‘The Skinny’ 5 Stars - Christine Lawler Blind Elephant bring an exceptional version of Endgame by Samuel Beckett to Edinburgh Fringe. Performed by four young graduates of Tring Park School for the Performing Arts who also make up the company Blind Elephant. Endgame is the darkly comic tale of a post-apocalyptic world where there is no life outside, just the four inhabitants of a strange household who endure the same banality each day. Ross McCormack is excellent as Clov, the lame servant who struggles to keep some form of order. From his first moment on stage he captivates attention and shows immense focus and incredible depth to his performance. His physical acting and comic timing is impeccable every step of the way. It is surprising that such strength of acting comes from someone so young. The same can be said of John Pritchard, who plays the wheelchair bound Hamm so convincingly it is hard to believe he is a young actor. His physical and speech mannerisms are excellent and he conveys great comedy and emotion despite the fact he rarely moves throughout the whole performance. Sammy Moore and Jessica Revell as the bin-inhabiting parents Nell and Nagg again provide...

Dec 2014 Why Russell Brand is pissing me off At first I liked Brands videos on youtube. For example, I enjoyed the videos that attacked racist and bias comments made by panellists on TV shows (usually American anchor shows). They were entertaining videos that also shed a light on how awful some of the people on those programs were. He has made some other good points that have stayed with me. He spoke about how newspapers are primarily designed to fulfil certain targets with their readers. Two videos were on how communities could feed themselves off local produce as apposed to relying on super markets. One line he said that stays in my head is 'we're all made of the same stuff'. I think it is important that during human interaction we remember that we are all made of the same stuff. So, his videos were entertaining as well as being informative and thought provoking. He started to talk about a revolution, this is where I get confused... Does he means an active, protesting, literal fighting of the system revolution, or more of a spiritual revolution - the latter of which he did mention in some earlier videos. In...

‘Let’s see what all the fuss is about’, I tell myself as I enter the New London Theatre on Dury Lane, a ticket to see ‘War Horse’ in my hand. Expectations were high. This made the hipster inside me doubt the artistic potential of a rather tourist attraction show. The New London theatre is a fantastic design, seating just under a thousand in a very intimate atmosphere. This intimacy made for delicacy and tenderness throughout the action of the play. The play opens and the audience are gently lulled into the world of early 1900’s England. Birds sweep over head, several other farm yard animals appear and a soloist starts singing, rather like Yorkshire’s answer to The Circle of Life. Throughout the play this soloist returns and reminds the audience, it’s not real. And this is needed. Moments in the play felt excruciatingly real, so much so that the entire audience gasped in union at the climax of the play. After two minutes one really does forget the horses are puppets at all. I cannot praise the teams behind the horses enough, every movement and sound was impeccable - it is a pleasure to see hard work paying off...