5 STAR review by Bill Dunlop from The Edinburgh Guide - Posted on 09 August 2012​





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    "Take one expressive puppet head, a couple of pieces of cloth and you have a very remarkable show – you certainly have when Milena Mlianova is the puppeteer.

    First performed in 2009 while Milanova was completing a Master’s degree, Nikotine is based on what is known in English as ‘Smoking Is Bad For You’, a darkly golden piece by Anton Chekov.

Nikolai Nikolaievich has been ‘voluteered’ by his wife to deliver a lecture on the evil effects of tobacco, but we realise that it is at least as much the evil effects of his domineering wife that Nikolai suffers from.

In Milanova’s very capable hands, this Nikolai expresses some very Slavic personality traits, triumphant one moment, downcast the next, yet rising to almost every challenge except the one of finding a way out of his intolerable predicament.

    Throughout, this is puppetry of a very high order indeed, and Milanova’s considerable skills outshine those of many highly competent puppet companies.

    Getting ‘Nikolai’ to dance is but one of the highlights of this tight, short show, while the puppet’s outrageous flirtation with his puppeteer is a technical as well as visual delight.

    Although it will be clear by now that this reviewer was completely sold on this production, as Stewie Griffen of ‘Family Guy’ might have it, this really is ‘Such a good show!’

It’s other attraction amid a not always family-friendly Fringe, is that this is one that really could delight a family audience, with the proviso that those who prefer their offspring remain ignorant of the wicked weed might be perturbed by the wonderful smoke effect, whose creation I am unable to credit.

    In any event, these five stars are justly earned. Go see."



084 stars review by Martin Miller from Hairline posted on August 2012 



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    "Anton Chekhov’s infamous 1886 monologue, ‘On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco’, has long been thought of as a masterpiece: a one man play set in a lecture theatre that follows Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin. He is a keen smoker, and is being made by his cruel and over-bearing wife to discuss with us all the harmful damage smoking can cause. Though he can’t help but delay the lecture and discuss the real issue: that he is trapped in a loveless marriage and is desperate to leave.
Part farce, part comedy and by its final moments completely heartbreaking, Milena Milanova has adapted the piece and pulled it in a completely new direction by reshaping the story into a one woman/one puppet performance. As they converse with one another, it turns everything on its head, what at first is almost absurd grows into something beautifully funny and moving.
    Milanova gives a charismatic performance, and it is clear to all that she is deeply passionate about her play. But it is when she transforms into Ivan (in this adaptation Nicoli Nicotine) that the piece really comes to life. Her puppetry skills are excellent, using one hand to become the puppets head and the other to become his right hand: he gesticulates and moves with an incredibly life-like manner. Ivan/Nicoli feels like a real character and, it is able to break the audience’s heart by his final heart felt plea.
    Combining puppetry with some beautiful scenes of physical theatre, ‘Nikotine’ is at the same time sweet, unique and strangely addictive."

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Martin Miller