Review – Heathers the Musical, Lyceum Theatre, Sheffield, 23rd October 2026

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I must confess, gentle reader, that I wasn’t at all sure about what I had let ourselves in for when I booked to see Heathers the Musical at the lovely Lyceum theatre in Sheffield, as part of its national tour. I’d not seen (or even heard of) the 1989 film which Kevin Murphy and Laurence O’Keefe had adapted to create this musical, which started life about twenty years ago in the USA and has reached all around the world with several productions and revivals, including winning Best New Musical in the 2019 What’s on Stage Awards. Frankly, I should be ashamed.

But in case you’re like me and need some background, three influential teenagers each named Heather rule the roost at Westerberg High School, bullying and victimising their way to the top. Get on their side and you might be protected; get on their wrong side and your life will be a misery. Veronica Sawyer thinks that sucking up to Chief Heather, Heather Chandler, will enable her to survive the course, even if that means being disloyal to her best friend, the unfashionable Martha Dunnstock. There’s a new boy in town too, Jason Dean, and he seems unimpressed by the Heatherocracy, exuding an attractive sense of cool that entrances Veronica. She and Jason become an item, but when JD starts to get – shall we say – original ideas on how to cope with the Heathers, things definitely start to get out of hand.

Heathers the Musical clearly attracts a cult following; Mrs Chrisparkle and I were almost certainly the oldest people in the Lyceum last Friday evening and my guess is that 95% of the audience was female. However, much to my surprise, the audience was extraordinarily attentive to the show and kept the ecstatic whooping to the end of each song rather than interrupting the performance. In fact, the show kept them absolutely gripped, which clearly shows that it’s doing something very right indeed.

David Shields’ set is full of character, throbbing with school life but also adapting cleverly into houses, bedrooms and so on. Ben Cracknell’s lighting and costume design is particularly effective, emphasising the show’s colour coding and the power of red; and Gary Lloyd’s choreography is energetic and entertaining, creating an excellent accompaniment to Will Joy’s seven-piece band who give full throttle to Murphy and O’Keefe’s enjoyable tunes. The songs are at their most effective when giving us unexpected insights into the anxieties and insecurities of some of the characters – Martha’s Kindergarten Boyfriend and Heather McNamara’s Lifeboat stand out for those reasons, as indeed does the predominant theme Seventeen, a plea for simply living life as an ordinary teenager without all the pressures and consequence of crime.

What really drives this show on is its fearless, unpredictable plot. Murder, attempted suicide and false suicide notes, attempted rape, ruthless bullying, body-shaming; you name it, Westerberg High’s got it. Borrowing an element of Sweeney’s Epiphany – they all deserve to die – from Sondheim’s Sweeney Todd and presaging some of the themes of Dear Evan Hansen, there’s not much point this show having trigger warnings because it simply contains everything. However, it’s written, directed and acted with such deft charm that – for the most part – it gets away with it.

This touring production has an excellent cast of actors, singers and dancers, headed by Gerardine Sacdalan as the likeable Veronica and Louis Hearsey as the enigmatic JD. They have good chemistry together and their terrific singing voices work well with the show’s more upbeat numbers, even if you yearn for a clearer sound quality so that you can catch all the words. Veronica Carabai as Ms Fleming brought the house down with her scene when she rounds on one of the few male members of the audience (“Steve”) and castigates him for his affair in front of his wife – kudos to the gentleman unwittingly chosen to be Steve in our performance who (in my opinion quite rightly) gave as good as he got – Heathers the Musical does maybe have to learn a few lessons about consent!

Liberty Stottor gives a great performance as Heather Chandler, exuding the kind of charisma that would demand obedience and self-abasement from her victims, whilst still strangely cutting an inspirational figure for the nobodies to admire. Lou Henry as Heather McNamara and, in our performance, understudy Tola Sokoya as Heather Duke effectively convey that pretence to bullying whilst being bullied themselves, revealing how they too are victims. In her professional debut Sophie Manners is superb as Martha, driven to despair when everything she has believed in is proven to have been false; and there’s another first-rate professional debut from Beau Jackson as Ram, who together with Markus Södergren as Kurt make a delightfully obnoxious pair of troublemakers. But the entire cast form a terrific ensemble with absolutely no weak links.

Heathers the Musical treads a very fine line between gallows humour and tastelessness, occasionally lurching on the wrong side of the balance but overall maintaining its ability to take some extremely dark subjects and illuminate them in the way that only musical theatre can. Anyway, your teenage daughter will love it, and that’s what it’s all about. The UK and Ireland tour continues to Blackpool, Cheltenham, Chichester, Dublin, Oxford, Hull, Liverpool, Manchester, York, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Bradford, Chelmsford, and Torquay until it reaches Cambridge next May.

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – Twelfth Night, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 23rd October 2026

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Following on from last month’s fantastic King Lear, and with the same cast apart from a change of “star performer”, Jamie Glover’s Twelfth Night is nothing if not ecologically sound, keeping the same set as Lear except that they’ve shovelled up the pea shingle to adorn someone’s driveway. Why not? Consequently, the only hint of colour in the set is from the golden globe in the backdrop representing, I presume, the sun, which deftly switches to a very atmospheric moon during the early (and superbly realised) shipwreck scene.

Otherwise, if you’re looking for colour, you have to fall back on some of the costumes. The majority are in black and white, save Olivia’s stunning green dress, Orsino’s plush red outfit and, of course, Malvolio’s fabulous yellow cross-gartered stockings. For music, we have three strolling musicians who occasionally come on to accompany David Birrell’s Feste. I’m used to Feste being quite a young, jocund chap, but this Feste is middle-aged, tends towards the morose and is thoroughly cynical, and his songs very much echo Orsino’s dying fall observation. A fascinating and well-performed characterisation; but I felt that the music didn’t help the play along at all, and simply introduced a few lulls and longueurs, pausing the action when we really all just wanted to get on with it.

This is one of those awkward productions when the sum of all its parts didn’t add up to the whole. No question, it’s a fantastic cast, none more fantastic than Matthew Horne’s Malvolio, a performance of sheer quality. Prissy of speech and pedantic of gesture, you instantly get why everyone else in the household despises him; anyone would. Matthew Horne’s verbal delivery of the role is as exquisite as you hope for; if you only associate him with sitcom-land, this performance is a true revelation.

In particular, his cross-gartered scene is brilliant, with the character engaging in a newly found sexually charged identity, including just the right level of outrageous physical comedy. But the antics of his three onlookers, Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Fabian, with whom you usually laugh along, here just seem peripheral and, frankly, a bit of a nuisance. When Malvolio is duped and thrown into jail, and in his final scene where he swears vengeance on them all, it’s one of those occasions where you really identify with him and are truly uncomfortable about how badly he has been treated.

Other strong performances come from Katie Wimpenny as a very chirpy and believable Maria, James Chetwood as a genuinely funny (rather than slightly embarrassing) Sir Andrew Aguecheek, and Harry Redding as Sebastian. Mark Holgate divests the character of Antonio with the same level of nobility that he displayed as Kent in Lear, and Bebe Sanders carries much of the play with a very intelligent portrayal of Viola. And Justina Kehinde really comes into her own once Olivia abandons her mourning and vivaciously begins fancying Cesario.

All these excellent performances, yet the feeling that overwhelms you about the whole production is that it’s a little bland, a little tame. Some cutting of the text means the show proceeds quite quickly (pausing for songs notwithstanding) but that also means scenes stop and start regularly and it doesn’t have a natural flow. A full Friday matinee audience didn’t laugh much, especially in the first Act; and, overall, I just wanted more.

3-starsThree-sy Does It!

Review – Lenny Henry, Still at Large, Royal and Derngate, Northampton, 20th October 2026

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Sir Lenny Henry; the Pride of Dudley and indelibly woven into the fabric of the nation since his first appearance as Frank Spencer in TV’s New Faces in 1975. He’s always been an excellent mimic; I remember watching that first appearance one Saturday night and he was a complete breath of fresh air. An amazing entertainer, at such a young age.

Now aged 68, he’s back on tour, and, as the title of the show has it, Still at Large – and he very much is. On stage he’s a curious mix of relaxed and animated; he likes to keep moving but it’s a very languid, almost lollopy way he has of perambulating around the stage. But he has an easy charm, a quick wit, and an assured delivery, with some first-rate relatable material combined with some very entertaining memories of an astonishing career.

The show is a mixture of stand-up, Q&A, and nostalgia wallowing – and there’s nothing wrong with that, particularly as his career has so many hilarious highlights to look back on. It is ironic that with such starry CV over so many decades, the one thing most people remember him for is having water chucked over him as Trevor McDoughnut on Tiswas. My advice (for what it’s worth) is Gwapple Me Gwapenuts, don’t knock it. That’s a heritage that we all love to remember; it was a privilege to be a teenager in the Tiswas years and it’s definitely something to be proud of. Fortunately, he didn’t give us a performance of the Bucket of Water Song; although there was the unexpected pleasure of a musical interlude from a famous star from the sleazier end of the spectrum at the end of the show.

He manages to make the large Derngate auditorium into an intimate stage where he can share jokes and singalongs with members of the audience, frequently bouncing off them in order to start a new topic. We learn that he now lives “in the country” and is one of three black men in the village; he lives with partner Lisa who enjoys cajoling him into long country walks because it will “do him good”. He’s not averse to appearing on the odd reality show when he has a sizeable builder’s bill coming in; those snug extensions don’t come cheap. He is feeling his age; at 68, he celebrated the fact that he travelled from Birmingham to Northampton without needing a wee – a happy life is based on mini victories.

The Q&A section was, in the best Frankie Howerd tradition, largely scripted although I think there were one of two genuine new questions in there. This gives him an excuse to bring out some enjoyable old clips, and to tell a very funny anecdote about rehearsing the role of Othello with the famously down-to-earth director Barrie Rutter. Overall, his material is very well structured and his lines meticulously planned and delivered, which allows for some excellent callbacks and killer punchlines. And who would have guessed Theophilus P Wildebeeste has undergone therapy and is now seeking consent in his lyrics?

The Lenny Henry Still at Large tour is nearing its end but there are two more dates in Brighton and Hackney. If you’ve grown up with Lenny as part of a lifetime of happy memories, you won’t want to miss it.

Review – Antigone Exits, Minerva Theatre, Chichester, 13th October 2026

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The best history lesson I ever had at school was when I was about 10 years old. Teacher Mr Pepper sat on the edge of his table and got each of us kids to play a role in the story of Eleanor of Aquitaine. I know – gripping stuff. Sarah – you’re Eleanor, and Ross – you’re King Louis. Now you die and Christopher, you’re King Edward and Sarah, you and Christopher get married now that Ross is dead… Etc, etc; you get the picture. It explained it in a simple but vivid way, and it was one of the very few History lessons I ever enjoyed.

I thought of this lesson as the opening minutes of Nina Segal’s modern take on the Antigone story, Antigone Exits, started to unfold. Two reasons: the clarity of the storytelling and the sense of involvement – even though this isn’t an interactive or immersive production. You know the old advice about how to give a presentation? Tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them. There is a sense of that here; occasionally feeling that we are being told what is happening rather than being shown it. Consequently, there is also a slight feeling of repetition, which ought to be unnecessary in a production that barely reaches 65 minutes in length (no interval).

Alex Lowde’s set certainly grabs your attention from the start. Seven actors perch, somewhat precariously, on a white, tilted abstract disc affixed to the back wall. I can’t have been the only person wondering quite how they kept their balance there; it – and they – must be covered with an invisible Velcro. Some rocks lead down to the bare stage, with a microphone dangling down from the ceiling in the middle; very stark and effective. Jo Joelson’s lighting design creates all manners of colourful atmosphere; engaging, confrontational, enigmatic. Visually, the audience is totally engaged.

From their precarious perch, the actors start to tell the story of Antigone. According to Sophocles’ play, she wanted to bury the body of her dead brother Polynices, but that has been forbidden on pain of death by the new king, Antigone’s uncle Creon. Antigone, however, unlike her sister Ismene, is no pushover. And when she breaks Creon’s law, she sets in motion a sequence of events that can only ever have one, catastrophic, conclusion.

As the story progresses, the actors clamber down from their disc and use the stage, bare and featureless, until at one point Antigone pours a sticky black liquid from a petrol can all around the edges of the stage, in a modern equivalent of a libation scene, creating a perfect, gloopy circle. At first, the actors skilfully avoid treading in it, keeping their trainers and the floor nice and clean. But as soon as the actor playing Tiresias dips her hand in what by now looks like spreading molasses, again there’s an inevitability as to what happens next, and there’s no option for cleanliness.

You’re always aware that the seven actors on stage are precisely that – actors playing roles. Each of them at some point breaks from the narrative, using the dangling microphone to offer a seemingly personal story from their past, which in some way relates to death. Whether it be coping with widowhood, or a child playing with the body of a dead fox, or several other experiences, these side observations enhance the sense of artifice over reality, and give an insight into how an actor can use their own personal experiences to inform their performance. Only when a side narrative from one of the actors raises the subject of Gaza do you get the sense that the writing and production is not quite sufficiently robust to involve that important and very relevant subject without feeling that it has been shoehorned in. It’s an ambitious link to make, and unfortunately it doesn’t quite work.

That said, the acting throughout is first rate, with immaculate clarity of diction and riveting, engrossing delivery. Max Bennett gives an excellent performance as Creon, regal but not bullying, determined that the law must be upheld or else he will look like an idiot, until he is convinced to change course when it is too late. Nina Cassells’ Antigone is equally determined, totally accepting of her fate with calm inevitability; no argument will sway her in the other direction. With all the other characters trying to convince Creon that he must backtrack on his edict, except for Anushka Chakravarti’s Ismene who blames Antigone as the wilful author of her own destiny, the battle of wits that unfolds can only have one conclusion. Antigone Exits via the gap at the top of the white backdrop disc, which becomes the entrance to the cave where she will die. Afterwards, other actors also exit through that gap, denoting their characters’ own, subsequent, deaths.

It’s a powerful one-act play that tells the story of Antigone with great clarity and attempts to put a relevant spin on it for a modern audience. Theatrical, and well-acted, it certainly keeps the audience’s attention and gives you plenty of scope to think about it and discuss it afterwards. And I had forgotten quite what a great track David Bowie’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide is.

4-starsFour They’re Jolly Good Fellows!

Review – As You Like It, RSC at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-upon-Avon, 10th October 2026

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Jonathan Groff

©Marc Brenner

You won’t find a better practitioner of the art of gender-blind casting than the Royal Shakespeare Company, but in Daniel Evans’ new production of As You Like It, they’ve really given it a new twist. This all-male production hasn’t changed Rosalind to Ross or Celia to Cecil, choosing to keep the female roles as female and largely removing any sense of “female impersonation” from the characterisations. By largely playing it – if you’ll excuse the expression – straight – there is no element of what we think of as drag in this production; it simply has male actors playing female roles, much as would have happened back in Shakespeare’s time. The result is a fresh, positive, emotional production that feels authentic, honest and very, very funny.

Rosalind at court

©Marc Brenner

Beautifully acted throughout, there are no weak links within the cast, and all the technical elements are superb too. Fantastic set design from Anisha Fields creates a stark contrast between the monochrome harshness of Act One’s court – a blank white set populated by grim men in black suits – to be followed by the unruly, natural countryside of Arden, where shepherds lurk behind tufts of grass and although financial poverty is rife, it can’t erode the richness of emotional support. Ryan Day’s excellent lighting creates some very striking effects to accompany the ruthlessness of Duke Frederick’s rule, which is then softened as we enter Duke Senior’s relaxed, bucolic environment.

Adam rests

©Marc Brenner

I must confess, I often regard the incidental music in productions as something akin to ignorable wallpaper, but in this instance that couldn’t be further from the truth. The music is stunning. Evans has transported Arden to rural Wales, where music seems to evolve naturally from the earth, using tradition Welsh hymns, sung in Welsh; and the blend of the voices is emotional and entrancing, the kind of music that can truly soothe a savage breast. Often the music and the action work side by side; among the show’s more memorable and emotional moments is the singing that accompanies the scene where old Adam shares food and drink kindly shared by the Lords of Arden. Stirring and powerful, it’s totally respectful of the old man and gentle in the support provided to him. It’s not all Bread of Heaven though; in one cheeky scene the cast recreate Raye’s 2025 hit Where is my Husband – and not only is it hilarious but it also integrates perfectly with the rest of the play.

Fisayo Akinade and Jonathan Groff

©Marc Brenner

And that’s the key to this production. It’s not afraid to take some risks and break the rules whilst still being remarkably faithful to and respectful of the original text. Jonathan Groff and Fisayo Akinade play Rosalind and Celia in as traditional way as possible, their girlish playfulness balanced with the injustice of their banishment and Rosalind’s determination to make Orlando work hard in order to secure her hand. For perhaps obvious reasons, there’s probably never been a more boyish Rosalind than Mr Groff’s, which only makes his regular scenes as Ganymede more believable. Only after a delightful moment of physical comedy when Orlando’s brother Oliver – a terrific supporting performance by Caleb Roberts – discovers that Ganymede might be – shall we say – womanlier than first realised, does the production allow itself a little, very subtle, admission that this boy/girl/boy game is more nuanced than at first sight.

Rosalind and Orlando

©Marc Brenner

The result of all this is that it is genuinely one of the funniest productions of this play I’ve ever seen. Once the scene shifts to Arden, the combination of Messrs Groff and Akinade works as a brilliant comedy double act, with Celia playing the straight man/woman/man to Rosalind’s natural stage dominance. With no attempt by Mr Groff to disguise his American accent, it’s another way in which the character of Rosalind stands out from the crowd; never referred to until late in the play when Orlando refers to her accent and a slight rewrite of the original provides the perfect response. Mr Akinade meanwhile excels with moments of amazing physical comedy but also gives us a superb understanding of how Celia resents becoming invisible as she is forced to withdraw from the action to let Rosalind and Orlando’s story play out. And both Groff and Akinade are remarkable at portraying that special moment of love at first sight; both funny and endearing at the same time.

Jaques

©Marc Brenner

Elsewhere, a pause inserted here and an unexpected glance added there, all go to create something very credible out of what is, on paper at least, quite an unlikely story scenario. Just an involuntary sound can have a huge impact: when Jaques commences his famous speech with the words “All the world’s a stage” (a remarkably insightful performance by Richard McCabe), the eternally entertaining Gary Wilmot as the Duke utters an “ah!” as if to say, what a fascinating concept I’m really interested to hear what you’re going to say. A simple idea that works incredibly well.

Ensemble

©Marc Brenner

The production also benefits from a superb performance by Elliot Barnes-Worrell as Orlando; perfect clear delivery from an actor who understands the nuance behind every line. Gareth Snook’s performance in the double roles of Adam and Audrey is doubly impressive; the first conveying the noble frailty of the old retainer, and the second full of cheekiness and ribaldry. You know that when Audrey and Greg Haiste’s Touchstone tie the knot they’re going to have a fantastic season of sex and laughter and then swiftly swipe left on the relationship.

Gary Wilmot

©Marc Brenner

There’s excellent support from Giles Cooper’s unexpectedly affable Le Beau, Rhys Parry Jones’ Corin and Hymen, and Tim Preston’s hilariously buttoned up Phoebe; but the entire cast is without fault, and everyone contributes to make this show the success it undoubtedly is.

It’s not often that a revival of a Shakespearean comedy is a must-see – but Daniel Evans’ production of As You Like It should be seen far and wide and unreservedly deserves a transfer.

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Review – King Lear, Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, 5th September 2026

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The first of two Shakespeare plays to be staged at the Sheffield Crucible this autumn, Titas Halder’s production of King Lear boasts the must-see billing of Ian McDiarmid as the foolish fond old king. This is an intelligent, stark production, more cerebral than emotional, acted on a largely blank stage with just a round sunken pit in the centre, surrounded by earth. Nevertheless, it’s visually powerful, with an inventive and effective lighting design by Ryan Day, functional costumes by Richard Kent, and an eerie soundscape by Emma Laxton. Indeed, it’s remarkable what an atmosphere can be created by the right combination of smoke, light and pea shingle.

Despite its being five minutes short of three hours, the plot moves at a cracking pace, and the clarity of the storytelling is outstanding. The characterisations are, for the most part, strong and memorable, and the acting is superb. McDiarmid’s Lear is a sarcastic, entitled bighead, quick to ire, with a withering tone of voice that could make even the most virtuous of daughters flinch. When Cordelia refuses to play the adoration game (an assertive, no-nonsense performance from Bebe Sanders) this Lear isn’t merely disappointed and disapproving; he truly despises every inch of her being.

After being outwitted by a Goneril and Regan more power-hungry than he could have imagined, his descent into madness is structured, logical, and totally believable. His snide, mocking personality becomes pathetic and pitiful; but because he was such a difficult man when he had his wits about him, it’s hard to feel sorry for him. It’s much more of a study of how a fool can give away his power by trusting people who are not to be trusted. One’s sympathies are much more extended to Mark Holgate’s noble and faithful Kent, David Birrell’s easily duped Gloucester, and a truly upstanding Albany played by Milo Twomey.

Katie Wimpenny and Justina Kehinde are both exceptional as Goneril and Regan; in particular, Ms Kehinde’s unhinged glee at plucking out Gloucester’s eyes is a remarkable portrayal of the visceral pleasure by one ghoulish monster at the total domination of their victim. Both are keenly attracted to Fode Simbo’s Edmund, another intelligent, credible, and unsensational portrayal of a man who (as he sees it) is simply trying to get what he feels is rightly his – and not remotely concerned about who gets hurt in the process. There’s one more absolutely superb performance – Max Revell as the Fool, whose every move mimics and scorns Lear’s own movements, creating some extraordinary, contorted shapes in a remarkable physical performance.

Arresting from the start, this is a stunning, engrossing and totally lucid production, full of fine performances and intense atmosphere. You won’t shed a tear for Lear and Cordelia, but you will make the conscious decision never to give all to your daughters.

Five Alive, Let Theatre Thrive!

Edinburgh Fringe 2026 – It’s a Wrap!

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And that’s another Fringe done and dusted! We arrived on 7th August and we left on 1st September. During that time, we saw 142 shows, which was twelve fewer than last year, but we did shorten our Edinburgh time by two days, so that explains that. We only had one cancellation due to the time of the show changing, but we replaced it with something else anyway!

Here’s a quick reminder of the 4 and 5 star shows we saw, by star rating and in date order of when we saw them:

 

5 STARS:

SpinQueen

Baby Everything

Jitters

Long Way Home

Buggers

Evaldas Karosas: A Very Capable Man

No Hard Felix

Dinner with the Wolves

Lear’s Fool

The BBC’s First Homosexual

Annie Wobbler (Revisited)

Casey Filips: What a Character!

Christian Dart: GUMSHOE!

Robin Grainger: Lemonade

Dribble

Max Fulham: Memory Foam

The Distance

Diary of a Mad Man

The Night Ali Died

Apples in Winter

Mortal Sin

The Past

Alfie Dundas: First Class Panic

Clive

BIRDS: Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford

EVITA TOO

The Second Best School Shooting

Patient 13

Demi Adejuyigbe Sells Out

Slayers

The Shocking Truth about Flat Earth

Rapism

Safety

Nuns!

Hope This Helps!

Behind Closed Doors

Christopher Hall: Pizazz

Crocodile Rock

4 STARS:

An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind

Two Halves

A Cat in a Box

COPYCAT

The Joker and the Thief

Table for Two

44 Minutes

Big Stuff

Kwami Odoom and Jack Henry: Support Group

HR The Musical

Bachelors of Fine Arts

Ulysses of Scranton

Olivia Raine Atwood: Oops!

Sami Abu Warden Hates You

Sodom, The Quintessence of Debauchery

Madeleine Brettingham: Legend

Mandy: Prince of Darkness

January 6th the Musical

You Talkin’ To Us?

The Jolly Fisherman

Bombs over Byker

Target Audience

Tim Biglowe: Plonka!

The Pitch

Matt Forde: Project Holy Moly!

Miscast Sondheim

The Eight Faces of Ellie Morrison

Millicent Sarre is too Tired to Smash (Patriarchy)

Spare Room

Daughter of Sweden – That One Princess Who Got Drunk with Lizzie I and Thrown Out of England

Only Fans for Therapy

Dogberry and Verges are Scared

“Be Good!” with Paulette

Angela Bra – Secret Diary of a Bingo Call Girl

Operation Blank

Overtone

ELBA

The Misfortunes of a Spy and her Mystic

Betsy and Patty Find Out

Chelsea Birkby: Is in Full Control the Entire Time

Jake Baker: The Gentle Men’s Club

Shotgunned

Thermodrama

The Last Audition

The Last Mad Man

Improbotics Presents: Artificial Reality

Georgina Thomas: Hysterical Soprano

Rizal van Geyzel: Arrested

00:45:00

58 to Go

You’re Not My Mum!

Ambitious Underachiever

Nathan Cassidy: Ewwww!

Blackbox

FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT

1 Missed Call

Collateral Damage

Padlocked!

The Shit Table

Our Other Organ

UNDERGROUND MONK SHOW

Sobremesa

Steffan Alun: Windows

Congratulations to all these great shows. Just as a cheeky comparison, I’ve awarded 4 stars to exactly the same number of shows as last year (63 shows) – but there are also 8 more 5 star shows than last year (38 shows), which reflects on the truly excellent standard of productions for 2026. And there weren’t any 1 star shows, hurrah! As to working out which of them are the absolute best – you’ll have to wait until the Chrisparkle Awards for 2026 are announced in January!

Remember – as I always say – reviews are only what one person thinks, they’re purely a personal reaction. And star ratings are even more unreliable!

Edinburgh Fringe Reviews 2026 – Sobremesa, Broke and Fabulous in the 21st Century, Crocodile Rock, and Steffan Alun: Windows

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Sobremesa, Gilded Balloon Patter House.

4-starsSobremesa – the noble Spanish art of chatting around the dinner table after a meal. What could be more relaxing?! Well, that depends on your dining companions and the secrets they keep. Agnes Perry-Robinson’s Sobremesa sees sisters Alma and Billie celebrating Alma’s 30th birthday, and Billie has brought her new boyfriend, Jamie, to meet her. Billie and Jamie are nauseatingly loved-up, but Alma is not convinced that Jamie is quite the decent chap he purports to be… An engrossing tale develops around the dinner table, and you’re never quite certain of the motivations of Jamie and Alma, with innocent Billie caught in the middle. Excellent performances, especially from Alejandra Deane as Alma; it’s a well-paced play, with intriguing characters and a very good story, that just perhaps goes on a tad too long in the final denouement. 4 stars.

Broke and Fabulous in the 21st Century, Gilded Balloon Patter House.

3-starsMoney’s too tight to mention sang Simply Red decades ago. And not much has changed over that time for the likes of besties Lexy and Petunia, who have to sustain their fabulousness on minimal incomes. The distraught Petunia has man problems, in that she hardly ever sees Jake and when she does, he is indifferent; Lexy, on the other hand, has been seeing Tom, and his problem is that he is falling in love, which he really doesn’t want to do. Tom, on the other hand, earns good money and turns up for sex whenever he wants it, so life is treating him fine. However, all actions have consequences… Dale Robertson’s Broke and Fabulous in the 21st Century concentrates on 24 hours (or so) of these three people, and successfully portrays their financial insecurities, their sexual complications, and reliance on drugs and alcohol. It works best when it reveals their quieter hopes, truths and dreams; the larger-than-life Petunia brings to mind the excesses of Absolutely Fabulous’ Eddie and Patsy, which is entertaining until it starts to pall. Three confident performances, especially from the writer Dale Robertson as Lexy, the only character whom we really feel we get under his surface. The drive to incorporate worthy quotations from the Ancient Greeks felt perhaps a little pretentious, and the twist ending is telegraphed a mile off, but, overall, it’s an entertaining and energetic performance, if occasionally a little over-frenetic. 3 stars.

Crocodile Rock, Gilded Balloon Teviot.

Andy McGregor’s Crocodile Rock is the story of Steven McPhail, an insecure lad from sleepy Millport in Great Cumbrae Island, who knows that he doesn’t fit in but doesn’t altogether understand why until one day the charismatic Henry Thomas walks into his life. Although their association is far from a happy-ever-after story, it leads Steven to the realisation of who he is and, with a little help from a visiting Country and Western musician (bizarre, what?), gains the confidence to live life his own way. A crowd-pleasing, joy-giving performance by Darren Brownlie, as he presents Steven’s story as a sung-through musical; he has a great voice and an effervescent stage presence which radiates rapport with the audience, and it’s no surprise that Crocodile Rock is one of the big successes of this year’s Edinburgh Fringe. 5 stars.

Steffan Alun: Windows, Hoots @ The Apex.

4-starsSteffan Alun spent a lifetime preparing material for last year’s Edinburgh debut, which means he’s only had eleven months to prepare for this year’s follow-up, Windows. But fear not, as he has crammed a shed load of comic observations into his new show, which is primarily concerned with the difference between outward appearance and inward substance, and the search for individual identity. He reflects on how the clothes we wear are designed to express how we want others to see us; consequently, you can have carte blanche to judge people on the train, say, by how they dress or behave themselves. En route, we learn about how one can have different memories of a house one once lived in, the various motivations behind taking part in pub quizzes, and how we present ourselves on Instagram – beware, Steffan will be particularly judgy in this instance. Put the wrong flag on your profile, and he’ll treat it like… well… a red flag. He has a splendidly assertive onstage presence, with a gloriously expressive voice raised on laverbread so that no R is ever left unrolled. His material is intelligent and thoughtful, encompassing many different threads, and all elegantly structured and chock-full of laughs. Most definitely One to Watch. 4 stars.

Edinburgh Fringe Reviews 2026 – The Shit Table, Lizzy Sunshine, Our Other Organ, MISTRANSLATED, Christopher Hall: Pizazz, and UNDERGROUND MONK SHOW

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The Shit Table, Gilded Balloon Teviot.

4-starsEveryone understands the concept of the Shit Table. The table at the wedding positioned furthest away from the bride and groom, where the people who just snuck onto the list by the skin of their teeth get bundled together out of the way. We’ve all been there. In Don’t Think Twice Theatre Company’s The Shit Table, written by Paul Howard, not only are the people on the Shit Table the weakest links, but they’re also truly dreadful! The embarrassingly laddish lad whom no one can stand. The bride’s childhood pal who always held a torch for her. The difficult ex with the barbed tongue. The remotest second cousin (or is she?) These four, who are the only ones to turn up, also have secrets that they need to keep until drink, drugs and bitter argument loosen tongues and change lives. It’s a brilliant idea and a very funny, inventive play, extremely well structured, with a great feel for the comedy and an increasing level of ridiculousness. One of the actors has too soft a voice, and the comic timing in general was a little patchy, but there is one particularly superb performance by the actor playing the annoyingly ebullient Aidan who refuses to believe that his friendship group is bullying him. An excellent play that will for certain have a life beyond the Fringe. 4 stars.

Lizzy Sunshine, Gilded Balloon Patter House.

3-starsWelcome to the upbeat world of Lizzy Sunshine! She’s here to bring some brightness into our lives, to help solve our problems, to remind us that, like little Orphan Annie, the sun’ll come out tomorrow. It’s a shame that her co-presenter, Jamie Storm, is delayed; but she is nothing if not resourceful, and anyway, audience members are always there to help her out when she needs someone to work with. But even Lizzy Sunshine has her troubles, and when the outside world closes in on her positive space, it’s a struggle to retain that optimism. Liz Coin is a delight as the ray of sunshine herself, establishing a tremendous rapport with every audience member and bringing terrific comedy talent to every aspect of the show. It relies heavily on fully committed audience participation, which is always a little risky, and I found the shift between happiness and sadness rather unbalanced; but, overall, this is a thoroughly entertaining piece with its heart in the right place. 3 stars.

Our Other Organ, Summerhall.

4-starsOur host, Boaz Barkan, welcomes us into the Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall, a most appropriate venue for the performance about to take place. He’s no anatomist, he confesses; in fact, he’s a dancer. But he has been developing a theory that man has another organ, hitherto unidentified, that starts in the stomach somewhere below the ribcage, and with some people it can spread its sticky purple tentacles up through the chest to the throat, down the body to the legs; and it controls our antisemitism and racism. Using a live model to illustrate, he kneads the man’s flesh and flexes his muscles, using Anglepoise lamps to highlight specific areas of his body. As Barkan develops his theory, the focus switches to the horrors of war, both how his own family were affected by the Holocaust, and by drawing attention to the genocide in Gaza today. What starts as something curious and eccentric becomes decidedly creepy and uncomfortable, and ends with a powerfully visceral final image, demonstrating Barkan’s profound belief that the organ, if left unchecked, will always overwhelm its own body and soul as its victim. A challenging piece of experimental theatre that’s disturbing and not for the faint-hearted, but it certainly makes its point. 4 stars.

MISTRANSLATED, Just the Tonic at the Caves.

3-starsA show for polyglots and the foreign-language-curious alike, Erica Jean’s MISTRANSLATED takes an entertaining trawl through the slings and arrows of outrageous language teaching, revealing the comic highs and lows of making mistakes, nodding sagely when you haven’t a clue about what the other person said, and accidentally hilarious mispronunciations. The rise of Duolingo means nearly everyone has had a bite of the foreign language cherry, but can you genuinely say you’re now fluent in your chosen foreign tongue? Of course not – no one is! MISTRANSLATED is a funny and indeed educational safe space where you can confess your worst language mishaps – and Erica’s committed more than most! If you’ve ever woken up to a grumpy growl from Falstaff, or a passive-aggressive text from Lily, this show is for you. 3 stars.

Christopher Hall: Pizazz, Gilded Balloon Teviot.

Confession time – I’m late to the talent that is Christopher Hall, but what an entertaining chap he is! His new show Pizazz – so named because he’s full of it – is all about remaining fun-loving and party-central oriented despite the passing years. Riotous holidays on the continent, adding a bit of glamour to straight mate’s stag night, celebrating the efforts put in by the mums (not the dads, obvs) and just turning up to each and every invitation, these are just some of the ways Christopher is keeping the pizazz in his – and everybody else’s – life. Hugely energetic and infectiously camp, he jigs and prances around the stage spreading his special kind of joy. His rapport with the audience is a delight, and his material is very relatable and recognisable whilst still feeling fresh, innovative and very funny. Hilarious advice about how to handle an escape room! Absolutely loved him – he needs to be on everyone’s comedy list! 5 stars.

UNDERGROUND MONK SHOW, Assembly George Square Gardens.

4-starsWho can resist some late-night shenanigans with four monks? Somehow they find their way into the Piccolo Tent where they discover the benefits of magic water. As each dunks their head in the bowl, they go on a journey of discovery – and who knows what they might find there. Impossible to describe further, this is one of those Fringe shows that’s 100% bonkers. Max Baumgarten, Dee Marcucci, Bill O’Neill and Claire Woolner star as the four outrageous brethren, with some hilarious crowd work and ridiculously inventive clowning. Not every idea works, but that doesn’t really matter! 4 stars.

Edinburgh Fringe Reviews 2026 – Hope this Helps!, Behind Closed Doors, Fab Goualin: Mixed Messages, Pierrepoint: The People’s Hangman, and I Think I’m Turning Japanese (I Really Think So, Not!)

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Hope This Helps!, TheSpace @ Venue 45.

Imagine a retreat in the wilds of Scotland where you could go to detox from Internet addiction – no phones, no social media, no emails… wouldn’t it be awful – sorry – restorative? Caitlin has dragged her unwilling brother Declan along, where they meet Liv and Willow, an on-off couple who are more off than on, American Mabel who just wants to be loved, and David, the coach, guru, mastermind, and upseller behind it all. Will they all attain offline Nirvana, or will the rifts and differences between them all shatter the peace – what’s left of it, after the Scottish weather has had its say? Sharkbait Theatre’s Hope This Helps? brings together these six ordinary, believable people and dumps them in an extraordinary environment where they must bond, heal, or struggle to get out, in order to survive. Incredible acting throughout by the whole ensemble – Rory Drinnan-Murray, Elizabeth Robbins, Robyn Reilly, Minnie Cross, together with co-writers Jess Ferrier and Lex Joyce – each individual has their own strong characteristics whilst never straying into the world of caricature. The writing, together with the quality of acting, bring out all the comedy of the situation, resulting in a truly hilarious play that also subtly touches on the emotions so you can feel the genuine issues of each character. Totally brilliant! 5 stars.

Behind Closed Doors, Braw Venues @ Hill Street.

For Charlie, sex is just a shag in the back of a car and move on. For Jude, it’s something different – a question of needing, of dependence, and, yes, of love. The two people must be incompatible, obviously; but nevertheless Charlie stays, to create an unlikely partnership. But the true struggle for both is Jude’s serious addiction to cocaine; and there’s only so much love and kindness that can be extended before something has to snap. Corey Muizelaar’s Behind Closed Doors is based on his own personal story and is tender, shocking, revealing, and extraordinarily moving. With two genuinely astounding performances from Corey himself as Jude, and Ben Robert Cunningham as Charlie, this is one of those productions that stays with you long after curtain down. Their use of silence, their portrayal of intimacy (amazing work by intimacy co-ordinator Lucy Curry) and their ability to make you empathise with behaviour that can never be condoned, demand your attention and admiration. This is one of those rare plays where you may well come out of the theatre a different person from the one who went in. A must-see. 5 stars.

Fab Goualin: Mixed Messages, Gilded Balloon Teviot.

3-starsA gentle comedy performance from Fab Goualin, a mixed race (French/Nigerian) gay guy who straddles a variety of identities. Clearly a season ticket holder with ancestry.com, Fab loves his Jollof but specifically shops in Waitrose; he enjoys his rugby although his posh white ex-colleague thought that was way beyond his social standing. Mixed Messages is his appropriately named show considering all his intersectionality (Google it) reference points. He draws on his relationship with his mother and colleagues; why he loves the lesbians but is not too hot on the gays and explores all those areas where he can confound others’ preconceptions. He has a fluid, confident delivery and sets up a very warm rapport with the audience. For me, his material is a little on the slight side; a bit safe and comfortable rather than challenging us into the big belly laughs. Nevertheless, it’s an entertaining show full of recognisable class observations that will always go down well with a comedy audience! 3 stars.

Pierrepoint: The People’s Hangman, TheSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall.

Albert Pierrepoint was born in 1905 in the West Riding of Yorkshire, and was an executioner, working for HM Prison Service, like his father and his uncle before him. Andrew Hogarth plays the very polite, civilised Mr Pierrepoint, as he explains how he decided to follow in the family business, discusses his professional standards of conduct, and then, in unexpected detail, goes into the nitty-gritty of the cases of John Reginald Christie and Timothy Evans, Ruth Ellis, and more. This production falls between two stools; it’s not a theatrical performance in the traditional sense, rather a recited account (from a book) on the Christie and Ellis cases. Nor is it a traditional lecture, in that the performer purports to be acting in the role of Pierrepoint and relies on some rather scruffy handouts, clearly lifted from Wikipedia, that we have to share, whereas it would be much more professional to use projected images on a screen. Alternatively, ignore the images altogether, because they only serve to distract us from hearing what Pierrepoint is saying. Despite having some fascinating material to narrate, Pierrepoint: The People’s Hangman is a sadly underwhelming experience, as we don’t really get to know Pierrepoint the man at all, and the accounts of the murderers he hanged are delivered in a pedestrian, unexciting manner. 2 stars.

I Think I’m Turning Japanese (I Really Think So, Not!), Just the Tonic at the Caves.

In 1998 Sam Joseph moved to Japan; a bold and brave step if ever there was. There he became entranced with the country – its people, its food and its language. Even more entrancing was the Japanese lady who would eventually become his wife. Through anecdotes of language mix-ups, poor hotel choices, getting in the wrong taxis, and so on, Sam illustrates what it’s like to be a Brit living in Japan. They also lived in Hawaii, but that’s another story (allegedly to be told at the Fringe next year). Sam is a high-energy, quirky performer; the kind of guy who peppers his speech with random noises and sudden movements. A self-confessed teller of dad jokes, he gives off a children’s entertainer vibe – which I don’t mean unkindly, but you could expect him to make you a balloon animal to take home. If I’m honest, I found his material more informative and curious than funny, but humour is nothing if not subjective, and he’s clearly, as Steve Martin once said, a wild and crazy guy. 2 stars.