The Croft –  ★★½  – Fragmentary Original Theatre Company 25 – 28 June Review by Rebecca Mahar   Billed as “a thriller” by Ali Milles, Original Theatre Company’s  The Croft  is an intriguing premise that, despite excellent performances, fails to fulfil any of its promises. Set in a crofter’s hut in the Highland village of Coillie Ghille, the play opens with Enid (Liza Goddard), a crofter living in the time of the Highland Clearances, hearing the sounds of a mob approaching. She proclaims “Let them come. Let them all come!” before extinguishing her candle and vanishing. Her still-rocking chair is the only echo of her presence as we flash-forward to the present day, when Laura (Gracie Follows) and her older girlfriend Suzanne (Caroline Harker) arrive at the croft for a holiday. Gracie Follows as Laura and Liza Goddard as Enid. Pic: Manuel Harlan.   It's an auspicious beginning, and what seems like an excellent setup for a transtemporal thriller, but the script...

Twelfth Night -  ★★★☆☆ - Droll Saughton Park:  Wed 25 – Sat 28 June 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 26 June 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. The Forth Act return to Saughton Park with another helping of outdoor Shakespeare, transporting the Illyria of  Twelfth Night  to a beach town in the summer of 1967. One of Shakespeare’s enduring comedies of mistaken identity,  Twelfth Night centres around the story of Viola (Rhona O’Donnell), shipwrecked off the coast of Illyria. Believing that her identical twin brother Sebastian (Scott Adair-Grabas) has perished in the wreck, and with no means at her disposal, Viola assumes the male identity of Cesario, and takes up a place as a servant in the household of Duke Orsino (Finlay Allan). Cosette Bolt and Rhona O'Donnell. Pic: Andrew Morris Photography. Orsino is attempting to court the noblewoman Olivia (Cosette Bolt), who is entirely uninterested — in him, ...

Feet of Clay –  ★★★☆☆   – Charming Strawmoddie:  5 – 8 June Review by Rebecca Mahar   Strawmoddie are back at the Cymera Festival with another adaptation from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, bringing  Feet of Clay  to life in charming fashion.   The nineteenth Discworld novel, and third centring on the City Watch, this adaptation of  Feet of Clay  naturally picks up  in media res  in terms of characters, setting, and general given circumstances. Nevertheless, the characters are archetypical enough and say enough about themselves and each other that you don’t need to be a devotee of the Disc to follow along easily enough.   L-R: Georgie Dickie (Sergeant Detritus), Alice Pelan (Corporal Angua), Chris Allan (Samuel Vimes), Rebecca Amos (Corporal Nobby), Amber Libman (Cheery Littlebottom), Alex Card (Captain Carrot), Hilary Davies (Sergeant Colon). Pic: Robin Mair. Commander Sir Samuel Vimes, leader of the Watch, is seeking a c...

LEAR –  ★★★★★   – Blistering Raw Material:  5 – 7 June Review by Rebecca Mahar   External and internal storms rage in this raw, dauntless production, bringing its classical inspiration into a brutal, truthful present. From Raw Material in association with the National Theatre of Scotland,  LEAR  commands its stage without words for a blistering hour of physical storytelling.   If you’re familiar with Shakespeare’s  King Lear , this  LEAR  is instantly recognisable. But while enriching to the experience of watching this production, familiarity with the former is not required: writer Ramesh Meyyappan, while deriving the essence of his story from Shakespeare, has transformed it into something entirely new. The company of LEAR. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan.   Under the fearless direction of Orla O’Loughlin, Meyyappan also appears in title role, alongside Nicole Cooper as Goneril, Amy Kennedy as Regan, and Draya Maria as Cordelia.   As the...

The Mountaintop —  ★★★★½  —  Electric Royal Lyceum Edinburgh:  31 May – 21 June Review by Rebecca Mahar   The Mountaintop  is Katori Hall’s speculative exploration of final hours of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s life; a fictive, and sometimes explosive, burrowing into the psyche of a man who became a modern legend. Presented by the Royal Lyceum in a bold new staging from director Rikki Henry,  The Mountaintop  deconstructs the legend and displays the man, in all his foibles, questioning how he might have reflected on his own legacy— and the progress he, and his country, had yet to make.   Caleb Roberts as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic. Opening just before midnight on April 3 rd , 1968, the play begins with Dr. King staggering into his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He collapses to the floor, exhausted, as a storm rages outside; the same storm that had, hours before, punctuated his speech at the Mason Temp...

Trial by Jury  –  ★★★★☆ - Absurd A Matter of Misconduct! –  ★★★★☆ - Shrewd Festival Theatre: Fri 30 May & Fri 6 June 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 4 June 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Scottish Opera and the D’Oyly Carte Opera celebrate the 150th anniversary Gilbert & Sullivan’s partnership by pairing  Trial By Jury  with  A Matter of Misconduct! , a new operetta commissioned in response to it. Although G&S had collaborated briefly in 1871,  Trial By Jury  was their first operetta and the one that kicked off their enduring success, making its premiere a fitting date to mark. Like all their subsequent collaborations, the plot is completely ludicrous, tucking satire into its nooks and crannies to sneak past the censors of the time. Edward Jowle (Usher) and Chloe Harris (Counsel for the Plaintiff) in Trial by Jury. Pic: Michael Bodlovic. Visit All Edinburgh ...

  The Merry Widow - ★★★★★ - Scintillating Festival Theatre: 29 May – 7 June 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 1 June 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Scottish Opera presents a scintillating new adaptation of Franz Lehár’s  The Merry Widow  at the Festival Theatre, bringing its setting into the twentieth century, and its sensibilities into the twenty-first. Originally a German operetta adapting a French play, this version of  The Merry Widow , a co-production with D’Oyly Carte Opera and Opera Holland Park, features a new English translation by David Eaton (lyrics) and John Savournin (book), the latter of whom also directs the piece. The company of Scottish Opera's The Merry Widow. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

 Monumental -  ★★★★☆ - Momentous Central Edinburgh: Sat 10, Sat 17 May 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 23 May 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Up-and-coming feminist theatre company F-Bomb Theatre presents  Monumental , an innovative piece of historical site-specific theatre, in the form of a walking tour around Edinburgh. Monumental is part of Edinburgh 900, the council-curated celebration of 900 years of “local democracy” in Edinburgh. It represents F-Bomb’s mission to “celebrate and support women and people of marginalised genders in theatre and beyond”, by adding to the local public art five new statues of important figures from the city’s history; all women, whose stories have gone largely untold. Samuela Noumtchuet as Clara Marguerite Christian. Pic: F-Bomb. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

 Accidental Death of an Anarchist -  ★★★★☆ - Timely Hill Street Theatre: Wed 14 – Sat 17 May 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 16 May 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Arkle Theatre Company mix humour and deadly reality at the Hill Street Theatre, in their take on   Accidental Death of an Anarchist , a farce that keeps living up to its genre with more and more irony. Tom Basden’s 2023 adaptation of Dario Fo and Franca Rame’s riotous 1970 original is searingly up-to-date and regionally relevant, set in offices of the Metropolitan Police in London. Basden easily transports the 1969 events in Italy upon which the original was based, into 21st century England. It’s perhaps even easier to believe now, than then, that an anarchist accused of an urban bombing should be interrogated without evidence by police and subsequently meet his death at their hands. Wendy Brindle as the Maniac. Pic: Rob Shields. Visit Al...

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe -  ★★★★★ - Exceptional Festival Theatre: Tue 13 – Sat 17 May 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 15 May 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Brimming with music and whimsy, fear and wonder,  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe , touring to the Festival Theatre all week, is a spectacular interpretation of C.S. Lewis’s classic novel. It is spectacular in the literal sense that it is full of spectacle from curtain to curtain: packed with illusions, sumptuous design and technical bombast. This never becomes overwhelming, though: it’s perfectly balanced to create the world of four child evacuees from the Blitz who discover a magical kingdom in the back of a wardrobe; enlivening all its various locations and characters with exactly the right amount of magic. Bunmi Osadolor (Edmund), Jesse Dunbar (Peter), Kudzai Mangombe (Lucy), Joanna Adaran (Susan). Pic: Brinkoff-Moegenburg. Visit...