An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest
★★★★☆ Sprightly
theSpace @ Niddry St (Venue 9): Fri 7 – Tue 11 August 2026
Review by Rebecca Mahar ★★★★☆ Sprightly
Edinburgh Youth Theatre return to the Fringe with another condensed Shakespeare, An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest, which brings Shakespeare’s tale of shipwreck, vengeance, sorcery and love in under an hour.
Directed by Chloe Kay and Steph Wynne, Island of Bad Ideas works hard to abridge the original script, blending Shakespeare’s dialogue with some slightly more modern inventions, and adding a few dance breaks (choreographed by Kay) for good measure. The result is something approachable and accessible, leaning heavily into the comedy inherent in the piece, even if all the threads of the story get a little tangled at times.
The cast of An Island of Bad Ideas: The Tempest. Pic: EYT.
Opening to the strident strains of AC/DC’s Thunderstruck, the storm conjured by the sorcerer Prospero (Edie Green) rips apart the ship carrying the King of Naples, Alonso (Santiago Daly), good guy Gonzalo (Lucy Lehany), and Prospero’s baddie brothers Ant (Indigo Uwin) and Tonio (Bracken Kirk), who usurped his Dukedom of Milan. Also aboard the ship is Sebastian (Catriona Tyre), son of the king.
In the aftermath of the storm, Alonso and his followers believe Sebastian lost. Unbeknownst to them, he has washed up elsewhere on Prospero’s island, where he meets the sorcerer’s daughter Miranda (Lucy Hargraves), and they fall in love. Meanwhile, the king’s butler Trinculo (Ava Green) and his Monster-swilling compatriot, Stephano (Sophie De Candole) encounter Caliban (Ezra Houston, Livia Hunt, and Emma Bell-Stephenson), a native inhabitant of the island enslaved by Prospero, and the spirit Ariel (Frida Fontant-Shephard & Coco Nixon), also thralled to Prospero and promised freedom by him, flits about interfering and observing in all spheres.
While less complicated than some of Shakespeare’s plays, it’s still a lot to keep track of, and not surprising that some of the details have fallen by the wayside trying to do it all in such a limited time— it might be difficult, for instance, to understand that Stephano and Trinculo have convinced Caliban to worship them, or the exact relationships between the noblemen, for example, without foreknowledge of the original story, making the conclusion somewhat muddy.
clever adaptive choices
Nevertheless, the basics come through. The augmentation of the company by a trio of faeries (Juno, Lewis Nixon; Iris, Orla Logan; and Ceres, Rowan Heggie), the use of multiple actors to portray Arial and Caliban, and the useful (often cheeky) simplification of some language alongside the alteration of bits such as wine-drinking to overindulgence on energy drinks, are all clever adaptive choices to suit the play to its youthful company.
As for the company themselves, they show good understanding of their text and speak it well, with a particular flair for delivering the comedic bits. Their many exits and entrances from every possible direction are executed with speed an intention, helping keep the momentum of the play going— always a necessity, especially in Shakespeare. Their physical work is also impressive, whether it’s selling the rolling of the ship in the storm, their high-energy dance breaks, or the particular highlight of the treble Caliban.
Edinburgh Youth Theatre have shown once again that Shakespeare can be fun and accessible for all, and should be something excites young people rather than instilling fear. Will was just a guy, after all, and his stories are for everyone.
Running time: 50 minutes (no interval).
heSpace @ Niddry St (Lower Theatre), Niddry St EH1 1TH (Venue 9).
Friday 7 – Tuesday 11 August 2026.
Daily: 12.50pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Edinburgh Youth Theatre website: eytheatre.com
Facebook: @EYTheatre
Instagram: @edinburghyouththeatre
Linktree: @eytheatre.
ENDS
