Tom Ralphs

Ghosts of North Leith
★★★★☆ A haunting tale
Following a trial reading at Leith Festival earlier this year, the Ghosts of North Leith have been brought home in Citadel Arts Group’s production, which returns them to the church near by the cemetery where they are buried.

FLIP!
★★★★★ Flipping Fantastic
Racheal Ofori’s FLIP! – at Summerhall to Saturday – combines comedy with social commentary in a play which successfully brings the breathless charge of social media to the stage.

In Loving Memory of Mary Mort
★★☆☆☆ Semi-formed surrealism
Taking over the vast space that is Greenside’s Emerald Theatre and filling it with nothing in the way of a set is one of the many unusual things about In Loving Memory of Mary Mort from Cod Liver Theatre.

Bits ‘N’ Pieces
★★★★☆ Timely
Saltire Sky Theatre’s revival of their 2022 Fringe hit Bits ‘N’ Pieces at Leith Arches is a timely reminder of the lives and deaths of the real people that lie behind the statistics around drug deaths.

MANikin
★★★★☆ Breathtaking performance
One of two plays that Saltire Sky Theatre are bringing to Leith Arches for this year’s Fringe, MANikin looks at society’s views on obesity and obsession with body image.

Varmints
★★★☆☆ Ambitious
In Varmints, Punch Monkey Theatre follow up the success of their 2022 Fringe debut with a new play by writer and director Ben Ramsay which again delves into movie pastiches for much of its humour.

Alfie and George
★★★☆☆ Last curtain
If the ghost of Samuel Beckett was invited to return from the grave to write an episode of Inside No.9 he might have come up with a similar idea to the one used for Alfie and George at Hill Street Theatre.

Garage Warriors
★★★★☆ Strong writing debut.
Garage Warriors, Lewis Aitken’s writing debut for Raw Toast Productions at Surgeons Hall, is inspired by Chat GPT but thankfully not written with the aid of it.

ADULTS
★★★★☆ More than a sex comedy
ADULTS, the new play from Kieran Hurley, writer of 2019 hit Mouthpiece, brings Conleth Hill, currently starring in the Power of Parker and known to many for his role in Game of Thrones, to the Edinburgh Fringe.

Wish You Were Dead
★★☆☆☆ Lacks Grace
Two days after the latest series of Grace left our TV screens, Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is back on stage in Edinburgh in Wish You Were Dead, Shaun McKenna’s sixth adaption of a Peter James novel.