Very few subjects have arguably invoked the same amount of concentrated meditation and thought as the topic of love has. How exactly people fall in love and what helps them to stay together is at the heart of American comedian Steve Budd”s solo comedy show What They Said About Love. Drawing on interviews with real life couples, as well as his own personal experience, Budd presents an exploration of these very questions that is as thoughtful as it is funny and engaging. Beginning with how he met his Kenyan girlfriend, Chinewa, while on vacation in Mexico, Budd intersperses the trajectory of this relationship with the various insights and pieces of advice given by the people he spoke to. This proves to be an effective approach, as connections between these insights and his own personal situation are subtly made throughout the course of the show. …

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Fables warning against the dangers of greed and temptation are nearly as old as humanity itself; yet there’s perhaps no story better known that relays this lesson than Christopher Marlowe’s 1592 play The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus. Plan B Productions’ #Faustus, directed by Graham Price, is an ambitious attempt to make this story more readily applicable to the present day, in that the powers given to the title character by Lucifer allow him to wreak havoc primarily through the dark web (the criminal underground of the internet, for those unaware). As an adaptation of a 400-year old plus play, #Faustus is fairly successful.

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When an actor is making jokes about the people who came in late and lets the audience know that they will be attending a “circus of life and love”, one knows that they’re in for an amusing time. From the colourful and cutesy setting to the outlandish costume Rachelle Elie wears for her initial role of Susan, everything about MAL signals a show that is meant to be taken light-heartedly and not too seriously. The overall tone of the show is in contrast to its title, which as Susan informs us, means such things as “dark” and “bad” in French. Susan states that she is here to make the audience forget about “mal” (with a few digs at unpopular political figures such as Doug Ford and Trump); Elie is able to do just that throughout the course of the show, with a combination of old-fashioned gags and tricks and dirty humour about peoples’ sex lives. …

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Reviewed by Ryan Pepper

One of the more difficult plays at Fringe to understand, 25 is the type of work where you can see it with your friends, go out for drinks afterwards, and all reach a different conclusion to this puzzling play from Parisian theatre duo 1919. Superficially it’s about 25-year-olds, as all the characters—and you can debate how many there are—are all right in the mid-twenties. But 25 digs deeper, until it’s ultimate grappling with issues of how and why we create importance, and self-importance, in our lives. …

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Created and performed by jem rolls

Playing at LIVE! on Elgin, 220 Elgin.

jem rolls is back and this time he’s talking about the brain. That’s right, his brain, your brain, everyone’s brains! Why? Because the body is a mystery and the biggest mystery about the body is the mind. Or, put another way, he’s reading that novel we all have in our heads, the title of which is I, Idiot.

This show is a clever, insightful, verbal barrage of sharp observations, some offered in rhyme, and yes, interpretive dance, that begins with the hilarious birthing of far too many clowns. That’s a clown-apocalypse for those of you who haven’t experienced the phenomenon. …

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My biggest question after taking in The Ultraviolet Life is what’s this play about? Whatever is going on in this production is still buried deep in the unconscious world of its creators.

Burlesque, of course, has been around since the Greeks. The satyr play featured vigorous leaping, horse-play, and lewd pantomime – all of which we get in The Ultraviolet Light. Though in tiny bits and pieces. So, if that is the intention, we’re on the right track. But what is going on? …

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