving the observers to create new performance spaces.


The dancers are outstanding and they also briefly interact each other and everyone watching. A dynamic eclectic colorful costume design by highlights individuality of each performer. Choreography is vibrant and original mainly fast movement with some slower paced motifs. The. Lighting design by Guy Hoare is beautiful and creates not only atmosphere but also highlights performing space. There is no doubt that this show is pushing the boundary between performer and audience – with the addition of how the physical movement of the company spotlights democracy, dictatorship and culture. Later in the piece names of victims of such strife are projected on the set as it moves around reminding us of these times. Lively and soulful music is composed with live interpretation by Mathias Delplanque and Ziad El Ahmadie with voice by Abdul Karim Chaar.

This is a special event with experimental qualities that is moving, meaningful and entertaining. Highly recommended!
 4 Stars!

More information:
www.eif.co.uk

Aug 09 2025
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Tale of a Potato

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Tale of a Potato

What does a potato think about? How are potatoes born and what happens during their lives no mater how short? Batisfera, a theatre company from Italy have the answer in their new show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025! Potatoes are sturdy and functional vegetables and so is the interesting set for his show. We are greeted in a kitchen with an island counter for preparing food but in this case the wooden table top is the stage for the characters or rather the vegetables! 



Our host is performer Valentina Fadda who skillfully moves the potato and its friends and relatives around the stage in a charming tabletop object puppetry style. Valentina developes a rapport with the audience as she begins to narrate the story, intermingled with conversations of the characters through her voice. Let’s start, she proclaims and we are in her care for this thirty minute show. We meet he most important character, the potato, and Valentina calls out it the Protagonist. We follow the potato through parts of its life meeting other vegetables such as the tall aubergine and personable squat cauliflower as the modest potato’s life journey begins.

Written and directed by Angelo Trofa the tale is fascinating and imaginative. Creative lighting design by Luca Carta is simple but effective and transforms with the set seamlessly for different scenes. The music by Luca Spanu supports the mood and action of the story well. Generally the sound levels might benefit from tweaking here and there in this space in order to appreciate and understand the narration when spoken fast or loud music when the narration happens.

Each new character has enough personality to keep this story moving and developing. Some of the most effective moments are when the narrator’s voice shares slowly and softly suggesting a tender moment of the life of our Protagonist Potato.

Months and seasons pass including a beautiful, wintery scene efficiently brought onstage and off. The dark atmosphere with the mini lighting in this bijou theatre is effective for these tubers et al to share their story. The writing moves swiftly from narrative to dialogue and questions for the audience to contemplate. It flows well yet at times I found myself wondering what was happening exactly, matching the narration with the action. There is much charm about this show and no doubt it will develop and finesse as the run progresses. Recommended!

More information:
https://www.batisfera.com/about-2/

Aug 07 2025
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Mechanimal’s Wild Thing! at the Edinburgh Fringe 2025

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Wild Thing!

Imagine a show where all the characters were performed by one person. Tom Bailey of Mechanimal, the award-winning theatre company creates and recreates dozens of extinct animals using only his physicality, with wonderful atmospheric sounds by sound artist Xavier Velastin.

Bailey is a performer and an observer of life with a vibrant imagination and a strong interest in how fast the planet is losing species. We should all be aware of this tragedy but sometimes we need reminding. Bailey has created a follow up to the outstanding Vigil about extinct animals presented a few years ago at the Edinburgh Fringe. Wild Thing! not only demonstrates a minute percentage of the thousands of animals (literally from Bailey’s physical acting) that are extinct today but he also provides some of their names by a voiceover announcement, together with the printed name projected onto a huge wall size screen on the stage.

At the top of the show we hear the name “White Footed Sportive Lemur” and Bailey takes on the physicality as much as possible of this creature, then others come fast, “Three Toed Sloth” “Persian Musk Deer” and “Arrogant Shrew”. The pace is fast, and some animals have sounds created by Bailey, too. Seeing him move around and take over the space is fascinating and unusual, so we know we are in for an unexpected time!

In Vigil by Mechanimal Bailey’s portrayals were pure and, seemingly to the audience, exacting. However, in Wild Thing! It is clear that the most challenging or literal sounding animal names are sometimes more obvious in gesture with an interesting layer of Bailey’s own attitude, which is very entertaining. Relating to the audience as either animal or during transitions Bailey says a lot with his physicality. Wearing a striped shirt, sage green shorts and a baseball cap on backwards Bailey throws himself into his physical gestures mimicking animals to the best of his knowledge at the time.

The space is perfect for this show because the large stage area is ground level and Bailey can intermingle as needed without barrier and everyone in the audience on three sides of the rectangular space can see him and the screen easily. We all want to see what he’s up to and we have a great view of it all!

Although we are having fun and enjoying this intriguing interactive show, Bailey introduces his message gently at first then powerfully by sharing information about the state of the lost species and how more are lost. With the addition of some very well chosen props and a story about an important journey, Bailey is certainly impactful in his forty five minute show. This is how to make a difference to people of all ages. Theatre is a powerful tool and this is an excellent example of its use to enlighten as well as to entertain. Do not miss Wild Thing! Highly Recommended! 4 Stars

Aug 05 2025
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Lost Lear at Edinburgh Fringe 2025

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Lost Lear

Lost Lear is a weaving of the story of parts of Shakespeare’s play King Lear with the story of Joy, diagnosed with dementia. Written and directed by Dan Colley, this is the UK Premiere produced by the Riverbank Arts Centre and Mermaid Arts Centre presented at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025 at the Traverse Theatre. 
For anyone unfamiliar with the story of King Lear by Shakespeare, there is a canny summary provided in the dialogue to another character early in the play! This is an intricate mixing of two stories with relatable parallel events.

We watch a stage rehearsal of the play of Lear and his three daughters trying to show their authentic love for their father in order to earn the trust, respect and his legacy when he dies. It’s always an interesting part of the play where the audience may reflect on their own way they may answer this question of an elderly close relative. This start to Lost Lear is fascinating! When the story is turned on its head and Lear is enthusiastically played by a character called Joy, the mother of a long estranged son in a layering of a contemporary parallel family story with the rehearsals of King Lear!

In a poignant twist Joy is in a care home – and the staff discovers the most effective way of relating to her is to run her day to day similar to her prior career as an actor, full steam ahead in rehearsals. While Joy has no daughters she does have a son who is on stage in several scenes.

The acting is strong throughout including:
Joy: Venetia Bowe
Liam: Manus Halligan
Conor: Peter Daly(August 3rd)/Gus McDonagh
Ensemble: Em Ormonde, Clodagh O’Farrell

Bowe as Joy is energetic and dynamic and her voice will surely benefit from the run to develop a range of inflections and vocal variety in the lines. This play within a play is effectively told through storytellng, narration, dialogue and one brief scene with puppetry. Effective set design by Andrew Clancy, lighting design by Suzie Cummins and costume design by Cherie White all work together to create the two worlds in this play.

Lost Lear deals with the situation of a family member with dementia sensitively and in a creative way in this handsome production. Highly recommended! 4 Stars!

Aug 05 2025
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Consumed at Edinburgh Fringe 2025

By Jo Tomalin

Review by Jo Tomalin
For All Events

Consumed

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Consumed by Karis Kelly and directed by Katie Posner is a World Premiere, produced by Paines Plough, Belgrade Theatre, Sheffield Theatres and Women’s Prize for Playwriting Production in Association with Lyric Theatre Belfast, presented at the TraverseTheatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025.


This multi- generational play explores themes of transgenerational trauma, national boundaries and family dynamics set in Northern Ireland. 

Our introduction to this story is an attractive and cosy set of a well kept large kitchen with a table and several chairs. We learn that this is Gilly’s home – and her mother, Eileen, the family matriarch, sits at the head of the table. Gilly is busy fussing around so that everything looks just right as their guests are about to arrive for a birthday celebration. 

Gilly’s daughter, Jenny left Northern Ireland years ago and she and her daughter Muireann, live in England and are traveling to visit and celebrate their family. The long distance between them means that family visits like these are rare, so this is a special occasion and an opportunity to reconnect.

The initial chitchat between Eileen and Gilly is jaunty with Eileen’s comments dominating and Gilly placating her elderly mother by getting on with preparations. Gilly’s house has everything in to place, for the moment. When the two younger women arrive friendly conversation is punctuated by Eileen’s remarks. Jenny and her daughter seem like they are from another place in life and culture – and they literally are!

All four characters are different and well acted with texture and believability. There is much pride about their shared roots, particularly from Eileen played by Julia Dearden and Gilly played by Andrea Irving – but less sowith Jenny played by Caoimhe Farren, who left years ago and her daughter Muireann played by Muireann Ní Fhaogáin,

who doesn’t even have a hint of a northern Irish accent. Additional progressive ideas such as veganism demonstrate a huge chasm between the two groups and yet Eileen comes into her own with sound advice.



Lest we start wondering where male partners may be, bits of information come out in conversation and we get a picture of a family with a strong foundation that have secrets and foibles that sear to the soul. This is anentertaining and provocative slice of life family drama with a wry unexpected twist! Highly recommended! 4 Stars!!

More Information
https://www.traverse.co.uk/whats-on/event/consumed-festival-25