Craig Cathcart

Edinburgh Writer and Commentator

In 2001, Shen Wenrong, a child of the Cultural Revolution and all that followed, took his own great leap forward by audaciously purchasing and relocating an entire steel mill to remote northern China - from Dortmund, Germany.

Craig Cathcart

Edinburgh Writer and Commentator

As the last of this parade of misfits retreats behind the screen, the overwhelming feeling is of an actress not so much being loud for the crowd, but auditioning for a commissioning.

Craig Cathcart

Edinburgh Writer and Commentator

Steve Branch has come unstuck in time, has a liaison with an alien from another planet, and when he flits to the part of his (after) life where he is ...

Craig Cathcart

Edinburgh Writer and Commentator

Poor old Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll. As the famous movie phrase goes, when the legend becomes fact, print the legend. In this case, the legend has been staged, rather than printed - even if it makes its subject look like a mad, muse-hungry suspected paedo.

Benet Brandreth

Barrister and Raconteur

Clowns take themselves very seriously. Watch them bumble about on stage and you might not realise that later they will be loudly discussing the benefits of Lecoq's training over that of Gaulier with faces sterner than a slammed door.

Paul Dennis

Stand-up Comedian

You Shoulda Been Here Last Week is a standup showcase at the Fringe for newer acts. We do have occasional drop-in turns from semi-professionals but it's essentially an amateur (open-mic) event.

Ruth Dawkins

Parent and writer

There is a stack of empty pizza boxes by the front door, that haven't yet made it out to the recycling bins. Mounds of clean but unfolded laundry are piled high on every available surface. Our plates are shifted from dishwasher, to dinner table, and back to dishwasher again, without ever making it into the cupboards. Welcome to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Craig Cathcart

Edinburgh Writer and Commentator

Reliving killer lines got this reviewer thinking: can you - should you - claim authorship of something, the form and dramatic thrust of which are largely not your own? Is this merely the all-embracing apology for cultural retreads that is postmodernism, or should we be more upfront about it, lest it be called parasitical piggybacking? Why have your own gripping plot and sizzling dialogue, when you can borrow some of the best ever, rebox it as "homage", and watch the punters roll in?