The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth
★★★★☆ Cheery
Newington Trinity Church (Venue 11): Fri 7 – Sat 22 Aug 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
Edinburgh People’s Theatre’s extraordinary Fringe pedigree continues at Newington Trinity Church with a play whose title is nearly as long as EPT’s time at the Fringe – The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen’s Guild Dramatic Society’s Production of Macbeth.
It is now 50 years since David McGillvray and Walter Zerlin Jr’s TFAHETGDSPoM (as it probably shouldn’t be known) premiered in Edinburgh, but the whole Farndale Avenue series still constantly pops up in performance. If you are not familiar with the plays, they feature a well-meaning troupe of amateur actors whose attempts to stage various theatrical genres are constantly thwarted in a manner most recently familiar from The Play That Goes Wrong and its successors.
Macbeth and the Witches. Promotional image: EPT
In this one, Shakespeare’s Play Who Must Not Be Named is the Guild’s entry in a competition, adjudicated by the BBC’s George Peach, with the prize being a place in the national finals in the impossibly exotic surroundings of Welwyn Garden City.
Some of the play is showing its age a little, but the rivalries, egos and pitfalls involved in the process are timeless. Nearly as timeless as EPT themselves, whose involvement with the Fringe goes back to before it was even called that.
The show starts before you even get into the venue, with Sharon Wilson’s perfectly-pitched society chair Mrs Reece greeting arrivals at the door. This conceit is carried on through the evening, with tombola prizes and administrative announcements (and you definitely should take some time to study the Guild noticeboard on the wall of the hall).
energy and sparkle
There’s considerable pace to Derek Ward’s direction – and not just when Fraser Mackenzie, the play-within-a-play’s director, takes over as Macbeth to rattle through ‘tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow’ at top speed because they are running out of time, in a bravura performance. The whole thing has energy and sparkle, and is daffily, undeniably, lovable.
Lynsey Spence, as the Guild’s diva Thelma (who in turn plays Macbeth), has a spiteful egotism that doesn’t prevent her from attacking Shakespeare’s lines in a genuinely striking way. Aileen Copland’s Minnie, meanwhile, has lost her voice as Banquo but soldiers on to humorous effect.
The Adjudicator and the Farndale Women. Promotional shot: EPT
The performer playing Lady Macbeth has become lost on the wrong bus, so stagehand Henry (James Sutherland) is dragooned into the role. Sutherland seizes the part’s possibilities with a well considered and expansive comic turn.
Gillian Scott’s Kate is suffering from a leg injury, which doesn’t explain why she constantly wants to interject her witch’s lines at the wrong moment. The other witches (Victoria Wilkinson and Eve Hibbert, sharing the role with Ellen McFadzen) also double in a bewildering variety of roles, when not dealing with lost glasses, forgotten costumes, recalcitrant props or a set that has been built back-to-front.
Rob Wilkinson’s adjudicator Mr Peach, seemingly oblivious to the chaos around him, is another carefully judged characterisation.
gloriously over-the-top
Ensemble members Mhari Whyte, Heather Thomson, Ryan Gillroy and Andrew Barnes, contribute to a gloriously over-the-top dance sequence.
The whole thing is so gleefully silly that it is like having an extra pantomime this year (which is enough to make you forget the unfortunate absence of EPT’s usual Fringetime foray into couthie Scots comedy).
Making things go wrong on cue is far more difficult than it might appear, so credit to cast, director and a huge offstage team for making it all run smoothly in its defiant lack of smoothness. Rob Fuller’s lighting design, operated by Mandy Black, is called upon to do a lot of heavy lifting and is more than up to the task.
If you want a speedy, daft and thoroughly enjoyable entertainment this Fringe, this could be the one for you.
Running time: One hour and 45 minutes (no interval).
Newington Trinity Church (Church Hall), 18 West Mayfield, EH9 1TQ (Venue 11).
Friday 7 – Saturday 22 August 2026.
Mon-Fri: 7.30pm; Sat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from coimpany: Book here.
EPT website: ept.org.uk/
Facebook: @EdinburghPeoplesTheatre
Instagram: @epeoplestheatre
ENDS
