Listing: Mon 14 – Sun 19 April 2025
What’s on Edinburgh’s Stages this week?
This Easter Week sees one of Edinburgh’s biggest community productions return for the Easter Play on Saturday, the final week of Wild Rose and a whip-cracking Calamity Jane.
The big show in town is the Watermill Theatre’s whip-cracking Calamity Jane, (Tue – Sat: tickets), first seen in 2014 and now out on a 34 date tour before hitting the West End. Carrie Hope Fletcher takes the title role as the biggest mouth in Dakota territory and always up for a fight.
Joining Fletcher are Vinny Coyle as her sparring partner Wild Bill Hickok, Luke Wilson as Danny, the subject of her unrequited love and Seren Sandham-Davies as Katie Brown, the aspiring singer who pitches up in Deadwood pretending to be a big Chicago revue star.
Carrie Hope Fletcher in Calamity Jane at the Festival Theatre. Pic Mark Seniour
The hottest ticket in town, however, is at the Lyceum. If you have not seen Wild Rose (ends Sat: tickets) yet, and want to (and you surely do want to!) then grab a ticket fast. Very fast: Tue & Wed are sold out and there are just a handful of briefs left for the remaining nights.
There is an additional treat for Musical Theatre fans on Sunday at the Festival Theatre where lyricist Tim Rice is giving his I Know Him So Well performance (tickets) with musical support from a band of musicians and singers led by MD Duncan Waugh.
The show will see Rice reflect on a career at the heart of musical theatre, sharing anecdotes behind the songs – the hits and the misses along with stories of his life. The live performances will feature numbers from the catalogue of songs that are synonymous with his name and that of his collaborators.
Behold the Man
And so to Easter Saturday, when director Suzanne Lofthus brings a company of community actors to Princes Street Gardens West for a free performance of her new script: Behold the Man (Sat: details).
Lofthus’s script for this year’s Edinburgh Easter Play is most timely, in these days of Incels and reactionary notions of masculinity put about by social media influencers. She explores Jesus as a historical figure and how that figure can effect us now; how he was a positive masculine role model, despite living under oppression, and his ability to defy societal perceptions of masculinity today.
The Easter Play website (easterplay.org) has some interesting background reading which provides an idea of the play’s setting; what it meant to be a man in the Roman Empire, and the masculinity of Jesus in the gospels.
With additional scenes created by the community performers, this sounds as if it could be one of the most interesting Easter Plays of recent times.
The final show this week is Ivor, the last lunchtime show at the Traverse for the current PPP season (Tue-Sat: tickets). Jennifer Adam’s play has high aspirations according to our reviewer, but is “★★☆☆☆ Well-meaning“. This is returns only, if you fancy chancing your arm in the queue.
Listing
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Calamity Jane
Tue 15 – Sat 19 Apr 2025
Evenings: 7.30pm; Thurs, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Gosh almighty! Grab a posse because the whip crackin’ musical comedy classic Calamity Jane is a rollin’ on over the plains to Edinburgh. Based on the much-loved Doris Day movie, this plumb fancy new production stars the multi-award-winning West End actor and singer Carrie Hope Fletcher (Cinderella, Les Misérables).Book here.
I Know Him So Well (Tim Rice)
Sun 20 Apr 2025
Evening: 7.30pm.
Tim Rice reflects on his illustrious career at the heart of musical theatre, sharing anecdotes behind the songs – the hits and the misses along with stories of his life and live performances from the wonderful catalogue of songs that are synonymous with his name and that of his collaborators. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Wild Rose
The Royal Lyceum Theatre Edinburgh, Caledonia Productions and Gavin Kalin Productions
Ends: Sat 19 Apr 2025
Daily (not Sun/Mon): 7.30pm. Wed, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Æ Review: ★★★★★ Triumphant.
There is only one thing in Rose-Lynn’s life that has ever made sense: country music. Fresh out of jail for past mistakes, and bursting with incredible raw talent, charisma and cheek, the free-spirited Rose-Lynn dreams of escaping Glasgow to make it as a singer in Nashville. Book here.
Princes Street Gardens West
Princes St. EH2 2HG.
Behold the Man – the Edinburgh Easter Play
Sat 19 April 2025
One performance: 2pm.
This year’s script explores how Jesus was a positive masculine figure despite living under oppression, and his ability to defy societal perceptions of masculinity. Adapted by director Suzanne Lofthus, with devised scenes from the community cast. Includes embedded sign language performers. Details here.
A Family Easter Treasure Hunt precedes Behold the Man at 12.30pm. Pre-booking essential: Register here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
Ivor (PPP)
By Jennifer Adam.
Tue 15 – Sat 19 April 2025
Lunchtime: 1pm (Trav 2).
What do you buy the kid who has everything for their 21st birthday Sarah’s got this one covered. She’s bought her daughter, Scarlet, something so momentous, so magnificent, so mountainous… All Scarlet needs to do is accept it. A surreal and darkly comic drama about sustainability and survival, that asks how far you are willing to go for the things you love the most. Book here.
*NB: This is intended to be a complete listing of all public theatrical productions on in Edinburgh. If you are staging a show which is not listed, or a listing is inaccurate, please get in touch through the contact page, here.
