Aderyn/Bird -  ★★★★★ - Disglair/Brilliant Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30a): Wed 6 – Sat 16 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 9 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh’s Ailsa Dixon and Welsh storyteller Ffion Philips, together known as the Harebell Tellers, enchant the Scottish Storytelling Centre with a limited, five show run of  Aderyn/Bird  this Fringe. Weaving together mythology, folklore, and language from across the archipelagic Celtic nations, the pair create a captivating hour of bardic wonder. The  Aderyn  of the title, of course, being the Welsh equivalent of its companion, the English word:  Bird. The Harebell Tellers - Ailsa Dixon and Ffion Philips. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Moving On: A New Musical -  ★★★★☆ - Touching Hill Street Theatre (Venue 31): Fri 1 – Thurs 14 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 8 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Ghosties and ghoulies and interpersonal sibling drama abound in  Moving On, a new musical  from Happy Sad Productions playing at Braw’s Hill Street Street Theatre for the first half of the Fringe. Written by Amber Docherty (assistant director), Roza Stevenson (director), and Josh Wood (musical director), this touching family drama-meets-ghost story is both poignant and humorous, with its lively music matched by some stellar performances. The siblings in Moving On. Pic: Iona Wood. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Nightmares by Sandy Jack -  ★☆☆☆☆ - Incoherent theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39): Fri 1 – Sat 9 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 8 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Sandy Jack returns to the Fringe under the auspices of Lynch Lovers with new show  Nightmares  at theSpace on the Mile. Described as a “surreal/horror anthology” inspired by Jack’s own nightmares, David Lynch, and The Twilight Zone, it is frankly an incoherent mess. The Nightmares, written and directed by Jack, start interestingly enough with a man (Jack) who seems to be trapped in the bowels of a building as air raid sirens sound overhead, moving down a corridor with something unknown lurking at its end, tensely narrating his experience. The cast of Nightmares by Sandy Jack. Pic: Lynch Lovers. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

The Children -  ★★★★☆ - Contemplative Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 4 Aug – Sat 9 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 8 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh Graduate Theatre Group’s late show at the Royal Scots Club, Lucy Kirkwood’s  The Children , is a bleak and thoughtful look at everyday life in the wake of a disaster, and the choices its survivors must make. Opening in the ordinary-looking home of sexagenarian couple Hazel (Wendy Mathison) and Robin (Richard Godden), the lights come up on Rose (Hilary Spiers), an old friend of a similar age who has dropped in. “How are the children?” she asks, attempting to stem the nosebleed that has strained her blouse. Wendy Mathison, Richard Godden and Hilary Spiers in The Children. Pic: Minny Fletcher-Watson. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Webber! -  ★★★★☆  – Riotous Grant Sharkey 1-9 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   “Welcome to Webber! by Grant Sharkey. This show contains some horrible things. Good luck!”    Along with Sharkey’s introductory quip “you will enjoy it but you might not know why,” a truer and more tone-setting preshow announcement has never been made. A two-hand sung-through comedic musical about the life and crimes (depending on who you ask) of The Right Honourable The Lord Lloyd-Webber KG (aka Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber) written and composed by Sharkey,  Webber!  is a laugh riot that would be totally absurd if there weren’t so much truth to it.   For the edification of those who have been living under a rock for the last sixty years or so, ALW (for short) is the composer of many smash hit musicals, including  The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, Evita,  and  Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat .    A common thread of ALW’s musicals is that they...

Anatomy of Pain -  ★★★★☆   – Harrowing   Aoife Parr 1-9 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Aoife Parr’s  Anatomy of Pain , billed as “a true story of chronic illness, medical gaslighting and survival,” strikes at the agonising heart of living with a rare disease, chronic pain, and the fight to be seen, heard, and treated.   Written and directed by Parr as a reflection on her experience with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome,  Anatomy of Pain  stars Klara Grapci-Germizaj as her analogue Alex, with Will Kirk as the Psychiatrist and Others. Framed within a therapy session, the play flashes back from her psychiatrist’s office to various points in Alex’s life, from before her diagnosis up to the present, as she relates her story. It is a raw look inside a life that, as a fellow traveller living with EDS, I found sharply resonant.   As Alex speaks, projections of fizzing bubbles and rippling orange-peach-red colours resembling the arthroscopic image of a joint lin...

Antigone -  ★★☆☆☆ - Ponderous French Institute in Scotland (Venue 168): Fri 1 – Sun 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally posted on All Edinburgh Theatre, 5 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. The Mythography Collective bring their production of the tragedy of  Antigone  back to the Fringe, with a festival-long run at the French Institute in Scotland. Using an English-language version of Jean Anoulih’s 1944 play (translated by Jeremy Sams), Mythography describes this production as “urgent and haunting.” Unfortunately, it is neither. Clare Robinson in Antigone. Pic: Mythography. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Float -  ★★★★★ - Luminous Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24): Wed 30 Jul – Mon 25 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 5 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. In a world premiere from writer and performer Indra Wilson, F-Bomb Theatre brings  Float  to the stage of the Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose for a run covering the whole Fringe. Float is a playful, pissed-off, philosophical monodrama on pregnancy loss and navigating its aftermath as a young genderqueer person who really, really wanted to be a parent. Wilson’s autobiographical script couches their own personal experience with and journey through pregnancy loss in the metaphor of space exploration. Indra Wilson in Float. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Homo(sapien) - ★★★★☆ - Wholehearted Assemble Roxy (Venue 139): 30 July – 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar. Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 3 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Written and performed by Conor O’Dwyer,  Homo(sapien)  is a darkly comedic monodrama about identity, sex, and the tribulations of growing up queer in a society that’s both hateful and accepting. O’Dwyer hurtles onto the stage as Joey, panting and at the threshold of — something. It’s not clear yet, as he freezes, about to knock on an invisible door. Unable to complete the motion, he turns to the audience in the Snug Bar of Assembly Roxy. Conor O'Dwyer in Homo(sapien). Pic: Nyah O'Connor. "I think I might shit myself. Or be sick. Or both," he gasps out. And the tone of the show, directed by Jen McGregor, is firmly set. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Rock of Ages - ★★★★★ - Phenomenal Paradise in Augustines (Venue 152): Fri 1 – Sat 9 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 3 July 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Bare Productions continue their streak of high-calibre musicals with a  Rock of Ages  that roars onto the Sanctuary stage at Paradises at Augustines with an all-star company. A jukebox musical celebrating 1980s classic rock hits,  Rock of Ages  follows the denizens of the Bourbon Room on West Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. Drew (Joshua Scott) has moved there from Detroit with dreams of becoming a rockstar, while Sherrie (Georgia Brennan) made the leap to LA to pursue her acting career. They both end up working for Dennis (Will Jackson) at the Bourbon Room— but what seems like an instant love story soon becomes much more complicated. The cast of Rock of Ages. Pic: Rebecca Holmes. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

1984 -  ★★ ★★ ★  – Fervid   Box Tale Soup 30 Jul – 25 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Box Tale Soup rings in the Fringe with a raw, innovative adaptation of 1984 that strips the story back to its essentials.   Self-described as a “theatre company with more puppets than people,” Box Tale Soup holds true to that in 1984 . But the story isn’t solely told by puppets; rather, it integrates the puppetry as part of the show’s messaging and interpretation of its source material, in which the inhabitants of a totalitarian state are puppeteered by their government. The company of 1984. Pic: Box Tale Soup. Based on George Orwell’s iconic 1949 dystopian novel of the same name, 1984 takes place in an imagined future in which Great Britain has become part of the superstate Oceania, governed by the Party, with Big Brother as its dictator. Residents are constantly surveilled, language is being redeveloped into Newspeak, and history and fact are constantly being rewritten. Under...