We Will Hear The Angels
★★★★☆ Atmospheric
Summerhall (Venue 26): Thu 6 – Sun 30 Aug 2026
Review by Julia Amour
We Will Hear the Angels, at Summerhall for the whole Fringe before embarking on a short Scottish tour, is a meditation on the mysterious power of music in times of trouble; a meditation whose open-hearted empathy gradually draws the audience into a special communion.
The title and two of the roles are inspired by Chekov’s Uncle Vanya, where the characters have been described as waiting for a life that never quite materialises.
Daniel Padden in Magnetic North’s We Will Hear the Angels by Nicholas Bone. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
The emotional landscape realised here – by co-directors Nicholas Bone and Marisa Zanotti – seems to unfold from introspection to universalism, with treasured songs offering a sense of connection both to others’ lived experience and to the music of the spheres.
The work begins with a nearly bare space except for flowers strewn around a central ring of music stands. A screen backdrop shows a night-time cityscape, and later a starry sky accompanied by a final encircling wash of light. The simple but thoughtful production design is by Emily James, with lighting design by Nigel Edwards and video design by Marisa Zanotti.
gently cinematic
As the performers enter, they criss-cross the space in seeming agitation to construct a set from wooden chairs and tables with the flowers now assembled in a vase. The effect is gently cinematic, like time-lapse and reverse motion combined; and by the end of the piece, the movements of the cast mean that the original placement has almost imperceptibly returned.
Part-ritual, part story-collage, the form of the work initially echoes the characters’ distracted states of mind. Each one is observed in some silent private moment, from the everyday to the more enigmatic and unsettling.
Magnetic North presents We Will Hear the Angels by Nicholas Bone. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
It takes time – perhaps a little too long – for patterns to emerge. While three of the characters are listless with impossible unrequited longing, a fourth faces the pain of betrayal.
This is revealed through impressionistic descriptions in Nicholas Bone’s delicate script. It’s a testament to the adaptability of the actor-musicians that they rapidly establish distinctive characters from these spare words and from subtle movement work: Sonia (Mia Scott) dreamy and fragile; Van (Nicholas Bone) brooding; Ian (Greg Sinclair) with a wounded vulnerability; and Bea (Apphia Campbell) exhausted and despairing.
a haunting incantation
A fifth person, Lou (composer and music director Daniel Padden), stands outside the storytelling, sometimes in the role of listener or observer. His decisive intervention is to move the words into music, singing a haunting incantation from Moondog’s All Is Loneliness which is joined by each of the characters in a polyphony of voices.
Possibly this name could be an allusion to Louis Malle, the new wave director whose final film was set around a production of Uncle Vanya. This would add a new layer of meaning: but unless one knows beforehand, it seems like a distractingly insoluble puzzle, and one wonders whether this moving spirit needs a name at all.
Apphia Campbell in Magnetic North’s We Will Hear the Angels by Nicholas Bone. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic.
Now the work begins to take off with each character singing their heart out in turn, often accompanied by soulful cello, violin and guitar.
While each song is affecting, the impact partly depends on the expertise of the performer as well as the familiarity of the song. Wisely, the atmosphere is built towards an emotional crescendo with Campbell’s aching, devastated rendition of Etta James’ I’d Rather Go Blind.
rich and strange
The stage is now given over fully to instrumental music while Campbell’s Bea quietly packs her things. As she prepares to leave her old life, her final song in five-part harmony with all the cast is a beautifully cathartic letting go.
We Will Hear the Angels is rich and strange, but it only fully comes alive through an emotional investment from all present. Its power to evoke how people hold on through longing and loneliness depends on that shared bond between performers and audience, as they jointly embrace these hymns to human fortitude.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Summerhall (Dissection Room), 1 Summerhall EH9 1PL (Venue 26).
DATES August 2026.
Daily (Not 123, 17, 24): 4.30pm.
Tickets and details: Book here at EdFringe.com.
Tickets direct from venue: Book here.
Magnetic North website: magneticnorth.org.uk
Facebook: @magnorththeatre
Instagram: @magnorththeatre
Linktree: @magneticnorththeatre.
We Will Hear the Angels on tour Autumn 2026
Thu 10 Sep 2026
Macrobert Arts Centre Stirling
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Sat 12 Sep 2026
New Galloway Town Hall, Castle Douglas
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Tue 15 Sep 2026
Paisley Arts Centre, Paisley
Tickets & Info: Book here
Thu 17 Sep 2026
An Tobar and Mull Theatre, Mull
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Sat 19 Sep 2026
The Byre Theatre, St Andrews
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Tue 22 Sep 2026
Eden Court, Inverness
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Thu 24 Sep 2026
Dunvegan Community Hall, Isle of Skye
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Wed 30 Sep 2026
Universal Hall, Forres
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Fri 2 & Sat 3 Oct 2026
Citizens Theatre Studio, Glasgow
Tickets & Info: Book here.
Magnetic North presents We Will Hear the Angels by Nicholas Bone. Pic: Mihaela Bodlovic
ENDS
