EdFringe 2024
Amy’s View
★★★☆☆ Slow-moving
The Makars’ production of Amy’s View, at the Royal Scots Club for the Fringe’s last week, is well staged and acted but never really ignites.
Lynn Faces
★★★☆☆ Original
Lynn Faces at Summerhall is the antidote to gig theatre. Laura Horton’s new play, co-commissioned by New Diorama Theatre, Norwich Theatre and Theatre Royal Plymouth, is a portrait of toxic relationships and real friendship with (intentionally) appalling music.
Covenant
★★★★☆ Dystopian
Covenant, written, directed and produced by Turning Point Theatre Company invites the audience to consider the possibility of a dystopian future in which control over women’s bodies is at an all-time high and existing legislation has been taken to an extreme position.
The Devil Went Down to Gorgie
★★★☆☆ Nae fearties
New grassroots company Pasuz Productions play everything just about right for their debut production, The Devil Went Down to Gorgie a piece of comedy horror framed in a dreadful office-workers bonding day, playing the West Port Oracle for the final week of the Fringe.
Well Played
★★★★☆ Snappy
Well Played from Josie Rose Productions is the kind of work you hope to see at the Fringe: new writing performed to a high standard by up and coming artists; needs work, but is getting the opportunity to grind off its rough edges in front of an enthusiastic crowd.
The Court
★★★☆☆ Maybe murder
Edinburgh Little Theatre’s interactive court-set drama, The Court, finds a middle aged woman accused by her sister of murdering their mother and is run on the Lunchtime Theatre principle of adding a pie and bevvy to the ticket price.
Man of War: The Secret Life of Nadezhda Durova
★★★★☆ Powerful
With four actors sharing the title role, Man of War: The Secret Life of Nadezhda Durova from Acting Coach Scotland is a compelling, ensemble-driven telling of the life of a man, who was a woman; a person, who was a soldier; putting aside all personal comforts for their country’s good.
Sam Blythe: Method in my Madness
★★★☆☆ Unresolved
A disyllabic clown with a trunk of tricks puts on a red nose and transforms into Hamlet, Prince of Denmark— or perhaps he was Hamlet all along? Sam Blythe: Method in my Madness is an experimental one-man Hamlet that ultimately creates more questions than it answers.
Caged: The True Story of Isabella MacDuff
★★★★☆ Commanding
Confined behind bars before her audience, Isabella MacDuff takes to the stage to tell her own story in Caged, written and directed by Colette Swan for Pigeon Cote Productions.
She Burns
★★★★★ Her noblest wark
She Burns is a feminist reworking of the story of Scotland’s very own Bard, in an enlightening and entertaining show, playing for just six performances across the fringe at Johnnie Walker Princes Street.
