…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 !

Sweeney Todd -  ★★★★☆ - Vigorous The Famous Spiegeltent (Venue 333): Tue 12 – 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. Captivate Theatre take on the Famous Spiegeltent with their production of  Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street   through the 24th, bringing Sondheim’s chilling musical, directed by Sally Lyall, to life beneath the canopy. Sweeney Todd  is one of Stephen Sondheim’s most enduring classics. With music and lyrics by Sondheim and a book by Hugh Wheeler, the musical spins the tale of its titular barber, returning to London after many years spent in exile after having been transported for a crime he did not commit. On his return, Todd finds that his wife Lucy took poison after being assaulted by the corrupt Judge Turpin, who sentenced him, and that the judge took his then-infant daughter, Johanna, for his ward. Hazel Beattie (Mrs....

Our Martin in the Background -  ★★★☆☆ - Reflective Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30a): Sun 17 – Mon 25 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 22 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Billed as “the queer love story Noël Coward didn’t write,” Mark Kydd brings new monodrama  Our Martin in the Background   for the final week of the Fringe only, on odd afternoons at the Scottish Storytelling Centre . Our Martin is written and performed by Kydd. Inspired by the David Lean film  Brief Encounter , which was itself adapted by Coward from his own earlier play  Still Life , Kydd has spun a different story of a chance meeting at a railway station into a saga of unfulfilled love. Mark Kydd in Our Martin in the Background. Pic: Laverne Edmonds. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

In the Land of Eagles -  ★ ★ ★ ★ ★  – Breathtaking Natalie Allison Productions 30 Jul-25 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   In a Fringe debut from writer and performer Alex Reynolds,  In the Land of Eagles  sweeps into the Baby Grand at the Pleasance for a full run, capturing and breaking hearts with its intimate portrayal of family, diaspora, and coming home.   “I know what you were doing at six,” Reynolds says conspiratorially to the audience, “the age. Not the time.” And she’s off, buzzing about the stage as she retells an adventure she had at age, in the exotic wilds of the back garden and the woods beyond. And of Grandpa, who comes every week for Sunday roast, talking her out of the tree she’s climbed and making her promise, in exchange for not telling Mum, to take him on the next adventure. In the Land of Eagles. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan. Suddenly she isn’t six anymore; she’s eighteen, Grandpa is seventy-eight, and after being diagnosed with a terminal illnes...

Come From Away -  ★★★★☆ - Inspirational Assembly Rooms (Venue 20): Tue 12 – Sun 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 21 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Captivate Theatre bring a stirring rendition of  Come From Away   to the Bijou at Assembly Rooms through to the 24th, the Fringe debut of this groundbreaking, heart-wrenching musical. Come From Away is set in the Newfoundland town of Gander, where during the week following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, seven thousand travellers found refuge after being stranded by the closure of USA airspace. A scene from Come From Away. Pic: Captivate. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

King Lear -  ★★★★★ - Unmissable Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33): 60 Pleasance EH8 9TJ Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 21 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Pip Utton is back for a thirty-first year at the Fringe with his new monodrama  King Lear , at the Pleasance Courtyard for the final two weeks of the fringe only. This latest foray into the world Shakespeare, which had its world premiere earlier this summer at Prague Fringe, is a concise and all-consuming adaptation of one of his thorniest plays. Pip Utton as King Lear. Pic: Marjolein Mooij. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

A Pound of Flesh -  ★★★☆☆ - Unjustified theSpace on the Mile (Venue 29): Fri 1 – Sat 23 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 18 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Arbery Theatre brings  A Pound of Flesh , a reimagining of a Shakespeare’s  The Merchant of Venice,  to theSpace on the Mile for a full run of the Fringe in a production that asks: What if Portia never came to Venice? The Merchant of Venice  hinges its resolution on Portia’s coming to Venice, making this an intriguing question to ask. But far from simply imagining an alternate ending in which Shylock might get his bond,  A Pound of Flesh  seeks to reframe the entire story to centre on the relationship between its titular merchant, Antonio, and his dear friend Bassanio. This is an interesting choice, full of promise, but loses something in its pursuit: in “reimagining” this already tragic play as a tragedy, playwright...

Sam Blythe: Method In My Madness -  ★★★★ ★   – Exceptional   Guy Masterson – TTI presents Sam Blythe 30 Jul-24 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Sam Blythe returns to the Fringe with  Method in My Madness , a one-man  Hamlet  that winds one of Shakespeare’s most famous stories up into a single hour, focused through a framing device that pierces right to the heart of the Danish prince’s most incongruous statement:  “now I am alone.”  Directed by clowning stalwart Elf Lyons, this reworked production is a shining example of great Shakespeare adaptation and solo work.   I  reviewed an earlier iteration  of this show last year for All Edinburgh Theatre, which Blythe now describes, in a recent   interview  with Paul Levy of FringeReview, as “a very embryonic version,” having previously stated that the show has undergone a “radical transformation” since then. This assertion bears out beyond expectations, with  Method in My ...

Jumper Bumps - ★★★☆☆   – Important   Emma Ruse Productions 30 Jul-24 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   In a playwriting debut from Perth playwright Amelia Rodger, Emma Ruse Productions bring  Jumper Bumps  to the Gilded Ballon Appleton Tower for a full run of the Fringe.   The “bumps” of the title refers to pregnancy bumps, which Eris (Rodger) imagines herself having by stuffing a jumper up her shirt. Eris desperately wants to be a mum, viewing motherhood as a woman’s highest calling and a chance to have a “redo,” making a better version of herself. Her friend and flatmate Atlanta (Katrina Allen) on the other hand has no such dreams, firmly holding to her desire to remain childfree, and the idea that “a woman doesn’t need to become a mother— it’s not our sole purpose in life.” Katrina Allen and Amelia Rodger in Jumper Bumps. Pic: Ella Hallgren.   The two young women live in amiable contradiction, but things get dicey when Eris starts dating a man refe...

Iago Speaks - ★★★★ ☆   – Fascinating   Rumpus 1-23 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   “Demand me nothing: what you know, you know: From this time forth I never will speak word.”   Iago’s final line in  Othello  is as fittingly enigmatic as the rest of this, Shakespeare’s most notorious villain. A riddle wrapped in a mystery wrapped in the green-eyed monster of jealousy, Iago keeps his own counsel, neither seeking to justify or explain his actions, and refusing to give his fellow characters, or the audience, the satisfaction of a tidy explanation for his heinous deeds. But what happens after the play, when everyone else is dead and Iago is taken away in chains? Joshua Beaudry and Skye Brandon in Iago Speaks. Pic: Rumpus. On the surface, this seems to be the question that  Iago Speaks  seeks to answer. Upon arrival into the space, the audience is greeted by Iago (Skye Brandon) pacing his prison cell, silent and stoic. But when the lights go down, an...

Mythos: Ragnarök -  ★★★★★   – Vegligastr/Spectacular The Mythological Theatre 1-24 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Mythos: Ragnarök  blazes back into the Fringe, fresh from the Bifrǫst to the drone of bone-rattling music and the roar of the crowd. Half professional wrestling, half epic mythological storytelling, this show is the definition of spectacle.   Loki (Ed Gamester) emerges from the fog to introduce the audience to the world of the show: Ginnungagap, the yawning void, the space between the nine worlds in Norse cosmology, where the primordial Ymir spawned all the jǫtunn. Prophecy tells that when ice and fire meet and do battle the result will be Ragnarök, the end times— and right on cue Odin (Howard Drake) arrives.  Loki and Freyja in Mythos: Ragnarök. Pic: Mythological Theatre. Together Loki and Odin team up to defeat their fathers Surtr (Sam Gardiner) and Borr (Fin McCarthy), winning their kingly belts of the realms of Muspelheim (fire) and Nilfheim ...

The Bacchae -  ★★★☆☆ - Ethereal Assembly Roxy (Venue 139): Thur 31 Jul – Sun 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 15 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Glasgow-based Company of Wolves come howling into the Fringe with  The Bacchae , a solo retelling of the myth of Dionysos, playing at Assembly Roxy for a full run. Written and performed by company joint Artistic Director Ewan Downie, The Bacchae is based on Euripides’s late 5th century BCE play of the same name. I nitially developed in 2023, Company of Wolves invested deeply in the linguistic and dramaturgical aspects of their adaptation, collaborating with Dr. Michael Carroll, Ancient Greek Specialist and Creative Consultant at the University of St. Andrews. Ewan Downie in The Bacchae. Pic: Louise Mather. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Juliet and Romeo -  ★★★★☆ - Strong theSpace Triplex (Venue 38): Thurs 7 – Tue 12 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 14 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh Youth Theatre tackles arguably Shakespeare’s most famous play this Fringe, rising to the challenge with  Juliet and Romeo , a reimagined take on the tragedy of love, loss, and senseless violence. According to EYT the average age of the sixteen-strong cast is just fourteen; fittingly, the age Juliet has not yet reached during the events of the play. With less than two weeks of intensive rehearsal this young company, co-directed by Stephanie Wynne and Chloe Kay, have put forth a high calibre production, with a clear understanding of the text. The cast of Edinburgh Youth Theatre's Juliet and Romeo. Pic: Marc Millar. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !