Reviewed by Richard Stamp
Underground Venues
Comedy
13-14 Jul 7pm to 8pm, 15 Jul 8:30pm to 9:30pm

I approach this particular write-up with some trepidation.  Andrew Watts opens his solo comedy show with a biting deconstruction of a previous review – a review which accused his patter of betraying casual misogyny.  Many male comedians would take that as a badge of pride, but Watts (to his credit) was stung; and this new show is a form of rebuttal, an earnest pro-feminist manifesto, thrown into sharp relief by the recent arrival of Watts’ longed-for first-born child.

Reviewed by Richard Stamp
Poole's Cavern
Theatre
4-19 Jul 5:30pm to 6:30pm, 7pm to 8pm, 8:30pm to 9:30pm

For their now-traditional site-specific play in the depths of Poole’s Cavern, Butterfly Theatre present an original script based on a rewrite of Dracula.  Vampire-hunter Van Helsing, and the love-lorn Dr Seward, pursue their enemy through the shadowy underworld in which he’s built his lair.  But Dracula’s Women – the three undead sisters from Brad Stoker’s original book – lie in wait to trap the unwary.  And unknown to Seward, the love of his life is already lost forever… while the woman who killed her, Mina, is out for her own style of revenge.

Reviewed by Richard Stamp
The Market Place
Theatre
16 & 18-19 Jul, 8:15pm to 9pm

Before I saw WOW – the very first show at brand-new venue The Market Place – I’d certainly heard of World of Warcraft, a computer game which promises the chance to re-invent yourself in a fully-realised fantasy world.  But I have to admit, I’d always assumed it wasn’t intended for people like me.  And nor would I have imagined it could possibly appeal to Sarah – the sassy central character of this eloquent, intelligent, and thoughtful one-woman play.

Reviewed by Richard Stamp
Underground Venues
Theatre
14 Jul 7:30pm to 8:30pm, 15-16 Jul 9pm to 10pm

On 18 September this year, four million Scottish voters – one of them me – will be asked the stark question: independence, yes or no?  Set a decade or so in the future, new play The Speech imagines how an unexpected “yes” might affect the country we Scots would leave behind.  We join the English Prime Minister at a moment of crisis, closeted away with her speech-writer – seeking the right words to soothe a national emergency, and to deliver some straight talking on just where her nation stands.

Reviewed by Richard Stamp
Underground Venues
Comedy
10 & 12 Jul 8:30pm to 9:30pm, 13 & 15 Jul 10pm to 11pm

This delightful show sits halfway between comedy and solo theatre, delivering plenty of laugh-aloud surprises yet concealing a sharp-edged poignancy, too.  Hosted by middle-aged librarian Ms Samantha Mann, it’s a broad-ranging monologue about loves lost, lives lived… and the trials of sharing her home with a rabbit.  Though she seems at first prim and practical, Samantha gradually reveals both an intriguing past and an adventurous personality, stumbling through a public journey of self-discovery which I felt positively privileged to join her on.

Reviewed by Richard Stamp
Underground Venues
Theatre
10 & 13-14 Jul 9pm to 10pm, 15 & 27 Jul 4pm to 5pm

This instantly-engaging one-man adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic is both an impressive feat of acting, and triumph of uncomplicated entertainment.  Alone on the stage, Jamie Robertson evokes all the characters in Stevenson’s free-spirited tale of heroism and villainy – with verbal and physical pictures so vivid you can almost sense the smell of the sea.  Subtle sound design and a masterfully-adapted script also contribute to a thoroughly engrossing production.