Neil Cooper

Neil Cooper gives The Last Drop four stars, praising Dante Passarelli’s claustrophobic play for its grotesque humour, manic energy and Brazilian telenovela-inspired melodrama. Performed in Portuguese with English surtitles by Brazil’s Manas Theatre Lab, the production follows a bickering couple trapped in a deteriorating apartment threatened by flooding and surrounding property development. The play satirises town planning, gentrification and the displacement of established communities.

Four Walls and a Roof, created and performed by Lebanese artists Lina Majdalanie and Rabih Mroue with pianist Henrik Kairies, examines Bertolt Brecht’s 1947 appearance before the House Un-American Activities Committee, his exile and the broader relationship between censorship and artistic invention. Combining lecture, cabaret, archive footage and projected images, the production connects Brecht’s experience with the artists’ own move from Beirut to Berlin and with the Wooster Group’s response to copyright restrictions. The review praises its wit, musicality and dense, multi-layered meditation on artistic dissent, awarding it four stars.

Adam Riches’ The Captain tells the story of Matthew Webb, the first man to swim the English Channel, through the perspective of his trainer and swimming champion Fred Beckwith. Framed as an extended eulogy, the production combines Webb’s rivalry, failures and determination with Riches’ comic swagger and shanty-style performance. The review praises it as a hearty tale of Victorian derring-do and a forgotten hero whose achievement secured his place in the record books.

Jack Ellis's personal fascination with Vincent van Gogh frames a theatrical account of the nine weeks Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin spent together in Arles. Created with John Retallack, the production shifts conversationally between Ellis's own story and dramatic portrayals of the artists. Rachel Marston's set, featuring 18 detailed reproductions of works created in Arles, is central to the performance, turning the artists' history into a visually evocative drama. The review awards the production four stars for its artistry, warmth and devoted celebration of creative genius.

Oliver Emanuel’s 70-minute chamber musical follows two people, played by Alan Cumming and Shirley Henderson, as they revisit a lifetime of love through keepsakes including tickets, receipts, confetti and origami. Andrew Panton’s revival, co-produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Dundee Rep, benefits from the mature leads’ comic and emotionally reflective performances. Live music by Gareth Williams, performed by Gavin Whitworth, and Ana Inés Jabares-Pita’s scarred cityscape set deepen the production’s themes of memory, loss and letting go. The result is judged a quietly devastating, five-star elegy to the objects and experiences that acquire meaning over time.

Jack McGregor’s play follows scientist Kerris, who arrives at the isolated South Pacific island of Saint John and uncovers a hidden religious cult led by a would-be prophet. The production moves between her experiences on the island and efforts to overcome colonial bureaucracies that want its secrets concealed. Neil Cooper praises its folk-horror touches, performances by Rebecca Wilkie and Xander Cowan, and fast-paced thriller qualities, but finds that it never delivers a major revelation or fully develops into the darker cult drama it hints at.

Sh!t Theatre’s five-star production Evita Too combines comedy, show tunes, archive footage and nude roller-skating to explore Isabel Perón, the former showgirl who became the world’s first female president. Rebecca Biscuit and Louise Mothersole connect Isabel’s contested political legacy with their own personal and artistic history, using feminist cabaret to examine myth-making, self-mythology and the reclamation of overlooked women’s stories.

Kimberly Hart-Simpson plays Kelly, a high-energy nurse in a dementia home in Rhyl, in a solo performance about chaotic relationships, self-destructive behavior and the prospect of growing up. Kate Wasserberg’s production is praised for allowing Kelly’s optimism and vitality to shine despite the damage she causes to her relationships and work. The review awards the show four stars.

Neil Cooper gives Ruaraidh Murray’s comedy-drama Steak Out three stars. Set around a New Town butcher’s shop, the play follows Archie, Karen and Thomas as they plan a raid, combining profanity, comic set pieces and an underlying story about Karen’s past experiences with the butcher. The review praises Murray’s comic writing and the production’s distinctive grassroots-theatre voice, while suggesting the characters could be developed further in a possible series.

Christopher C. Gibbs is praised for an avuncular, understated performance as Simon Wiesenthal in Tom Dugan’s solo play, directed by Mark Liebert at the Gilded Balloon. The production portrays Wiesenthal as a methodical Holocaust survivor whose persistence helped bring surviving Nazi perpetrators to justice, while also emphasizing his ordinary domestic life and enduring humanity. The review awards the production four stars and concludes that it is an important reminder of Wiesenthal’s work and the need to remember those who exposed atrocities.

A three-star review of Emery Schaffer’s BearGirl at Assembly Roxy, in which a grieving young woman copes with her husband Jake’s death by wearing an old bear suit. Rachel De Fontes plays the central character as she revisits her relationship through flashbacks and encounters, gradually discovering that her seemingly idyllic life was not as it appeared. The play, loosely based on Anton Chekhov’s 1888 work, is praised as an inventive exploration of grief, healing and the need to shed old identities.

Neil Cooper gives Dylan Howells’s Forget About Me four stars, praising its intimate blend of memoir, magic and horror effects. Set around a haunted cottage and Howells’s childhood memories, the performance explores psychic history, trauma and the ways memory can shield people from the past. Audience participation, DIY-inspired set design and carefully revealed objects support an inventive exorcism of the performer’s personal demons.

Lev Steinberg’s new play traps four strangers in a cage and gives them 44 minutes to choose which of them will be sacrificed, creating a tense exploration of justice, revenge and the pain of confinement. Michael DeFilippis’s production draws comparisons with Sartre’s No Exit and Peter Watkins’s Punishment Park, while the cast delivers the material with force. The review awards the production four stars and praises its sustained intensity and moral ambiguity.

We Had Fun follows Oscar and Ela after a drunken night with Syd and Quinn, using their awkward morning-after encounter and a lift confrontation to examine consent, responsibility and accountability in sexual relationships. Emmeline Hartley and Jack Mullings’ play moves back and forth through the events, withholding the full truth until later. Neil Cooper praises the production’s incisive, provocative debate and refusal of easy platitudes, while acknowledging its rough edges.

Grid Iron’s five-star adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s Mayflies follows lifelong friends Tully and Noodles, from a formative 1980s music weekend in Manchester to the more painful realities of adulthood. Neil Cooper praises the immersive Browns of Leith setting, the performances—particularly Matthew Pidgeon and Graham Mackay-Bruce—and the production’s celebration of friendship, memory and post-punk culture. Minor issues with warehouse acoustics and music volume are ultimately viewed as fitting echoes of the Hacienda’s early imperfections. The production is described as a heartfelt tribute to a lost generation and the enduring power of books, records and theatre.

A four-star review of Kathryn Mincer’s 45-minute play Gridlock, directed by Dominique Mabille and performed by Annika Foster and Ibrahim Bakhait at Edinburgh’s Gilded Balloon Patter House. The play traps former blind-date partners Alexa and Thomas in traffic, using memories of their relationship and the prospect of couples therapy to explore how they reached their current impasse. The review praises Mincer’s intimate, plausible exchanges, the performers’ understated sparring and the ambition of Glasgow-based KD Productions, while suggesting the production leaves audiences wanting to see more.

Bryony Kimmings’ autobiographical theatre production Bog Witch follows her move to the countryside after personal difficulties and her unexpected connection with rural life and ancient, quasi-spiritual practices. The review praises Kimmings’ understated performance, emotional honesty and pragmatic approach to survival, describing the production as a work that transforms loss into healing, love and everyday magic. Co-directed with Francesca Murray-Fuentes and staged on Tom Rogers’ forest-clearing set, the show is awarded four stars.

Olivier Rannou’s 50-minute, wordless family show Hostile transforms spaghetti-western imagery into inventive object theatre. Performing with the Rennes-based Bakélite company, Rannou creates and dismantles a desert town and its props while portraying a thirsty lone gunslinger. The review praises the production’s ingenuity, comic charm, visual storytelling and action-packed finale, while noting that its brief running time can make it feel over too soon.

Zinnie Harris’s Supposing: follows Sally after a fall down a hole triggers visions and apparent prophetic powers, exposing the frustrations of her middle-class marriage and the wider social ills surrounding her. Directed by Harris, the Traverse Theatre production blends contemporary anger with Greek tragedy, ritual, music and myth. Neil Cooper praises Nicole Cooper’s furious central performance and the play’s eventual transformation into a call for collective defiance, awarding it four stars.

John Kolvenbach’s 55-minute play, performed by Jim Ortlieb and presented by Boston’s Huntingdon Theatre Company at Edinburgh’s Underbelly, combines performance lecture, self-help routine and personal confession into a tragicomic meditation on life, love and loss. Shaped by the loneliness of the COVID-19 pandemic, the production explores the human need for connection. Ortlieb’s warm, eccentric performance gives emotional depth to its central character’s invitation to embrace the present and reconnect with life.

A new stage adaptation of Jane Austen’s Emma is presented as a light, appealing summer production for Bard in the Botanics, with Esme Bayley leading a strong ensemble. The adaptation emphasizes charm and humor, with standout supporting performances contributing to an energetic rom‑com atmosphere that extends Austen’s original material.

A five-actor adaptation of John Webster’s Jacobean tragedy is staged in Glasgow’s Botanic Gardens as part of Bard in the Botanics’ anniversary season, highlighting the violent unraveling of the Duchess’s forbidden marriage. Strong performances, especially Claire Macallister’s portrayal of Bosola, anchor Jennifer Dick’s close-up, intense production, culminating in a series of dramatic death scenes that close the season on a strikingly bloody note.