Category Archives: Rated: Nae Bad

The Gold standard. Work worth seeing.

‘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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‘Crooked Shadows’ (Greenside @ George Street: Jade Studio, until AUG 29)

Posted in *EdFestivals 2026, 3*, Greenside, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“A GRANDMOTHER’S BRAVE SPIRIT; A GRANDDAUGHTER’S BOLD VOICE”

Editorial Rating: 3 Stars (Nae Bad)

This one-woman show, written and performed by New Jersey-based Shawneen Rowe, first saw the light of day three years ago in New York. Using a poignant mixture of live action, video imagery, and projected family photos, Rowe tells the often heartbreaking story of an Italian-American upbringing focused around her Grandma Rosa: one of those great matriarchal figures who battle to hold homes and families together with graceful and righteous strength, whatever life throws at them.

Via the bold voice of her granddaughter, the tale of her grandmother’s relentlessly brave spirit is told in a series of vignettes recalling the tears and the laughter of life in a lively Italian household. In piecing together the life of a woman who survived abuse and the sudden disappearance of her father, we are drawn in to relish in the triumph of Rosa’s spirit as she passes her story down to her granddaughter.

Despite the perhaps sinister-sounding title, this is ultimately an uplifting story: the telling and re-telling of sometimes dark family secrets can drag them into the light to illuminate our histories and unite generations by confronting the mysterious past. The struggles of our ancestors can give shape and bring deeper understanding to our own lives.

Rowe is a seasoned actress and theatre-maker who looks the audience squarely in the eye and tells her story simply, with a single suitcase of props and costume to enable shifts between the roles of narrator, grandmother and daughter, as well as a houseful of male and female Italian relatives.

The only downside of the performance I saw was a ridiculously loud fan in the black box auditorium of the Jade Studio. The recent heatwaves have necessitated air conditioning of some sort in theatres, but this racket made some of the quieter moments in Rowe’s monologue inaudible. This show is well worth seeing, but keep your fingers crossed for cooler evenings, a little more projection from Ms Rowe, or a drop of oil for that fan.

 

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‘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.

 

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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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‘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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‘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!

 

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‘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.

 

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‘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!

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‘Biff to the Future’ (Venue 3, until AUG 24th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“Butt-head-ressed by a pedantic depth of knowledge of and nerdish insight into the immortally classic original material.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Nae Bad)

Blockbuster (yet cult) movie franchise PLUS double Olivier Award-nominated direction PLUS writing and performance by a Reduced Shakespeare Company alumn EQUALS theatre so sensational it might have been routed through a flux capacitor. “Tell me, Future Boy, who’s President of the United States in 1985?” There’s a charm and an innocence to the movies, none of which is generated by one of the greatest movie villains of all time, the bozo bully Biff Tannen – the possibly probably love child of Shooter McGavin and Dr Evil.

Here are elements of the trilogy mixed, mashed, and lovingly upcycled into a homage worthy of the great Thomas F. Wilson himself. The stories are told from Biff’s perplexed and (rather unpolysyllabic) perspective. As all of the parts, Joseph Maudsley, hits all the notes, from Marty McFly on C6 (≈ 1046.5 Hz) down to the irascible Mr. Strickland on C2 (≈ 65.4 Hz). It’s like Maudsley’s playing an 80s electric keytar – which he is at one point. There’s prop gags, word play, surrealist riffs and improv, plus some properly totes hilar audience interaction, all butt-head-ressed by a pedantic depth of knowledge of and nerdish insight into the immortally classic original material.

Biff in the movies is a rather two-dimensional character – more Gilray than Hogarth. The genius of Maudsley’s approach is to add on existential dimensions that have you feeling pangs of sympathy for Hill Valley’s gobbiest gobshite like he’s sitting in his tent the night before Bosworth Field feeling sorry for himself.

I properly love Piccolo Tent at Assembly George Square Gardens, but it’s not quite the perfect stage for this staggeringly affectionate tribute. There’s one prop gag which is impossible to see from the back, which is a shame because it’s one of the funniest. Maudsley fills the space like he’s filling a 1946 Ford Super DeLuxe with manure. The comedy piles on and on, for the first and only time this Fringe, I am wishing the running time was longer.

Come for the nostalgia. Stay for the freshness. Put your custom-made red quilted puffer vests on and go see this!

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‘I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did?’ (Venue 16, until AUG 16th)

Posted in 5*, EdFestivals 2025, Rated: Nae Bad, Theatre by

“As Maud and Agnes, Harriet Pringle and Lizzie White are sensational.”

Editorial Rating: 5 Stars (Nae Bad)

38%. That’s how much domestic violence rates increase when England loses a match. Between the fallen angel and the rising ape, few other statistics lay quite so bare the glaring awfulness of men’s behaviour towards women. In so many contexts. Across class and creed, culture and class something is wrong and it isn’t getting right by itself.

We enter to find ourselves about to go live. The TV studio is abuzz as aspiring leaders Maud and Agnes get ready to be grilled about their clickbait policy options – no men allowed out of the house without written permission, no men in gynaecology, no men allowed to drive. It’s crazy because these things are being suggested for men. Then again, go next door to The Surgeons’ Hall exhibition on ‘Women in Surgery’ and you can see how things once were in the city now so proud to have produced pioneers like Sophia Jex-Blake and Elsie Inglis.

This production asks some pointed, impertinent, and ultra-provocative questions. Are we trying to solve our problems, or are certain clownish performative politicians surfing the tides of frustration and despondency simply for effect? If a man can be elected to the White House or to Downing Street by playing a bafoonish persona for all it is worth, why not two women literally Pagliaccing themselves before the cameras? 

As Maud and Agnes, Harriet Pringle and Lizzie White are sensational. For all the comic exaggeration and effect, these are two highly nuanced performances which also deliver the counterbalancing expressions of anger, loss, and betrayal with heart-string-tugging urgency. Surely scaffolded by exceptionally strong supporting performances by Liz McKenna, Abbie Want and Mukuka Jumah, I have a feeling we will be hearing great things from Pringle and White in the not-too-distant future when this caustic and challenging (but bang on the money) piece of juvenilia (with its unaccountably clumsy ending) has been chalked up to experience.

Here is a show taking risks and winning. Here is a company (Minotaur of the University of East Anglia) living up to its reputation while refusing to rest on past laurels. If the plan was for ‘I’m Not Saying We Should, But What If We Did?’ to showcase talent, push boundaries, and challenge prevailing approaches and orthodoxies, then… job done. Top marks.

Come for the absurdly urgent premise. Stay because you’re going to want to tell folks you saw these performers back when. Get your coats on and go see this! (Chaps, please remember to ask permission of the relevant matriarch before leaving the house.)

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