Will Power: Rebecca Mahar talks to Salvador Kent about form, farce and clowning in political theatre The General Will  is a new play at the Fringe from up-and-coming Edinburgh-based writer and director Salvador Kent, who uses the the meta-analysis of clown to critique current events and the political players who shape them. In the play, two clowns – government actors – enact current events that have made their approval ratings drop to an all time low. Meanwhile, two Gen-Z actual actors rehearse a play responding to these events…   Chloe Embley in rehearsal for The General Will. Pic: Salvador Kent. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full article ! Commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 29 July 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin.

Footloose -  ★★★★☆ - Vigorous Festival Theatre: Fri 18/Sat 19 July 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 20 July 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Dancing onto the Festival Theatre stage with boundless energy and enthusiasm, The Beyond Broadway Experience presents a  Footloose  that is a showcase of Scottish talent and training, an invigorating look into the up-and-coming generations of musical theatre performers. Based on the 1984 film of the same name, Footloose tells the story of Chicago teen Ren McCormack, who loves to dance, moving with his mother to the small town of Bomont after they are abandoned by his father. Ren quickly discovers that Bomont is nothing like Chicago, and that after a tragic accident several years before, dancing has been outlawed. Not that this will stop Ren… Bobby Duncan as Ren and Rhianne McAllister as Ariel. Pic: BBExP. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

This Is A Gift - ★★★★★ - Luminous Pitlochry Festival Theatre: Tue 24 June – Th 11 Sept 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 9 July 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. This Is A Gift , Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir’s Leith-based retelling of the Midas myth performed solo by Blythe Jandoo, creeps into your heart and slowly squeezes it in a golden vice. This is a feat of writing and storytelling that reminds us that myths don’t always have a happy ending — and shouldn’t. It runs in the PFT Studio for five performances only, with two matinees remaining on Fri 5 and Thurs 11 September 2025. Blythe Jandoo in This Is A Gift. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Grease -  ★★★★☆ - Raucous Pitlochry Festival Theatre: 18 Jun – 27 Sept 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and original published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 4 July 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Grease  is a raucous, riotous classic of 1970s American musical theatre, and this new co-production between Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Blackpool Grand Theatre is packed with heart, soul, and exceptional actor-musicianship. It’s the first day of school in 1958 at Rydell High, and new girl Sandy Dumbrowski (Blythe Jandoo) is introduced to the Pink Ladies clique by Frenchy (April Nerissa Hudson) and quickly invited into the fold. Simultaneously, the greaser gang the Burger Palace Boys gather, focusing on the popular Danny (Alexander Service). Blythe Jandoo and the cast of Grease. Pic: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

The Great Gatsby - ★★★★★ - Sensationa l Pitlochry Festival Theatre: 27 June – 25 Sept Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally posted on All Edinburgh Theatre, 3 July 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. The Great Gatsby  is an extraordinarily difficult story to adapt, but Elizabeth Newman has done it, in a dazzling, hopeful, forlorn and febrile production, helmed by Sarah Brigham and co-produced by Pitlochry Festival Theatre and Derby Theatre. Based on F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel of the same name,  The Great Gatsby  is narrated by Nick Carraway, a writer and veteran of the Great War turned bond salesman, who moves to the Long Island village of West Egg to start afresh. Nick Carraway is the fixed point in the sea of chaos that is Gatsby. He is, as Fitzgerald wrote, “rather ill at ease among swirls and eddies of people”. It is this aspect that Newman has seized upon in her adaptation, to great success. David Rankine (Nick Carraway) and Oraine Johnso...

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...