40 Reviews for the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe (In order from most enjoyable to least)

Welcome to the 2025 version of my Fringe reviews. I am a 72-year-old retired Computer Science lecturer from the University of California in Davis who thinks even a bad play is better than no play at all. You can see my schedule at 2025 Schedule.htm. You can find out about me, and my extended thoughts about reviewing at the bottom of this page.

Because the Fringe website no longer allows search results to be downloaded as csv files, I wrote a C++ program, main.cpp that parses the html files results for all of the Theatre category, and stores the information in a .csv (comma separated file), named theater2025.csv (note the American spelling). I hadn’t written C++ code for five years, and main.cpp shows that by being ugly, and without comments, but I only had a few hours to write it, and it works! I also converted theater.csv to an Excel file, theater2025.xslx that has a few extra columns that provide useful information for scheduling purposes. The coding for the days of each show is: 0=No show, 1= Sold out, 2= Available, 3= 2-for-1, 4= Preview, 5= Free Fringe. Please note that all of these files were created before the Fringe started, and won’t be updated during the Fringe.

Boy, was July 31^st a great day at the Traverse with three five star shows! By the end of the Fringe, five star shows usually comprise only ten percent of those I review.

You can change the sorting column of the table below by first clicking anywhere in its header. Each succeeding click in the header sorts the table by the column clicked. Succeeding clicks of a column will reverse the previous sort order. Sorting by the Date column on the right allows returning viewers to see my most recent reviews.

Fringe Festival Reviews

Rank	Review	Venue	Begins	Ends	Date
1.	Ordinary Decent Criminal (*****) Mark Thomas plays all of the parts in a story of a former political protester who finds himself in a model prison for importing marijuana, and must navigate its powerful men. Whether playing a Belfast IRA convict, or the little kingpin of the prison, he imbues each with unique characteristics that obviates the need for him to use costume changes to indicate which character he is inhabiting. Many of his characters have a vitality that makes their interactions tense and riveting for us.	TechCube 0 at Summerhall	11:50	13:00	1
2.	Red Like Fruit (*****) A journalist/playwright sits mostly silently in a chair while a man reads aloud her script about her sexual encounters. The range and ambiguity of her encounters creates the shades of gray of her reality that are vexing for the journalist who needs some right or wrong answers. The use of a male reader makes it easier for the script to remain more dispassionate than if a woman added her voice to it.	Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre	18:30	19:45	-31
3.	RIFT (*****) Four years after his brother’s sentencing, a grad student of English finally visits the murderer in prison. I was rivetted throughout the play as it explored prison life, racism, sexual abuse, and family dynamics. As the play proceeds, the turbulence of their relationship facilitates a range of perspectives of the issues.	Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre	11:00	12:20	-31
4.	Casablanca: The Gin Joint Cut (*****) This homage is a remarkable mix of reverent recital and play-within-a-play antics. I’ve seen Casablanca countless times, and I was amazed how the cast of three would play every touching scene straight, but then add every sort of high jinx to the other scenes. I should warn the uninitiated that many of their funny touches, such as air freshener sprayed all over the set to simulate fog in the airport scene, will make little sense to you. Note: I saw this play in 2011 with the same Bogart actor, and thought it the best play that year, and feel uneasy about not rating this #2 this year.	Auditorium at Ghillie Dhu	19:45	21:15	2
5.	Personal Statement (*****) A huge cast of high schools students attend training program where each offers at least two different college personal statements before the instructor accepts the last one. Both the script and the actors were exceptional with only a few weak voices and offkey statements. This brought tears to my eyes on several occasions, and is the best high school production I have ever seen.	Auditorium at Central Hall	18:00	19:10	6
6.	The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show ((Menu 2) (*****) This great set of five sketches were about: a man’s plan to propose on a Ferris wheel; as a volunteer, an actor offers to apply his craft to a food bank line; a mundane package delivery initiates mayhem; the last wishes of their close friend reveal the latent differences among three longtime girlfriends; and a climate changing denying American TV news duo contends with an English weatherman who is a scientist. Each of the five evolves in a funny but reasonable fashion. There were all humorous through and through.	Pleasance One at Pleasance Courtyard	10:30	11:40	3
7.	Locusts (*****) A gay man must deal with a his former pastor who had tried to convert his sexuality.  This four-hander delicately deals with this topic in a way that allows each character a chance to express their motivation and emotional states without being preachy.  The Christian protagonist does a great job of being tender, and conflicted.	Studio at theSpaceTriplex	16:05	16:55	5
8.	A Gambler's Guide to Dying (*****) A young man recounts his grandfather’s gambling philosophy, and how it influenced their close friendship. He described how to prolong a dream, and allowing a bet to energize a cancer ridden walk to death. The tale of his Scottish grandfather’s mob beating in a bar after betting on England revealed a realist who was willing to accept both the winning and losing in life. Note: I saw this in 2015, and gave it 5 stars, but my poor hearing now meant that I missed much because of his brogue and would have given it 4 stars.	Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre	13:30	14:40	-31
9.	#Hysteria: A History of Human Sexuality with Callaghans Questions (****) A Victorian woman/man expounds on the approaches that various civilizations have taken to sex with particular attention to Victorian values regarding women’s sexuality. The energetic performer/writer combines props and frequent screenshots of historic documents to create a vibrant, satirical lecture that alternates between myths of the past and real facts. The show is delightful with just the right amount of audience participation.	Ruby at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower	13:40	14:40	-30
10.	Dial 1 for UK (****) An illegal Indian immigrant finds that life in the UK is not what he dreamed, partly because gangsters asked exorbitant fees for illegal student visas and then took away his passport so the could abuse him. The actor/playwright makes good use of the 8’ x 8’ stage to provide a compelling story using photographs and his trusty I-phone, Selena. The plot twists nicely as the happy go lucky former customer service operator becomes desperate and uses his skills from India to get by.	Pickle Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court	11:30	12:20	2
11.	The Big Bite-Size Breakfast Show (Menu 1) (****) These premises of these five sketches are: a status concious couple are burglarized; two nearby people having different phones conversations sound like they could be conversing with each other; at the FA CUP at Wembly, a head coach suddenly has doubts; when a woman is summoned to A&E she discovers that she is still the emergency contact for her former lover; after a murder, the leader of an improv troupe is grilled by two cops. We enjoyed all but the twin phone call sketch because we couldn’t hear the woman. The denouement of the burglary is particularly clever and funny.	Pleasance One at Pleasance Courtyard (Menu 1)	10:30	11:40	5
12.	Wodehouse in Wonderland (****) Set in his 1950s Long Island house, P.G Wodehouse tells of answering the questions of his biographer. We learn of his friends, family, and Jeeves while he occasionally provides snippets of some of the memorable Broadway songs for which he wrote the lyrics. He spent a lot of time defending his four notorious appearances on Nazi radio in the USA and UK while he was imprisoned in France.	Studio Three at Assembly George Square Studios	18:10	19:20	-30
13.	3 Chickens Confront Existence (****) This bit of existential fluff has three actors in chicken suits in three cages in a broiler house who spend their days chatting while watching other chickens being taken away to their deaths. The script does a good job of mining their predicament for many different topics, including trying to predict when their row will be called, and writing a creation story for chickens. A wonderful sequence occurs when a blue feather floats down and lands on the comb of one of the chickens who immediately assumes that it is a sign that he should be the leader of the chickens, and proceeds with all that entails, including sycophants and spies.	Belly Button at Underbelly; Cowgate	17:20	18:20	1
14.	She's Behind You (****) A famous Scottish Pantomine Dame named Dot Trot tells of how his role has evolved over time to modernize and improve pantomime. The audience really got into the pantomime spirit with its call and responses, and had great time. Unhappily, with my poor hearing and lack of context much of the fun was lost on me, but the finale brought tears to my eyes.	Traverse 1 at Traverse Theatre	19:00	20:15	1
15.	Miles (****) This two-hander has Miles Davis talking about his in general, and the making of the 1959 ground breaking “Kind of Blue” jazz album owhile also critiquing the playing of a livetalented trumpeter. The play covers the significant events of Davis’ life as well give us some insight into his thought process when recording that album in just two days with some of the greatest jazz musicians of his day as side men. The accomplished trumpeter, Jay Phelps, is indispensable as he provides snippets from Davis’ development as as the album.	TechCube 0 at Summerhall	18:00	19:00	5
16.	Tadiwa Mahlunge: Hakuna Ma Tad Tad (***) Mahlunge starts off by describing how his family fled their mansion and servants in Zimbabwe for council housing in Cardiff after death threats from Robert Mugabe, and then relates tales mostly of his family life, with a few notes about racism in the UK. While he has had many funny experiences, his presentation needed work. His ethnic joke about his assimilated sister’s choice of New Balance shoes fell flat, and he failed to thoroughly mine the humor of trying to fake that he has a baby to quiet his downstairs neighbor.	The Tron at Monkey Barrel Comedy (The Tron)	16:25	17:25	-29
17.	Ghost Light (***) A new wardrobe assistant in a very old theatre finds that she sometimes can interact with the ghosts of long dead performers. This strange combination of production dance numbers from popular plays, and a story of murder would work well but for the fact that we often could not understand the lines. The production of “One (Singular Sensation)” from “A Chorus Line” was great.	Pleasance One at Pleasance Courtyard	15:50	17:00	3
18.	People We Bury Alive (***) This solo show explores two aspects of social isolation: self-enforced, and that instituted by a friend or family member. She does a good mixing her own experiences with that of others shown in video snippets. On the whole, it was a quite satisfying show.	Playground 3 at ZOO Playground	18:25	19:25	3
19.	Cold; Dark Matters (***) A storyteller tells of an author who became interest in a shed on common land in a Cornwall field. The fellow was winning as was the story. Only the last revelations hurt as they didn’t make sense in the context of the previous story.	studio at C ARTS | C venues | C aurora	14:25	15:25	5
20.	Tilly No-Body (***) This solo show has the early 20^th century German theater star, Tilly Wedekind, talking about her life married to a famous but overbearing playwright/director. From teen to senior citizen the actress ably conveys the fragility and prowess of the actress. However, the lack of chronological signposts severely weakens the power of the play—we cannot tell whether months or years have passed between critical events.	Bramley at Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower	15:00	16:00	-30
21.	The Last Rites (***) A prisoner facing execution today argues with a priest who is there to save the condemned man’s soul. The two actors were very good, but I have heard their debate many times before, and only a late plot twist piqued my interest. An incomplete costume change in the last scene really distracted me.	Theatre at Bedlam Theatre	20:00	21:00	-30
22.	Horny for the End of the World (***) After her boyfriend breaks up with her a young woman hears the news that the world will end in two weeks. The short play works well as she responds to several former boyfriends’ telephone calls trying to hook up with her before the end. It was a cute bit of fluff to end the day with.	Stephenson Theatre at theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall	23:15	23:55	1
23.	A Murder in Motley (***) A pub owner and shareholder in the Globe theatre in Shakespearean times is murdered, an unidentified boy in a jester costume was seen near the crime so two jesters are tried for the murder. The initial scene confused me because of my poor hearing and dense writing, but after that I did a little better despite some unintelligible lines. The pub dance that became rowdier as it progressed was perfect, I just was frustrated that I didn’t hear some crucial lines used to determine guilt.	Willow Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court	12:50	13:40	2
24.	Dead Air (***) This dense solo show has a troubled young woman talking to her mother, lover, stepfather, and an AI generated version of her dead father. While she was a tour de force of acting the show seems overlong. I did think the AI was well done as she keeps tuning its personality, though his amplified voice was often hard to understand because of the reverberation of the bunker.	Bunker One at Pleasance Courtyard	11:40	12:40	-30
25.	Charming (***) Cinderella’s fairy godmother delivers a list of demands to modernize that Prince Charming must meet, or she will divorce him. This slight play has fun with the concept of an 18^th century senior citizen royal who is reluctant to catch-up with the 2020s. Even though the plot has a nice twist, the twist was not explored in a way that justified 55 minutes.	Forest Theatre at Greenside @ George Street	17:20	18:15	2
26.	Proust Effect (***) A Korean magician starts by creating an amazing number of playing cards out of thin air, and then moves on to do magic tricks themed on different countries of the world. His sleight of hand is fantastic, but I had seen his magic tricks before, and he didn’t have the entertaining patter to save them. His final trick of having provided the results of several audience participations to us before the show started, only highlighted how little spontaneous magic was involved.	Temple at WU Asia Pacific	21:30	22:20	1
27.	Pride and Prejudice (***) This high school troupe tackles Austin’s book about five sisters contending with the conventions of early 19^th century England. The cast was capable, and carried off the dance sequences well, but their director let them down. Besides allowing some of them to speak too softly, the director chose caricature over character for Mrs. Bennett, Lady Catherine’s daughter, and Mr. Collins that detracted from the whole production.	The Great Hall at Nicolson Square Venues	9:00	10:15	1
28.	The Sculpture (***) After a sensational beginning to her movie career in 1928, actress Molly O’Day went to extreme lengths to lose the weight required by her contract. In addition to standard life portrayals, the large cast also uses songs, poems, and spoken chorus to convey the dissatisfaction of the public and studios with her. Between the overload recorded music and asynchronous vocals much of the show was lost on us.	Just The Fancy Room at Just the Tonic at The Caves	20:50	21:50	3
29.	Matt Winning: Solastalgia (***) A personable PhD pontificates about the planet’s petroleum peril. He covers both the history of the oil industry, focusing particularly on John D. Rockefeller, and the global warming crisis while intermixing a tale of waiting for his wife to give birth to their son. As a former banker, he pointed out that the companies of the financial industry wont switch their support to energy alternatives until they all agree to do so. The big problem with this play is that Winning has not taken enough time to learn his lines, and spends a lot of time reading them his script.	Studio Five at Assembly George Square Studios	16:35	17:35	-30
30.	Lucky Tonight! (***) A Manchester-born Bangladeshi woman combines tales from her life with a pub quiz on I-pads supplied to the audience. She makes the show fun at times, but often her show wastes time on things, a dance sequence for example, that seem too self-centered. With its concentration on her world of the 1990s and 2000s, England, and Bangladesh, I was of no help on the pub quiz.	Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre	21:00	22:30	-31
31.	Mushroomification (Legs; Legs; Legs) (***) A mad scientist and his brother/partner must deal with an unusual mushroom. The musing mushroom character is wonderful as it grapples with its situation throughout the play. However, the insane brother lacked consistency and pushes the absurdity to humorless incoherency.	Just the Bottle Room at Just the Tonic at The Mash House	12:50	13:50	5
32.	Myth Adventures -- Five Greek Classics (***) This high school troupe of a male Dionysus narrator and the rest girls tackles these five myths: Midas’ golden touch, musical Orpheus retrieving his lover from Hades, Echo and Narcissus paying their prices, Daedalus and Icarus flying, and Theseus killing the Minotaur. The group was competent with no missteps nor missed lines, though a few need to learn to project better. The cast has a couple of strong actresses that seemed to live their roles.	Hall at Central Hall	22:00	23:00	2
33.	Standing in the Shadows of Giants (***) An aspiring actress, who is the older sister of a rock star, finds the pills and alcohol of his parties a fine refuge from her dissatisfying life. From the initial breaking of the fourth wall this came across as an all too common Fringe vanity piece that had nothing to offer but self-pity, and by the time of her big revelation occurs I no longer cared. While she seems a capable actress with a decent singing voice, as a playwright her talents are wasted in such a banal piece.	Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre	16:00	17:00	-31
34.	David and Katie Get Re-Married (***) As the title indicates, this zany show has a late 30’s couple re-marry at the end of a show after spending an hour abusing each other and then making up. While there were a few fun parts, most of the songs and antics were sophomoric at best. The one saving grace was that it was clear that the two actors enjoyed working together.	Friesian at Underbelly; Bristo Square	21:50	22:50	-30
35.	LA Baby (***) An out of work actress in Los Angeles takes the job of nanny for three children while dealing with her unstable lover. The central problem with the play is that the protagonist is a complete narcissist who never cares for anyone else but herself, and thus I had no emotional link with her. She only uses the children as sources of information about their father, and she says openly that the three little words she cares about are not “I love you,” but instead “Live with me.”	Playground 2 at ZOO Playground	15:35	16:35	1
36.	I Was a German (***) After Brexit begins, the English granddaughter of a Jewish man who emigrated from Nazi Germany finds out that she can for German citizenship based on her grandfather. The show is a mish mash of short vides and live action depicting Nazi Germany and episodes from his and her lives. I was bored during virtually the whole show as there just wasn’t enough new and/or interesting information, and her character felt one dimensional.	Studio at ZOO Southside	13:50	14:50	1
37.	Harriet the Spy (**) Eleven-year old Harriet is always writing in her notebook about the people around her. The plot revolves around the two friends and nanny who support her and two enemies who work against her. We left halfway through because both the reverberation in the massive auditorium and the director’s choice to have her often speak at the back of the huge stage made understanding the actors quite difficult.	Auditorium at Central Hall	13:45	14:55	3
38.	misfits (**) A real sixth grade teacher tries to use sixth grade techniques to teach us about various non-cis pupils. The problems are that we are not children, and already accept gender-diverse people. There was little here of interest except as reminder of the methods of a sixth grade teacher.	Studio at theSpaceTriplex	12:10	12:55	3
39.	A Monkey Trial: The Gameshow or The True and Tragic Passion of Pauline Campbell (**) A tattooed man in a wig and prison inmate jump suit arges the case for eliminating prisons to address the problem of women committing suicide in prison. His choice of portraying the argument in front of a high court composed of scenes of judicial monkeys from old PG tips TV commercials was ill conceive as it satirized the judicial process rather than addressing the question of the efficacy of prisons. The actor/playwright was clearly sincere, but he needs to provide a realistic alternative to prisons.	Muse at Braw Venues @ Hill Street	14:30	15:30	2
40.	Italian Horror Stories (*) This show applies Italian pantomime to three horror stories: woman in black, vampires, and Frankenstein. None of them followed the traditional story lines, and a ton of time was spent with the actors growling and shrieking at the top of their lungs. Between the overriding semi-plot of trying to scare a Catholic priest, and gratuitous sexual content this was just a jumble of noise and unmotivated actions with a few interesting facts thrown in to give it the gloss of preparation.	Just Up The Stairs at Just the Tonic at The Caves	22:25	23:25	3

I expect to see between 150 and 175 shows this year. This year my wife, Debbie is here. Unlike me, she has an excellent memory, and has acted and directed. While my ratings of enjoyment will not be affected by her, my reasoning may be. To facilitate seeing eight to ten shows in a day, I try to devote each day to a venue, or at least a small geographic area. The biggest problem is that comedy dominates the Fringe evening programming.

I hope to have the time to write my traditional three sentence reviews for all the shows I see. In 2020, I had a chemo treatment for neck cancer that left me with reduced hearing, particularly in noisy environments. I will note such problems in my reviews. I try to have a consistent star rating across the years with 5-stars indicating a show that is excellent in all aspects of its production. Usually only around 10% of the shows meet that criterion. Four star shows are usually excellent in many aspects, but have area(s) that were problematic for me. A three-star rating is not a condemnation, and just indicates that the show had provided normal enjoyment for me. It is problematic whether, in this era of star inflation, that I should post my three star shows to edfringe.com. I‘ve decided that I will not because a three star rating may hurt a play’s attendance. Shows that I give less than three stars have serious problem(s) for me, and I feel obligated to warn others on edfringe.com unless they have a school age cast.

I think that the most useful aspect for my readers is the rankings. I base the rankings on my enjoyment of the show, so they may not reflect the quality of the script and/or acting. I prefer plays to comedy acts, but work in a little of the latter for diversity. I have discovered that I have a penchant for true stories. The comments are usually only three sentences long because I have little time between shows, and, after all, I am here for the shows. You can also see my 188 reviews for 2024 Fringe, 223 reviews for 2023 Fringe, 154 reviews for 2022 Fringe, 15 reviews for 2021 Fringe, 171 reviews for 2019 Fringe, 177 reviews for 2018 Fringe, 151 reviews for 2017 Fringe, 171 reviews for 2016 Fringe, 189 reviews for 2015 Fringe, 165 reviews for 2014 Fringe, 152 reviews for 2013 Fringe, 135 reviews for 2012 Fringe, 175 reviews for 2011 Fringe, 200 reviews for 2010 Fringe, 177 reviews for 2009 Fringe, 153 reviews for 2008 Fringe, 162 reviews for 2006 Fringe, and 151 reviews for 2005 Fringe. I always enjoy chatting with both audience members and dramatic artists. If you wish to contact me, send e-mail to Sean Davis.

After attending more than 1000 performances, I have a much better idea of my biases and prejudices in the role of a critic. To limit my analyzing shows during their performances as much as possible, I have intentionally avoided any training in criticism and the dramatic arts, both formal and informal. I find that I prefer fact to fiction, innovation to repetition, coherence to creativity, the concrete to the symbolic, and cleverness to depth. I realize that many of these are antithetical to the spirit of the Fringe, but I cannot deny my nature. In particular, I just do not like shows that push the bounds of creativity beyond my ability to make sense of them. Because I choose to fill time slots with whatever is available, I still expose myself to such shows, and do not mind. However, I do feel a little guilty giving a low rating to a show on which a company has worked so hard, and with such commitment. Nevertheless, I envision that that is my role—to accurately report my enjoyment so that others may better use my ratings. In all but a very few cases, I admire the effort of each company, and wish them well.