Edinburgh Days
★★★★☆ Stirring
St Bride’s Community Centre (Venue #412): Tue 4 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Juliette Johnstone
Belt of Celt Production’s Edinburgh Days is back at the St Bride’s Centre after a well-received run at the Fringe 2025, with a new director and many brand new cast members.
This historical musical, set in 19th Century Edinburgh, tells a rollicking tale of love and loss across generations, bringing its plucky characters through the lows of war, destitution and tragedy, to the highs of reunion and forgiveness.
Laurence Aitken (Macgregor), John Haldane (Duncan), Jaydean Cramb (Jean) and Debbie Mckenna (Mary). Pic: Stuart Spence.
Young father Robbie’s prolonged absence at sea leaves his wife Jean and their son Davie to fend for themselves. Jean is forced to find the oldest way out of poverty, managing to keep a roof over their heads while Davie grows up calling the local pimp MacGregor ‘father’.
Davie has his own struggles, falling into forbidden love with the priest’s daughter Catriona, before being press-ganged into war in France. It’s a variation on an ancient theme of men toiling away at sea, while the women they love keep the home fire burning.
The strength of this ambitious, stirring show is in the writing. Bob Thomson’s script is lively, empathetic and often bawdy, and Brian Spence’s impressive, original songs give the story pace and energy, supported by pre-recorded musical accompaniment at times heavy with synth and electronic guitar.
confidence
Audience members of a certain vintage will enjoy the 80s-adjacent power ballads and rock songs sprinkled among the more traditional numbers.
At just over two hours, this production could seem to some a little overlong, but director Caroline Inglis gives due care to storytelling. It’s a journey she takes on with confidence, bringing the best out of her well-rehearsed cast, some of whom are still at primary school.
Noah Young (Davie) and Órla Jones (Catriona) with Mariya Hanna (Bridie), Lauren Spence (Hannah) and Mia Linn (Eliza). Pic: Stuart Spence.
From a crowded field, special mention goes to Jaydean Cramb, charismatically playing the role of Jean, whose story is closely followed. Cramb’s very able singing voice and unselfconscious acting really bring her gutsy character to life.
Some of the most poignant scenes are between Jean and her friend and ally Mary, played with heart and bravura by Debbie McKenna, who also responsible for the period costumes.
Davie as a confused, lovelorn young adult is played with depth and tenderness by Noah Young. As his paramour Catriona, Órla Jones radiates goodness with her beatific performance and warm, angelic singing voice. A powerful duet between Catriona and her fire-and-brimstone priest father (Dave Graham) is one of the highlights of the show.
malevolent synth chords
But it’s fair to say the star of the night has to be the main antagonist and all-round baddie MacGregor, played wolfishly by Lawrence Aitken, who seems to steal every scene he’s in.
Brian Spence’s sound design comes to the fore here with thunderclaps at moments of high drama, and malevolent synth chords accompanying MacGregor’s monologues as he swaggers about the stage hatching plots.
Otherwise, the sound and lighting design is effective, but quite minimal, perhaps showing the limitations of a smaller venue on an ambitious production like Edinburgh Days. Lighting, sound and set design scaled up to match the boldness of the writing and performances could surely take this very enjoyable production to a new level.
Running time: Two hours and 20 minutes (including one interval).
St Bride’s Community Centre (Auditorium), 10, Orwell Terrace, EH11 2DZ (Venue 412).
Tuesday 4 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily (Not Sun 9 & Mons 17, 24): 7.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Running time: 2 hours and 20 minutes (including on interval)
Belt of Celt website: www.edinburghdays.com
Facebook: @EdinburghDaysMusical
Instagram: @edinburghdays_musical
BlueSky: @edinburghdays
Michael Macduff (Robbie) with Denis Harley and John Haldane. Pic: Stuart Spence.
ENDS
