Rebecca Mahar talks to the great monodramatist. Feature commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 18 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Each year Edinburgh welcomes thousands of performers from across the world to the Fringe, from those just starting out to those with storied careers, and everyone in between. For the last third a century Edinburgh has, every Fringe, welcomed one performer who, over that time, has made a name for himself around the world as a celebrated – legendary even – monodrama performer. To say that Pip Utton, has done all the biggies, from Hitler to Thatcher, Francis Bacon to William Shakespeare, from Lear to a Christmas Carol, is to undervalue the nature of his performance. Utton has been those people, in a series of monodramas that allow him inhabit them like a chameleon on a leaf. Pip Utton in Bacon. Pic supplied. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full feature !

Shakespeare's Dead Dames -  ★★★☆☆ - Conflicted theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9): Wed 13 – Sat 15 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 17 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Aberdeen’s Academy of Expressive Arts brings a company of Senior and HNC students to the Fringe in “their first production that’s not a musical”:  Shakespeare’s Dead Dames , directed by AEA founder and Principal, Shanna Logan. An exploration of what might have happened to some of his most famous women after Shakespeare killed them off, Dead Dames takes place in a purgatorial afterlife moderated by the Director, who keeps tabs on the women and lets them know when it’s their turn to live again – that is, when their respective plays are being revived. The cast and crew of Shakespeare's Dead Dames. Pic: Academy of Expressive Arts. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Elsa McTaggart: Capturing the Light –  ★★★★☆  – Peaceful sruth-mara in association with An Lanntair 7-28 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Blending music, visual art, and storytelling,  Elsa McTaggart: Capturing the Light  is a reflective time-out from the hustle and bustle of the Fringe, welcoming audiences into a space of history, family, and light. Promotional image. Pic: Ralph Tonge.   McTaggart, a multi-instrumental Scottish singer-songwriter with crofting roots, weaves her music through the story of her great-grandfather, the painter William McTaggert, another crofters’ child drawn to the arts. Though William had a thriving trade in portraiture, it was his obsession with the sea that drove him, and drew such comparisons as “what Constable did for landscape and Millet for peasant peoples, McTaggart is doing for the sea.”   Despite the short running time, McTaggart tells her story with unhurried cadence, from 1847 in Campbelltown where William was born...

The Eight Faces of Ellie Morrison –  ★★★★☆  – Action packed  Dashboard Light 7-29 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Touting itself as “the first mixed martial arts stage play,”  The Eight Faces of Ellie Morrison  from Dashboard Light rolls into the Fringe with raw energy and a whole lot of heart. Promotional image: Dashboard Light. Eight Faces  is the debut of playwright Sam Beeson, who trained in MMA, including stepping into the ring to fight (and win), as part of the play’s development. It focuses on Ellie Morrison, a rockstar with a substance abuse problem, and her brother Luke, a promising fighter who left the sport for safer —but less fulfilling— work. Ellie’s agent strikes a deal to get her a world tour, contingent on her convincing Luke to sign a contract for one more fight against an undefeated champ. During a drunken conversation Ellie tricks Luke into signing, but tragedy strikes before he can sober up to find out what he’s committed to— and it’s...

Burke'n'Hare: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor -  ★★★★★ - Bangin’ PBH’s Free Fringe @ CC Blooms (Venue 171): Sat 8 – Sun 30 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar. Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 17 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Burke’n’Hare: Let the Bodies Hit the Floor  at CC Blooms is a wildly irreverent, casually gruesome, curiously grounded look at Edinburgh’s most notorious serial killers. From Old’n’Dead Productions, the company behind  Elizabeth I: Regina Vagina  and  Charles II: Living Libido Loca , this is the third instalment in Beth Eltringham’s  Horrible Histories -inspired series of musical histories. Steven Shayegh as Burke and Andrew Lodge as Hare. Pic: Old'n'Dead Productions. Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Trans People Are Awful–  ★★★★★  – Intense Ros Watt in association with Camden People's Theatre 5-31 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Part black comedy, part tragedy, all screaming reflection on identity and the constructs that may or may not make us whole,  Trans People Are Awful  is a land mine of a solo debut from rising Scottish actor Ros Watt. A scene from Trans People Are Awful. Pic: Ella Dale. Watt, himself a trans performer and writer of the show, plays Boy, a young trans guy out to collect the final, perfect body art he’s certain will make his transition —and his identity— whole. This of course involves murdering various cis men and stealing their parts until he finds the right one, until at last he positions himself in front of a camera to document the self-performed surgery that will both complete and kill him. Boy addresses the camera directly, explaining via various dramatic, frenetic, hilarious and haunting means, what he’s doing and why. But when he b...

Bloody Mary's -  ★★★★★ - Riveting theSpace @ Venue 45 (Venue 45): Fri 14 – Wed 19 August 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar. Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 17 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Fat Pooch Productions makes its theatre debut at theSpace @ Venue 45 with  Bloody Mary’s , a rich, raw, riveting look inside the life and death of Mary McKinnon, a figure of notoriety and injustice in Edinburgh’s history. In 1823 McKinnon was the proprietor of a fashionable South Bridge brothel where, in Fat Pooch’s version of events, the women who worked as prostitutes received both care and protection from her. Regardless of how they had ended up in a life of sex work, Bloody Mary’s was a haven of choice – to engage or not engage with customers, and to perform only the acts which they desired, including that of simply providing companionship. Erin Clark as Mary McKinnon. Pic: Fat Pooch, Visit All Edinburgh Theatre to read the full review !

Rockbeth –  ★★★½  – Raucous   More the Merrier 10-15 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   More the Merrier’s  Rockbeth  is a raucous reinterpretation of Shakespeare’s  Macbeth , blending classic rock with classic drama in a revival of this ambitious production. A scene from Rockbeth. Pic: More House School. Composed of students from More House School and other neighbouring schools and colleges, More the Merrier is an all-neurodiverse company tackling the challenges not only of Shakespeare but adaptation and rock music with energy and commitment.  Rockbeth  is directed and adapted by More House’s head of drama, David Aldred, who describes it as a “modernised and musicalised” version. Musicalisation is certainly present throughout, and the characters are presented in modern dress, but the “modernisation” of the script is somewhat uneven.   Much of the script (albeit cut for length) is as Shakespeare wrote it, but there are bits throughout that ha...

 The Secret Room at Lauriston Castle -  ★★★★☆ - Slick Lauriston Castle (Venue 436): Fri 7 – Sun 23 Aug 2026 Review by Rebecca Mahar. Review commissioned by, and originally published on All Edinburgh Theatre, 15 August 2026. Edited by Thom Dibdin. Lauriston Castle opens its doors to Fringe-goers in partnership with the Edinburgh International Magic Festival for  The Secret Room at Lauriston Castle , an immersive magic experience featuring three expert illusionists. Rather than a sit-down show, this promenade production begins outside the front door, with Tracy, Steward of the castle, giving a brief history of the building, its owners, and its connections to magic and wizardry. These go all the way back to the castle’s original owner and builder of its tower house, Archibald Napier, seventh Laird of Merchiston, who successfully predicted the date that Mary, Queen of Scots, would escape Lochleven Castle. Drew McAdam in the drawing room. Pic: Edinburgh Magic Fest. Visit All E...

Love’s Labour’s Lost –  ★★★☆☆  – Uneven Othello –  ★★★☆☆  – Compressed Hamlet Redux –  ★★☆☆☆  – Lacking substance Prague Shakespeare Company 10-16 Aug Review by Rebecca Mahar   Prague Shakespeare Company presents a triple helping of Shakespeare this Fringe, with a series of productions that are ambitious in their efforts to bring full-cast renditions of their plays to the stage in dramatically reduced timespans, but with executions that fall short of their aims.   Love’s Labour’s Lost Helen Hopkins as Armado and Bree Welch as Costard in Love's Labour's Lost. Pic: Lux Praguensis. Love’s Labour’s Lost  is a very silly play to begin with. A group of young men commit themselves to three years of scholarship and austerity with the King of Navarre, foregoing many pleasures, notably the company of women. These vows are immediately broken when the Princess of France and her entourage arrive, with the men falling immediately in love, and the women plo...