Edinburgh Festival Theatre

Edinburgh Festival Theatre review

The EFT began life as the Empire Palace Theatre, playing host to the biggest old-time variety stars during its early years. By the mid-1980s, it was another story; then the run-down Empire bingo hall, it suffered the indignity of staging shows by the likes of trash-sleaze merchants the Cramps. However, in 1994 major restoration turned the EFT into the most opulent of commercial receiving houses, with one of the biggest dance stages in the UK. Its programme includes a mixture of dance, opera and large-scale theatrical productions, and it's always a major venue for opera and dance during the Edinburgh International Festival.