Fallen Angel by Liam Rudden

Aug 24 2025 | By Salvador Kent More

★★★☆☆ Compelling

Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge (Venue 7). Tue 19 – Sun 23 August. 20.45.
Review by Salvador Kent.

Liam Rudden’s new play Fallen Angel, at Braw’s Grand Lodge venue for the last week of the Fringe, is a fascinating speculation on local history, with a complete performance from Liam Campbell.

Fallen Angel presents an old story of the Faerie Boy of Leith, which dates back to the seventeenth century. The story goes that a captain met a boy who was gifted with second sight, which meant the boy could go into Calton Hill every Thursday night through a secret door, to play the drums for the Faeries, darker creatures than the figures in our cultural understanding.

Liam Campbell in Fallen Angel by Liam Rudden. Pic: LRM

Here, Rudden has written the work as a modern psychological horror, performed by Liam Campbell in an intense and claustrophobic fifty five minutes. Campbell convinces in a very confrontational mode, constantly appealing to his audience but not letting them gasp for air.

Although he is an athletic performer, it is his eyes which carry the work, constantly fixing on the audience, demanding attention whether it is comfortable or not. This is a proselytising stuff; a plea to the supernatural executed with skill.

As director, Rudden’s staging ensures the whole set is fully used. A noose upstage creates a foreboding atmosphere, and is later evoked with a shockingly violent oral tale. A shower occupies a large part of the set stage left – and is used by Campbell at the beginning for a long period of time – perhaps a metaphor for cleansing, although the nudity felt a little gratuitous. There is a drum, which transforms Campbell into the Faerie Boy of Leith when he plays it, and a phone which interjects, much to the Angel’s annoyance at various points of the story.

a rich evocation

At its best, Fallen Angel is a rich evocation of an old Scottish Tale, drawing on local traditions in idiosyncratic and interesting ways. That being said, the elements of contemporary life drawn into the story do not feel as compelling as its primary source.

The play’s contemporary setting adds to the idea that the Angel has lived for hundreds of years, barely physically ageing. But the elements of modern psychological horror don’t convince as much. A twist ending particularly feels out of place unless read as a trope that is less interesting than the majority of the play.

That being said, this is a fascinating retelling of an old folk tale, which digs into Edinburgh’s rich historical and folkloric tradition. Liam Campbell impresses particularly. Any monologue is a tour-de-force for a young actor, let alone one as intense and confrontational as this one. A good piece of work with some standout elements, which makes for a tight and compelling fifty five minutes.

Running time: 55 minutes (no interval).
Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge (Studio), 96 George Street EH2 3DH (Venue 7).
Tuesday 19 – Saturday 23 August 2025.
Daily: 8.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Book here on EdFest.com.*