Prophets
★★★★★ Claustrophobic Horror
Assembly Roxy (Venue 139): Wed 5- Mon 31 Aug 2026
Review by Ed Boulter-Comer
Prophets is a claustrophobic and intense hour at the RoxyBoxy. Kerris, a Scottish researcher, arrives at a remote British Overseas Territory, ostensibly to study oxygen levels in coral. As she gradually befriends one of the locals, things start to unravel. Who is the Prophet? What does he want? Why has she really come to the island?
Fringe First winner Jack MacGregor’s water-tight script is packed with horror tropes yet avoids cliché, delivering convincing and un-forced dialogue. The sense of something other going on in the plot pulls the audience in. McGregor is deft enough to deal with broader themes of colonialism and control without losing the focus on the increasingly unnerving events on the island.
Rebecca Wilkie with Xander Cowan in Prophets by Jack MacGregor. Pic Giulia Ferrando
Producer Leah Byrne’s team have put the support provided as 2026 ART Award Winners to good use. Emma Moran carpets the floor with crystalline black sand, initially attractive but becoming ever more malign as the play progresses. Sound is important here too, with an early nod to the Anglican choral tradition adding to the gothic background.
Fraser Scott’s direction deals with multiple locations with ease, firing us through airports, ministerial buildings, and the initial quiet of the island. He uses jump scares but his subtlety is in evidence in the broken phone calls between Kerris and her partner. The unspoken elements of their discussion hang over the audience every bit as much as the horrors on the island.
Rebecca Wilkie’s Kerris is superb. Initially open to both audience and other characters, she imperceptibly hardens as the play progresses. By the end her Scottish resolve seems more like intransigence. Gradually becoming stiffer in her physicality, Wilkie holds back the damage Kerris has suffered and never gives the audience the relief of seeing her truly let go of the past. It is quietly stunning.
the bewildered heart of the piece
Equally good, and in multiple roles, is Xander Cowan who provides, amongst others, an oleaginous civil servant and a creation of genuine reptilian revulsion as the Prophet. As Joe, the bewildered heart of the piece, he has a lightness of voice and almost adolescent awkwardness to his movement that delivers the necessary vulnerability excellently.
Prophets is a superb two hander which succeeds both as an entertaining horror and a thoughtful reflection on coercion and control. RoxyBoxy is a small venue. You may have to fight for your ticket.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Assembly Roxy, (Roxyboxy), 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU (Venue 139).
Wednesday 5 – Monday 31 August 2026.
Daily (not 12, 17, 24): 5.45pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Buy the script: www.bloomsbury.com.
Jack MacGregor website: https://www.jackmacgregorproductions.com
Instagram: @prophets_play
BlueSky: @jmacr
Xander Cowan with Rebecca Wilkie in Prophets by Jack MacGregor. Pic Giulia Ferrando
ENDS
