EDFRINGE REVIEW: Bare: A Pop Opera (Edinburgh Little Theatre)

Bare: A Pop Opera - ★★★☆☆ - Ambitious

Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Venue 41): Fri 1 – Sun 24 Aug 2025
Review by Rebecca Mahar

Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 12 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin.

Edinburgh Little Theatre brings Bare: A Pop Opera to the Alba stage at Hill Street Theatre for a full run of the Fringe, an ambitious musical of teenage angst and queer identity in a Catholic boarding school.

Schoolboy Peter (Callan Paterson), a senior at St. Cecilia’s Boarding School, is in a closeted relationship with his roommate, Jason (Josh McPherson), the school heartthrob. Peter longs to come out, while Jason wants to keep their love a secret, afraid of the consequences. The conflict worsens when they are both cast in the school play: Peter as Mercutio, Jason as Romeo, with the popular and promiscuous Ivy (Charlotte Howgego), who has a thing for Jason, as Juliet.

A scene from Bare: A Pop Opera. Pic: ELT.

Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review!

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