Author Archives: Dan Lentell

‘Mythos: Ragnarök’ (Music Hall at Assembly Rooms, until AUG 29)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Assembly Hall, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“A subtle and sophisticated piece of storytelling with the heart of Sleipnir and a pace to match.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Norse mythology is BIG. It’s elemental. It’s soulful, poetic and, above all, exciting. Ed Gamester’s vision is EXACTLY what a little boy would dream of as he avidly read ‘D’aulaires’ Book of Norse Myths’ snug at Gran and Poppy’s house back in the day – and what an aulder chap would try to convey reading the same volume to his own darling wee progeny a year or two dozen later.

Gamester is an EdFringe legend in his own lifetime. He has raised this show from scratch with considerably more time and effort than the All Father needed to raise that wheat which saved the farmer’s son in a Faroese ballad from long ago. From the teeny-tiny Roxy venue to the Asgardian splendour of the Music Hall at Assembly Rooms, our Ed has made magic happen year after year. His show is a crowd-pleaser – and what a crowd – but it is also a subtle and sophisticated piece of storytelling with the heart of Sleipnir and a pace to match.

As Odin, Howard Drake dominates the action with a cosmic gravitas. The premier ring-builder in the UK, Drake literally sets the stage for the drama that unfolds, the perfect foil for Gamester’s fiercesomely soulful and (just) occasionally irreverent Loki. Together, these two titans slam into the narrative like a hot knife slams into butter. The result is a smorgasbord of characterful vignettes and choreographed pandemonium that spills out into the audience with the sudden slugfest urgency of Jörmungandr jumping in and out of a wood-fired hot tub.

As Gullveig, Louise Young (of Iron Girders fame) brings an unquiet, unforgettable, unmissable dignity to proceedings. Together with the splendid performance, presence, and physicality of Rhonda Pownall (as Friday’s namesake), Young delivers a counterweight to the overwheening ambition of the menfolk. It’s a stratospheric performance that could dwarf an ice giant. 

Countermatching Young’s steely (only just) restraint is Miles Ley’s babyface Thor. The Bristol Old Vic alum is utterly sensational; it is simply outrageous that anyone should get paid for having so much fun on stage. And here is what makes Gamester’s vision so successful, this exacting balance of comedy and tragedy, majesty and mayhem forged deep into the metal of a riveting piece of stage traffic by a producer demonstrating skills equivalent to Völundr skillfully smithing a sgian dubh to be worn in Beowulf’s sock. The scale is actually small on an MGM TV scale, but it’s off the charts in terms of dramatic thrust and impact.

The not-so-secret MEGASTARS of this production are Melanie Watson’s costumes, which make everything and everyone on stage seem incredibly real. From Loki’s trousers to Fin McCarthy’s Fenrir, Watson’s creations are bold and inspired, a reenactor’s wet dream. Complimented by Gamester’s BIG recent spend on lighting. This is LIVE theatre on a Cecil B. DeMille scale, and it works. It really, Really, REALLY works.

Come for the Sam Gardiner-sized bouts of pure dead brilliance. Stay for Beau Charles’ pecs. Get your valshamrs on and go see this!

 

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EdFringe Talk: Pajama Talks

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, *Written Interviews by

“We all had various notions of how it would go (some really optimistic and some imagining a worst case scenario).”

WHO: Brooke Stevenson

WHAT: “Pajama Talks is a coming-of-age story following childhood best friends Abby and Nina as they relive memories of their sleepovers. Together they are forced to confront their friendship, their girlhood and their personal identity. The show examines the joys and hardships of growing up and grief in all forms, asking the question: are the people we’ve loved and lost still with us? A play about platonic love, figuring out life and existential conversations in the middle of the night.”

WHERE: Stephenson Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Venue 53) 

WHEN: 18:40 (55 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes! It is all five members of our company’s first time at the fringe. We all had various notions of how it would go (some really optimistic and some imagining a worst case scenario). However, we have been met with one of the most incredible experiences. Everyday we are meeting so many wonderful artists and audience members. It is really thrilling to be apart of.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

It’s not that serious. I have spent so long being so wound up and stressed about everything being perfect that the fun stuff has passed me by. What we do and I think life in general needs to be taking a little less seriously on my part. Before our show every night, Kira, one of our actors leads us in a chant she also does when she teaches children’s theatre. “I’m awesome! I got this! It’s about telling the story and having fun!!”

Tell us about your show.

Pajama talks was written by Sofia Tarzcy-Hornoch as a thesis project at New York University three years ago. Since then, the piece has evolved and the project has brought on new people, myself included! The show had a sold out run in NYC at the Chain Theater in 2024. As Sofia worked on tightening up the script based on that run, Kira Stone (one of the initial actors) hopped on as a producer. Once they decided the goal was to bring this beautiful piece to the fringe, they asked for me to be their producer as well! We really hope that this show can have a life after fringe. I can see this being an excellent piece for high school or colleges to put on/ great for scene study work. I think bringing Pajama Talks to a wider audience as well would be amazing to show how we can deal with greif and have compassion for our younger self.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

While it is visually and tonally very different, for those on the mature side of the audience we absolutely loved and recommend Bitch Eat Dog at Greenside. This puppet comedy show is hilarious while also strikingly touching. the serious moments creep up on you and leave you a little breathless, much like I think Pajama Talks does. I want to see it again, it was that fun!

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‘How to Poop in an Outhouse at -58°C’ (Greenside @ George Street: Ivy Studio, until AUG 29)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Greenside, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“This is the story of a young woman empowering herself by doing six impossible things everyday before breakfast, and empowering others in the process.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Kona Morris is my own great discovery of Edinburgh Fringe ‘26. If Theodore Roosevelt – the unstoppable, seriously try and stop him, literary outdoorsman, the death-defying explorer and naturalist – if TR was recast as a Disney princess, the result might look and feel a lot like our Kona and with the same capacity to hold a capacity crowd at the edge of their seats.

We enter to find a stage bare of bears and salmons and whirlpools and tiny log cabins in the middle of somebody’s somewhere but a long way from everywhere else’s creature comforts. Flicking back on my phone to the photo I took on entering, I am shocked at how, from the minimalist, ultra-Fringey compactness of Greenside’s Ivy Studio on George Street, such a massive story, still writ large across the mind’s eye, could have emerged. Morris achieves levels of total immersion storytelling that make it possible to believe that Alfred really did sing to the Vikings before Edington and Wedmore without them St Edmonding and burying him.

Walking softly but carrying a BIG stick, not THE big stick I am happy to learn later, Morris shares her lived experience of falling in love with a native Alaskan man, moving to his village and becoming part of his world. There’s a final twist in the tale and a post-credits vignette that are the icing and cherry on this gargantuan-scale cupcake. This is the story of a young woman empowering herself by doing six impossible things everyday before breakfast, and empowering others in the process. If the Victorian Edwardian adventures of Roosevelt’s day were in possession of an iota of Morris’ capacity for regard, reverence, and reflection for pre-Columbian roots, perhaps the world would be less beset with toxic cultural tumbleweed. Maybe.

Much of America (it seems to this horrible Auldworld nationalist) is yet to make the rigorous intellectual and spiritual journey undertaken in many parts of His Majesty’s Commonwealth towards recognising the value, the versatility, and the vision of First Peoples as well as the priceless inheritance their relationships with the world around them have nurtured down the centuries and millennia.

Kona Morris is an exceptional exception to this rule, an Arctic sunrise of hope that, with openness of mind, a bigness of heart, and a depth of soul beyond the ordinary, we can all learn more and better about what makes a successful community, a thriving society, and a valuable culture – and when it’s time to call it a day and live one’s own authentic life.

This is a story and a storytelling I hope my own girls will encounter on their journey to vigorous womanhood and the rough riding that the strenuous life inevitably throws at those whose faces are marred by dust and sweat and mud – the doers of deeds who are just trying to catch the California flight to a cousin’s wedding in this age having come off a long river journey seemingly from another time.

Come for the Disney princess telling the Alaskan wilderness like it is. Stay for the geometric storytelling that explodes the small arithmetics of a tiny venue. Get your two-sizes-too-big purple coats on and go see this!

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‘Mandy: Prince of Darkness’ (Ivy Studio at Greenside @ George Street, until AUG 29)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Greenside, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“Richard Stirling takes to the stage much as we are told Jeeves shimmers into any given room.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Nae Bad)

For four decades, he was the omnipresent, supposedly omnipotent king of spin. And then suddenly he wasn’t. Peter Mandelson’s political career spanned the sudden shift from the ultra-curated analogue print and broadcast age to a more open-access knowledge economy. Before the numberless influencers of digital media emerged, Mandelson was the guy who knew, the guy to know. But was he?

Unlike a pharaonic-scale engineer – a Brunel or an Eiffel – there are no great works dotted through the landscape to look upon and despair – the crashing crassness of the Millennium Dome aside. This supposed supremo – a rather anaemic English edition of Hanna, Atwater, or Carville – made his presence felt on the Westminster political stage, but was there ever any substance to his misty-mystery – or were we all imbibing the post hoc ergo propter hoc like it’s Oktoberfest? Labour won a landslide in ‘97 after Mandelson had been peacocking across the quarterdeck for years; therefore, because of?

RADA’s own Richard Stirling takes to the stage much as we are told Jeeves shimmers into any given room. We are about to watch a powerhouse deliver a masterclass in acting up close and personal, and I am thanking my lucky stars that the ultra-Fringey compactness of Greenside’s Ivy Studio on George Street gives me a front row seat, knee to knee with someone doing something so marvellous. Here is a deep study in shallowness as the clock Marks 8:36.

Stirling (forever THE Boko Fittleworth in THE definitive Wodehouse adaptation) is the celebrated author of Julie Andrews: An Intimate Biography as well as the playwright who penned A Princess Undone – the no holds barred account of one night in 1993 in the life of Princess Margaret. On reflection, Mandy seems like a rather appropriate addition to Stirling’s collection of biographical trophies – mounted on a bit too much tech, but stuffed with fine details that make this an authentic, lively, and blisteringly warts and all piece of theatrical portraiture – more genteel unflinching Gerald Scarfe than grotesque unrepentant James Gilray.

The format is largely linear, and it has to be to carry the weight of career detail, rival personalities and, of course, the sordid horror of the horrible revelations about Mandelson’s relationship with a convicted child rapist. Stirling, the actor, shifts seamlessly in the blink of an eye from his Dark Prince charmless to the affably unBrownian “call me Tony” of pre-Iraq days. Although the archival video footage projected behind is occasionally clunky, the use of actual newspaper front-page splashes from the dawn to the dusk of Mandelson’s public stage strutting amplifies the underlying message that the media ground beneath Mandelson’s feet was utterly transformed during the strange career of the self-styled Third Man – the camp TV Michael Reenie version, not the Orson Welles spiv monster who profited by doctoring children’s medicine.

A ton of research has gone into this magpie’s nest of a show. So has the honed and practised craft of an actor whose obvious natural talent has been sharpened into a sabre, one wielded with the precision of a scalpel from walk to full gallop. When the final penultimate chapter of Mandelson, and perhaps of the party he once mismanaged, has been written in the ballots of our next general election, I suspect that this script and its performance will have predicted much.

Come for the acting out of a political life that cannot help but be of interest to historians of the modern era (surely new error). Stay for the sake of one of our finest character actors doing his thang bloody chuffing well. DON’T get your donkey jackets on but do come see this!

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‘Our Town Needs A Nando’s’ (Space 1 at theSpace on the Mile, until AUG 15)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“50 minutes of super smart, ultra sassy stagecraft.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

We enter to find ourselves a long way from the creative bustle of EdFringe. We are adrift in a nameless Scottish town lacking much of anything (not least a cheeky chicken franchise). A group of highschool girls are working on a drama project. They want to express themselves and their frustrations at the obvious and unavoidable truth that where they are is not where they want to be. What follows is 50 minutes of super smart, ultra sassy stagecraft.

Samantha O’Rourke’s script is a treasure trove of adolescent plot tropes delivered with a frank honesty that (just about) avoids becoming maudlin by a cast who absolutely fit the bolshy schoolgirl oeuvre like it’s their second nature. Milly Sweeney’s direction is sound as a pound keeping it pacey even where the narrative fabric feels thin.

The excellent Lauren Mills as the toxic Rachel is the friend you want to avoid. The sneering life and soul of the childish dramas which in school generally, and in this nothing to do town in particular, take on a significance far beyond their merit. Eilidh Rose as Chloe has something to hide, playing the audience like we’re a salmon in the Tweed. Reese Hannah as Beth is the perfect mismatch with Mills for the sake of a she’s in she’s out relationship which ticks the rainbow box. There’s something there that’s missing but it’s not in the performances.

Lovely Selwyn as Zahida, the outsider from a place even less lovely that the unnamed town, comes dangerously close to stealing the show time and again. With a little more dash in the writing, Zahida’s role in highlighting the self-inflicted, first world problemsiness of the girls’ wee mega dramas might have been bolder and pushed this script out of its comfort zone.

This is a production bigger than the sum of its parts by a dynamic young company we should hope to see again climbing a more ambitious set of themes. That said, there are flashes of pure dead brilliance lighting up the 50 minutes stage traffic which, if not exactly setting the world on fire, tell us that a perfect creative storm is brewing somewhere over the horizen.

Come for direction and acting sharper than most. Stay for a successful collaboration better than most. Get your Scottish summer coats on and go see this!

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‘Lawrence of Arabia and ME’ (Annexe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall, until AUG 29)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 5*, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“Manages to medidate on the hot button topic of the Modern Middle East with seriousness, objectivity, and no small amount of drama.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Outstanding)

He is one of the most instantly recognised yet impossibly enigmatic figures of the 20th Century. A scholar, a servant of one empire, the arch-nemisis of another, a student of a civilisation that still is, a hundred years on, yet to refind its place.

We enter to find Lawrence haunting the stage. A deathly calm phantom faintly amused by the fascination we have for him. Few of us are more steeped in the Lawrence myth and legend than Oxford’s own Eamonn Gearon, the man who quite literally wrote the book on the Arab League. The shade of Lawrence is also here to watch Gearon deliver his life and times lecture, a stump speech which has been honed and polished across classrooms, book festivals, ocean liners, and now EdFringe.

Gearon is a gifted raconteur which, when combined with his world-class scholarship, delivers 50 minutes of memorable stage traffic which manages to medidate on the hot button topic of the Modern Middle East with seriousness, objectivity, and no small amount of drama. A distant cousin of Michael Collins – that beguiling Irish nationalist soldier statesman of the same vintage as Lawrence – Gearon delves with authenticity and insight into the idealistic yet murky affairs of British imperial policy. If you want to better understand the Middle East, and not simply have a yet more strident opinion about it, this is the show for you.

From Lawrence’s unusual childhood to his posthumous apotheosis in David Lean’s 1962 cinematic masterpiece, this is a pacey masterclass in storytelling done proper. It’s a humble hagiographic homage without pomp or excessive fanfare from a self-confessed fanboy. It’s exactly the right amount of appreciation for just how extra ordinary Lawrence truly was. The ghost leaves (or is that stays?) happy.

Come for the fresh perspective on an auld theme. Stay for the experience of seeing an uncloistered Don trying something different and succeeding. Get your thobes on and go see this!

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‘Orpheus: A New Musical’ (Annexe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall, until AUG 15)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 4*, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“A confident and lively crowd pleaser.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

One of the great pleasures at EdFringe is seeing new talent emerge. The budding talents showcased in Yorkshire CREATE’s retelling of the classic myth properly deliver. The lasses and lad, all in their teens, deliver a confident and lively crowd pleaser packed with invention. Their graft and focus are obvious from the get go as they pacily storm through Sam Essen and Ben Glastone’s new musical in which the legendary musician attempts the impossible.

Beneath the toe-tapping tunes, well-chosen costumes, and ultra-amazeballs puppetry is a grand piece of good auld fashioned storytelling which balances the human melodrama, tragedy, and comedy. Are the sound levels quite right on opening night? Not quite. Is every high note hit precisely? No, but the energy and effort of each and every swing of the bat is unmistakeable.

A unFringedly large cast transform a small space into a big canvas on which to shine. Much of the heavy lifting is done throughout by the actor playing the titular songster. Her performance is characterised by the assured gravity of a gifted young someone who has worked their cotton socks off. The rest of the cast is equally engaging with some truly memorable performances. You’ll never see another Oracle so gracefully light on their feet.

Come for the showcase of youthful energy and talent. Stay for the best Cerberus puppet in the known universe. Get your chitons on and go see this!

 

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EdFringe Talk: Wherefore Art Thou, Woman-Hater?

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, *Written Interviews by

“I came away from Fringe 2024 with a big list of things I’d do differently…”

WHO: Nuala Sankey

WHAT: “Written anonymously and first staged in the Renaissance, Swetnam The Woman-Hater, is where the word misogyny comes from. Star-crossed lovers, swordfights and sexism in the 16th century – it has it all. But how could that possibly be relevant today? Come and judge for yourself… The second show brought to you by Cumbrian production company Acting Speaks Louder, creators of Disco, Baby? ‘Outstanding’ (FringeReview.co.uk). Created and produced by three up-and-coming artists working across music and theatre. If they don’t take the Fringe by storm, at least there’ll be plenty of rain when they get home!”

WHERE: Stephenson Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Venue 53) 

WHEN: Varies (45 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

This is my 3rd time at Edfringe! I first came with a production of Oliver Jr. in 2022 with Footsteps to Theatre and completely fell in love with being part of the festival. I decided I wanted to bring my own show, so I started Cumbrian production company Acting Speaks Louder to being new work by young people who might not otherwise feel the festival is accessible to them. Acting Speaks Louder’s debut production was Disco, Baby? which was a crazy experience writing, producing and performing at 17! I think I felt such a strong need to be at the Fringe because there is so much possibility and that’s just so exciting to be around and part of.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I came away from Fringe 2024 with a big list of things I’d do differently, but the biggest thing I learnt from the first time round is the importance of having a marker of success that is (somewhat) within your control. That keeps you sane and in possession of a semblance of perspective in what can be a mental month. I think this is a lesson that you periodically come back to when your in the depth of a fringe spiral.

Tell us about your show.

Our show is a modern language adaptation of a play from the 1600s called “Swetnam the woman-hater” which is thought to be where the word misogyny comes from. I wrote the adaptation and its a sad irony that not too much had to be changed as so much of it still rang true, even over 400 years after it was written. The show premiered at a local Cumbrian venue, the Staveley Roundhouse, and after Edinburgh we will be breaking new ground at the Camden Fringe!

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

Definitely “Reaching the C” – which is my mum’s show about her life as a professional bassoonist and how music has threaded its way through her life using a bassoon, a loop pedal and personal experience. But daughter duty done, I would also thoroughly recommend Briony Martha’s solo show “Parasocial Activity” about one woman’s parasocial relationship with James McAvoy! Phenomenally written and acted, both funny and moving; a tutor of mine once said I reminded him of Briony, and the more I speak to her and see her work, the more it becomes a massive compliment!

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EdFringe Talk: I Made You A Mixtape

Posted in Theatre by

“The audience is your final collaborator.”

WHO: Christie Lee Manning

WHAT: “Welcome to the party you always wished you were invited to. Step into the heart of a 90s college dorm hang, complete with live musicians and the greatest hits of the decade. Nine girls arrive for one last night together before their lives change forever. With each track played, we get a new glimpse into their world; through impromptu music videos, deep female friendships, and unfiltered emotion by the bucketload. This isn’t your typical dance show – it changes every night, with the girls’ fates being revealed to them, and you, in real time.”

WHERE: Big at theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38) 

WHEN: 19:00 (50 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

Yes! It’s our first Fringe, and I’m already wondering why anyone ever thought putting thousands of theatre-makers in one city was a sensible idea… because it’s brilliant. As a director and choreographer, I love that everyone comes here to experiment. You see shows you’d never normally buy a ticket for, and some of the biggest surprises come from taking a complete gamble. That’s what makes the Fringe special—you never quite know what you’re going to get. Which, to be fair, is also a pretty good description of our show.

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I’ve learned that the audience is your final collaborator. As a director, you can spend months believing something is the answer, then an audience politely proves you wrong. We premiered I Made You a Mixtape in London and I went home after opening night thinking, “Well… that didn’t land the way I’d hoped.” I barely slept, came back the next morning, completely rearranged the running order, terrified the cast, and suddenly the show clicked. That experience really reinforced one of the philosophies behind our company. We make work that’s built to respond, so it would be pretty hypocritical if I wasn’t willing to respond myself.

Tell us about your show.

I wrote and directed I Made You a Mixtape, and it’s produced by Lauren O’Sullivan and Response Theatre Company. Response was born out of a question I’d been asking for years as a choreographer: what if dancers approached movement the way Meisner actors approach text? Instead of deciding what a dance should means, what if they discovered it in the moment? That eventually became the Response Method and, as far as we know, we’re the UK’s first Meisner-based movement company.

The show premiered in London earlier this year, and I’m actually really glad it did because it changed dramatically once we put it in front of an audience. We reshaped the running order, refined the audience interaction, and finally found the version that looked a lot more like the show I’d been imagining… and a lot less like my sleep-deprived notebook.

Edinburgh feels like the next chapter rather than the finish line. Every night we learn something new because every audience gives us something different to respond to. We’d love to keep touring the show after Fringe and eventually take it to North America. It feels like the beginning of the show’s life, not the end of it.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

We’ve actually been terrible Fringe punters so far because we’ve been so busy opening our own show (and incredibly lucky to squeeze in some extra performances, including performing at the theSpace press launch) so our “must-see” list is currently more of a “we desperately WANT to see” list.

We absolutely have to shout out GTN Ensemble and their show How to Feel Feelings. They came to see us last night, loved it, and they’re actually coming back tonight with more of their cast, which might be the nicest compliment you can get at the Fringe. They just really got what we’re doing, they’re the loveliest humans, and now we’re ridiculously excited to see what they’ve made.

And then we’ve completely fallen in love with Julia Atkin, behind Crying at my Podiatrist. Tragically, she’s performing at the exact same time as us, so we can’t see it, which is honestly very rude of the Fringe scheduling gods. But everything about her and the show makes me think it’s going to be fucking phenomenal, and I’m deeply jealous of anyone who gets to see it. So on whichever night you’re not in our dorm, go cry at the podiatrist instead.

That’s probably been one of my favourite things about Fringe so far: you start championing people before you’ve even seen their work because you’ve met the humans behind it. And when you find artists who really get what you’re trying to do, you want everyone else to discover them too.

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EdFringe Talk: Voltei

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, *Written Interviews by

“My writing is raw because of the documentary tone but also realised that I contrast it with comedy and a lot of colloquial storytelling.”

WHO: Joana Raio

WHAT: “Voltei, a true story, begins by telling us what it takes for young people to leave their home country, what those big changes are, and the challenges they face. Voltei takes us back to England in 2006, when smartphones weren’t yet a thing and YouTube had just become part of our lives. It explores the various social and cultural differences between Portugal and the UK, through various first-hand emigrant stories and through the real impact of Brexit on the decision made by so many to return to their home country. Voltei is interdisciplinary and combines theatre with stand-up comedy.”

WHERE: Annexe at theSpace @ Symposium Hall (Venue 43) 

WHEN: 09:45 (65 min)

MORE: Click Here!

Is this your first time to Edinburgh?

No, I brought an interdisciplinary show called: a bridge by a cliff in 2017 which was a fantastic failure! It was more of a show for a gallery not a stage or maybe not the right venue! This time I feel Voltei at theSpace Uk is the right fit, it’s funny, political and heartwarming for anyone who has ever left home and then returned. As an emerging writer this has been a goal of mine, to bring Voltei, to have reviewers write about my show which is something we do not have in Portugal. Voltei has won an award but truly how relevant is it? Where do I stand?

What are the big things you’ve learned since 2025 and have you absorbed any of the lessons yet?

I’ ve written a second show after Voltei, which was a challenge for me: to write dialogue, to work more in collaboration. I’ve learnt about my practice, understood more about my identity as a writer, I feel! I’ve learnt that my work won’t always please everyone and my second show is definitely more specific in terms of target audience. My writing is raw because of the documentary tone but also realised that I contrast it with comedy and a lot of colloquial storytelling.

Tell us about your show.

Voltei is about my life as an emigrant in the UK and my return to Portugal after 12 years. It’s about growing up in the UK, beginning to think and dream in English and then unexpected challenges of speaking again my mother tongue. But not only, as I’ve come to realise how stark the differences between UK and Portugal are, how much that affected my identity and how family is the reason why most emigrants move back home. Tropodora was founded when I graduated from Drama school in 2010 but I only reactivated in 2024 to create Break Up my second show. This was also when I met Ana Cardoso, my producer and begin building my crew.

What should your audience see at the festivals after they’ve seen your show?

I Almost Died For This?!

I met Kristin (yet to see her show) and her show is raw, honest and auto-biographical, I have a feeling we speak the same language!

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