Edinburgh

Took a little while longer than expected, but the new Sweet Venues site is finally up and running at full speed! Check in here to catch up with all our shows as we update our online programme and to find out what the Sweet team is getting up to…

Don’t forget that the closing date for show submissions wishing to appear in the printed Fringe Guide at edfringe.com is the 18th of April. Still plenty of time to get in touch about bringing your show to Sweet Venues, so take a look around our Performers section and drop us a line.

JD.

Here it is then folks, the dream we all dream of – the 2011 Edinburgh Festival Fringe has officially launched and their online box office is now open!

Click through to our shows now, either through the lovely scrolling images on the front page or through our search functions (don’t forget to select a category) and you’ll find shows now have the ‘Buy tickets now!’ link. Click there and start picking dates to come and see any of our great shows this August.

There’s still a few shows that are to appear on our site, some special little pieces that aren’t featured in the Fringe guide, but are sure to grab your attention. Watch this space for more announcements on these great shows coming from across the world…

All of us here at Sweet are looking forward to spending our summer with you, taking in the amazing sights and sounds of the largest and most exciting arts event in the world.

Here’s to expanding the view!

JD

Well, we’re almost through an amazing launch weekend, with only one day to go before we settle into the ‘normal’ Fringe (anyone who knows what that means, please do message us and let us know…)

There’s been some amazing shows already – some that you’ve already missed in the form of the one-night only Lisa Scott Sings Jazz – but many, many more that have a fantastic run ahead of them. (more…)

subsist

http://www.lovefringe.com/events/theatre/subsist

The Sweet Release

http://www.lovefringe.com/events/cabaret-main/the-sweet-release

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Edinburgh Spotlight Review

What is life? What is being human? What is surviving? Where does connection come in? What are the rules? Is it hope that is needed to keep on going? Is it acceptance? What is being real? Can anyone become a completely new person? What continues on? Can mistakes be left behind or will they forever repeat or ricochet no matter what is tried? What was the last thing someone said to you?

Does this all seem rather brain-draining? Part of some pretentious concoction? It isn’t. These are not questions hammered into your brain by direct interrogation, existentialist debate or theatrical alienation devices – these questions are the result of a simply produced piece of drama. (more…)

Three Weeks Review

A logician one moment and lacking any logic the next, Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, is forced to sit back and watch his imagination literally run wild, desperately endeavouring to revive the adventures of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Faced with critique for his “nonsensical” writing, and deprived of his 11 year old muse, it proves harder and harder for Dodgson to tame his imaginary characters or ignore the detrimental consequence they are having on his professional life. (more…)

Three Weeks Review

“Hopes, dreams, guilt and torture” – this quotation pretty much summarises the themes of these two monologues which focus on very different central characters that are experiencing remarkably similar emotions whilst drowning their sorrows with drink. (more…)

What’s On Stage

Mary Blandy’s Gallows Tree is a gripping and dark early morning tale of a woman who was convicted of poisoning her father with arsenic. This one-woman show features real-life murderess Mary Blandy (played by Lita Doolan) recounting in her final hours the events that led her to the gallows.  If you are not familiar with the tale, Mary Blandy maintained that she thought she was giving her father a love potion so that he would see her point of view and allow her to marry William Cranstoun, an army officer and Scottish nobleman. (more…)

Sweet Venues are Expanding the View

Whats On Stage

This year, Sweet have changed their vision. They are housed in one rather than many buildings, with a programme spanning two spaces in Apex Hotel on Grassmarket. And they have changed their branding, their slogan – they’re now “expanding the view” – and want to encompass more than just Fringe events in future years. (more…)

The Scotsman Review

The old don’t have the voice they deserve in today’s society- but this play which is remarkably affecting and thought-provoking, focuses on a character we’ve probably all come across: the old man who fought in the Second World War, and is still reliving it. Martin Oldfield plays Harry, who was just an inexperienced young lad- a pacifist my nature- when he ended up on the beaches of Normandy under the command of his apparently boorish sargeant, Cameron. (more…)

Three Weeks Review

Laura hayden spent her teenage years in California surrounded by bright colours and synth-pop, much like the setting for this year’s show. In the 80s, laura had her heart broken, and here she tells the story in all its painful glory. Those were the days when relationships were innocent, cars were passed down through an entire family, and your ex-boyfriends couldn’t stalk you on Facebook. (more…)

Three Weeks Review

A bout of ‘psychic’ interaction over a coffee and croissants is a pleasant way to spend a languid morning mid-Fringe. Bailey’s polished performance… is engaging and humourous, with the man himself being very likeable. His scepticism for claimed telepathic ability within the arts makes his mimicry and gentle teasing funny…
Rating 3/5 (more…)

The List Preview

Music and video with score by Steve Reich, Weill, Mahler, Puccini and Górecki

Songs from the Holocaust might seem too dark a subject to tackle. But Greek-born singer Marika Klambatsea is convinced that even music from this bleakest of periods can be life-affirming. ‘Music can help people overcome tragedy. From these songs, you can see that people tried to overcome their circumstances, to be able to survive.’ (more…)

What’s On Stage Review

If you didn’t know that, according to all the laws of physics, telepathy is impossible, you would leave Peter Antoniou’s mind-reading show convinced you had just witnessed the supernatural. As it is, you may have to remind yourself that he simply cannot ‘hear’ a song someone else is thinking – because he sure as heck gets it right every time. It’s the kind of experience that has complete strangers turning to gasp at each other as they scramble to compute it. (more…)

Theatre Guide London Review

Karyn Traut’s intriguing piece of theatre is probably better characterized as a staged dialectic rather than a play. The two actors, a “He” and a “She,” fold laundry and discuss different approaches to living in poetic prose that floats beyond the ear quite unlike any realist dialogue that a modern theatre-goer would be accustomed to. The characters are archetypal in that She describes living in the “Realm Of Love,” a state of mind that infuses all activities and encounters which is accepting, open, and emotionally aware. (more…)

Three Weeks Review

It’s not every 78 year old woman that could stand up for an hour, never mind do stand up. However, seeing the self- professed “78 year old cougar” Lynn Ruth Miller performing her show is an experience I’m recommending to all Fringe-goers looking for something a little different. (more…)

Edinburgh Evening News

Who needs the EIFF when there’s CineFringe?

THIS year’s Edinburgh Fringe is packed with film-related shows and events, meaning you can have a fix of the movies and support new talent all at the same time. It reminded me of earlier this year, when it was suggested by the organisers of the ill-fated Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) that 2011′s event would have a touch of the Fringe about it. While that promise was never fulfilled, another film festival has arrived which doesn’t have either the legacy or the grandiose claims of the EIFF. (more…)

The Scotsman Review

Jonathan Dawson clearly loves movies, and this off-beat little comedy- following everyman Gav, who lends his friend £1 and finds himself working for a gregarious Mafia boss in order to get it back- is filled with references to cult classics. It even has a parody of an opening credits sequence. Occupying the heightened world of sitcom, (Lip Theatre Company have been producing sketch shows for 15 years), it’s a light-hearted piece with low stakes, but a well-formed structure…

The Public Reviews

City 1 at Sweet Grassmarket is not the largest of venues, and its intimacy makes for the perfect venue for this engaging, funny, warm-hearted show. Patsy Blades, a ‘woman of a certain age’, is our hostess for the hour; a storyteller, comedienne, and guide to the peri-menopause. Referring to herself in the third person, with two pairs of glasses precariously perched on the top of her head, Patsy Blades, effortlessly inhabited by Katie Southall, carries the audience through a selection of monologues, jokes, and still manages to find time to share sausages, Pringles and shredded cucumber with the assembled punters. (more…)

Edinburgh Spotlight Review

…The performance commenced with much flourishing of feathers – of the boa and fan variety, and distribution of little bits of feathered props to the audience who were encouraged to join in by waving them about enthusiastically. Ms Abler declares that she’s a gal who just loves to play piano, and has a history of having been a classical recitalist as well as a conductor for Broadway shows. (more…)

EdFringe Review

It was clear from the play’s very serious description that “Coliseum Arts Centre” were not about to perform a comedy. And indeed, despite moments of very black humour, the audience were not shielded in the slightest from the disturbing, upsetting and thought-provoking themes of sexual abuse and domestic violence, which pervaded their performance of “M House”. (more…)

The Skinny Review

Faustus has received countless adaptations but attempting re-tell this classic tale in a one–man show is particularly ambitious in Faust/us. This is obviously, a simplified version of the play and large number of interesting elements of the classic text are necessarily omitted in order to facilitate the style of the performance. (more…)

The Skinny Review

The Agent Ria explores the notion of mythology through four startlingly different short films. The notion of mythology is treated as a broad concept and one worthy of contemplation. (more…)

KYEO.tv

KYEO (Keep Your Eyes Open) interviews LoveFringe favourites Matt and Ian. Take a gander here

Then check out what audiences said about them on review site LoveFringe

Here we go! The site is about to undergo a rather large amount of updating over the next few days as we start to bring you all our fantastic shows for 2012.

With the big launch of the 2012 Edinburgh Festival Fringe almost upon us, it will be in all your interests to keep checking back here to find out more about our amazing productions and performers. Tickets will be on sale from the 31st of May, with our first shows beginning on the 2nd of August. We can’t wait to see you all at Sweet this year!

JD.

Broadway Baby

Scottish jazz singer Pam Lawson is joined by pianist Tom Finlay and double-bassist Ed Kelly for a musical celebration of the infamous partnership that was Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

Inspired by the Astaire and Rogers musicals, the setlist begins where they did, with ‘Flying Down to Rio’, before proceeding to pick out musical favourites chronologically from throughout their glittering Hollywood career. In between these crowd-pleasing numbers are little titbits of the history of Fred and Ginger.

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Three Weeks

To a soundtrack of cawing seagulls, gently lapping waves and Eric Coates’s ‘By The Sleepy Lagoon’, David Bottomley steps out onto his desert island and invites his audience to share in the music that shaped his life. A self-confessed ‘’nice guy’’, Bottomley is endearingly geeky and enthusiastic, using the premise of the long-running radio show as a vehicle for his dreamy poetic monologues and animated encounters with characters from his childhood. Naturally, it’s a format that works – ‘Desert Island Discs’ wouldn’t be one of the longest-running radio shows in history otherwise. As a result, though amusing and sometimes poignant, ‘Message In A Bottle’ is far from ground-breaking. It is, like its creator and inspiration, simply nice.

Rating 3/5

Read the original review here

Festival Journal

When a Fringe show carries the warning of some strong language in Edinburgh, you know you are not in for a family-friendly, easygoing account of Scottish history. Although the levels of imagery did not quite reach the levels of Frankie Boyle (although the take on Robert Burns’ poems came close) it is not something to recommend to a distant great aunt. Past the warning against the faint-hearted viewing this show, it could not have demonstrated Scottish humour any better.

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Castle FM Scotland

For all self-respecting Doris Day fans, Pam Lawson’s musical tribute presents her devotees with over an hour of her best-loved back catalogue of songs.

However, if you were expecting a slavish Doris Day impersonation, you will be somewhat disappointed. The agreeable Ms Lawson possesses a light voice that doesn’t in any way resemble Doris’s distinctive sound. But what she lacks in vocal range, she more than makes up with her whole-hearted commitment and devotion to her heroine’s musical legacy.

Doris Day’s duration and domination as a genuine Hollywood star lasted over two decades from 1948 – 1968. She made her debut (after signing a seven year contract with Warner Bros) with a frothy romantic melodrama entitled “Romance On The High Seas”. This film provided her with one of her most memorable signature tunes “It’s Magic”. And it was this song that Pam Lawson chose to kick start her tribute show.

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Three Weeks