Apples In Winter – The Annexe at Paradise in The Vault

Miriam (Edie Campbell) loves to bake pie, apple pie to be exact with the apples from the tree in her garden that she lovingly nurtured to ensure that the apples in her pie were of the best quality.  They should only be picked in September for the best apple pie…Robert loved her apple pie more than anything! 

Robert is Miriam’s son.  Robert is in prison on death row, and his execution has been organised for midnight on that very day.  His request for his last meal, is for his mother to make the apple pie that he loves so much.  For Miriam, this request stirs up a tsunami of emotions, as she stands in the prison kitchen with her ingredients, to make the homemade apple pie for her son.

Written by Jennifer Fawcett, and produced by Lynchpin Theatre Company, this solo performance focuses on the torment that Miriam experiences as she comes to terms that her son is not the little boy that she fed pie to when he was young, he is a grown man who has not made the best use of his life, and her question that she wrestles with is – was it my fault?

I will not give too much away about further details of the play, as you must go to see it yourself, and the story unfolds as the play develops.  The pacing of the play reveals the details slowly, almost as though Miriam is gradually acknowledging the person that her son is, rather than the thought of him that she has kept as a monument in her own mind.  Directed by Claire Parker – this decision to move slowly with the details, hitting the viewer gradually with another piece of the puzzle, builds up the tension, and when the pie is finally made, Miriam realises that this is the last thing that she can do for her son. 

Campbell has been handed an incredible script, and excellent direction, but her on-stage presence begins as comforting; a mother making a pie for her son…it’s his favourite, how lovely!  But the essence of the performance comes from her gradual realisation that she no longer needs to be the strong matriarch, being able to admit that her son is not a good person, and that she must finally accept this.

The whole play was an emotional experience, because the excellent writing, direction, performance, but also the staging, all fed in to it.  I really felt for her, unwittingly being placed in this predicament, and it did not go away overnight, her son was on death row for twenty-two years! 

I do urge you to go along to see Apples In Winter at Venue 29, Paradise In The Vault which is running until 30^th August (not 23^rd) 10.230am (1hr 10mins) – https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on?search=true&text=Apples%20in%20Winter

Reviewer: Caroline Worswick

Reviewed: 22^nd August 2026

North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating: