EDFRINGE REVIEW: Bloody Mary's (Fat Pooch Productions)

Bloody Mary's - ★★★★★ - Riveting

theSpace @ Venue 45 (Venue 45): Fri 14 – Wed 19 August 2026
Review by Rebecca Mahar.

Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 17 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin.

Fat Pooch Productions makes its theatre debut at theSpace @ Venue 45 with Bloody Mary’s, a rich, raw, riveting look inside the life and death of Mary McKinnon, a figure of notoriety and injustice in Edinburgh’s history.

In 1823 McKinnon was the proprietor of a fashionable South Bridge brothel where, in Fat Pooch’s version of events, the women who worked as prostitutes received both care and protection from her. Regardless of how they had ended up in a life of sex work, Bloody Mary’s was a haven of choice – to engage or not engage with customers, and to perform only the acts which they desired, including that of simply providing companionship.

Erin Clark as Mary McKinnon. Pic: Fat Pooch,

Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review!

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