Every journey towards healing has to start with coming to terms with the past: this is the central theme of Jess McAuley’s one-woman autobiographical work This is Step One, directed by Kathy Yan Li. As a theatre piece, it is very successful at getting this point across not merely through telling but also showing; McAuley provides concrete examples from her past to illustrate the troubled times she experienced (including an abusive relationship and sexual harassment) and how they have shaped her determination to get back on the right path. …

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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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Clocking in at only 20 minutes, Erum Khan’s self-created show Becoming seemingly starts, reaches its climax, and ends in the blink of an eye. Which is a shame, since the basic elements of this production are all intriguing and could benefit by being fleshed out more. The play centers around a single character (Khan) trapped in purgatory, who is trying to retrieve memories of herself and her girlfriend. A striking film projection (from avant-garde filmmaker Maya Deren) is used to illustrate a memory of being by the beach, with Khan perfectly mimicking the movements to the actress onscreen. Upon her retrieval of these memories, the woman then jumps into presenting a bunch of philosophical questions to the audience: the nature of purgatory for one, as well as whether it is right to abandon one’s faith if it hasn’t done anything for them. …

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In our current moment, a play about the struggles of unemployment and being unable to pay one’s rent would seem to be quite a relatable one (especially for millennials).   Beginning with three roommates who fail to make the monthly payment to the landlord, the story spirals into occasions of utter chaos and extremity (including when the group accidentally murders a bird in an odd game of ‘bird-beer’ pong). The roommates, the hard-working but dissatisfied Mark (Andy Kellie), the flighty Xan (Carley Richards) and the deadbeat Haydn (Jon Dickey) are drawn into conflict with each other as the rent remains unpaid and their illicit trips to the roof continue. …

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