Up and coming Edinburgh-based theatre company Hot Mess Productions, brings their rendition of Samantha O’Rourke’s, Our Town Needs a Nandos to the Edinburgh Fringe.
The play sees a group of young girls in high school work on creating a devised piece for their drama exam. In a run-down town with not much to do, this is a coming-of-age story where friendships are tested, sexuality is explored, and the girls shared experience of sexual violence is at the forefront. Each girl faces a sense of displacement, whether that be down to emigration, isolation, or repression.
The cast of five work well together, clearly taking their strong bonds from the rehearsal room to the stage. Each cast member is believable as an unruly teenager finding their feet in the world, hitting both the laughs and the emotional marks. Airlie Duff, co-founder of Hot Mess, plays snarky Ellie, who hides her insecurities with her tough-girl attitude. Duff gave a punchy performance, tackling the performance head-on. Hot Mess’ other co-founder, Eilidh Rose plays Chloe – the new girl with a dark secret she tries desperately to hide which only creates distance between her and the other girls. Chloe as a character is completely one of the more nuanced and in-depth characters of the play and Eilidh Rose did a killer job at filling her shoes. Rachel (Lauren Mills) and Beth (Reese Hannah) explore a queer relationship together but although Beth is out, Rachel is not, causing conflict between them. Both Hannah and Mills do justice to this relationship, with Mills’ popular girl persona seeming all too real. I thought it was unfortunate that Beth wasn’t such a nuanced character as some of the other girls so we didn’t get to see the full bravado of Hannah’s performance as she was confined to the restrictions of the token gay character. The same went for Lovely Selwyn’s character Zahida – although Selwyn is another incredibly strong actor who’s sweet-as-pie act was getting all the laughs, the actual writing of the character felt somewhat reductive.
I was quite disappointed by the choice of play in all honesty, especially given that director Milly Sweeney is such an accomplished young playwright. Our Town Needs a Nandos does certainly feel better suited to a more juvenile cast – I think these girls are too good for it!
Despite this, Sweeney’s direction was fun and animated, with plenty of interesting moments to be built upon. The experimentation with pace and movement matched the tone of the play and captured the energy of a High School drama devised piece to a T.
The message of the play was strong – Hot Mess Productions are fervently championing women’s rights and are absolutely putting their money where their mouth is. This is a company to 100% keep on your radar. For such a new production team, their image and ethos as a company is tenacious.
Reviewer: Jessie Martin
Reviewed: 9th August 2026
North West End UK / Theatre Muse UK Rating:
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