tue 02/09/2025

Theatre Reviews

Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: Kinder / Shunga Alert / Clean Your Plate!

David Kettle

Kinder, Underbelly, Cowgate ★ 

Drag artist Goody Prostate (yes, I know) receives a call from a local library. Garbed in lederhosen and sporting a preposterous German accent, she was expecting a brutal, no-prisoners-taking drag roast battle. Instead, she finds that she’s actually been booked to read to a bunch of kids.

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The Two Gentlemen of Verona, RSC, Stratford review - not quite the intended gateway drug to Shakespeare

Gary Naylor

I have two guilty secrets about the theatre – okay, two I’m prepared to own up to right here, right now. I quite enjoy some jukebox musicals and I often prefer schools-oriented, pared back, slightly simplified Shakespeare to the full-scale Folio versions. There – I’ve outed myself!

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Horse of Jenin / Nowhere

David Kettle

The Horse of Jenin, Pleasance Dome ★ 

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Fit Prince / Undersigned

David Kettle

The Fit Prince (who gets switched on the square in the frosty castle the night before (insert public holiday here)), Pleasance Courtyard

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Tom at the Farm, Edinburgh Fringe 2025 review - desire and disgust

David Kettle

As shockingly beautiful as it is horrifyingly brutal, actor Armando Babaioff’s deeply Brazilian adaptation of thriller Tom at the Farm leaves a rancid taste in the mouth and harrowing images seared on the retina. It’s a show to shock and provoke, but also to deeply disorientate, blurring the boundaries between pain and pleasure, desire and repulsion in a way that stays with you, whether you want it to or not.

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Works and Days, Edinburgh International Festival 2025 review - jaw-dropping theatrical ambition

David Kettle

With the sheer density of theatrical creations jostling for attention across Edinburgh’s festivals, there’s no shortage of arresting stagings, innovative visuals and powerful, memorable design. (Just take Cena Brasil Internacional’s shocking Tom at the Farm as one particularly epic, raw example.)

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Every Brilliant Thing, @sohoplace review - return of the comedy about suicide that lifts the spirits

Helen Hawkins

The Fringe piece Duncan Macmillan devised with Jonny Donahoe in 2014 has since been round the world and back, finally landing in the West End. It feels as freshly minted as ever.

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews: The Beautiful Future is Coming / She's Behind You

David Kettle

The Beautiful Future is Coming, Traverse Theatre

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Good Night, Oscar, Barbican review - sad story of a Hollywood great's meltdown, with a dazzling turn by Sean Hayes

Helen Hawkins

Back in the day, when America’s late-night chat show hosts and their guests sat happily smoking as they shot the breeze for a growing audience, the most sought after guest was Oscar Levant. 

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Edinburgh Fringe 2025 reviews - Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor / Alex Berr

Veronica Lee

Monstering the Rocketman by Henry Naylor, Pleasance Dome

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Pages

Advertising feature

★★★★★

A compulsive, involving, emotionally stirring evening – theatre’s answer to a page-turner.
The Observer, Kate Kellaway

 

Direct from a sold-out season at Kiln Theatre the five star, hit play, The Son, is now playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre for a strictly limited season.

 

★★★★★

This final part of Florian Zeller’s trilogy is the most powerful of all.
The Times, Ann Treneman

 

Written by the internationally acclaimed Florian Zeller (The Father, The Mother), lauded by The Guardian as ‘the most exciting playwright of our time’, The Son is directed by the award-winning Michael Longhurst.

 

Book by 30 September and get tickets from £15*
with no booking fee.


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