Hame. Teeth. CLUB.
★★★★☆ Vital
Underbelly Cowgate (Venue 61): Wed 5 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Hame. Teeth. CLUB. by Kari Hall from Iona Bremner Productions and Sláinte! Theatre at the Underbelly is a hugely impressive display of writing, performing and directing.
Morgan Shields is a teenager who just about tolerates working at the Fort Kinnaird TK Maxx, with its supercilious manager and regulars who switch price labels, because there’s always the weekend. She and her long-time best friend Darcy let off steam at the Woodburn Club, the Saturday night entertainment at Dalkeith Miners Club (although Morgan tends to be thrown out for such larks a doing backward rolls across the pool table).
Rhiannon Lucy Bird in Hame. Teeth. CLUB. Pic: Mason White.
If there are far too few representations of Edinburgh on stage at the Fringe, you get even fewer that show happenings in deepest Widdy. And this is definitely a Midlothian play, with Bonnyrigg Hill featuring and ‘don’t know’ represented as ‘deh ken’ in that way that surprises even people from Edinburgh. And (however boring it is to keep pointing these things out, when nobody ever dreams of doing the same for London) it may be an authentically ‘local’ voice that is represented, but it is instantly accessible to anyone.
It’s important to have local voices on the stage, especially when they are telling stories that are rooted in real life rather than some imagined version of Scotland. And it’s vital to have younger, Scottish, working-class female or non-binary writers represented.
But it’s just as important to have writing as vibrant, clever and purposeful as this. To say Hall is a writer of immense promise seems inadequate when they already clearly have such obvious theatrical intelligence.
beautifully rendered
The story of how Morgan’s life is changed by a sexual assault, and the reactions of her friends and the local community, is told in a beautifully rendered, authentic voice and performed superbly by Rhiannon Lucy Bird.
The energy, commitment, vitality and craft of the performance gives it a rare immediacy and satisfaction; the use of other voices for other characters is done to just the right degree without ever becoming cartoonish.
Rhiannon Lucy Bird in Hame. Teeth. CLUB. Pic: Mason White
The direction of Jessie-Wren Jacobs is purposeful and sympathetic; there’s a rhythm to the play that lets it breathe, building up to moments of drama and trauma but having equal power in quieter stretches. The sound design and Maddy Whitby’s lighting are atmospheric, and the whole thing has immense power.
The play is beautifully structured, with its use of flashbacks to earlier in Morgan’s life being an object lesson in how to do such things. The tautness of the storytelling does waver towards the end; when it becomes more concerned with delivering the plot, it does become rather more obviously functional and a little bit flatter, where earlier the depiction of character had given it such life.
all the more force
Not to any great degree, however. One of the most noticeable things about the writing here is that it stays away from unnecessary and endless use of metaphor, which is the most common trap one-handers like this tend to fall into. As a result, when metaphor does rear its head, it has all the more force.
And this story of consent, community, female friendship and a whole host of things besides, does have considerable impact. It’s urgent, funny, sad and visceral.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Underbelly (Iron Belly), Cowgate, EH1 1JX (Venue 61).
Wednesday 5 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily: 5.10pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Iona Bremner website: www.ionabremner.com
Instagram: @ionabremnertheatre
Instagram: @slaintetheatre
Rhiannon Lucy Bird in Hame. Teeth. CLUB. Pic: Mason White.
ENDS
