Wallace
★★★★☆ Still fresh
King’s Theatre: Wed 30 Sept – Sat 3 Oct 2026
Review by Hugh Simpson
The expanded version of Rob Drummond and Dave Hook’s musical Wallace, at the King’s until Saturday, remains an intriguing and powerful piece of theatre despite some drawbacks.
William Wallace is one of those few figures from Scottish history who seem to be allowed to be depicted on stage, with many different representations of his life, lots of which are simply called Wallace. Not to mention That Film and its face-painted fabrications.
This, however, is a decidedly revisionist version, told largely through the medium of hip-hop, and suggesting that Wallace may not necessarily have been the hero of popular legend.
Patricia Panther, Madeline Grieve, Dave Hook and Kimberly Mandindo with Manasa Tagica in the background. Pic: Sally Jubb.
Written by Drummond with music and lyrics by Hook, this is an expanded version of the production that was such a success as A Play, A Pie and A Pint (reviewed here), now produced by Raw Material for a three-date mini tour ahead of a longer outing in 2027.
Wallace is now twice the length and has a cast double the size, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that it is twice as good. Indeed, while it is still sharp, funny and thought-provoking, it isn’t just the lack of novelty that means it has slightly less impact than previously.
What was a taut and wonderfully-formed show has become stretched and rather more shapeless. The addition of an interval means that momentum is lost and never quite recovered.
surfacing from behind the decks
Hook is now mostly an onstage DJ, only occasionally surfacing from behind the decks to play Wallace himself. Which not only means that he is underused, it also undermines one of the show’s central conceits – that it is impossible to know who the real Wallace was, as pseudo-history and folklore have obscured who the real figure may (or may not) have been.
MadelineGrieve, Kimberly Mandindo and Patricia Panther. Pic: Sally Jubb.
Hook is a compelling performer, which can be said for the whole cast. Ross Mann plays ‘Scotsman’, the cheerleader for Wallace, with a comedic charm and vulnerability. Manasa Tagica is ‘Sassenach’, not only embodying Edward I of England but also providing a corrective to the populist view of Wallace, performing with command and presence.
Like Hook and Tagica, Patricia Panther returns from the original production, but the necessary corrective to the boys’ own, war-focused version of history is now also supplied by Madeline Grieve and Kimberley Mandindo.
sympathetic and fluid
Whether as a chorus or individually, Panther’s authority, Grieve’s comic nous and Mandindo’s melodic control add greatly to the production. This particular element of the storytelling is a definite example of something being added rather than taken away this time round.
Orla O’Loughlin’s direction is sympathetic and fluid, helping to smooth over the bumps in the extended show’s narrative. Kloé Dean’s choreography is outstanding, and performed beautifully and with real energy by the whole cast.
Manasa Tagica with Kimberly Mandindo, Madeline Grieve and Patricia Panther. Pic: Sally Jubb.
The music, meanwhile, remains the tremendous mix of beats and understated folky influences that deservedly won the original production a nomination for Best Music and Sound at this year’s CATS awards. The lyrics are clever, incisive and fresh.
Unfortunately, those lyrics are occasionally impossible to make out in a venue that seems slightly too large for the show. Neil Haynes’s design, meanwhile, while striking, also has problems. The essentially monochrome nature of the spectacle means that the performers can fade into the background.
a snappy, thought-provoking production
This is not aided by Derek Anderson’s lighting design meaning that the lights are often trained on the audience’s eyes – something that seems increasingly common recently, but is tiresome and even occasionally painful.
It remains a snappy, thought-provoking production, however. All the better for not being the flag-waving, myth-making affair you might suspect, it instead raises question of history, identity, who we are and how we react to others. And if it doesn’t quite have the force of the more intimate original version, it’s still well worth seeing.
Running time: One hour and 55 minutes (including one interval).
King’s Theatre, 2 Leven St, EH3 9LQ.
Wednesday 30 September – Saturday 3 October 2026.
Daily: 7.30pm; Matinee Sat: 2.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here.
Raw Material website: www.rawmaterialarts.com
Facebook: @RAWMaterialArts
Instagram: @raw_material_arts
Linktree: @rawmaterialarts.
Patricia Panther, Ross Mann and Kimberly Mandindo. Pic: Sally Jubb.
ENDS
