The Seal-Woman –   ★ ★ ★ ☆☆  – Mythic The Scots Opera Project 28 & 29 Aug; 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14 Sept Review by Rebecca Mahar   The Scots Opera Project returns to Pitlochry Festival with  The Seal-Woman , diving into the music of the Hebrides and the legend of the mythical selkie.   Described as a Celtic folk opera,  The Seal-Woman  premiered in 1924 with a score by Granville Bantock and libretto by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. The opera follows the story of its titular character, a selkie who, along with her sister, removes her seal-skin to frolic on land, thinking it free of humans— only to find herself trapped by an islesman whose boat has left him behind. The sailor gives her a choice: remain on land and marry him, and he will return her sister’s skin, or refuse and doom them both to live as humans.   Performed in the outdoor amphitheatre of the Explorers Garden at Pitlochry Festival Theatre,  The Seal-Woman  fits beautifully into its s...

A Toast Fae the Lassies –  ★ ★ ★★ ☆   – Enchanting Pitlochry Festival Theatre 29 & 30 Aug; 4, 10, 18, 24 Sept  Review by Rebecca Mahar   Pitlochry Festival Theatre premieres the enchanting new musical play  A Toast Fae the Lassies  in a limited six-show run this autumn, bringing the ghosts of Robert Burns and the women who knew him best to the intimate Studio theatre.   On the 25 th  of January 1797, Agnes Broun (Alyson Orr) visits St. Michael’s Churchyard in Dumfries to remember her recently deceased son, Robert Burns, on his birthday. There she is joined by Burns’s widow, Jean Amour (Stephanie Cremona), and shortly thereafter by one of his many mistresses, his muse Clarinda (Eden Barrie). Together the women remember their Rabbie, warts and all, through their words and his own. Stephanie Cremona, Alyson Orr, and Eden Barrie in A Toast Fae the Lassies. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan. Written and directed by John Binnie, with musical direction, arrangem...

…and that’s a wrap on Edinburgh Fringe 2025 for Speak the Speech! I’ve had the privilege of seeing some extraordinary theatre this season, in a Fringe full of ups and downs and the mad, mad joy that is this festival. By the numbers:   -saw 40 shows (38 to review) across 15 days -published 14 reviews exclusively on Speak the Speech -published 24 reviews on All Edinburgh Theatre -wrote 22,455 words of theatre criticism across both platforms   I had originally pencilled myself in to review about 70 shows, but came down with the dreaded Fringe Flu the day before the shows I was in were due to open, spent about three days in bed writing nothing just trying to stay alive to do two shows every night, and spent the rest of the month digging myself out of the backlog. This resulted in a ruthless culling of anything not yet confirmed in my diary, so there were many shows I was eager to see that I was sadly unable to attend. All this while doing 34 performances across 17 days and working...

Three Queens from the Opera -  ★★★★☆ - Delightful Stockbridge Church (Venue 317): Wed 6 – Mon 25 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 26 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Michael Scott presents  Three Queens from the Opera  for a limited five show run at Stockbridge Church, in what proves to be a delightful musical parody revue of operatic royalty. The Queen of Night (Jennifer Murray) and The Queen of Scots aka Lady Macbeth (Elaine Young) have decided to put on a concertino celebrating the queens of opera. But, after discovering that the Queen of Spades is in fact a playing card, have been joined by Cinderella (Caroline Warburton) as a substitute, even though she’s not technically a queen. Caroline Warburton, Elaine Young and Jennifer Murray. Pic: Michael Scott. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Müller’s Tales of Wonder -  ★★★ ☆☆   – Wistful   Tim Honnef/Jonas Müller 31 Jul-23 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Tim Honnef returns to the Fringe with  Müller’s Tales of Wonder , exploring writing, wonder, grief, and hope, in what promises to be “the last show by Müller”.   Seated behind a small desk with a rack of book and other objects to one side, some scattered about the floor, and a binder spread before him, Honnef opens with a tale of a small village losing its bus service, and the old man who depended upon it but couldn’t read, resulting in his throwing the notice into “a special fuck it cabinet” and wondering why the bus never came.  Promotional image.   It's a whimsical little story, read from a small, hardbound book entitled  The Bus , which Honnef juggles, handheld microphone making the task difficult, to show his audience its simple illustrations. Once this story is finished, however, it becomes clear that there is more at play he...

Managed Approach -  ★ ★ ★ ☆☆  – Complex Open Aire Theatre 8-24 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Managed Approach  from Open Aire Theatre is a raw look at the implementation of the UK’s first, short lived, legalised red light district.    Written by Jules Coyle and directed by Lily Ellis,  Managed Approach  tackles multiple perspectives on the “managed approach” to street sex work in the Holbeck area of Leeds, implemented in 2014. According to Safer Leeds Partnership, this was “categorically not a legal red light zone,” but public opinion clearly differs. The MA, in theory, was designed to increase safety and support for sex workers, while also reducing problems caused by street sex work to local residents and businesses. As  Managed Approach  demonstrates, it wasn’t that simple. Managed Approach promotional image. The show opens with projected white text on a red background describing the MA, then flicks to a name: Dani. This is the name of...

Our Brothers in Cloth -  ★ ★ ★ ★ ☆  – Gripping Poke the Bear Productions 31 Jul-25 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Our Brothers in Cloth  from Poke the Bear Productions is a gripping look at how a man and his community respond to the revelation of the clerical child sexual abuse that contributed to his brother’s suicide.   Set in rural Ireland in 1995,  Our Brothers in Cloth  focuses on Alan Kinsella, whose brother Chris has recently committed suicide, and his quest for answers and justice following his discovery that the recently departed parish priest, Father Mulvaney, abused Chris as a child. Our Brothers in Cloth promotional image.   Ronan Colfer’s script, directed with precision by Ryan McVeigh, takes on a fraught and topic with raw honesty. To Alan it is obvious that Mulvaney must be brought to justice, but others refuse to believe the accusations even when other incidents are brought to light, including his own mother, resulting in explosive ...

More Songs For A (Brave) New World -  ★★★★☆ - Charming PBH’s Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms (Venue 68b): Sat 2 – Sun 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 24 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Richard Lewis dances into the Speakeasy at the Voodoo Rooms for a full run of the Fringe with  More Songs For A (Brave) New World , a new set of musical parodies sure to make you laugh, groan, and look for more. “Who is this tall, elegant creature I get to spend the next hour of my life with?” Lewis asks by way of rhetorical introduction, perched behind his keyboard. He launches into the set by making fun of himself (“laughing at guys with pelican legs brings joy to the masses”), calling the crowd “dear audience” and thoroughly endearing himself before launching into songs about Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Brexit, and other such light-hearted stuff. Richard Lewis. Pic: Cat McInally. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre t...

Pantomeo and Juliet -  ★★★☆☆ - Star-cross’d Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16): Mon 18 – Sat 23 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 24 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Pig’s Ear Productions, the group responsible for last year’s  Panto Macbeth  are back with another heavily abridged and somewhat embroidered Shakespeare in  Pantomeo and Juliet , at Riddles Court for the last week of the Fringe. Following on  Panto Macbeth , in which there was “kidnapping, mass murder, and a show that was five minutes too long; according to the Greenside staff one of these was a much bigger deal than the others,”  Pantomeo and Juliet  works to cram  Romeo and Juliet  into fifty minutes with plenty of panto-based shenanigans along the way. Buster van der Geest, Sam Morrison, Nicole Gibson Morales and Bella Yow. Pic: Pig's Ear. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Philip Simpson: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner -  ★★☆☆☆ - Becalmed Just the Tonic at The Mash House (Venue 288): Wed 13 – Sun 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 22 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Fringe newcomer  Philip Simpson   brings a performance of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s  The Rime of the Ancient Mariner  to Just the Tonic at The Mash House for the final two weeks of the Fringe. Written and first published at the tail end of the eighteenth century, the Rime is something of a play-within-a-play of a poem, a long ballad wherein the titular Mariner stops a guest at a wedding in order tell them of a voyage he sailed on long ago, full of misadventures and supernatural encounters before a final return home. Promotional image for Philip Simpson: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !