EdFringe 2025 Wrap-up
…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 on 6 shows as intimacy or/and fight director. Not too shabby for a one-woman operation, if I say so myself.
No one-woman operation is an island, though, and I owe thanks to every show that welcomed me into their audience, to the Fringe media office for bringing me back as an accredited reviewer, and to Thom Dibdin at All Edinburgh Theatre for continuing to platform my work there as lead reviewer while offering unqualified support for Speak the Speech. While I didn’t get to see as much work as I wanted to this year, I’m full of gratitude for what I did see and everyone who made it possible.
So how did the stars shake out? Here are the numbers:
As you can see, the weighting is heavily on four stars and above, showing the quality of theatre I had the good fortune to see this year. And three stars doesn’t mean a bad show— I know this can be controversial, and three stars doesn’t look as good on a poster as four or five, but most of the time when I hand out three stars, it’s a good show. The business of assigning stars is messy and unscientific.
Thom at Æ has an article on the star system that more or less agrees with my personal philosophy on how to make those decisions. Here at Speak the Speech I do give out half stars, for a little more nuance, though none appeared this Fringe. The decision between three and four is often the hardest to make; I generally walk out of a show knowing if it’s going to get five stars. But not always: sometimes a five star show comes out of the writing of the review, where I thought what I had seen was a very strong four, but in the reflective act of writing I discover justifies nothing but five.
A five star show doesn’t have to be perfect, no show truly is. What it does have to be is magic. That can mean any number of messy, unscientific things, but isn’t that what theatre is about? If we could quantify every aspect of a show and mark it on an unchangeable rubric, what would be the point? In the end, a review is only ever one person’s opinion. I work hard to ensure I’m bringing my expertise and holistic perspective to bear when writing them, but there’s always a certain something ineffable that you can’t put into numbers. And even more messy and unscientific, no show is ever the same twice, no matter how high of a calibre it’s performed at. Live theatre exists in the moment it is happening, and never exactly the same again. Magic.
To wrap up, before I disappear off to Cornwall to ignore the human race for a week, I want to share my Speak the Speech EdFringe 2025 Top 5 Shows. They are in alphabetical order, because choosing five was hard enough.
These are all extraordinary shows for different reasons: three monodramas, one storytelling duet, and one full-company spectacular. All are magic. The Fringe may be over, but if you have the chance to see any of these in the future: do it. With any luck, they’ll all be back.
That’s all for now. To anyone still reading, thank you for being here. I watch the numbers click up on my dashboard after every post, and appreciate every single anonymous person on the other side of the screen. Get some rest, and get ready— the next Fringe will be here before we know it.
-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 on 6 shows as intimacy or/and fight director. Not too shabby for a one-woman operation, if I say so myself.
No one-woman operation is an island, though, and I owe thanks to every show that welcomed me into their audience, to the Fringe media office for bringing me back as an accredited reviewer, and to Thom Dibdin at All Edinburgh Theatre for continuing to platform my work there as lead reviewer while offering unqualified support for Speak the Speech. While I didn’t get to see as much work as I wanted to this year, I’m full of gratitude for what I did see and everyone who made it possible.
So how did the stars shake out? Here are the numbers:
★★★★★ | 8 | 21% |
★★★★ | 17 | 44.7% |
★★★ | 9 | 23.7% |
★★ | 3 | 8% |
★ | 1 | 2.6% |
Thom at Æ has an article on the star system that more or less agrees with my personal philosophy on how to make those decisions. Here at Speak the Speech I do give out half stars, for a little more nuance, though none appeared this Fringe. The decision between three and four is often the hardest to make; I generally walk out of a show knowing if it’s going to get five stars. But not always: sometimes a five star show comes out of the writing of the review, where I thought what I had seen was a very strong four, but in the reflective act of writing I discover justifies nothing but five.
A five star show doesn’t have to be perfect, no show truly is. What it does have to be is magic. That can mean any number of messy, unscientific things, but isn’t that what theatre is about? If we could quantify every aspect of a show and mark it on an unchangeable rubric, what would be the point? In the end, a review is only ever one person’s opinion. I work hard to ensure I’m bringing my expertise and holistic perspective to bear when writing them, but there’s always a certain something ineffable that you can’t put into numbers. And even more messy and unscientific, no show is ever the same twice, no matter how high of a calibre it’s performed at. Live theatre exists in the moment it is happening, and never exactly the same again. Magic.
To wrap up, before I disappear off to Cornwall to ignore the human race for a week, I want to share my Speak the Speech EdFringe 2025 Top 5 Shows. They are in alphabetical order, because choosing five was hard enough.
These are all extraordinary shows for different reasons: three monodramas, one storytelling duet, and one full-company spectacular. All are magic. The Fringe may be over, but if you have the chance to see any of these in the future: do it. With any luck, they’ll all be back.
That’s all for now. To anyone still reading, thank you for being here. I watch the numbers click up on my dashboard after every post, and appreciate every single anonymous person on the other side of the screen. Get some rest, and get ready— the next Fringe will be here before we know it.
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