Thrice –  ★★★☆☆  – Abstract Al Seed Productions 16 - 24 Oct (Touring) Review by Rebecca Mahar   Al Seed Productions kicks off its Scottish tour of the new work  Thrice  at Tramway in Glasgow, a response to Shakespeare’s  Macbeth  that, while skilfully performed, struggles to identify itself amidst its abstraction.   With storyboarding and direction by Al Seed and Judith Milligan,  Thrice  is billed as a “visual and sonic journey of movement, dance, text, and original music,” which “seeks to challenge the legacy of persecution attached to the word ‘witch,’ asking us to listen differently, and to imagine new forms of care and dignity”, an ambitious proposition which from the outset defies categorisation. This defiance is not a negative in and of itself, and indeed the choice to exist in an undefined space seems to be part of the production’s goal. The problem comes with its stated goals, none of which are met. A scene from Thrice: Pic: Alb...

Jersey Boys -  ★★★☆☆ - Nostalgic Edinburgh Playhouse: Mon 12 – Sat 17 Oct 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 15 October 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. The twentieth-anniversary of  Jersey Boys  hits the Edinburgh Playhouse stage with pizzazz and plenty of nostalgia for fans of Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons in this jukebox musical tracing the rise, fall, and reinvention of the legendary group. Initially conceived by original Four Seasons member Bob Gaudio,  Jersey Boys  features a book by Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice and a score of Four Seasons hits, with arrangements and incidental music composed by Ron Melrose. A scene from Jersey Boys. Pic: Mark Senior. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Barnum -  ★★★☆☆ - Glitzy flim-flam Festival Theatre: Tue 6 – Sat 10 Oct 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 7 October 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. The Watermill Theatre’s touring revival of  Barnum: The Circus Musical  kicks off at the Festival Theatre with blinding light, plenty of sparkle, and a host of actor-musician-acrobats bringing unrivalled energy to the stage. Mark Bramble’s book, itself, has tarnished since show’s 1980 premiere, though, lending an overall air of humbug to this tale of the Prince of Humbugs, produced on this tour by Bill Kenwright Ltd, with direction from the Watermill’s Jonathan O’Boyle and choreographed by Oti Mabuse. A scene from Barnum. Pic: Pamela Rath Photography. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

I’ll Be Seeing You –  ★★★★★  – Dazzling Pitlochry Festival Theatre  22 Sept – 11 Oct Review by Rebecca Mahar   What if Liberace walked into a play about Liberace? asks Martin Sherman’s new play  I’ll Be Seeing You . Full of grit, glamour, and unexpected existentialism, the answer can be found at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, where Fra Fee, Simon Russell Beale, and Sherman himself confront the legacy of Mr. Showmanship. Simon Russell Beale as Liberace and Fra Fee as the Writer. Pic: Tiu Makkonen. The Writer (Fee) begins the play with a tirade about Liberace, how he hates him and the dishonest way he lived, publicly denying his homosexuality— and yet now he, the Writer, has been commissioned to write a play about Liberace (“by an obscure little theatre in the Scottish Highlands… you wouldn’t have heard of it”), so what’s he to do? Approach his subject from the dishonesty angle, of course, concentrating on the trial in which Liberace sued the  Daily Mirror ...

A History of Paper –  ★★★★★  – Phenomenal    Pitlochry Festival Theatre & Dundee Rep 9-12 Sept (Pitlochry), 16-19 Sept (Dundee) Review by Rebecca Mahar   A History of Paper  at Pitlochry Festival Theatre, a co-production with Dundee Rep, leaves its stage littered with the insubstantial, all-important fragments of a life and its audience with tears.   A one-act musical from writer Oliver Emanuel and composer Gareth Williams,  A History of Paper  encounters He (Alan Cumming) and She (Shirley Henderson), looking through a box of papers —memories— of their life together, and their time cut short. This musical begins in Glasgow on the eve of the millennium, December 1999, after He’s had a bad breakup and She shoves a note through his door telling him to turn down his music. He sends back a note folded in the shape of a rose; She agrees to go to dinner with him, where He folds a Pizza Express menu into a paper crane; and the rest is history. Al...

Bacon -  ★★★★☆ - Raw Hunchback of Notre Dame -  ★★★★☆ - Visceral And Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You -  ★★★★★ - Extraordinary Pleasance Courtyard (Venue 33): Wed 19 – Sat 29 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 1 September 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. After thirty-four years, Pip Utton bids farewell to Edinburgh Fringe with a one-man repertory of three plays:  Bacon ,  Hunchback of Notre Dame , and  Before I Forget I Love You, I Love You . Each piece is sharply distinct in tenor and in the characters which Utton inhabits, this is a send-off which demonstrates his impressive range as an actor and writer. If there’s one thing Utton does brilliantly, it’s “the moment before.” Prior to beginning a play, a scene, a monologue, or whatever dramatic feat is to come, an actor considers the moment immediately before what is to come: what is the character’s mental, emotional, physical s...

I, Claudius - ★★★★☆ - Epic The Royal Scots Club (Venue 241): Mon 17 – Sat 22 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 31 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Local company Strawmoddie, known for their series of Terry Pratchett stage adaptations, take on ancient Rome in an ambitious two-part production of  I, Claudius , bringing the 1976 television series to the stage for the first time in this limited world-premiere run. The adaptation is penned by Strawmoddie Artistic Director Jonathan Whiteside, who directs alongside Caitlin Carter. It seeks to distil Jack Pullman’s thirteen-hour series – itself an adaptation of Robert Graves’ novels   I, Claudius   and its sequel,   Claudius the God –  into four and a half hours of theatre.   A scene from I, Claudius: Part 1. Pic: Andrew Morris. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Dracula: Lucy’s Dream –  ★★★★☆  – Eerie Plexus Polaire 6-29 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Dracula: Lucy’s Dream,  from French-Norwegian company Plexus Polaire and artistic director Yngvild Aspeli, presents an eerie, uncanny, spectacular interpretation of Stoker’s classic horror that focuses on the real, unreal, and beyond.   Lucy’s Dream  is less a narrative than it is a visual and aural exploration of what might have been happening inside Lucy Westenra during the events of  Dracula — advance knowledge of the original narrative certainly makes the story more cohesive. The performance opens with Lucy sleepwalking in the forest, where she is multiplied with mirrors of herself, and encounters a black dog which is always just out of reach. From the darkness Dracula appears, and all three Lucys are drawn into his embrace and fall victim to his bite. A scene from Dracula: Lucy's Dream. Pic: Christophe Raynaud de Lage. Lucy and her mirrors are, to this point,...

A Queen's Way -  ★★☆☆☆ - Awkward Greenside @ George Street (Venue 236): Mon 24 – Sat 29 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 27 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Napier University Drama Society presents a limited run of Madilyne Nelsen’s new play  A Queen’s Way , a medieval satire that never quite finds its footing. In a medieval kingdom “built on murder, thievery and chaos,” the teenage Karalyne (Maisie Lumgair), a peasant who lives in the woods with her brother Todlair (a play on toddler, though he declares himself to be eleven years old; played by James Galloway), finds herself catapulted onto the throne after accidentally killing the current king, Rodrick (Euan Raynal). A scene from A Queen's Way. Pic: NUDS. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not –  ★★★★☆  – Mayhem Red Firefly Theatre 20-26 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Red Firefly Theatre debuts on the Fringe with  I Love Thee, I Love Thee Not , a rapid-fire hour of Shakespeare’s greatest lovers’ hits, featuring able classical performance couched in an absurd frame.   Gabriel Bird and Jenna Donoghue star as Isaac McKellen and Julie Dench, RADA (Regular Academy of Decent Actors) trained thespians who are desperately and soporiphically in love and have determined that the secret to their romantic success is their mutual love of Shakespeare, which has made their relationship “objectively better than anybody elses!”. To that end, they’ve decided to share with the audience the “dos and do nots” of a successful relationship through various scenes of Shakespeare. McKellen prepares to launch into a tragedy, and the image of the perfect relationship breaks down immediately as Dench protests repeatedly that they had agreed to begin wi...