Transfers -  ★★☆☆☆ - Underdeveloped theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39) Fri 1 – Sat 23 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 13 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Arbery Theatre brings new play  Transfers  to theSpace on the Mile for a full run of the Fringe, tracking the movement of £500 through a group of people and the connections they make. Ostensibly the story of a sum of money changing hands, Transfers uses this conceit to focus on the human connections, intentional or random, that occur each day and connect people to one another whether they realise it or not. The premise is intriguing, but the production does not quite live up to its conceptual potential. The cast of Transfers. Pic: Arbery Theatre. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

PALS -  ★★★★☆ - Cathartic Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24): Wed 30 Jul – Tue 12 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 13 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. PALS  from Higgledy Piggledy Productions returns to the Fringe following a successful run last year, with a hefty dose of sisterhood, impulsivity, and the realities of life as a perfectly average lassie of Scotland. Mirren Wilson’s script centres around the spur of the moment decision of pals Sadie, Claire, Taylor, and Flor to go walking and climb Ben Lomond after a group existential breakdown over what all their other friends seem to be achieving in life. Sadie is the leader of the expedition, an experienced walker who used to go out with her mum all the time— but her mum’s now ill and not up to adventures, so Sadie makes sure to photograph them to share. Olivia McIntosh, Shelley Midler, Amy Class and Olivia Caw in PALS. Pic: Ray Kelly. Visit...

Tales From Your Queer Elder -  ★★★☆☆ - Embodied Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236): Fri 1 – Sat 16 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 12 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Lucia August returns to the Fringe with  Tales From Your Queer Elder , a three-act reflection on her journey through life, dance, and existing outside societal norms and expectations. Taking the form of a solo dance concert, the programme is composed of three distinct pieces:  Consistent Paradox ,  They Never Really Leave , and  Eldering , the last of which received its world premiere here at the Fringe on 1 August. Lucia August in Tales From Your Queer Elder. Pic: Lynne Fried. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Macbeth: the Musical - ★★★★☆  – Rambunctious Bristol Shakespeare Festival 1-9 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   “Some people say Shakespeare is fun.” “What, are you serious?”   Irreverent from the word go, Bristol Shakespeare Festival’s  Macbeth: the Musical  is a raucous romp through one of the Bard’s most famous plays, taking nothing seriously but its desire to have fun. In an opening number that asserts the show has “jazzed up the script with rhythm and rhyme” (things Shakespeare is famous for… not having?), the company of six set the tone of the show with a manic fervor that never lets up.  A scene from Macbeth: the Musical. Pic: Aperture NI. Written by Rachel Waterhouse and directed by Justin Stathers,  Macbeth: the Musical  is a mashup of original work, adaptation of Shakespeare, and parody of popular songs to string it all together. Once it gets past a somewhat jumbled opening section with voiceover bits that don’t really work, which attem...

Wilde - ★★★★☆  – Mature Tír na nÓg Theatre 1-9 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Formed of students from Embley Senior School, Tír na nÓg Theatre make their Fringe debut with the enchanting new musical  Wilde .   Focused not on Oscar, but his lesser-known wife,  Wilde  relates the story of Constance, née Lloyd. A writer in her own right, Constance faced the fate of many of the wives and female relations of famous creative men: overshadowed by their husbands’ accomplishments, which more often than not were made possible due to the administrative work, creative input, and household labour of these women. And in Constance’s case, the scandals caused by her husband’s infidelity with various men. A scene from Wilde. Pic:  Tír na nÓg Theatre Company.   Wilde  opens with a young girl (Saoirse Morgan) seated at the foot of her grandmother (Cassie McCoubrey), asking to hear “a story that’s true.” To which the grandmother replies, “things are not alwa...

Bare: A Pop Opera -  ★★★☆☆ - Ambitious Braw Venues @ Hill Street (Venue 41): Fri 1 – Sun 24 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 12 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh Little Theatre brings  Bare: A Pop Opera  to the Alba stage at Hill Street Theatre for a full run of the Fringe, an ambitious musical of teenage angst and queer identity in a Catholic boarding school. Schoolboy Peter (Callan Paterson), a senior at St. Cecilia’s Boarding School, is in a closeted relationship with his roommate, Jason (Josh McPherson), the school heartthrob. Peter longs to come out, while Jason wants to keep their love a secret, afraid of the consequences. The conflict worsens when they are both cast in the school play: Peter as Mercutio, Jason as Romeo, with the popular and promiscuous Ivy (Charlotte Howgego), who has a thing for Jason, as Juliet. A scene from Bare: A Pop Opera. Pic: ELT. Visit All Edinburgh...

Lovett - ★★★★☆ - Compelling BoonDog Theatre 30 Jul – 25 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   We know Sweeney Todd’s backstory, but what about Mrs. Lovett? How did she get where we find her at the start of her partnership with the Demon Barber? That’s the premise of BoonDog Theatre’s new work  Lovett , written and performed by Lucy Roslyn, with direction from Jamie Firth.   Best known from the Sondheim musical  Sweeney Todd , Mrs. Lovett’s existence, like Sweeney’s, goes back to the mid-19 th  century penny dreadful  The String of Pearls.  Both have been unreliably asserted to be based on real people, and there have been many versions of Mrs. Lovett over the years, offering both plenty of material and room for creative license in the creation of Roslyn’s. Lucy Roslyn in Lovett. Pic: Andrew Perry. We join Mrs. Lovett in the Cellar at Pleasance Courtyard, where she is methodically sharpening a knife on a stone. “Some people don’t like this sound…” she chuck...

Aderyn/Bird -  ★★★★★ - Disglair/Brilliant Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30a): Wed 6 – Sat 16 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 9 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Edinburgh’s Ailsa Dixon and Welsh storyteller Ffion Philips, together known as the Harebell Tellers, enchant the Scottish Storytelling Centre with a limited, five show run of  Aderyn/Bird  this Fringe. Weaving together mythology, folklore, and language from across the archipelagic Celtic nations, the pair create a captivating hour of bardic wonder. The  Aderyn  of the title, of course, being the Welsh equivalent of its companion, the English word:  Bird. The Harebell Tellers - Ailsa Dixon and Ffion Philips. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Moving On: A New Musical -  ★★★★☆ - Touching Hill Street Theatre (Venue 31): Fri 1 – Thurs 14 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 8 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Ghosties and ghoulies and interpersonal sibling drama abound in  Moving On, a new musical  from Happy Sad Productions playing at Braw’s Hill Street Street Theatre for the first half of the Fringe. Written by Amber Docherty (assistant director), Roza Stevenson (director), and Josh Wood (musical director), this touching family drama-meets-ghost story is both poignant and humorous, with its lively music matched by some stellar performances. The siblings in Moving On. Pic: Iona Wood. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Nightmares by Sandy Jack -  ★☆☆☆☆ - Incoherent theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39): Fri 1 – Sat 9 Aug 2025 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 8 August 2025. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Sandy Jack returns to the Fringe under the auspices of Lynch Lovers with new show  Nightmares  at theSpace on the Mile. Described as a “surreal/horror anthology” inspired by Jack’s own nightmares, David Lynch, and The Twilight Zone, it is frankly an incoherent mess. The Nightmares, written and directed by Jack, start interestingly enough with a man (Jack) who seems to be trapped in the bowels of a building as air raid sirens sound overhead, moving down a corridor with something unknown lurking at its end, tensely narrating his experience. The cast of Nightmares by Sandy Jack. Pic: Lynch Lovers. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !