Angelshark
★★★★☆ Considered
theSpace on the Mile (Venue 39): Sat 8 – Fri 28 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Blue Dot Theatre and New Celts’ Angelshark, by Annie White, at theSpace on the Mile is a clever and polished piece that does not shout about its values but has real heart.
At summer camp on Shetland, three volunteers have signed up to a conservation project aimed at safeguarding the returning population of the angelshark (a flat shark that looks more like a ray). The three of them are perhaps not the most natural companions, but an unexpected death throws them together.
Joe Souter, Rosie O’Donovan and Annie White. Pic Jed Shots.
While Shetland is not the most usual setting for a Fringe show, it has become familiar through TV murder mysteries – something the script is careful to point out.
In truth, if you were expecting a whodunnit, you would end up a little disappointed; while the gently comic play does occasionally lean into the tropes of the genre, it never really goes where you would expect it to go.
There are secrets revealed, however, in a way that has considerable elegance. The play relies on the interplay of the three characters, who are occasionally stereotypical but are finely drawn and played with gusto.
Joe Souter is Harry, a Shetland native from a fishing background. Souter plays the role with a winning combination of brusqueness and twinkle, and is the main contributor to the fourth-wall-breaking that is done with charm throughout.
Lottie, the tarot card reader who knows a suspicious amount about fine dining, is played by Rosie Jayne O’Donovan with energy and finesse. Annie White herself is impressive as Mira, who doesn’t really seem interested in sharks at all.
Joe Souter. Pic Jed Shots.
The characters are introduced one by one gracefully, in a play whose structure shows considerable thought. The interactions between the three of them sometimes have the air of being undeveloped or not fully worked through, but this (like the play’s often low-key humour) gives everything a realistic and involving air. In many ways, the refusal to force a resolution on a story that clearly doesn’t want one is the best thing about the play.
Becca Donley’s direction has a wonderful rhythm to it, with the changes of scene in particular being handled with real economy and imagination. Hannah Cooper’s technical work is exemplary.
In many ways this is the sort of production that is the backbone of the Fringe – an unfussy three-hander, staged without undue gimmicks but with skill. It is also quietly profound, not least in the fact that it is a murder mystery where (and this isn’t much of a spoiler) the victim is a shark.
Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
theSpace on the Mile (Space 3), 80 High St, EH1 1TH. (Venue 39).
Saturday 8 – Friday 28 August 2026.
Daily (even dates only): 1.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Facebook: @Bluedottheatrecompany
Instagram: @bluedottheatrecompany
ENDS
