February in frosty Scotland

Published: 1 February 2014
Reporter: Seth Ewin

War Horse at the Festival Theatre Credit: Brinkhoff Mögenburg
Paul Shelley as James Tyrone and Diana Kent as Mary Tyrone in Long Day's Journey into Night at the Lyceum Credit: Alan McCredie
Barry Humphries as Dame Edna in Eat, Pray, Laugh! at the Kings

Edinburgh Castle has a statue of Field Marshall Haig riding a horse, it's been moved to a fairly remote area with Haig's fall in popular opinion.

The horses of the war, which made Haig both famous and infamous, take centre stage at the Festival Theatre in War Horse. A beautiful heart-warming show, sadly sold out for the rest of its run. Well worth trying to get a return (on until 15 February).

Elsewhere in Edinburgh there are other serious dramas. At the Lyceum there is the relentless, but well performed Eugene O'Neill's Long Day's Journey Into Night about an American family's many problems (until 8 February). At the Playhouse a musical about the problems of South American government, Lloyd-Webber and Rice's Evita (until 8 February).

At the Traverse there is a lot happening with their annual festival of visual theatre Manipulate; the main focus is on puppetry, but there are also several films, work from across Europe and also the US (until 8 February).

At Summerhall they are reinventing the wheel with 1933: Eine Nacht Im Kabarett, a rather poor cousin to Kander and Ebb's work (until 2 February). On the 6th, though, there is Rantin, a co-production of National Theatre of Scotland and the Arches which looks very exciting and its worth checking their programme for later in the month.

Over in Glasgow at the Citizens Theatre, Twelfth Night is finishing tonight and Miss Julie (6-15 February) is about to start, Strindberg's steamy play will be transported to 1920s Scotland.

The Tron Theatre has This Wide Night (20 February to 15 March) a play about ex-cell mates directed by David Greig and starring Elaine C Smith.

At the Kings Theatre, Glasgow, there's high and low gender reversals with Barry Humphries: Eat Pray Laugh! a very fun farewell tour (11-15 February) and then Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake (18-22 February), that iconic version of Tchaikovsky’s ballet with the swans played by men.

In Aberdeen, the Lemon Tree is hosting several Manipulate festival shows and also Iron by local playwright Rona Munro (12-14 February).

Pitlochry Festival Theatre is hosting a Winter Words festival from 14 to 22 February featuring, among others, Neil Oliver.

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