TheatreEddys Goes to the 79th Annual Edinburgh Fringe Festival
Mini-Reviews of 41 Shows Attended August 19-28, 2026
Nothing in the world of performing arts approaches what Edinburgh produces each year during its 3.5 weeks of the Fringe (not to mention the parallel Edinburgh International Arts Festival). The final statistics of the 2026 Fringe are in:
– 2, 805, tickets issued.
– 4132 shows in the categories of theatre, musicals, operas, stand-up comedy, cabaret/variety, circus, dance, spoken word, and children’s shows.
– 306 venues (most within walking distance of each other).
– 61,277 performances performed by 334 artists from 77 countries.
We were lucky to attend 41 performances of theatre, opera and musicals. Because we were for the next month-and-a-half hiking and touring around the UK and Europe, I am just now publishing my mini reviews. But because I believe many of these deserve additional outings (and hoping some will make their way eventually to Bay Area stages), here goes my summaries and ratings.
By the way, because this year was my eighth time to attend the Fringe, I have learned the venues and companies that I tend to rate high. I was not disappointed at all this year, with almost all shows Hernan and I saw being rated 4 or 5 E’s.
THE 5 E, MUST-SEE’S (in no particular order)
The Man Who Thought He Knew Too Much
The Voloz Collection
Pleasance Courtyard
It’s early November, 1963; and Roger likes order in his life. Everyday he awakes, dresses, leaves his apartment, rides the bus, gets his Starbucks, and arrives at work at exactly the same time. He then creates to the adoration of his team advertising quips and slogans for client companies.
That is until one day after a massive explosion his office and colleagues are no more; and Roger is literally running for his life trying to find out what happened and why.
A whodunnit musical like maybe none audiences have ever seen, The Man Who Knew Too Much is a tense and hilarious musical where with Roger (Paul Lofferon) as the star and three other cast members (Sam Raynem Emily Wheatman, Olivia Zerphy) who play dozens of parts while also becoming bridges and buildings; trains, planes, and rockets; and both fish and fowl. In doing so, they utilize almost no props save pages from a newspaper and their own fingers, feet, arms, and torsos to create entire scenes while also acting as ongoing narrators of Roger’s multi-continent adventures. Physical acrobatics and antics abound throughout, and hilarity is the rule of the day for us as audience.
Frederick Waxman is the fifth member of the cast, providing keyboard magic and special effects galore in his music, vocals, and occasional drop-in roles.
And in the end, Roger helps change history for the better on November 22, 1963 … at least in this wonderfully entertaining and engaging romp of a mystery.
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Scaramouche Jones and the Seven White Masks
Guy Masterson Presents Passion Pit Theatre
Assembly
As the final minutes of the twentieth century approach with the firework celebrations of a new millennium, white-faced, red-nosed Scaramouche Jones takes his final bows as a performing clown, only to stumble backstage as he nears his 100th birthday and his own hour of final transition from life to death.
Born in Trinidad at the dawn of the twentieth century as the bastard son of his Black mother, Scaramouche delighted her as a child with a face as pale as the island’s ocean foam, a face as white as the unknown English sailor who was one of her many nightly paid hook-ups. He is so white she names the boy Scaramouche (a white-faced, stock clown character of the 16th century).
What follows is a tour de force, jaw-dropping recounting of a life’s journey across one ocean, two continents, and multiple countries by writer/performer Justin Butcher as he plays the soon-to-be both the centenarian and the deceased Scaramouche. The travels and travesties, the adventures and agonies, and the tales full of both humor and horror keep us enthralled and entranced through each of the one-hander’s ninety minutes. Directed by multiple-Olivier-winning Guy Masterson, Scaramouche’s tale is accompanied by impressive lighting, sound, and video effects in a tent-setting as a boy-then-man searches the world an entire century for a homeland and a father while also surviving slavery, prisons, and a Nazi death camp before masking himself for 50years as a mute clown.
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Cathy
Written and Directed by Eilidh Loan
Traverse Theater
Based on her own grandmother, Eilidh Loan writes and directs the world premiere of Cathy, a dark comedy packed with biting laugh-out-loud humor and an increasingly touching story full of genuine heart.
The death of Cathy’s husband of fifty years — Tommy who died of cancer after Cathy had survived her own cancer — ignites long-simmering tension between the widow and her daughter Flo (Michele Gallagher).
Cathy (Elaine C. Smth), a devout Catholic who is not shy of using the f-word in most sentences, has no patience for the sobbing grief of her daughter (Michele Gallagher as Flo) for the husband that Cathy actually loved dearly. Cathy also has her opinions ready to give freely about her very pregnant, unmarried granddaughter Amy (Chloe Hodgson) and no time for her Protestant son’s wise cracks (Alan Orr as Colin).
A drop-in visit to the Cancer Charity shop where Amy works with crystal-wearing Lizzie (Sally Reid) begins to work its magic, and the laugh-a-minute comedy takes an unexpected turn to become an emotional, Christmas -time reconciliation and the promise of a new life. Jaw-dropping performances, an eye-popping scenic design, and a script that pulls at heart-strings while tickling the ribs makes Cathy some of the best sixty-five minutes we spent at this year’s Fringe.
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The Last Days of Liz Truss?
Greg Wilkinson
The Space at Surgeon’s Hall
As she waits in her office at Number 10 for the knock on the door to usher her out of office as Prime Minister, Liz Truss reminisces about her life, her rise to power, and her tenure in office — at 55 days the shortest of any P.M. in English/UK history. However, Greg Wilkinson makes it clear by the title of his new play, The Last Days of Liz Truss?, that Liz definitely has plans to come back … maybe as a corporate officer to a certain blonde-haired Donald who pictures himself someday as CEO of the entire world.
In a tour-de-force one-hander, Emma Wilkinson Wright is a savvy and sassy Liz who is sure-fired confident of being right in her conservative beliefs, even if there have been a catastrophic set-back in her career. Even as she discusses her ups and downs, her Liz displays freely her life-of the-party side, especially when she takes up a karaoke mike. Tragedy and comedy walk hand-in-hand in her fast-paced romp through her days of lead-up and tenure as P.M. A supporting cast of recorded voice-overs of the famous and the occasional unknown supporter are performed in a myriad of accents and styles by impressionist Steve Nallon.
Emma Wilkinson Wright captures the awkwardness of Truss with her near-bow-legged walking style and an excitable, almost manic set of behaviors she so quickly displays in one moment and then hides the next. One has to hope that Liz Truss does re-emerge at some point in the form of Emma Wilkinson Wright, whom if politics do not work out, she will certainly by massively entertaining.
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Bliss the Musical
Emma Lively and Tyler Beattie (Book, Music & Lyrics)
Pleasance Courtyard
From ATG Productions and Olivier-winning creators Emma Lively and Tyler Beattie comes a new musical, Bliss, that clearly has West End and Broadway ambitions. Four princesses have spent their childhoods locked away in a tower by an overly protective yet loving royal father — each under his daily tutoring becoming a prodigy in her own right. The mathematician among the four has predicted that tonight a great comet not seen in 2000 years will pass through the skies, something they will miss seeing while locked away in their childhood, tower fortress.
Each with soaring voices that zing with power and punch, the girls sing of their teenage plights and hopes for their futures. Creating a way to escape the tower and their watchful father, the quartet enters a world of magical forests, prancing unicorns, and a rock-star-singing prince who is looking for his future queen, accompanied by his court of dancing jesters and a fairy godfather. The prince finds hope in this group of princesses of making one of them happy ever after — or maybe not.
In every respect — voices, choreography, lighting, staging, comic antics, and storyline — Bliss the Musical is a sure-fire winner that turns traditional fairy tales upside down in which four princesses discover there is more to happily ever after than finding a prince.
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THE OTHER 5 E’s (in no particular order)
Ludwig: Unfinished Business
Guy Masterson Presents Mike Hatchard
Assembly
Sitting at his keyboard with his fingers rarely leaving the keys during the ninety minutes we, his audience, listen spellbound, Mike Hatchard is 57-year-old Ludwig Beethoven as the renowned composer provides with sparkle and spunk the secrets of his — and his rivals– lives.
With a virtuoso’s grace and skill and hardly glancing at the ivories, Ludwig plays both snippets and entire segments of his most famous sonatas and symphonies while also delving into the music of the likes of Hayden, Schubert, Bach, and of course his most detested (and admired) colleague — the now dead Mozart. The anecdotes, confessions, and gossip are non-stop as the wonderful music is performed. The result is a ninety minutes that fly by way too fast as we sit mesmerized by this fast-paced, compelling, and altogether fascinating Ludwig: Unfinished Business directed by multiple-Olivier-winning Guy Masterson.
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Carnegie
Ian Hammond Brown
Edinburgh Little Theatre at Braw Venues
Andrew Carnegie lies in his death bed with only two hours left in his life. In that time, an aggrieved, former employee has been given the power to decide Carnegie’s afterlife fate. Before that monumental decision, he must witness a synopsis of the life of the relentlessly driven tycoon who becomes the richest man on earth and also establishes a philanthropic endowment that to this day that still awards millions of dollars each year to science, education, medicine, and much more.
A cast of eleven from Edinburgh Little Theatre present Ian Hammond Brown’s musical, Carnegie, with voices that individually ring true and collectively harmonize with much resound. While lyrics are sometimes a bit trite as they strive to rhyme, the words are clear to understand; and the musical biography is intriguing, educational, and engaging.
Especially commanding in his performance is Luis Garrow’s portrayal of Andrew Carnegie. With a voice that soars in notes full of the emotions, ambitions, and desires of the man we follow from boyhood to death, Luis Garrow is deeply effective in revealing the good and not-so-good of the man whose name we still associate with so much generosity that his many sins seeded.
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Almost Everything
Lauren Barrie & Ben McGuinness
Braw Venues
Charlie — a young and promising architect — is seeking a flatmate to fill a void left by a brother (and boyhood hero) who is no longer living with him. Something about ‘Becca strikes his fancy; and even though her only income is a student loan, he is willing to take a chance that she can pay her rent and provide him some company.
Ben McGuinness (Charlie) and Lauren Barrie (‘Becca) star in their new drama, Almost Everything, a gripping roller-coaster of emotions about the complications of relationships, love, betrayal, and forgiveness — ups and downs that become steeper with ‘Becca’s older sister, Emily (Imogen Eden-Brown), makes a surprise appearance after traveling the world and making herself absent from ‘Becca for several years.
With a script that is snarky, snappy, and sizzling that grabs at heart strings and will not let go, Almost Everything draws both laughs and tears and is in the end, full of heart. This is a new play with much promise for further productions.
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I, Claudius: Parts I & II
Adapted for the Stage by Jonathan Whiteside from Jack Pulman’s 1976 BBC Adaptation of I, Claudius based on the book by Robert Graves
Strawmoddie Theatre Company at the Royal Scots Club
The final five emperors of the Roman Empire — Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero — are given a deliciously devilish, soap-opera-worthy, but historically quite accurate treatment in Strawmoddie Theatre Company’s I, Claudius: Parts I & II.
This stage version of the popular BBC series is totally captivating for every minute of its near-five-hours. A cast of nineteen is to a person superb in their primary and/or combined roles (with many playing as many as nine parts across the 78 years spanning 24 BCE to 54 CE).
Particularly outstanding is the near-deaf, stuttering narrator, Claudius (Timothy Bond), whom we follow from boyhood to his death bed. In addition, his evil beyond belief grandmother, Livia — who murders through the decades husband, children, grandchildren, and more — is wickedly and wonderfully portrayed by Lucy Hagan-Walker. With a larger than life presence and eyes that bulge and pop with expression, command, and emotion is Ben Blow as Augustus, emperor for forty years. Overall, the entire production is one to be long-remembered in every respect.
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Mrs. Sterns Wanders the Prussian State Library
Jenny Lyn Bader
Traverse Theatre
1933 Berlin: Laws are changing daily; suspicions are rising in every corner — even in a library. Philosophy PhD scholar, Hannah, loves spending her days wandering the rooms stacked with books and doing research for her latest book about a young Jewish girl from the 1700s. At the same time, she is looking for a recipe for a pear strudel to make for her mother’s upcoming birthday.
However, her curiosity comes under suspect of a librarian, an informant for the upstart Nazis; and Hannah now finds herself in a German jail cell — the first arrest of a young officer, Karl, just promoted from the criminal to the political division. As Karl interrogates Hannah about her possible association with Zionists and about a suspicion of her sending examples of antisemitism articles to be published abroad, the two find they have more in common than might be expected — knowledge and love of Latin, willingness to probe philosophical topics, and a sense of comfort in sharing deep conversations even under these tense circumstances.
Reprising their roles from the recent off-Broadway run of Jenny Lyn Bader’s Mrs. Sterns Wanders the Prussian State Library, both Ella Kaille and Brett Temple are stellar in the roles of Hannah and Karl, respectively. This true-life story of the German-born historian and philosopher Hannah Arendt is a tense, political thriller with heart and humor peaking through the life-and-death decision to be made by the young Nazi who is weighing how much risk he can take to save his first arrest.
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After Party
Morna Young
Paines Plough and Traverse Theatre
Former film great and flamboyant Vivienne Blackwood is turning eighty, and she wants her family with her for the celebration of a lifetime. But her corporate-raiding son and her born-again, Bible-thumping daughter have not talked to each other in years, and each holds deep resentment for a movie-making mother who was never at home as they grew up. Add in a grandson — though dating a famous singer — who cowers pitifully when near a religious mom who condemns his girlfriend for her wicked songs. There is also a 15-year-old granddaughter who is has a baby in her tummy that no one knows about.
Put all that together, and Morna Young provides all the ingredients needed for a family-in-chaos comedy set against an announcement by the grand matriarch that is about to cause a tornado’s swirling reactions. Oh, and there is also the fact that the son’s first of several wives has been and is the secret lover for the past two decades of the octogenarian Vivienne.
Fireworks galore explode as a champagne bottle is popped for celebratory toasts that no one is too inclined to make. A bitingly sharp and wicked through-and-through world premiere provides a heartfelt and meaningful lesson how to take control of one’s life even when all around are those who demand to be in the driver’s seat.
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The Singer
Cora Bissett (Writer & Director)
Traverse Theatre
One-hit-wonder songwriter and nightclub performer Andy (Dylan Wood) has hit the skids and is on the street with only his guitar, half-dead phone, and the clothes on his back. By chance, he meets Joe (Jamie Rea), a deaf songwriter who dreams of breaking out into more mainstream performing venues beyond his job as director of a deaf choir. Joe invites Andy to his place for a beer and a chance to witness how he ‘listens’ to music surrounded by massive speakers and a special jacket he wears to feel the vibrations.
With a script by Cora Bissett (who also directs) that unveils a story of discovery, creation, synergy, and musical miracles, The Singer is a thrilling ninety minutes of live theatre in which we as audience witness with our eyes, ears, and hearts the music of Scottish songwriter KT Tunstall. The Grammy-nominated music of Tunstall comes to full life as Joe and Andy form a unique team to take Joe’s lyrics and sense of beat and put them into the sung notes by Andy. As Andy sings, deaf-actor Joe beautifully and emotionally signs the words in his way of ‘singing’ the music.
But in the course of their magical collaboration, life happens, temptations arise, and a possible tragedy lands hard. Joe and Andy face figuring out what is really important in their individual and joint lives. The Singer is truly a unique evening of live theatre of great story-telling and uplifting, heart-pounding music.
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Brodie and Company
Helen Brown and John Moore
1552 Productions (Shrewsbury School) at Sanctuary at Paradise in Augustines
In 1750 Edinburgh, the grey-stoned city is one of two contrasting halves — the elite in their powdered wigs, elaborate gowns, and fancy cravats and those who scamble to find ways to survive the streets, dance halls, and houses of ill repute. One man, William Brodie, thrives in both halves as a respected cabinet maker and tradesman by day and a thief by night — the latter supporting his addiction to gambling.
Inspired by a true story, Helen Brown and John Moore have composed a world-premiere musical, Brodie and Company, that ripples with an enticing story, soaring anthems, and fun-filled ditties along with a fabulously talented cast of fifteen from Shrewsbury School.
The cast sports voices that are resoundingly powerful, expressive, and often downright astounding along with the abilities to dance, act, and sell their authenticity as dilettantes, drunks, and dreamers. A band of seven brings zeal and heart to the underlying score. Particularly impressive are the production aspects of this Fringe offering: Costumes, accessories, make-up, and wigs/hair are all period perfect even when viewed only inches away from the first row of audience members.
With lean-in intrigue, a love triangle, lurking danger, riotous hilarity, and threats of death all threaded into the 90-minute storyline, Brodie and Company is another Shrewsbury world premiere success in a long history of their Fringe musicals.
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Macbeth — Blood and Bluegrass
The Barden Party
The Space at Surgeon’s Hall
Gather round the campfire — a large, lit drum — and ready yourself for a toe-tapping, heart-pumping, laugh-out-loud revisit of the Bard’s dark and bloody Macbeth. New Zealand’s The Barden Party call upon the likes of Mumford and Son, Albi and the Wolves, Dolly Parton, and Noah Kohan to provide a romping stomping, bluegrass and American beat and sound to Shakespeare’s famous tragedy, exposing the emotions, conflicts, inner thoughts, and love connections among its famous characters.
Conceived in the backyard by a group of traveling troubadours during COVID when all were out of work, this gripping, eye-opening, and insightful relook at Macbeth features dynamic and poetic acting, arrestingly powerful voices and a variety of string and percussion instruments played by the actors themselves. Costumes whose threads and styles bear both Scottish Highlands and American West looks, minimal but powerful props and scenic elements that could easily be part of a traveling troupe’s sets along with lighting and sound effects to reflect the required dark story’s atmosphere complete the picture.
But the crowning effect is a switching of genders among the key principals — from the royals to the ‘dreaded sisters.’ That casting opens up entirely new meanings and possibilities to the words made so famous by the witches, Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and more.
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Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin
Marcel Cole
Pleasance Dome
The 1925 silent film Gold Rush comes to life as Charlie Chaplin jumps off the screen onto the intimate stage in front of us, twirling his cane, flittering his eyelids, and stunning us with his moves of mime. The sequence of film scenes is just the first of three parts of Marcel Cole’s extraordinary performance of his written
Smile: The Story of Charlie Chaplin.
Pulling out a copy of the master performer’s autobiography, Cole’s Chaplin takes us back to his childhood of poverty, introducing us to his mother, brother, and others key to the years leading up to his finally being noticed on the Vaudeville stage by a Hollywood movie producer.
By the now-classic, 1925 film, Chaplin is the world’s most famous person. With the advent of talkies, Chaplin has his own movie company and refuses to let audiences hear his voice. The third part of the hour-long story outlines the events from the ’30’s to his death in 1977 — a life exceedingly remarkable and not without much controversy and even a rejection of his American residency.
Throughout, Marcel Cole enchants, enlightens, and entertains all in the style, quirks, and manners we all know as those that only the greatest clown and mime of all time could do.
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Hercules: Of Men and Beasts
The Barden Party
The Space at Niddry Street
Greek mythology blends with 1940s Hollywood aesthetic as the New Zealand troupe, The Barden Party, premieres a musically engaging exploration of the darker side of the half-human, half-god hero of all times, Hercules. With the strength to fight and defeat legions as well as wild beasts, Hercules must also ward off the curses of his step-mother, Hera, who is eternally upset with her husband and Hercules’ father, Zeus, who has fathered many offspring as he descends from Olympus to roam among earth’s female beauties. For Hera, Hercules is a particular target because of his super-human powers and his desire to marry her most faithful and innocent follower, Megara.
A cast of four excel vocally and in their dynamic portrayals as directed so astutely in the round by Laura Irish. A full band scape of folk music is created by one musician (Ollie Howlett) using a 4-track loop pedal.
The hour-long, poetic script lays bare the struggle Hercules faces between his mortal and heavenly halves. As Hercules, Caleb James shakes the rafters with a voice superb and a presence astounding as the would-be hero fights his drive for revenge on one hand and his longing for love on the other while also facing his fears, vulnerabilities, and regrets. Of Men and Beasts is Part One of a relook at Hercules, with Part Two, Of Gods and Men, to be premiered at the 2027 Fringe.
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MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical
Lisa Sanderson (Lead Writer); Hanna Andréa (Music & Lyrics)
LDK Productions at Underbelly at Bistro Square
Young Will is not yet known as either The Bard or even as Shakespeare, and he is facing a huge dilemma that is tearing him apart. A publisher has agreed to print one and only one of his plays; but with stacks of finished works scattered about his study, Will cannot decide which to choose.
In the dark of night and from the pages of the plays swarm in with egos full of dramatic flairs some of his leading characters — each ready to make the case of “why me!” Quoting from the lines he has given them and fully displaying their penned personalities, each pleads and coerces their creator to be the first play printed and does so singing the telling, impactful lyrics and rock-infused notes by Hanna Andréa.
Included among them are royals (the Macbeths, Leer, and Cleopatra), some of Will’s most famous women (Beatrice, Portia, and Juliet), and the one who constantly taunts and teases Will while trying to trick him to no end (Puck). Intrigue builds as swords, wits, bribery, and guilt are brought to bear; and comedy reigns supreme throughout the mayhem.
This new musical by Lisa Sanderson (lead writer) and directed by Mindy Cooper definitely has seeds to become someday a major, big-stage musical.
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Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie
Woodrow Theatrical
Underbelly at Bistro Square
A cast of four arrestingly talented musicians and actors playing fifteen instruments ranging from guitar/banjo to bass fiddle, juice harp, dulcimer, and spoons play a host of roles as they tell the life story of the man many see as the original folk singer in America, Woody Guthrie. From the pages of Woody’s scores of published columns in American newspapers to live snippets of his many radio broadcasts emerges this musical biography of the man who becomes a life-long advocate for the poor working class, for union workers, and for anyone looking out for the oppressed of society.
With voices and instruments that send audience toes tapping, hearts pumping, and spirits soaring, the cast is nothing short of stellar. Twenty-five of Woody’s songs are featured — many leading to our swaying to the ballads, nodding vigorously to the hard-hitting rhythms, and even singing along to the most familiar. From his tough childhood to his years of roaming the country looking for work to his decades of fame and controversy, Woody Guthrie comes alive in Woodrow Theatrical’s production of Woody Sez: The Life and Music of Woody Guthrie.
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Giuseppe Verdi
Zurich Opera House as a Part of the Edinburgh International Festival
Originally conceived to be a mirror to current European politics following the 1792 assassination of Sweden’s King Guster III, Giuseppe Verdi was forced to move the location of his A Masked Ball from Italy to late eighteen-century Boston, Massachusetts, with the King named Ricardo now becoming a Governor. In its spectacularly staged, musically magnificent, and completely captivating production, Zurich Opera House under the imaginative direction of Adele Thomas relocates the story to America’s Gilded Age, a time of great transition from the trauma and division of the Civil War to the optimism and opportunities of a nation ready to soar ahead.
Verdi’s Ricardo is himself a leader seemingly on the cusp of greatness but is caught in a web both woven by his own demise and by the tension and divisions of the society around him.
Radiant clarity as well as stirring and soaring are the adjectives that best describe all the principals’ vocals as well as those of the harmoniously glorious chorus of sixty. Coupled with the award-winning director’s commanding direction of the massive Zurich Opera Orchestra, Verdi’s music is given absolutely its full due and more. The result of all is a night of live opera that is magical and long memorable.
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THE 4.5 E’s (in no particular order)
Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia
Tony Kushner
International Theatre Amsterdam as Part of the Edinburgh International Festival
A radical reworking of Tony Kushner’s revolutionary play, Angels in America — one now 35 years since its groundbreaking premiere — has been awarded the playwright’s praise as his favorite production ever of the play. Set on a minimal stage with a David Bowie soundtrack playing throughout, both parts of the original play are combined for one epic, five-hour-plus evening as International Theatre Amsterdam presents Angels in America: A Gay Fantasia.
For the largely English-speaking audience attending this Edinburgh International Festival production, the challenge in this Dutch/Hebrew version is following on one of three supertitle screens the rapid-firing, powerful words of Kushner while also wanting never to take our eyes from the stellar, raw, mind-blowing performances of this exceptional cast on a stage void of props save a round table where Bowie albums are played. As in most productions, it is the devil incarnate himself — the actor playing Roy Cohn — who near steals the show as he storms, shocks, and sizzles in his every appearance. The horrors of the AIDS years unfold as does the humanity that emerges from often the most unlikely sources.
One missing element from most past productions — a descending angel — is replaced by a male nurse in all white. While a meaningful statement and tribute to the profession, I sorely missed seeing the wings come down from above.
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CAMPITALISM Three Gays Try to Fix the Economy
Maria Telnikoff, Kit Miles & Cherry Eckel (Creators & Actors)
BOY Theatre & Curve Theatre at Pleasance Courtyard
A lesson in financial literacy and the state of capitalism in the world post 2008 is the classroom we find ourselves witnessing in CAMPITALISM Three Gays Try to Fix the Economy. In one hour, three women in drag all playing a maniac capitalist named Brian and are our professors. The class is one where political satire, slapstick comedy, and physical shenanigans thrive — all with a decidedly queer bite that grabs and grinds its targets.
But in the midst of all the hilarity, each drag star tells a personal, true-to-them story of how today’s world of finance has deeply affected their life. In those stories, CAMPITALISM becomes heart-rendering and heart-breaking while in the end, also totally uplifting.
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Mohan: A Partition Story
Niall Moorjani
Jasmine Cole Productions at Pleasance Courtyard
In 1947, India gained its independence; but for twelve million people — three million who died — that freedom meant upheaval and disaster. One eleven-year-old survivor who eventually found his way to England only after horrifying twists and turns in his journey lives to marry, have two children, and four grandchildren.
One grandson, Niall Moorjani, personally and powerfully relates his grandfather’s true story in Mohan: A Partition Story while also cleverly and compassionately outlining the history of the partition that led to the current India and Pakistan border — a border that almost 70 years later still leads to ongoing conflict and death. Moorjani’s story is particularly moving as he becomes his grandfather to tell in first-person the man’s incredible life history. The result of the hour is an audience much more informed and educated as well as moved deeply.
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1918: The Final Salomé
Lily Zhang
Carfax Productions at Greenside at George Street
While the title of Lily Zhang’s new play, 1918: The Final Salomé, refers to the London prosecution of actress Maud Allen in order to halt her production of Oscar Wilde’s Salomé, the well-acted, lean-in, and engaging play zeroes in on the life-long battle of Robert “Robbie” Ross as he tries to fight against Wilde’s defamation and the many legal indictments to destroy his writings. To that end, this University of Oxford award winning new play by Carfax Productions is blessed with a stellar, tear-at-your-heartstrings performance by Peregrine Neger as Robbie as well the engaging and oft-electric narrator role played by George Loynes as Wilde’s son.
The emotional bond between Oscar and his former lover Robbie is palpable in the tears that well in Robbie’s eyes as he recalls his life history with Wilde. His every mannerism speaks of a man who purposively stays in the shadows to protect Wilde’s name as best as he can and to secure Wilde’s legacy.
Other characters come and go in the short play’s packed 55 minutes — some who worship and praise Wilde and some who fervently and righteously condemn him and want to destroy all his works. With other cast members often playing multiple roles, there can be some confusion as to who is who as names are tossed around that challenge all but Wilde scholars.
However, the gist of the storyline about Ross’s life and sacrifice shines through, making 1918: The Final Salomé a thoroughly educating and entertaining near-hour of live theatre.
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Spring Awakening
Duncan Shiek (Music); Steven Sater (Book & Lyrics)
KGS Theatre Company at Surgeon’s Hall
Based on a 1891 controversial play by German playwright Frank Wedekind, Duncan Shiek (music) and Steven Sater’s (book and lyrics) 2006 premiering, multi-Tony-Award-winning Spring Awakening is a stirring, alternative-rock musical exploring late 19th century repression and suppression of high schoolers searching for answers to their sexual and emotional questions while also experiencing powerful first loves. The timeless nature of parents and educators who for the most part refuse to listen and to respond to these pressing questions of the youth around them speaks loud and clear to our own times as much as to the small town, German setting of the musical where Lutheran theology and conservative values rule the day. The confusion and angst as well as the emerging curiosity rising from raging teen hormones ring forth in songs that speak of the frustration, the excitement, and the tragic loneliness/withdrawal these teens are experiencing.
The young, 16-person cast of KGS Theatre Company impressively take up their mikes and sing with passion and exuberance. While not every voice is quite at the maturity level to do the all the songs full justice, individually and collectively the final result is a credible, moving rendering of a coming of age story where teen self-discovery comes at a great price due to the ignorance of the adult world around them.
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THE 4 E’s (in no particular order)
Of Mice and Men
Nigel Miles-Thomas, Stage Adaption of John Steinbeck’s Novel
Fringe Management at Assembly
In adapting John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men to only the essential two characters of George and Lenny, Nigel Miles-Thomas strips away any distractions to magnify the heart and compassion between the two immigrant field workers in the midst of the Great Depression of the ’30s. As the play’s adapter and director, Miles-Thomas displays a keen and sensitive eye for the pathos of this complex relationship.
Michael Roy Andrew excels as the sharp-witted, oft-cynical, and sometimes quick-tempered George whose heart is huge and his loyalty is unyielding for the simple-minded, sweet, and super-powerful in muscles Lenny, played with endearing innocence by the play’s adapter and director.
Many of the essential characters of Steinbeck’s full novella are referenced in third-party conversations — mostly by George — and the honed-down script works well for anyone familiar with the original book or the movies/plays that have since been filmed/staged. For the first-time audience member (like my companion), this edited, focused Of Mice and Men is still powerfully, emotionally impactful while also at times difficult to understand in full.
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Cruising
Katrina Bennett
Dreambite Collective at Pleasance Courtyard
When a Broadway wannabe Amelia — now dancing in a Mediterranean cruise’s chorus line — meets over several margaritas a queer, climate activist Sam who has big dreams of taking over the luxury ship in protest, anything can happen. That is especially true when they find out they are both in the open relationship with the same person. Their polyamorous leanings soon turn toward each other, with Katrina Bennett’s Cruising becoming a hoot of a romcom turned sideways, upside down, and inside out. Clare Stenning as Amelia and Davy Roderick as Sam each provide special comic performances that zing with the feel of spontaneity.
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Introductions
Martin Green (Writer & Composer)
Marnie and Martin Productions at Braw Venues
After bemoaning a series of one-time dates that go nowhere, Dylan (Ross Jamieson) meets Paige (Abbie Lois); and the two immediately connect. The only catch is that she is woke and feminist, and Dylan is a good, ol’ boy, Tory conservative. As their dates accumulate and he meets her friends, family, and co-workers — all liberal to the hilt — he decides to fake it and become on the sly a radical lefty. But how long can he hold on to this down and low deceit?
While two other cast members (Edan Glennie and Danielle Claire O’Hare) shine time and again in the multiple parts they undertake, it is Jamieson’s and Lois’ vocals, dance moves, and stage presence that dominates from beginning to end.
With music and songs by Martin Green that together are clever and cute as well as fun and funny, Introductions is a new musical romcom that — in American terms — asks if blue and red can ever actually merge into purple bliss.
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Supposing
Zinnie Harris
Traverse Theatre
On her way to the theatre, Sally falls down a manhole; and while the medics assure her that she is OK, suddenly her life becomes a Greek play with a 17-voice Chorus giving her direction and advice and with her hearing about things that are going to happen to other people. Nicole Cooper as Sally tries her best to explain to us what is happening to her while also constantly repeating things she knows to be true (“I’m allergic to cheese;” “I hate frogs;” “Trump is shit”).
Is she mad? Is she suddenly blessed with a new gift? Or has her past depression come back in a new, bizarre form? And why will her husband of fourteen years (Richard, played by Richard Conlon) keep hesitating to go tell that woman next door that she has cancer or to find somewhere in the City an immigrant woman who is pregnant and may lose her child? After all, Sally knows both are true.
Playwright and director Zinnie Harris presents the work premiere Supposing as we as audience struggle along with Sally to figure out what is real and what is imagined. We also watch Sally and Richard weave through their increasing relationship strains while they also negotiate the political tensions of a rising alt right, of immigrants increasingly viewed as targets, and of a general wave of violence in the society around them.
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Pilgrims
Elinor Cook
City Lit Theatre at Greenside at George Street
Dan and Will climbed Mt. Everest at the age of 18 and have been mountaineering and pursuing peaks around the world ever since. Their climbs and partnership hits a snag when they meet PhD literature candidate, Rachel, with each seeking a victory with her that does not include the other. But as Rachel navigates back and forth over time her and their relationships, the question arises if she really wants to be the prize that one guy wins. What does it say about herself if she does?
Elinor Cook’s Pilgrims challenges the notion that a happy ending needs always to be a boy meets girl in a script that frequently breaks time and geography boundaries where each third of this triangle must watch (often painfully) the other two in their intimate interactions and where a tragedy may in fact be the liberating key for at least one happy ending .
Adam Radford both directs and plays Will with flushed cheeks and persistently insecure tendencies that seem as if he is always about to cry out in desperation. Robert Thomas is a sometimes brute, sometimes cocky, and sometimes teddy bear Dan while Rebecca Barbos is the scholar who sacrifices her dreams of the mind for those of the heart, only to find out what she really wants in life.
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Copycat
Joe Sellman-Leava
Worklight Theatre at Pleasance Dome
Employing innovative technology and a host of amazingly executed impressions, Joe Sellman-Leava uses his performance wit and his intellectual insights based on much research to get our attention and educate us about AI and its increasing connection to the growth of global fascism. His non-stop, engaging banter is a whirlwind of quotes, AI history, recent developments, and possible near-term, disastrous effects of AI on our world.
Joe’s uses of impressions makes a powerful point: When we see him imitate another person, we realize easily and immediately that of course it is only an impression. However, the impersonation of a person, an event, or a supposed ‘fact’ by AI is all but impossible for us to know what is real, what is truth, and what value system is in control.
The hour passes quickly, with our being both entertained and left with much to think about.
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2 Shoulder Pads: Galaxy Train
Maruichiro Maruo
Underbelly Colgate
A classic, Japanese tale — “Night on the Galactic Railroad by Kenji Miyazawa — springs to life in a form playful, titillating, and oft eye-popping as five men wearing nothing but a crotch-covering (barely) shoulder pad joyfully prance, mime, sing, dance, and somersault/vault their way through the fantasy story of interstellar flight.
With antics full of slapstick and athleticism, with choreographed moves that tease and amaze, and with facial expressions that pop and zing to show their emotions, the cast of five brings an energy that electrifies the small stage in their adaptation of this well-known (to Japanese) tale.
The story is of a poor boy whose father is missing at sea and whose mother is sick and unable to support him. Horribly bullied and abused by other boys, Giovanni has only one true friend, Companella, with whom he dreams of traveling through the galaxy on a train. That wish comes true one night for the two of them, and off they go into the heavens on a mystical and marvelous journey.
While humor abounds, 2Shoulder Pads rendering also captures beautifully and movingly the heart and soul of the tale.
For those of his not familiar with the story, the part-English/part-Japanese script is a bit hard to follow at times. However, the unusual means of performing where tongue in cheek (sometimes, literally) prevails ensures a most enjoyable hour of live theatre.
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THE 3.5 E (in no particular order)
Sunshine on Leith
Stephen Greenhorn (Story & Music)
Captivate Theatre at Assembly Rooms
Two best bros return from Middle East war zones to their boyhood home of Leith, the coastal town bordering Edinburgh. One returns to his waiting girlfriend (his pal’s sister); the other, to be set up by the sister on a blind date.
Sparks fly as love grows while a cast of thirty — friends, neighbors, family members — sing a mixture of iconic songs by The Proclaimers. The siblings’ parents prepare for a milestone anniversary celebration just as the husband/father receives a surprise visitor with a letter from an old fling.
As the stage fills with rambunctious choreography and harmonious voices, surprises explode left and right; and all loves and lovers — both old and new — are suddenly in jeopardy. While some singular voices particularly excel and even soar, the issue throughout is understanding the heavily Scottish-accented lyrics, particularly when the entire ensemble is singing.
In the end, it is clear this returning musical for its third Fringe appearance is a local favorite that is probably more enjoyed and understood by the natives than by those of us from other parts of the world.
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THE 3 E’s (in no particular order)
Charming: The Musical
Tom Rolph (Book, Music & Lyrics)
Grownup Playhouse at The Cave
A Prince named what else but Charming has had it playing second fiddle to a host of Disney fairy tale princesses. With a rich voice bordering between Broadway and opera along with a contagiously charming (sorry) personality and style, Charming: The Musical‘s co-writer and composer, Tom Rolph, sings his woes and wishes in a set of initial songs that have Disney feel, fun, and fancy embedded in their notes and lyrics.
Unfortunately, the writing of Rolph with Michael Rincón loses its way in the one-hour, world premiere. The appeal of Rolph’s sparkling voice and performance is muddled when a lantern is rubbed and a snarky, not that funny Genie appears. A cute idea for the musical does not have a very compelling projection of plot and suffers a let-down ending. Perhaps some rework in the future can help this Prince and his musical find a happier, more satisfying ending.
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The Eight Faces of Ellie Morrison
Sam Beeson
Dashboard Light at Greenside at George Street
Rising rock star Ellie Morrison needs desperately something to re-launch her career into its next trajectory and a world tour. When a fight promoter approaches her manager with a proposition to get her that tour, the catch is she must convince her former boxing star brother, Luke, to come out of his retirement and to fight again — something he has no interest in doing, especially for a sister that in her rise to fame has completely ignored him and his once blossoming career.
Ellie lures her now-sober brother to agree to fight by pumping him with vodka and drugs, with his signing a no-exit contract while in a complete haze. The cost for Ellie and the subsequent decision Luke must make becomes the crux tension in Sam Beeson’s world premiere of The Eight Faces of Ellie Morrison, directed by the first woman to ever win a prime time Emmy award, Karen Arthur.
The hour-plus play has difficulty gathering steam in its first half. Pace is slow, and acting is of mixed quality. Also, the one number sung by Ellie does not at all denote a famous rock star.
But the conversion of the stage into a finale MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) ring right next to the audience is indeed exciting, well choreographed, and a unique ending as Luke proves his courage and loyalty to a reckless sister who tests his love to the max.
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The Lady Doth Protest
Mark Blankenship (Book); Will Holshouser (Composer and Lyrics)
Feminine Productions and Joey Powered Productions at Greenside at George Street
Mark Blankenship’s The Lady Doth Protest — arriving at The Fringe after a sold-out, New York run and a cast of stage and screen veterans — is a dark, biting, and in the end violent comedy portraying a battle of the sexes beyond anything the Bard could ever have imagined. A charming and easily entertaining Fool (Liam Craig) quotes (and mostly misquotes) lines from Shakespeare’s plays to try proving lessons that mostly claim to prove that men are superior to women. His antics and quotes are accompanied by musical effects and undertones by accordionist and composer, Will Holshouser.
A female audience member (Neely Glenn) can take it no more and rises to leave in disgust but is instead drawn to the stage by the Fool who cannot believe someone might leave his show. The lines of contention are drawn as the woman — clearly not a fool herself — challenges his interpretations and offers a more feminist and more scholarly alternative to Shakespeare’s words and characters.
What is enlightening and exciting becomes bizarre and frankly off-putting and difficult to watch (with half of the audience in fact walking out). The important debate about agency and the right for differences of opinion dissolves into sexual abuse and into physical war. The important points of the play get lost in a final, very bloody struggle.
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THE 2 E’s (in no particular order)
Mythos: Ragnarök
Ed Gamester (Creator, Writer & Director)
RGM Productions at Assembly
As two princes of the Lands of Fire and Ice meet in the Middle Land where myth says the end of the world will occur if either tries to conquer the other. The two young enemies decide it is time to challenge the myth and to create a new, peaceful story for the future.
This decision to start a new world unity sends eruptions through their world as their two ruling Norse fathers arrive to stop the nonsense, both ready and deciding to fight.
While full of epic possibilities, in reality this returning show by Ed Gamester, Mythos: Ragnarök — reputed to sell out its large arena night after night — would actually be quite at home on the current White House’s front lawn. The story quickly begins to take back seat to a series of body slams, head butts, twisting of limbs, and torsos tossed from overhead, lifted positions — at which time we chose to exit early while the mostly young bros in the not-at-all-full audience whooped and hollered while chugging their beers.
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A Murder Mystery Musical – The Detective’s Demise
Tom Rolph & Michael Rincón
Grownup Playhouse at The Caves
The same creative team and theatrical company (Tom Rolph and Michael Rincón of Grownup Playhouse) that premiered Charming: The Musical premiere at this year’s Fringe also opened a musical whodunit that has some of the same problems noted in my review of Charming (see earlier review under the “3 E’s). With its cast of seven, A Murder Mystery Musical – The Detective’s Demise has the vocal prowess to sell many of the witty, catchy numbers. They each also bring their oddball and often over-the-top silly characters to life with some gusto and set the scene for what could be a fun romp to reveal who is the real killer of a suspicious murder.
However, the circumstances of why, how, and when åthe murder occurs during a birthday party along with the eventual explanation of how the plot’s sleuth figures out among five suspects who did it — all is muddled in details lost in lyrics sung too rapidly to understand. All in all, the plot line and the resolution are a total confusion.
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Kevin! (The Musical)
Will Sharland
Kevin the Musical Company at Greenside at George Street
Kevin has arrived in 2026 from his home in England to Small Town, USA as a high school exchange student; and the America he finds is — Well, what do you think? This town with its cartoon-like streets, homes, and stores is not actually that funny except in a very dark and farcical way.
This is Trump’s America, and the people he meets live in a world of cliches and right-wing slogans. The eat plastic fruit or food laced with rats. The world is divided between nerds and jocks, and the adults mostly spurt sentences vacant of much meaning. In the meantime, everyone sings and dances as if life is a musical where guns, violence, and flag-waving are as normal as another sung chorus.
Will Sharland’s Kevin! (The Musical) is a pessimistic view of Trump’s USA but never quite hits the mark with the mixed quality of voices suffering from not being miked and by characters and structure that overall are boringly outlandish, becoming more so as the two hours slowly progresses.
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