Category Archives: 4*

‘Of Mice and Men’ (Assembly Rooms, Drawing Room, until AUG 30)

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

“…the way they interact at times resembles a physically reversed Laurel and Hardy, with an oversized Stan causing chaos, as a frustrated, diminutive Ollie gives exasperated double-takes to the audience”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

In a Fringe that, with every year, seems more dominated by stand-up comedy, it’s always a pleasure to see a recognisable title in the theatre listings. Steinbeck’s 1937 novella Of Mice and Men is an evergreen classic which in recent decades has become a familiar feature in the UK’s literary landscape due to its perennial suitability as an English Literature text for schools. It’s become all the more popular due to the influence of a number of star-studded film, TV, and stage adaptations over the years.

The economics of a Fringe production preclude the large ensemble cast that would be required for a full representation of the story, so writer Nigel Miles-Thomas has wisely and effectively adapted this production to focus on George and Lennie, the pair of itinerant workers striving to survive in Depression-era California. Whilst those who know the story well may miss seeing other characters such as Curley’s wife, Slim, or Candy, spotlighting the central duo offers a more intense take on their complex relationship.

Miles-Thomas also plays Lennie Small, the great, lumbering man-child who doesn’t know his own strength. Familiar to regular Fringe-goers in recent years as a cadaverous Sherlock Holmes, Miles-Thomas captures both the childlike innocence of Lennie, along with the dark undercurrent of uncontrolled physical strength that lurks beneath. George Milton, the wise-guy leader of the pair is entertainingly portrayed by Michael Roy Andrew, forever trying to temper his anger at Lennie’s incompetence with tenderly protective understanding. Indeed, as a two-hander, the show is able to highlight the funnier side of this tragicomedy: the way they interact at times resembles a physically reversed Laurel and Hardy, with an oversized Stan causing chaos, as a frustrated, diminutive Ollie gives exasperated double-takes to the audience. Such lighter moments make an engaging contrast to the inevitable tragic darkness of the end.

The show worked well in the Drawing Room auditorium at the Assembly Rooms on George Street; I suspect because the largely middle-aged audience knew the work well. Those less familiar with the story may perhaps struggle a little to follow some of the one-sided dialogues with unseen offstage characters – but this is nonetheless an engaging piece of theatre that is largely successful in bringing this classic to a Fringe stage.

 

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘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!

 

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘A Highly Suspect Murder Mystery: Knives In’ (TheSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall, Fleming Theatre, until AUG 29)

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

“In a tone of relentless pun-infested irony, the crime fiction genre itself is mercilessly parodied as the cast guide the audience through a fiendishly intricate plot to identify the killer.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Like many people, I like a good murder mystery, and with the Cosy Crime genre in the midst of a boom these days, the performance company Highly Suspect – seasoned Fringe veterans with a track record of sold-out shows – are catering for a ready-made audience.

As that Knives In title suggests, what we have here is a spoof of the hugely successful Knives Out movie franchise. The renowned detective Beignet Blank arrives at a remote country house to solve the murder of a famous author. In a tone of relentless pun-infested irony, the crime fiction genre itself is mercilessly parodied as the cast guide the audience through a fiendishly intricate plot to identify the killer.

To ease the complexity a little, the cast of four limit the action to five characters: detective Blank; his uncannily identical twin, a poet of excruciating doggerel; the late author’s graspingly cynical publisher; the late author’s nurse; and where would any country house murder mystery be without the local vicar?

To assist the audience with their investigation, the cast hand out very smart executive-style folders which are evidence packs full of cryptic clues, character summaries, diagrams, and visual puzzles. There was a tangible buzz in the air as the audience of would-be detectives attempted to solve the riddle.

The full house in the fairly large Fleming Theatre clearly enjoyed this show. A number of individuals and teams were unbelievably competitive and at least one team managed to work out the solution to a fairly complex mystery.

The only small fly in the ointment for me was the ambience of the venue. Most murder mysteries I’ve attended have been situated in fairly smart hotels, with the audience sitting around tables in self-selected family or friendship groups (and often after a good dinner). Here, the auditorium is actually a lecture theatre at the Royal College of Surgeons; the seating in pretty tightly-packed rows of seats with desks in front of them. This isn’t ideal for working in sociable groups, often with complete strangers either side of you. The fact that the house lights necessarily remained on (to aid reading and writing in the folders) throughout the show gave it the feel of an exam at times. Nonetheless, most of the large audience had clearly enjoyed themselves. (Though I got the impression that a few visitors from abroad – perhaps unfamiliar with this genre of entertainment – had been rather mystified by the experience.)

For fans of the genre, the Highly Suspect company are also staging another murder mystery called ABBAsolute Murder in The Space @ Surgeons’ Hall  (Theatre 1), which we are “assured” is absolutely not a spoof of either ABBA or the Eurovision Song Contest!

 

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘Lear’s Fool’ (Greenside @ George Street, Lime Studio, until AUG 22)

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

“An engaging tragicomedy in the Stoppardesque spin-off manner, offering stark juxtapositions of comedy and terror, despair and song, political polemic and renaissance stand-up comedy, in a lively romp of a show.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Way back in 1966, the Edinburgh Fringe saw the premiere of Tom Stoppard’s tragicomedy Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, which famously highlights and follows the two eponymous minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, once they disappear from the main action of the play.

Here, in Lear’s Fool, we see similar treatment of the Fool, the court jester from King Lear, who exits and disappears about halfway through Shakespeare’s other great tragedy. This new production of David Henry Wilson’s play is directed by Liz Carruthers. It is an engaging tragicomedy in the Stoppardesque spin-off manner, offering stark juxtapositions of comedy and terror, despair and song, political polemic and renaissance stand-up comedy in a lively romp of a show.

Even if you don’t know Shakespeare’s original work, this production offers an entertaining and often heart-breaking show which can be enjoyed on its own terms. Set in a prison cell near Dover, the Fool’s treatment and interrogation by a jailer and his captain reflect the hierarchical values of a bygone age whilst also offering contemporary takes on the futility of war, the self-interest and corruption of politics, and the stranglehold of the social class system that will ring true to modern ears.

Wilson’s writing reworks well-known Shakespearian quotes from the original play to give fresh and often ironic meaning within the play’s postmodern context. The eponymous Fool, played with aplomb by Jill Riddford (a two-time Scottish Theatre Critics Award nominee), is still the mischievous joker from the parent play, but her excruciating puns mask a soul that is devastated by continuing news of her old master’s madness and downfall as the action of the source drama unfolds offstage.

Shakespearean humour is notoriously dated and hasn’t aged at all well, but Riddiford’s occasional delivery of some lines stand-up style direct to the audience, rather than other characters, made them laugh out loud.

King Lear and Lear’s Fool overlap with each other at the end when Lear (Finlay McLean) and his faithful daughter Cordelia (Kirsty McDuff) make a striking Shakespearian intervention into the postmodern world of the play. Sam Stopford (another Scottish Critics Award nominee) is an engagingly cynical and mercenary jailer, whilst John Kay Steel’s sinister portrayal of the ruthless Captain surely puts him in the running for casting as a Bond villain once they’ve got a new 007.

Whilst not actual Shakespeare, this show makes a welcome addition to the small body of the Bard’s works featuring in this year’s Fringe, so it’s well worth a look.

 

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘Sketch Show Bingo!’ (Venue 53, until AUG 23rd)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Nae Bad by

“Delivered with confidence by three performers whose grip on their material is tighter than a skinflint clutching a fiver in a tornado.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

Quirks & Foibles – Katie Bennett, Amy McCann and Amelia Stephenson – are ones to watch, which is good cos they’re in a show. It’s called ‘Sketch Show Bingo!’ and it does what it says on the tin and does so really rather well. On entering, we are handed a bingo card and a dabber (mine’s run out of ink, which is fine because I get less than half). One of the trio rolls the cage, out comes a sketch and off we go. First to get a horizontal line, first to get a full house. Simples.

It’s 50 minutes worth of short, snappy, smart ideas delivered with confidence by three performers whose grip on their material is tighter than a skinflint clutching a fiver in a tornado. If you saw Quirks & Foibles’ entry for last year’s Eurovision, then you’ll get their style. Big contrasting personalities paired with big shared commitment. That material is always on target, even if there isn’t a slam-dunk goal every time. It’s the Fry and Laurie, Mitchell and Webb sketch snob in me. I like to feel that a good half shelf of background academic research has gone into an idea. There needs to be depth to even the shallowest of silly ideas. Still, there is so much promise here.

The Bingo! concept really works. It gets the audience involved and interested from the start. The trio’s delivery is lithe and lively, spontaneous but pacy. The banter between Bennett, McCann, and Stephenson is what makes this show properly stand out, and I would like to see much, much more such Rat Packery between the numbers. This is a solid group yet to find their Brian Epstein, someone who (or something that) can focus all the energy and all the talent into a more consistent, playful whole. There’s a hesitancy, but I am hesitant to say exactly how it manifests except that it does.

Come to see smart, funny people being smart and funny. Stay for a format that’s unlocking this trio’s obvious talent and potential. Get your green stripy double-breasted blazers on and go see this!

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘Hidden Powers’ (Venue 39, until AUG 23rd)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“An intensely unassuming stage presence blossoms like it’s midnight in a garden closely planted with cereus flowers.”

Editorial Rating: 4 5 Stars (Outstanding)

Warwickshire’s own Angus Baskerville is a wonder. Active since 2014 and a member of The Magic Circle since 2020, Baskerville’s reputation is rapidly growing under the grow lamp and hydroponics of his neurodivergency, combined with a total commitment to the past, present, and future of the magician’s art. An intensely unassuming stage presence blossoms like it’s midnight in a garden closely planted with cereus flowers and with spectacular results.

We enter to find a table on which are a few properties, as well as a whiteboard prominently showing the free wifi info – which will be needed for one of Baskerville’s more incredible feats. Over the next 50 minutes, we will watch him ascend to ever greater heights of mindblowing relatability using his neurodivergency like a rock climber uses magnesium carbonate – it’s what gives him such a firm grip, absorbing any nervous energy, reducing slips and keeping him focused like a laser pointer cellotaped to an eagle

There’s no escaping the fact that this still feels like early days. Baskerville is still to hit his full stride as a performer. The moments when he totally loosens up and starts to really enjoy himself on stage are a promise of what’s coming in EdFringes yet to come. This is an act whose confidence doesn’t yet match the considerable ability being demonstrated – a comforting contrast and inversion of many lesser shows across the genres. Baskerville gets rid of his cape early in the show; this is about magic, not about spectacle. Perhaps it’s the corporate hotel venue, or because we’re watching a jobbing local magician (available for weddings, functions, private parties, etc) but there’s something there that’s missing a polish and or sparkle that’s not quite up to speed (yet).

Still, here is an EdFringe legend so obviously in the making. A personable performer with something deep and meaningful to say on a subject about which much more is said than understood. Come for the insight into neurodivergency as the superpower that it is. Stay for tricks that will have you shaking your head and wondering if Baskerville oughtn’t to be reported to the witch-finder general. Get your capes on (or not) and go see this!

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘On the Harmful Effects of Tobacco’ (Venue 53, until AUG 18th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding by

“It’s classic comic storytelling done proper.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

Is tobacco as harmful as unhappiness? Anton Chekhov’s masterful short story, first published in 1886, is a tongue-in-cheek satire of pedantic intellectualism, the superficiality of social performance, and human hypocrisy. Ivan Ivanovich Nyukhin has been voluntold by his wife to give a lecture on the dangers of smoking. Soon, he’s gone off topic and begins laying bare his unhappiness and his failed dreams.

Andrew Hogarth, artistic director of No Frills Theatre Company takes to the stage every inch a Nyukhin. His waistcoat is buttoned askew. His pocket square makes no effort to match his tie. He is a man in a hurry with nowhere to be. A surly yet ingratiating confidence marks a set of audience interactions which do much to create a sense of moment and immediacy. Over a marathon sprint of 25 minutes, Andrew hits all the hilariously henpecked one-liners in Nyukhin’s classic monologue. It’s not groundbreaking. It’s classic comic storytelling done proper.

Hogarth’s vision for No Frills is of open access to the arts on stage as well as off. His theatrecraft is ultra-natural and feels spontaneous even as it ouses precision and preparation like a particularly pleasant and well-chosen reed diffuser – black tea and earthy woods for Chekhov, I think.

Perhaps because I have chosen to sit on top of the AC unit and have used my pull at Space to have it set on full blast, I struggle slightly to hear every word which may or may not be my fault. Still, this show could do with a mic and I would have liked a little bit of sound collage to help set the scene, but then I guess those would be frills to an absolutist. Absolutely come for the storytelling done just right. Stay for a classic smashed over the boundary line. Get your shinels on and go see this!

PS. I will be making every effort to see ‘The Bear’ – the other (50min) Chekhov No Frills are presenting from the 19th.

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘Ginger’s Problem Area’ (Venue 17, until AUG 24th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Nae Bad, Stand-Up, Theatre by

“Aunty Ginger is a deadpan whirlwind of good auld-fashioned filth and innuendo – in your endo.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Nae Bad)

What is there left to say about Aunty Ginger that hasn’t already been splashed across the red tops, scrawled on bathroom walls, or said through tears in a witness impact statement?

Manchester’s leading pansexual Dragony Aunt takes to the stage like a pack of boozehounds takes to a vodka fountain and with all the caution of a cockapoodle on a trampoline. This is a no-holds-barred experience not recommended for the coy or nervous. Aunty Ginger is a deadpan whirlwind of good auld-fashioned filth and innuendo – in your endo.

From a confident blend of audience work and audiovisual, sixty minutes of laugh-out-loud funny entertainment emerge, spotlighting a performer with a rising reputation – or is she just pleased to see me? Ginger is lightning fast. Already naturally well endowed, Ginger’s mind is as quick as her tongue is sharp. She is professionally trained, well-honed by just enough years in drag not to be a drag, and so obviously enjoys doing what she loves being great at. Those rather odd men who love to feel uncomfortable around drag and have got something to prove without having anything to say are swatted away as flies to wanton boys. Ginger is the boss and don’t forget it.

The trouble is that this show, in its current format, can only ever be as good as its audience. Good crowd? Good craic. Surly gobshite crowd? Less fun to be had. The format needs tweaking so that some content can be whipped out and milked without relying so much on the crowd if they turn up flaccid. Still, Ginger is gracefully maturing into an EdFringe stalwart, a reliable source of satisfaction for when you need your funny bone rubbed in just the right way.

Come for the solid standup. Stay for the sparkling wit and repartee. Get your glittery gladrags on and go see this!

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘The Spy Who Went to Rehab’ (Venue 23, until AUG 25th)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“This is McShane at his laser-guided, prince of precision comedy best. It is, quite simply, a perfect performance.”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

Can the world’s greatest secret agent detox from his toxic masculinity? That is the premise of Gregg Ostrin’s superbly farcical play. Simon Cross is not afraid of anything. He’s been tied naked to the back of a crocodile, lived and let died more times than you’ve had unstirred martinis. Now he is facing his greatest challenge yet – his own journey into self-awareness.

This is a clever tribute to the genre – we know the name, we’ve got his number. Satiar Pourvasei as Cross is bang on target – landing on that part of the James Bond spectrum somewhere between the totally deadpan Lazenby and the tongue-in-cheek absurdity of Roger Moore. Pourvasei’s individual connections with the other members of his therapy group fizz and crackle, making Greg Ostrin’s bonkers script seem almost plausible… just for a moment.

Cross is an unreal amalgamation of fantasy and pathos. He’s a character who could stand alone as a one-hander character study. But, then again, every good superspy needs a great supervillain for counterpoint. As Lazarus Rex, Cross’ arch-nemesis, Fringe Legend Mike McShane delivers the goods, especially if you are in the market for an evil genius with attachment issues – even his white Persian cat has moved on and joined the yowling choir invisible. This is McShane at his laser-guided, prince of precision comedy best. It is, quite simply, a perfect performance.

There’s no escaping the problems with this production. Sightlines that just aren’t working, clunky gunfights, sluggish scene changes. There’s a great production in this vintage, but it needs to mature and clarify to become the exceptional dram of profound silliness it could be.

This is a laugh-out-loud yet loving tribute to a cherished oeuvre. Come for the authenticity. Stay for two of the best comic performances you’ll see anywhere this Fringe. Get your white tuxedo jackets on and go see this!

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!

‘Sherlock Holmes: The Last Act’ (Assembly Rooms: Drawing Room, until AUG 24 – not AUG 13 or 20)

Posted in 4*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Outstanding, Theatre by

“Miles-Thomas gives a performance that is something of a tour de force as he re-enacts a selection of the most famous of Conan Doyle’s tales”

Editorial Rating: 4 Stars (Outstanding)

There’s a handful of Holmes-themed shows at the Fringe this year, ranging in style from Australian improv, to an audience participation murder mystery, to an all-woman show from which the great detective is entirely absent. But for a more traditional take on Conan Doyle’s immortal creation, head to the Assembly Rooms (Drawing Room) on George Street for this gripping one-man show.

This production’s impressive credentials suggest a show with much potential. The script was written by the late David Stuart Davies: a renowned Sherlockian scholar who was editor of Red Herring, the monthly in-house magazine of the Crime Writers Association, and wrote extensively about Holmes in both fictional and non-fictional works. The director is Gareth Davies, an RSC and West End theatre veteran, whose TV acting career boasts credits in everything from Z Cars to Blake’s 7. The solo performer is another stage and TV stalwart, Nigel Miles-Thomas (Minder, The Professionals) who will probably be best remembered by people of a certain age as Mr Davies the PE teacher in Grange Hill.

Set in 1916, the show presents an ageing Holmes as he returns to Baker Street from his retirement in Sussex to attend the funeral of his old friend and sidekick, Dr Watson. With his epic career behind him, Holmes reminisces about his adventures as the world’s first and only consulting detective. Miles-Thomas gives a performance that is something of a tour de force as he re-enacts a selection of the most famous of Conan Doyle’s tales; playing all of the characters from Holmes himself to his brother Mycroft, Dr Watson, and a selection of victims and villains from their adventures.

With a simple set and minimal use of props or costume, a highly atmospheric ambience is nonetheless created – almost gothic at times – by skilful use of light and sound. Miles-Thomas’s highly expressive and mobile face effectively creates striking transformations of character. In a sometimes uncanny exhibition of shape-shifting, he moves at various points from the cadaverous and urbane Holmes, to the hawk-nosed, vampirical arch-villain Professor Moriarty; thence to the lantern-jawed Sir Grimesby Roylott of The Adventure of the Speckled Band.

The medium-sized Drawing Room auditorium was pretty much a full house, standing testament to the enduring popularity of Sherlock Holmes – but I couldn’t help but notice that the demographic was very middle-aged. I’ve written elsewhere that increasingly younger audiences at the Fringe expect a little more in the way of bells and whistles in theatre shows – hence the other Holmes productions I mention above. The TV reboot of Sherlock exemplifies a shift in tastes away from the classical vibe of the original stories and I fear that Fringe theatre productions of this type will soon look more and more like period pieces. (Do they perhaps belong in the Spoken Word/Storytelling genre?)

Nonetheless, I suspect that there’s an audience for this show for the rest of its run throughout most of August and I’m sure that the great detective will continue to please and to pack them in.

ALL our recent coverage? Click here!