Listings Mon 26 May – Sun 1 June 2025
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
The big event of the week is the Edinburgh International Children’s Festival which runs through to Sunday (Full Æ listing here), with a pair of great local amateur shows, a visit from Scottish Opera and previews for David Greig’s swan-song at the Lyceum coming in close behind.
Top tip of the festival is Greg Sinclair’s Tongue Twister (Tue – Sat: tickets) at the new North Edinburgh Arts building, in which Sinclair attempts tongue twisters in many different languages. And dances. And makes music. And changes costume for each one without leaving the stage. Brilliant!
A scene from Double You at Portobello Town Hall. Pic: Kathie Danneels.
But to be honest, the festival is curated from the best of children’s theatre from around the world, so every show is likely to be top quality. Although I’m particularly looking forward to Double You at Portobello Town Hall (Fri-Sun: tickets), a circus performance based on FOMO: the Fear of Missing Out.
For the rest, there are two hotly anticipated local amateur productions. EPT have Laura Wade’s 2018 adaptation of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel The Watsons at the Church Hill Theatre (Weds – Sat: tickets), in which Emma Watson returns to the impoverished family home after years of living with her rich aunt.
The St Serf’s Players take off into orbit at the Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre, with another David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin Jr. am-dram spoof: They Came From Mars And Landed Outside The Farndale Avenue Church Hall In Time For The Townswomen’s Guild’s Coffee Morning (Thurs-Sat: tickets).
co-productions with D’Oyly Carte
Scottish Opera is at the Festival Theatre this and next week with two co-productions with D’Oyly Carte. Lehár’s The Merry Widow (Thurs, Sat, Sun: tickets) and a double bill of G&S’s Trial by Jury with the world premiere of Emma Jenkins & Toby Hession’s A Matter of Misconduct! (Fri: tickets).
The new production of The Mountain opens for previews on Saturday (Previews: Sat, Mon 2 – Wed 4 June; Run: Thurs 4 – Sat 21 June: tickets). The last production of David Greig’s tenure as Artistic Director at the Lyceum is set in Martin Luther King Jrs hotel room on his last night on earth.
And finally Moulin Rouge! The Musical continues at the Playhouse (ends Sat 14 June: tickets). Best availability is early in the week and a few bargain seats remain for the last night, which should be fun.
Æ’s various listings pages, all linked here have more details.
Listings
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site.
Assembly Roxy
2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU.
The Unlikely Friendship (Imaginate)
Mon 26 – Wed 28 May 2025
Mon/Tue: 1.15pm, 7pm; Wed: 10am, 1.15pm..
8 – 14 years (55 mins). Imaginate.
Two friends perform breathtaking aerial shows. They fly, spin, hang from the rooftops and fall out of the sky… But they weren’t always so glorious. How did they transform from feeling like outsiders, unable to fit in, to the fantastical creatures they always knew they had inside them? The touching story of a girl who wants to be a monster and a boy who wants to fly. Exploring the universal yearning to belong and sharing the joy of friendship, this is a dynamic and visually stunning aerial show. Tickets and details.
Game Within a Game (Imaginate)
Thurs 29 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Thurs: 10.30am, 1.30pm; Fri: 10.30am, 4pm; Sat: 11.30am, 3pm; Sun: 11.30am, 2.30pm..
Age 3 – 7 years (40 mins).
When we play, anything is possible: the floor is made of lava, objects fly through the air and everyday items take on a whole new meaning. The stool is a raft, a bridge, a tower. It stands on its head, lies on its side, stands on its feet… From an almost infinite selection of possibilities, new worlds emerge, expand and are discarded. But how does one game lead to another? Who decides what happens next? Who makes the rules and how to make the best decision? And what happens if someone doesn’t want to take part? Three dancers get involved in this humorous and touching ‘game within a game’, exploring different rules, spaces and choices. Tickets and details.
Church Hill Theatre
33 Morningside Road, EH10 4DR.
The Watsons (EPT)
Wed 28 – Sat 31 May 2025.
Wed-Fri: 7.30pm; Sat mat: 2.30pm.
Laura Wade takes up the story of Jane Austen’s unfinished novel, in which Emma Watson returns to the impoverished family home, after years of living with her rich aunt. Her mother is dead, her father is dying. She and her two sisters need to marry, fast… But from here on in, the myriad characters abandoned by their author have ideas of their own. How on earth is Wade to engineer her heroine’s happy ending? Book here.
DanceBase
14-16 Grassmarket, EH1 2JU.
Not Falling (Imaginate)
Tue 27 – Fri 30 May 2025
Daily: 10.15am, 12.45pm..
4 – 10 years (50 mins).
An energetic performance in which three dancers try to escape gravity. They fly through space, soar in the air and gently return to the ground. In a fascinating interaction with film projections of children leaping and seemingly floating in slow motion, the compelling performers create a world in which everything seems possible. Tickets and details.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
The Merry Widow (Scottish Opera)
Thur 29 May – Sat 7 Jun 2025
Both Thurs & Sat 7: 7.15pm; Sun 5: 3pm.
A lavish Parisian party is a grand occasion for dancing, drinking, and (in)discreet love affairs. But Baron Zeta, the ambassador to the fictional cash-strapped state of Pontevedro, has a slightly more serious matter on his mind. Book here.
Trial by Jury (Scottish Opera)
Fri 30 May & Fri 6 Jun 2025
Evenings: 7.15pm.
New production accompanied by the world premiere of Emma Jenkins & Toby Hession’s A Matter of Misconduct! in a double-bill evening. With a comic cast performing contrasting roles in both pieces, this promises an unmissable night of classic G&S comedy and new writing. Book here.
Inverleith St Serf’s Church Centre
1a Clark Road, EH5 3BD.
They Came From Mars… (St Serf’s Players)
Thurs 29 – Sat 31 May 2025
Evenings: 7.30pm.
(And Landed Outside The Farndale Avenue Church Hall In Time For The Townswomen’s Guild’s Coffee Morning). Yes, those Farndale Avenue ladies attempt lift off with their Dramatic Society’s unique production of a sci fi thriller. Book here.
Lyceum Studio
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX.
Tiébélé (Imaginate)
Tue 27 – Thurs 29 May 2025
Tue: 1.45pm, 4.130pm; Wed/Thur: 11am, 1.45pm.
18 mths – 6 years (40 mins).
On the roof of a Kassena house, a young woman mixes clay and water and starts making marks. Accompanying her is a musician playing the N’goni string instrument. The melodic sound and their voices blend and interweave. Together, they sketch the patterns that will brighten the walls of their houses. Tiébélé echoes the magnificent prints left on their homes by the women of a village in Burkina Faso. It combines earth and song, organic matter and poetry. A creation that links the gestures of these African women to toddlers’ first drawings. Tickets and details.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
The Mountaintop
By Katori Hall directed by Rikki Henry.
Sat 31 May – Sat 21 June 2025
Previews: Sat 31, Mon 2, Tue 3.
Daily (not Mon): 7.30pm. Wed, Sat mat: 2.30pm.
April 3, 1968. Room 306, the Lorraine Motel, Memphis. It’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr’s last night on Earth. A funny, compelling drama imagines the man behind the legend on the eve of his assassination; and sees the public façade and the private turmoil, the family man and the martyr, desperate to finish what he started. Book here.
Lyra Artspace
11 Harewood Road, EH16 4NT.
Great Big Tiny World (Imaginate)
Sat 31 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Sat/Sun: 10.30am, 1.30pm. Sat: 3.30pm..
0 – 12 months (60 mins).
Welcome to this great, big, tiny world. It may be very old, but for us it’s brand new. Settle in amongst hundreds of real plants, to watch, hear and feel the world come to life all around you. We’re all part of a connected ecosystem, where the magic happens somewhere between us. Filled with beautiful sounds, scents, music, shadows and sensory objects, even the tiniest things play an important part. The world is different, now you are here. Tickets and details.
North Edinburgh Arts
12C MacMillan Square, EH4 4AB.
Tongue Twister (Imaginate)
Tue 27 – Sat 31 May 2025
Daily: 1.45pm; Tue, Thurs, Fri: 10.45am; Wed 6.30pm; Sat: 11am.
6 – 12 years (50 mins).
One man’s attempt to say tongue twisters in as many different languages as possible. Whilst also trying to dance. And make music. And do all the costume changes without leaving the stage. A delight for the eyes and ears, created and performed by award-winning performance artist and musician Greg Sinclair, and featuring dazzling costumes and innovative visual design. Humorous, colourful, rhythmical and odd, Tongue Twister is a celebration of the musical beauty of language.. Tickets and details.
Playhouse
18 – 22 Greenside Place, EH1 3AA. Phone booking: 0844 871 3014.
Moulin Rouge! The Musical
Run ends Sat 14 June 2025
Mon – Sat: 7.30pm; Mats: Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm..
Æ review: ★★★★☆ Can-Can do
The most jukebox of jukebox musicals, Baz Luhrmann’s revolutionary film comes to life onstage with a world of splendour, of eye-popping excess, of glitz, grandeur and glory. A world where Bohemians and aristocrats rub elbows and revel in electrifying enchantment. Book here.
Portobello Town Hall
147-149 Portobello High St, Portobello EH15 1AF.
Double You (Imaginate)
Fri 30 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Fri: 10.30am, 7pm; Sat: 1.30pm, 7pm; Sun: 1pm, 5pm..
6 – 13 years (1 hour).
A circus performance based on the Fear of Missing Out. Five talented artists share two stages, separated by a fabric wall with the audience on either side. Shadows and sounds reach over the curtain. Why are they laughing over there? Are you missing something? A social experiment around boundaries and identity that combines circus with acro-dance, parkour, Chinese pole and hand balancing. The two simultaneous performances, mutually exclusive yet interwoven, create one universal experience, with every spectator perceiving this exciting circus show in a different way. Tickets and details.
Studio Theatre
The Studio, 22 Potterrow, EH8 9BL. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
Shades of Shadows (Imaginate)
Sun 25 – Wed 28 May 2025
Sun: 11am, 2pm; Mon/Tue: 10am, 1.15pm; Wed: 9.30am, 11.15am.
4 – 10 years (45 mins).
Light and shadow belong together. But what happens when shadows suddenly develop a life of their own, when they multiply at will, liberated from the laws of physics, to come into the limelight? A journey through an enchanted city, with two puppeteers creating and leading us into the magical universe of shadows, where everyday objects perform their own little dance of freedom. Shadows enter through the back door to steal our things. They get bigger and smaller, they split and merge. They start interacting with the world and the relation between objects and their shadows becomes blurry. Tickets and details.
The Show for Young Men (Imaginate)
Thurs 29 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
Thurs: 1.30pm, 6pm; Fri: 10.30am; Sat: 2.30pm, 6pm; Sun: 2.30pm..
8 – 14 years (50 mins).
Robbie (45) is here to work. Alfie (11) is here to have fun. They meet on a building site at dawn. Using playground games, risk-taking and mischief, they dance and play together, discovering that there are many ways to be brave and kind. Directed by Eoin McKenzie in collaboration with Robbie Synge and young performer Alfie, the show explores familiar and unexpected ideas about masculinity, connections and friendship.. Tickets and details.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
Grown Ups (Imaginate)
Sun 25 – Wed 28 May 2025
Sun: 7pm; Mon, Wed: 9.45am; Mon/Tue 1pm; Tue 7.15pm..
4 – 12 years (45 mins).
Adults work. And children play. Or they go to school. Or they sleep. And when they sleep, grown-ups continue working. In the living room. On their computers. Once they’ve cleaned the kitchen. But what do grown-ups really do? Do they put the world to rights? Do they have a nap? Or do they make a mess of things? Do they really have everything under control? A hilarious and absurd tragi-comedy about what happens to grown-ups when children are not looking. Tickets and details.
The Pale Baron (Imaginate)
Thurs 29 – Sat 31 May 2025
Thurs: 10am, 1pm; Fri: 10am, 7.30pm; Sat: 3pm, 7pm..
8 – 14 years (One hour 15 mins).
The pale baron is the great leader of the underwater state. He always grabs the last piece, even before others have been served. He strongly dislikes poets. They mean all kinds of things, in between the lines, in the blank spaces where nothing is written. This makes the baron feel very uncomfortable. Fortunately, Felix & Felka are not poets. They are singers… With a cool underground gig vibe, this is a musical tale about the friendship between two musicians trying to subvert a regime that dislikes anyone that is deemed superfluous or different. Tickets and details.
Beneath the Snow (Imaginate)
Thurs 29 May – Sun 1 June May 2025
6 mths-3 yrs: Thurs/Fri: 9.30am; Sat 11.15 am, 1.30pm; Sun: 1pm..
3 – 6 years: Thur: 11.15am, 1.30pm; Fri: 11am; Sat: 3.30pm, Sun: 3pm. (length).
Two figures dressed in white, walk on a white carpet made of tissue paper. You can hear the sound of the wind and snow crunching under their feet. They playfully awaken what lay dormant, opening the doors to the imagination. Suddenly a pile of papers flutters… birds fly away, the paper leaves transform into a sea raging, moons dancing, a fish spreading its wings, perhaps a dragon… Separate performances for under 3 yrs and 3 – 6 yrs. Tickets and details.
*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.
ENDS
