Bad Shakespeare –  ★★☆☆☆  – Vexing TheatreOCU 7-12 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar Promotional image, Bad Shakespeare. Bad Shakespeare  from TheatreOCU at Oklahoma City University promises a revue of Shakespeare’s baddies, a play in five acts, each exploring a different question along the theme of (with apologies to Shax himself): are villains born bad, do they achieve badness, or do they have badness thrust upon them? Despite this interesting premise, the production fails to live up to its promises and demonstrates a superficiality unbecoming of the complexity it claims to see in its subjects.   The structure of the piece is disjointed within its framing, flitting rapidly from monologue to monologue, mostly excerpts from longer speeches in the various plays from which it pulls its bad Shakespeare/bad Shakespeareans. Between each piece the actors address the audience, sometimes with attempts to explain what the character has been saying and why, sometimes only a few flip...

MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical –  ★★★★☆  – Ambitious Muse 5-30 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical  from emerging music artist Hanna Andréa is a high energy, hallucinogenic dive into the mind and characters of struggling writer Shakespeare, who in his quest to choose only a single play for his would-be publishers to put to print, must face his creations and hear what they have to say about it— and him.    The basic premise (meeting your own characters in a dreamworld aside) is entirely ahistorical. Shakespeare did not write for publication, and nor did the publishing industry or author-ownership exist during his life in forms that would be recognisable to today’s industry. The order in which Shakespeare’s plays  were  first published is entirely ignored, and an apparent reference to the posthumous collection that would come to be known as the First Folio ignores that there is no evidence that Shakespeare ever i...

Midsummer! –  ★★★★☆  – Vibrant CMU Center for New Work & Play On Shakespeare 6-19 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Midsummer!  from the Carnegie Mellon University Center for New Work in partnership with Play On Shakespeare is a slick, madcap, high-energy romp, filling the Bijou tent in St. Andrew Square with light and noise.   In Athens (aka, Golden Age Pittsburgh), Hermia and Lysander want to get married, but her father insists that she marry Demetrius— the erstwhile paramour of Hermia’s best friend, Helena, who is hopelessly in love with Demetrius. Hermia must declare her final choice on the wedding day of the wedding of Duke Theseus and his betrothed, Hippolyta, sending she and Lysander flying into the woods to escape, hotly pursued by both Demetrius and Helena. Meanwhile, a group of amateur actors are met in the woods to rehearse a play for the wedding, and it isn’t going terribly well. Unbeknownst to the mortals, these woods are the home of the fairy king ...

An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest -  ★★★★☆ - Sprightly theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9): Fri 7 – Tue 11 August 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 10 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh Youth Theatre return to the Fringe with another condensed Shakespeare,  An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest , which brings Shakespeare’s tale of shipwreck, vengeance, sorcery and love in under an hour. Directed by Chloe Kay and Steph Wynne,  Island of Bad Ideas  works hard to abridge the original script, blending Shakespeare’s dialogue with some slightly more modern inventions, and adding a few dance breaks (choreographed by Kay) for good measure. The result is something approachable and accessible, leaning heavily into the comedy inherent in the piece, even if all the threads of the story get a little tangled at times. The cast of An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest. Pic: EYT. Visit All Edinburgh Theat...

On Some Far Shore –  ★★★½  – Reflective Cross Keys Productions 7-22 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   On Some Far Shore , a new musical from Cross Keys Productions, is a quiet, reflective exploration of grief in parental loss, and figuring out how to carry on.   Set on the eve of his mother Helen’s funeral, the musical opens with Euan trying to write her eulogy. Despite being a talented writer, he’s stuck, unsure how to capture her story, and all the stories she told him that have shaped who he is. With the aid of his girlfriend Isla, he begins to pick through the pieces, striving towards the unknown shore of the future— and of a past whose memories are irrevocably touched by loss. Promotional image: Thomas Perry (Euan) and Francesca Knoop (Isla). Pic: Cross Keys. Written by Louis Benneyworth and Madi Bouchta, with a score by Benneyworth,  On Some Far Shore  tackles its difficult subject matter with care. The focus is on Euan’s internal struggle and relationshi...

Gagula: The Panto With Teeth! -  ★★★☆☆ - Energetic Greenside @ Riddles Court (Venue 16): Fri 7 – Sat 15 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 10 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Pig’s Ear Productions are back with another panto, this year moving away from Shakespeare and into another classic art form: drag,  Gagula: The Panto With Teeth! . Written and directed by Mackenzie Galbraith,  Gagula  riffs on Dracula, meta-theatre, and pantomime itself in a production that, while not as cohesive as it might have been, is still a snort-worthy good time. Gabrielle Mann as Mina Murray and Buster Van Der Geest as Van Helsing. Pic: PEP. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Next to Normal –  ★★★★☆  – Beautiful agony Bare Productions 7-15 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Bare Productions brings the Scottish premiere of  Next to Normal  to the Fringe for a limited run at Paradise in Augustines, in a production that tackles the musical’s complicated material with heart and sensitivity.   The musical opens on an early morning in the Goodman house, with parents Dan and Diana, daughter Natalie, and son Gabe all preparing for the day ahead: Gabe, home late after curfew, Natalie having pulled an all-nighter studying, and Dan and Diana finding a moment for physical intimacy. It all seems like an ordinary, if frenetic, sort of scene, until with a rushing build in the music Diana begins assembling sandwich after sandwich on the floor, losing herself in focus on the task until Dan pulls her back to reality. The company of Next to Normal. Pic: Ejay Freeman. This is the first overt crack in Diana’s façade, but it quickly crumbles. The audience...

Dogberry and Verges Are Scared –  ★★★★☆  – Clever Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Slippery Trout Productions 5-30 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   From Cincinnati Shakespeare Company and Slippery Trout Productions, the world premiere of  Dogberry & Verges Are Scared  arrives at the Fringe clothed in equal parts reverence and irreverence, a Shakespeare-inspired romp in the best tradition of combining humour with moments of emotional clarity.   The title of the play is a riff on Tom Stoppard’s  Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead , which follows the off-page misadventures of its titular minor characters throughout  Hamlet . Similarly,  Dogberry & Verges  follows its hapless protagonists through the backstage of  Much Ado About Nothing , where Hero, daughter of Leonato, the Governor of Messina, is supposed to be getting married— but someone has played a nasty trick, making her fiancé Claudio think her unfaithful and jilt her ...

Broadside –  ★★★☆☆  – Underdeveloped   April Alsup Productions 7-15 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Packing a fifteen-strong company into the intimate Willow Studio at Riddles Court, April Alsup’s  Broadside  asks its audience to consider an overlooked aspect of Revolutionary American history: the broadsides themselves, and how these short, printed documents acted as the social media networks of their day, spreading viral messages from hand to hand like wildfire.   The musical is an ambitious proposal, bringing with it a full-scale cast and weaving in traditional tunes (such as “The Liberty Song” and the ancient refrain of “Derry Down”) alongside creator Alsup’s original compositions. Unfortunately, however, it is the production’s great ambitions that are its greatest weakness. A scene from Broadside. Pic: April Alsup Productions.   Broadside ’s stated focus is intriguing, but the broadsides themselves get little more than a mention throughout the h...

 Brave Macbeth -  ★★★★★ - Smashin’ Assembly @ St Andrews Square (Venue 172): Fri 7 – Sun 30 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 7 Aug 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Captive Theatre romps into the Bijou tent at St. Andrew’s Square with  Smashing Shakespeare: Brave Macbeth , a children’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy that’s heavy on charm and cheek and entirely without condescension. Cutting Shakespeare for performance is always a tricky business, but trying to pack the entire story into one hour, make it intelligible and fun for little ones, and make it a musical? It’s a tall order, but Captivate comes through, stripping Shakespeare’s play back to the barest of bones, most essential characters, and highlights of plot points. Jorgey Scott-Learmouth, Lucy Pedersen, and Ollie Heimann. Pic: Captivate. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

The Hunchback of Notre Dame -  ★★★★★ - Splendimum Edinburgh Academy (Venue 70): Wed 5 – Sun 16 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 7 Aug 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Captivate Theatre tackle the towering stage adaptation of Menken & Schwartz’s  The Hunchback of Notre Dame  with scale, beauty, and outstanding commitment to a score that demands nothing less than divine inspiration.  Adapted from the Disney film, Hunchback centres on the story of Quasimodo, the bellringer of Notre Dame. The orphaned son of Jehan, the rogue younger brother of the cathedral’s Archdeacon Claude Frollo, Quasi has been taken in by his uncle and kept out of sight. Alex Fraser as Quasimodo. Pic: Rosie Sco. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Into the Woods -  ★★★★☆ - Dark whimsy Edinburgh Academy (Venue 70): Wed 5 – Sun 16 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 7 Aug 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Captivate Theatre takes on the Sondheim classic  Into the Woods  at their new venue down at Edinburgh Academy in Stockbridge, with a production that is charming and ambitious. An enduringly popular musical from the notoriously challenging composer,  Into the Woods  follows the story of a Baker and his Wife, desperate to have a child; the Witch next door who cursed the Baker’s “family tree to always be a barren one” and who sets the pair a quest in order to break her curse; and the other inhabitants of this fairytale land whose stories are caught up along the way. A scene from Into the Woods. Pic: Rosie Sco. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

  THE CASTLE AND THE CLOISTER - ★★★★★ by Laura E. Weymouth Publishes 4 August 2026 UK - Del Rey Books US - Saga Press I received an ARC of this book as part of the author's Street Team. I was not obligated to provide a review. All opinions are my own. THE CASTLE AND THE CLOISTER hits shelves today and it’s high time I gave it the ★★★★★   review I’ve been stewing on since I got my grubby little hands on it and devoured it in one sitting.   This the book I’ve been waiting for. No, really— Laura has been teasing this project in the background for ages and without knowing anything about it, I’ve been (im)patiently waiting for it to arrive. I’ve been a fan of her YA novels since the beginning (A Treason of Thorns has my whole heart), and I knew that when the adult project finally made it into the world it would be worth every moment of the wait. This is book one of a duology, and I am already ravenous for the second course.   Set against the backdrop of tenuous peace, con...

Lear -  ★★★★☆  - Haunting Pitlochry Festival Theatre 9 July – 1 August Review by Rebecca Mahar   Pitlochry Festival Theatre takes on one of Shakespeare’s most towering tragedies for the first time this summer in Finn den Hertog’s adaptation of  Lear , featuring Maureen Beattie in the title role. In this  Lear  of queen and quandaries, den Hertog’s conceptual goals are somewhat subsumed by the play itself, but the production nevertheless delivers a worthy rendition of its storied source. Maureen Beattie and the cast of Lear. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.   Lear  begins in the elderly monarch’s court, where she declares her intention to retire from the her office as Queen of Britain, and divide her realm among her three daughters. First, however, she asks each of them to profess how much they love her. The eldest and middle daughters, Goneril (Jenny Hulse) and Regan (Lindsey Campbell), make a great show of their professions, hoping for preferment; but the ...

Dracula -  ★★★☆☆ - Jukebox Ballet Festival Theatre: Fri 12-Sun 14 Jun 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 13 June 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Big Live sweep onto the Festival Theatre stage with a limited engagement of  Dracula: Ballet at its Darkest , a new adaptation of the classic Bram Stoker horror. Promising lavish Gothic visuals and visceral storytelling, this is a ballet simmering with potential. Potential which is not yet fulfilled. Choreographed by the Australian company’s Artistic Director Joel Burke,  Dracula opens on a seventeenth century battlefield, where the formidable Vlad cuts his way through enemy after enemy. After learning that his wife has been killed by the Church, he sells his soul and transforms into Dracula. Ervin Zagidullan as Dracula. Pic: Big Live. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

The Marriage of Figaro -  ★★★★☆ - Delightful Festival Theatre: Fri 29 May – Sat 6 Jun 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 30 May 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Scottish Opera’s  The Marriage of Figaro  kicks off a limited engagement at the Festival Theatre in style, delivering a revival of Sir Thomas Allen’s 2010 production full of flair, humour, and outstanding performances. Set three years after the events of  The Barber of Seville , wherein the clever Figaro (Edward Jowle) helped Count Almaviva (Ian Rucker) woo and wed Rosina (Alexandra Lowe),  The Marriage of Figaro  opens on the morning of Figaro’s wedding to the now-Countess Almaviva’s maid, Susanna (Ava Dodd). Edward Jowle (Figaro) and Ava Dodd (Susanna) in The Marriage of Figaro. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !