A History of Paper –  ★★★★★  – Phenomenal    Pitlochry Festival Theatre & Dundee Rep 9-12 Sept (Pitlochry), 16-19 Sept (Dundee) Review by Rebecca Mahar   A History of Paper  at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, a co-production with Dundee Rep, leaves its stage littered with the insubstantial, all-important fragments of a life and its audience with tears.   A one-act musical from writer Oliver Emanuel and composer Gareth Williams,  A History of Paper  encounters He (Alan Cumming) and She (Shirley Henderson), looking through a box of papers —memories— of their life together, and their time cut short. This musical begins in Glasgow on the eve of the millennium, December 1999, after He’s had a bad breakup and She shoves a note through his door telling him to turn down his music. He sends back a note folded in the shape of a rose; She agrees to go to dinner with him, where He folds a Pizza Express menu into a paper crane; and the rest is history. Al...

Bacon -  ★★★★☆ - Raw Hunchback of Notre Dame -  ★★★★☆ - Visceral And Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You -  ★★★★★ - Extraordinary Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33): Wed 19 – Sat 29 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 1 September 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. After thirty-four years, Pip Utton bids farewell to Edinburgh Fringe with a one-man repertory of three plays:  Bacon ,  Hunchback of Notre Dame , and  Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You . Each piece is sharply distinct in tenor and in the characters which Utton inhabits, this is a send-off which demonstrates his impressive range as an actor and writer. If there’s one thing Utton does brilliantly, it’s “the moment before.” Prior to beginning a play, a scene, a monologue, or whatever dramatic feat is to come, an actor considers the moment immediately before what is to come: what is the character’s mental, emotional, physical s...

I, Claudius - ★★★★☆ - Epic The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 17 – Sat 22 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 31 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Local company Strawmoddie, known for their series of Terry Pratchett stage adaptations, take on ancient Rome in an ambitious two-part production of  I, Claudius , bringing the 1976 television series to the stage for the first time in this limited world-premiere run. The adaptation is penned by Strawmoddie Artistic Director Jonathan Whiteside, who directs alongside Caitlin Carter. It seeks to distil Jack Pullman’s thirteen-hour series – itself an adaptation of Robert Graves’ novels   I, Claudius   and its sequel,   Claudius the God –  into four and a half hours of theatre.   A scene from I, Claudius: Part 1. Pic: Andrew Morris. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Dracula: Lucy’s Dream –  ★★★★☆  – Eerie Plexus Polaire 6-29 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Dracula: Lucy’s Dream,  from French-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire and artistic director Yngvild Aspeli, presents an eerie, uncanny, spectacular interpretation of Stoker’s classic horror that focuses on the real, unreal, and beyond.   Lucy’s Dream  is less a narrative than it is a visual and aural exploration of what might have been happening inside Lucy Westenra during the events of  Dracula — advance knowledge of the original narrative certainly makes the story more cohesive. The performance opens with Lucy sleepwalking in the forest, where she is multiplied with mirrors of herself, and encounters a black dog which is always just out of reach. From the darkness Dracula appears, and all three Lucys are drawn into his embrace and fall victim to his bite. A scene from Dracula: Lucy's Dream. Pic: Christophe Raynaud de Lage. Lucy and her mirrors are, to this point,...

A Queen's Way -  ★★☆☆☆ - Awkward Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236): Mon 24 – Sat 29 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 27 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Napier University Drama Society presents a limited run of Madilyne Nelsen’s new play  A Queen’s Way , a medieval satire that never quite finds its footing. In a medieval kingdom “built on murder, thievery and chaos,” the teenage Karalyne (Maisie Lumgair), a peasant who lives in the woods with her brother Todlair (a play on toddler, though he declares himself to be eleven years old; played by James Galloway), finds herself catapulted onto the throne after accidentally killing the current king, Rodrick (Euan Raynal). A scene from A Queen's Way. Pic: NUDS. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not –  ★★★★☆  – Mayhem Red Firefly Theatre 20-26 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Red Firefly Theatre debuts on the Fringe with  I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not , a rapid-fire hour of Shakespeare’s greatest lovers’ hits, featuring able classical performance couched in an absurd frame.   Gabriel Bird and Jenna Donoghue star as Isaac McKellen and Julie Dench, RADA (Regular Academy of Decent Actors) trained thespians who are desperately and soporiphically in love and have determined that the secret to their romantic success is their mutual love of Shakespeare, which has made their relationship “objectively better than anybody elses!”. To that end, they’ve decided to share with the audience the “dos and do nots” of a successful relationship through various scenes of Shakespeare. McKellen prepares to launch into a tragedy, and the image of the perfect relationship breaks down immediately as Dench protests repeatedly that they had agreed to begin wi...

Selkie: Past, Present, Future -  ★★★★★ - Luminous Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30): Wed 19 – Sun 30 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 24 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Selkie stories abound in Scottish folklore, but you’ve never heard any quite like Niall Moorjani’s in their Selkie: Past, Present, Future , returning to the Scottish Storytelling Centre for the second two weeks of the Fringe. Moorjani blends the tradition of the mysterious, seal-skinned shapeshifter with allegories on the experience of trans and BPOC people today— while acknowledging that these people, with both their struggles and joy, have always been, even if the world hasn’t always been, isn’t always, willing to recognise or accept them… Niall Moorjani and Ailsa Dixon. Pic: Supplied. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Steve Burns: Alive –  ★★★★★  – Transcendent  Benson Drive Productions 5-30 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Steve looks into the camera and says, “Can you help me?”   Steve Burns looks at us and says, “Can you help me?”   Steve Burns: Alive  looks into the soul of a generation that grew up on a passive aggressive blue dog and a “weird happy jackass boy in a cartoon house,” and reminds us of the humanity on either side of the camera, of the profound connections we made on Our Show, and of the disconnects that can plague even something as monumental as that.  Alive  introduces us not just to Steve, but to Steve Burns, the man behind the green-striped shirt, in all his imperfect humanity, and in how living with two Steves and the persistent rumours of his own death have shaped him. Steve Burns: Alive. Pic: Rebecca J Michelson From 1996 to 2001, Steve Burns was also “Steve,” the adult-shaped but childlike host of  Blues Clues , an American chil...

Knight’s Dream –  ★★★☆☆  – Promising Muchadoaboutmusicals 17-22 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Inspired by Shakespeare’s  A Midsummer Night’s Dream , Muchadoaboutmusicals present the new musical  Knight’s Dream , set in an almost-five-star rated bar where a night out takes an unexpected turn. The cast of Knight's Dream, Liverpool preview show. Pic: Muchadoaboutmusicals. Knight’s Dream , written and directed by Constance Evans with choreography by Erin Bruda,   makes clear immediately what the focus of its story will be: the opening number “Love Drug,” describes a substance that “makes your pulse increase, your eyes dilate, the first person you see is your soulmate.” A riff on King of the Fairies Oberon’s use of the flower love-in-idleness in  MSND  to make both the young lovers and his own Queen Titania fall in love where they otherwise wouldn’t have, Love Drug now becomes something more clearly sinister: the active ingredient in a spiked cocktail ...

Witches Corner -  ★★★★☆ - Defiant theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Venue 53): Mon 17 – Sat 22 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 21 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Magic or misogyny? asks  Witches Corner , a new sociopolitical play from Encapulus Productions that packs laughter, rage, song, and grief into an hour that questions how much has really changed for women since they were burned and hanged and stoned as witches. The play, written and directed by Eilidh Smith with music composed by Rona Johnston, is set in Pittenweem in Fife, a “bonnie wee toon where awbody kens awbody and awbody kens awbody’s business.” A scene from the preview performances of Witches Corner at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Pic: Alastair Moore. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !