Little Animals
★★★★★ Brilliant
Traverse @ Lyceum Studio (Venue 593): Tues 18 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Little Animals at the Traverse @ Lyceum Studio is an astonishing piece of theatre. It deals with urgent concerns in a way that is inventive, compassionate and beautifully performed.
Paul Ready (a familiar face to viewers of Utopia, Motherland or Ann Droid) is the writer-performer in the world premiere of his production with Fern Culture, co-produced with Pentabus, in association with Gulbenkian Arts Centre.
Paul Ready in Little Animals. Pic Chew Bo/Jennifer Forward-Hayter
The Lyceum Studio is left in an unvarnished state, looking just like the rehearsal room it is, with chairs arranged in a circle, and the lights all left on. And here is Ready among us as James, apologising for only being able to book such a spartan venue (he didn’t know the Fringe was on) and wondering if we’re there in response to his Facebook posts.
Because this is apparently a memorial to his friend Richard, whose lifelong friendship he seeks to celebrate. (He wasn’t welcome at the funeral, which was apparently a small, family affair.)
Ready’s performance is frankly astonishing in its naturalness. The character he presents is multi-layered – self-serving but humorous, an unreliable narrator but utterly sincere.
human frailty
The play, though apparently unadorned, is similarly complex, with the work of Ready and director Caroline Steinbeis so controlled and thought out that it gives the air of being completely improvised.
There’s a human frailty, an apparent emotional chaos, as Ready interacts with the audience in a production that is ‘immersive’ in the best sense of the word. Apart from anything else, for Ready’s play-writing debut, it’s a remarkably accomplished piece of work.
Paul Ready in Little Animals. Pic: Chew Boy/Jennifer Forward-Hayter,
And there’s something other than the nature of friendship, of people who are ‘each other’s skin’, remaining connected even as their lives diverged, that is going on here. Because Richard might have died because of despair at a world fuelled by endless consumption and selfishness. A world where humans believe themselves to be somehow separate from the rest of their ecosystem, rather than animals who are busily destroying their own habitat.
While the play is at times a stark and terrible portrait of the climate emergency, it’s done with humour and love. The stripped-back presentation puts all of the focus on the performer, who responds with an engaging, thought-provoking display.
toxic stories
Was Richard killed by the story he told himself? Are we being killed by telling ourselves different but equally toxic stories? And can the telling of stories, as Ready is doing here, help to provide the only possible antidote?
There are only a few moments when the character slides into caricature and his attempts at self-justification become too much to swallow. The rest of the time, the performance is so wonderfully achieved, so full of empathy, that the result is utterly captivating.
There’s certainly doom, despondency and catastrophe. But there’s also the tiny spark of hope provided by the sense of community that only live theatre can provide.
Running time: One hour and 5 minutes (no interval).
Traverse Theatre @ Lyceum Studio, 30B Grindlay St, EH3 9AX. (Venue 593).
Tuesday 18 – Sunday 30 August 2026.
Daily (not Mons) at 1.30pm and/or 4pm (see website for details)
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Instagram: @fernculture
Paul Ready in Little Animals. Pic Chew Boy/Jennifer Forward-Hayter
ENDS
