So I now appear to be available online as well as in print which is completely surreal.

You can compare and contrast if you have the energy...

Here is my Deep Cut review as trimmed down by the Eve News.

And this is what I actually said:

18 year old Private Cheryl James was one of four young soldiers found shot dead at Deepcut Barracks between 1995 and 2002. She had been an Army soldier for less than 6 months. All 4 deaths were recorded as suicides.

Deep Cut tells the story of the investigation surrounding her death through the eyes of her parents with contributing verbatim testimonies from a journalist, a forensics expert, a lawyer and a contemporary recruit.

Ralph’s play smartly and seamlessly interweaves material from interviews with James’ parents along with excerpts from reports, speeches, interviews and media coverage of the events surrounding the deaths. Treading a careful line between the facts and the human story, Deep Cut questions how this investigation could have been abandoned so inconclusively.

Mick Gordon’s sensitive direction prevents the play from sinking into the sentimental. Superb performances from Ciaran Mcintyre and Rhian Morgan as James’ parents convey a miserable stoicism as they battle for some kind of resolution. Rhian Blythe brings a lovely lightness of touch to her portrayal of Cheryl’s contemporary at the barracks, demonstrating that life there neither unremittingly miserable nor anywhere near perfect.

A compact set, skilfully manipulated by the cast, proves a convincing backdrop to what is both a heartrending personal story and a horrifying political one.

The announcement of the closure of Deepcut in January this year provides a neat post-script to a play commissioned in 2005. An uneventful announcement in a still unresolved case. The point that this play makes is consequently powerful. That in many cases, for many people, it’s easier not to find out what really happened. The real tragedy is the number of people left to deal with the consequences. Cheryl’s father has the last line of the play: “It stops when it’s over”. We can only hope that it isn’t yet.

The Gruffalo review is an even more brilliant exercise in editing.

I must be one of a very select band of people who have never read the enormously popular children’s book, ‘The Gruffalo’. But what a lovely introduction to the story this was.

This is the seventh year that Tall Stories have brought their sellout production to the Fringe and it’s clear why its popularity endures.

The cast’s enthusiasm is infectious. They bring enormous energy to the tale of the feisty mouse who invents a terrifying monster to ward off the threat of being eaten by a Cockney fox, a decorated owl and a salsa-loving snake. But then the Gruffalo appears in the flesh and the inventive mouse has to start improvising all over again to save herself from becoming mouse-aka.

Caroline Garland is a lovely mouse, bold enough to scare off the hungry fox but vulnerable enough for you to worry for her when the forest gets dark. Ross Hugill is an endearing narrator until he dons the Gruffalo suit and growls - but he still grins enough to calm the jumpiest children. Alex Scott Fairley does a brilliant job as the array of predators though my highlight was the bolero’d snake admiring himself in the mirror.

The clever script takes full advantage of the audience’s love for the book, giving them ample opportunity to tell the actors what happens next. A series of songs and musical pieces helps to keep the children entertained. A neat set that provides plenty of opportunities to hide the hazelnut, inventive costumes and imaginative lighting help to provide this production with plenty of light and shade.

By the end of the play, the mouse’s invitation to the audience to growl to frighten off the predators, is taken up as enthusiastically by the adults as the kids. A good indication of a production that thrills kids but still keeps adults very happily entertained.

Thank god he's reduced the word count.

Last night was a lovely production of Blue Remembered Hills by Edinburgh Theatre Arts. Starring as it turned out, Iain Kerr. It was very good. Go see.