DOUGLAS FIELD relishes the hard-boiled language, satire and humour of the third and last of the Harlem trilogy
Edinburgh Festival
Roots
The Church Hill Theatre
★★★★
“A RATHER ragtag collection of folk jokes and stories” presented in “a combination of live music, pre-recorded stories voiced by non-actors, animation, acting and live dialogue.”
Writer Suzanne Andrade’s description of her production hardly captures what must be one of the most joyous shows in this year’s Edinburgh Festival.
The award-winning 1927 Theatre Company’s innovative style of melding images, reminiscent of black and white silent films — the company’s name gives a clue — with back and front projections, “colour” added by the marionette-like live performers, charms all but the most sophisticatedly resistant audiences back to the delights of childhood.
ANDY HEDGECOCK, MARIA DUARTE and ANGUS REID review Synthetic Sincerity, Our Hero, Balthazar, Heartstopper Forever, and A Year In London
PAUL FOLEY revels in the coolest, most joyful piece of theatre you’ll get this summer
MAYER WAKEFIELD recommends a musical ‘love letter’ to black power activists of the 1970s
SIMON PARSONS is beguiled by a dream-like exploration of the memories of a childhood in Hong Kong


