YOUR GUIDE TO EDINBURGH'S FESTIVALS
This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
ED2016 4/5 Reviews ED2016 Theatre Reviews
Diary Of A Madman (Gate Theatre)
By Aida Rocci | Published on Friday 26 August 2016
In 1835, Nikolai Gogol wrote ‘Diary of a Madman’, the journal of a man in tsarist Russia descending into madness because of his hunger for notoriety. Almost two centuries later, Al Smith updates this famous story, in a genius adaptation that preserves the brilliance of the classic yet also feels new and relevant. In a post-Brexit Scotland (yes, it’s that current), Pop Sheeran’s job, like his ancestors’, is to permanently paint the Forth Bridge. But the weight of tradition might make his foundations crumble. Insightful and mordant, Smith’s ‘Diary of a Madman’ is more than a critique of Nationalism. It feels like a parable: there’s a bit of Pop in all of us, waiting to crack under our own beliefs.
Traverse Theatre, until 28 Aug.
tw rating 4/5 | [Aida Rocci]
