Edinburgh Fringe Review 2026 Archives - Page 2 of 6

The Bowie Story – The Space Symposium Hall

28Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

The Bowie Story – The Space Symposium Hall

Having already seen Peter Marchant take on Freddie Mercury in Night Owl’s The Legend of Queen, I was intrigued to see what he would do with another of rock music’s most distinctive performers. The answer is something rather different, and wisely so. Night Owl Shows’ The Bowie Story is not an impersonation. Marchant makes little attempt to reproduce all those flamboyant, flowery twists Bowie could introduce into a vocal line. His delivery is straighter and very much his own, allowing the songs to speak for themselves while the show traces the extraordinary succession of transformations that defined Bowie’s career. Marchant is in great form towards the end of this Fringe run, and he is surrounded by musicians operating at the top of their game. The playing throughout...

27Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Werewolf – Summerhall Techcube Zero

New Zealand collective Binge Culture's Werewolf arrives at Summerhall with considerable word-of-mouth behind it, and sizeable audiences suggest this immersive horror has certainly found its pack. I am less convinced. TechCube Zero provides a naturally effective setting. On arrival, I find someone sitting behind a desk ticking us off and conducting a headcount before reporting back to our three wardens, Joel Baxendale, Stella Reid and Hannah Kelly, who devised and perform the piece. We are Safehouse 656, apparently protected from the lycanthropic horrors outside, and we are informed that we will remain here for seven days. There is a timekeeper and gatekeeper, rules to follow and an initially convincing sense that we have entered a functioning emergency system. On eve...

My Life Is a Sonnet – theSpace on the Mile

27Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

My Life Is a Sonnet – theSpace on the Mile

The beauty of the Edinburgh Fringe lies in the fact that you, as an audience in search of a show, can stumble upon excellence. In a cool, simply lit and arranged corner stage Eric Daniel Weiner gives us a masterclass in resolved, structured storytelling and naturalistic, understated acting. Weiner doesn’t just hold a mirror to life; he holds it with a template in the shape of a Shakespearean sonnet layer over it then proceeds to demonstrate how each part of it fits. The journey takes place over a lifetime. Our hero, Charlie Katz attends school and is taught the wonder of language by a dying English professor in a small intimate class. The problem is Katz becomes pre-occupied with the mysteries of Sally Templeton, a transfer student on a Squash scholarship who orders her life by cont...

Call Me Elizabeth: from Burton to Humanitarian – Studio Two at Assembly George Square

27Aug

By Michelle KnightNo Comments

Scotland

Call Me Elizabeth: from Burton to Humanitarian – Studio Two at Assembly George Square

Karla Boye has flown into the Fringe with her part two series of Call Me Elizabeth; From Burton to Humanitarian. It’s 1985, the time when the HIV and AIDS epidemic was becoming a serious medical, social and political concern in the USA. The impact of AIDS affected Gay and bisexual men severely including Hollywood movie stars who were not exempt from the disease. Elizabeth in her privileged position as a movie star wanted to make a difference and raise the profile the AIDS by engaging other stars to support her cause. Ichard The stark relevance of the subject matter moves quickly to her relationship with Richard Burton and they’re on and off-screen relationship of fights, breakups, love and marriage. She narrates from a chair moving slowly to the phone, her drinks trolley and engages...

Horrorshow – Summerhall Anatomy Lecture Theatre

27Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Horrorshow – Summerhall Anatomy Lecture Theatre

There is a good little play struggling to get out of Horrorshow. Written by Doug Deans for Chronic Insanity, this gig-theatre piece follows lifelong Isle of Wight friends Dan and Ollie through one final adventure together before their lives begin moving in very different directions. Deans plays Dan, guitar in hand, alongside Joe Matty as the more academically inclined Ollie on keyboards. Director Joe Strickland completes the live band on drums and percussion, as well as providing the voices of the other characters. Original music and lyrics are by Anya Pearson, who also provides musical direction. The writing has plenty going for it. Dan and Ollie are believable as two young men who have grown up together but are beginning to recognise that friendship doesn't necessarily mea...

27Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

Truthmachine – C-Arts Studio

There is something inherently unsettling about agreeing to take a lie detector test, particularly when the results are going to be shared with a room full of strangers. Australian company Counterpilot has built Truthmachine around precisely that proposition, using real biometric sensors and live voting technology in a thirty-minute immersive experiment. This was a new C Venues space for me, above Victoria Street. Two flights up, we were ushered into a darkened room dominated by a long table, six seats on either side, each equipped with headphones, microphone and voting panel. At one end sat our questioner; at the other, an ominous chair surrounded by the equipment into which one of us would eventually be plugged. It is an impressive set-up: clinical, mysterious and tech...

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

26Aug

By Christina SchmidtNo Comments

Scotland

Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee – temple at C-ARTS

It’s Apsaras Dance Company’s first time in Edinburgh and this was their first performance of Agathi – The Plight of the Refugee. Coming all the way from Singapore to share this beautiful piece of dance theatre with Scottish and International audiences. Agathi intends to destigmatise the refugee experience and calls for empathy and understanding. Inspired by the book of poems by refugee children as well as specific lived experiences, the show explores displacement, various people’s stories and the dangers refugees often have to deal with. Some of the Voice-overs and monologues are in English and during the songs in Tamil, surtitles of the translations are screened to make it fully understandable. The traditional Indian Bharatanatyam dance is choreographed beautifully and although the...

2 Guys, 3 Drams: The Ultimate Live Blues and Whiskey Experience – The Space Triplex

26Aug

By Greg HolsteadNo Comments

Scotland

2 Guys, 3 Drams: The Ultimate Live Blues and Whiskey Experience – The Space Triplex

Let’s talk about the elephant first, the one fairly fundamental problem with 2 Guys, 3 Drams: the room. Big at theSpaceTriplex feels rather like a gym hall, with its high vaulted roof, glaring light and rows of plastic chairs laid flat across the floor. Sightlines aren't great and intimacy is in short supply. This is a show crying out for a basement dive, everyone lounging around in near darkness with a glass in hand. Remarkably, Felipe Schrieberg and Paul Archibald make something very good out of something very bad. Together they are The Rhythm and Booze Project, Schrieberg on vocals and lap steel guitar and Archibald providing drums and percussion. The musicianship is excellent. Schrieberg's vocals may not be the strongest element, but blues hardly demands vocal purity. It...

Trans People Are Awful – Bunker One at Pleasance Courtyard

26Aug

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Trans People Are Awful – Bunker One at Pleasance Courtyard

Performing in the Bunker at Pleasance this Fringe, Ros Watt’s Trans People Are Awful couldn’t be placed in a more perfect venue. Set in the garage of a farm just past Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, the cavernous dinge of the Bunker does emulate the feel of a serial killer’s hideout. We are witness to the crimes of a murderous young man as he dissects the bodies of men in a quest to find the perfect body parts. Boy, played by Watt, is videotaping every moment of his process in an act of explanation. He wants to undertake a self-surgery in which he attaches the member of one of his victims onto himself – he just hasn’t found the right fit yet. Rhythmic, voracious, and vigorous, Watt’s performance is electric. You feel completely absorbed in the character’s ...

The Woman in The Box – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

26Aug

By Al CarrettaNo Comments

Scotland

The Woman in The Box – theSpaceUK @ Surgeons Hall

Dim lighting and rumbling, auspicious music lure you into the auditorium. On stage, a simple contraption of scaffold poles resembles a glass box. Within it, a woman stands still and silent. The black box theatre of the modern Edinburgh Fringe is notoriously difficult to build any real atmosphere in, particularly when there is noise spill to contend with, but Fragments Theatre Group achieve a magical sense of ambience in the opening moments of this play. The first few minutes are exceptionally well designed theatre. Where the play is about to go next intrigues. The woman is the centerpiece of an art gallery. After the guests have left, she talks to the cleaner attending to the gallery. The glass is buffed but her internal fingerprints remain. Cue The Manager, a sterile characte...