Build a Fort
★★★★☆ Creative
The Speakeasy at the Royal Scots Club (Venue 241a): Sat 15 – Sun 23 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Build a Fort from Not Cricket Productions at The Speakeasy at the Royal Scots Club is a refreshing and fulfilling start to a day at the Fringe, or any other day if it comes to that.
This is essentially a children’s show for adults. At the Fringe, that usually conjures up immediate thoughts of ‘fnar fnar missus’ or concepts shunted off to late night because they have not been thought out rigorously enough to satisfy children, with swearing added. But banish those ideas immediately, because this is much, much better than that.
Build a Fort – An audience and their creation. Pic: Kate Stephenson.
You are greeted by wonderfully energetic ‘camp counsellors’ even before the show begins, and after a gentle warm-up, you’re invited to take part in the creation of an actual fort, which you can then hide inside and listen to a story with a hot drink and biscuits.
The performances (Kate Stephenson, Hannah Forsyth and Sophie Paterson on this occasion, with Louise Hemfrey and Kosi Carter also appearing) are pitched just right, being beautifully over-earnest without being annoying.
There’s clearly been a huge amount of thought about this. You can join in without feeling pressured and consideration has been given to those with different dietary or mobility requirements. Help with the construction of the fort itself is subtle but useful, meaning that whoever you get as fellow audience members the result will probably please.
And it’s the business of construction that is the undoubted focus here, with the storytelling afterwards more of an added bonus. It’s creative, hands-on and great fun.
a satisfactory whole
What’s noticeable is how participants tend to lean into expected national stereotypes when constructing. You might get a Scot who is a dour but quietly effective engineer, someone English whose ideas are expressed politely and self-effacingly, or maybe even (heaven forbid) an American whose volume and assertiveness isn’t necessarily matched by the rigour of their suggestions.
Yet it’s astonishing how much the whole thing suggests that crowds do have some kind of wisdom, and that an apparently nebulous set of ideas will cohere into a satisfactory whole, however Heath Robinson the end result may appear. But maybe that has more to do with the fact that the exercise has been very well set up to begin with…
There’s a restriction of 12+ on the show, but that is more to do with potential health and safety concerns than any content. You can imagine it might have a salutary effect on jaded teenagers, but it works best on adults seeking to discover their inner child, find inner peace, or just get involved in an experience that is terrific hands-on fun.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
The Speakeasy at the Royal Scots Club (The Speakeasy), 29-31 Abercromby Place, EH3 6QE. (Venue 241a).
Saturday 15 – Sunday 23 August 2026.
Fri-Sun: 11am.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Not Cricket Productions website: https://simplyspiffing.co.uk/
Facebook: @notcricketproductions
Instagram: @notcricketprods
Build a Fort – Another audience and their creation. Pic: Kate Stephenson.
ENDS
