The Talented Mr. Ripley -  ★★☆☆☆ - Unsubstantiated Festival Theatre: Tue 16 – Sat 20 Sept 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 18 September 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Mark Leipacher’s adaptation of  The Talented Mr. Ripley  for The Faction tours to the Festival Theatre until Saturday in a production that lacks conviction, logic, and the tension required to live up to its billing as a psychological thriller. Based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel of the same name, the play follows nondescript New York man Tom Ripley (Ed McVey) through a series of misadventures when he is hired by Herbert Greenleaf (Christopher Bianchi) to persuade his wayward son Dickie (Bruce Herbelin-Earle) to return home from Italy where he is living with his American girlfriend Marge Sherwood (Maisie Smith). Bruce Herbelin-Earle (Dickie Greenleaf) and Ed McVey (Tom Ripley) seated, with the cast in The Talented Mr. Ripley.  Pic:...

Fiddler on the Roof -  ★★★★★ - Captivating Festival Theatre: Tue 9 – Sat 13 Sept 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 10 September 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. The Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre production of  Fiddler on the Roof , at the Festival Theatre all week, is a captivating rendition that is sombre, hopeful and humorous, in the best tradition of this classic musical. Based on the Yiddish stories of Sholen Aleichem,  Fiddler on the Roof  chronicles a turbulent period in the shtetl of Anatevka, at the turn of the twentieth century, just as the eyes of the Russian authorities fall upon the small Jewish community. Jodie Jacobs (Golde) and matthew Woodyatt (Tevye). Pic: Johan Persson. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

The Seal-Woman –   ★ ★ ★ ☆☆  – Mythic The Scots Opera Project 28 & 29 Aug; 4, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14 Sept Review by Rebecca Mahar   The Scots Opera Project returns to Pitlochry Festival with  The Seal-Woman , diving into the music of the Hebrides and the legend of the mythical selkie.   Described as a Celtic folk opera,  The Seal-Woman  premiered in 1924 with a score by Granville Bantock and libretto by Marjory Kennedy-Fraser. The opera follows the story of its titular character, a selkie who, along with her sister, removes her seal-skin to frolic on land, thinking it free of humans— only to find herself trapped by an islesman whose boat has left him behind. The sailor gives her a choice: remain on land and marry him, and he will return her sister’s skin, or refuse and doom them both to live as humans.   Performed in the outdoor amphitheatre of the Explorers Garden at Pitlochry Festival Theatre,  The Seal-Woman  fits beautifully into its s...

A Toast Fae the Lassies –  ★ ★ ★★ ☆   – Enchanting Pitlochry Festival Theatre 29 & 30 Aug; 4, 10, 18, 24 Sept  Review by Rebecca Mahar   Pitlochry Festival Theatre premieres the enchanting new musical play  A Toast Fae the Lassies  in a limited six-show run this autumn, bringing the ghosts of Robert Burns and the women who knew him best to the intimate Studio theatre.   On the 25 th  of January 1797, Agnes Broun (Alyson Orr) visits St. Michael’s Churchyard in Dumfries to remember her recently deceased son, Robert Burns, on his birthday. There she is joined by Burns’s widow, Jean Amour (Stephanie Cremona), and shortly thereafter by one of his many mistresses, his muse Clarinda (Eden Barrie). Together the women remember their Rabbie, warts and all, through their words and his own. Stephanie Cremona, Alyson Orr, and Eden Barrie in A Toast Fae the Lassies. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan. Written and directed by John Binnie, with musical direction, arrangem...