Edinburgh Fringe theatre reviews: I See You Watching | Shake Rag Hollow | Derby Day | Tale of a Potato | The Sound of Water | The Silly William Gambit

I See You Watching ★★★★☆

Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Venue 24) until 24 August

Shake Rag Hollow ★★★★☆

Assembly Rooms (Venue 20) until 24 August

IN THE AFTERMATH of the #MeToo movement, relations between men and women seem trapped in a slow-burning crisis across much of the western world. Female rage against the persistence of male violence both physical and emotional, and against the assumptions and aggressions with which they have to wrestle every day, is a major theme of the 2025 Fringe. Porn culture blights sexual lives, and trust is at a low ebb.

And nowhere is this crisis more vividly embodied, in a single theatrical moment, than in I See You Watching. Co-devised by award-winning US playwright and director John Clancy with Melanie Stewart and Kylie Westerbeck, this powerful one-act play takes the form of an audition, where Westerbeck – as a hopeful actress/singer/dancer – performs for a male director masterfully played by Fringe veteran David Calvitto.

Westerbeck’s performance is a physical and emotional tour de force, as she shifts from bright-eyed cheerleader through desperation and despair to snarling rage and contempt while the male director becomes ever more dismissive and aggressive. They draw the audience into their psychodrama so successfully that when he asks for help from the audience in passing demeaning props to the actress, most flatly refuse. And in less than an hour, these two brilliant actors create a brief but telling cameo of just how messed up, sadistic, exploitative, pornographic and alienated male-female relations can become, when the male gaze is allowed free rein, and backed by huge inequalities of economic power.

Arlene Hutton’s perfectly-shaped play Shake Rag Hollow comes from the same school of thoughtful new American theatre. But here, the story is a troubling and sometimes chilling family drama, played out by three generations of women in a small American town set in beautiful mountainous country, and blessed with its own small college.

Pauline is a university teacher approaching retirement age, but still working to support her granddaughter Laurel, now 19, whom she has raised, and who now attends the town college. Their peace is disrupted by the sudden return of Denise, Laurel’s mother, who has been serving a long prison term for the murder of her uncle Sherman – Pauline’s brother – at a local ravine. We hear Sherman’s voice on old videos he made about the area, and its abundant wildlife; Denise is told she can stay for a few nights, but only if she leaves Laurel alone.

Inevitably, though, it soon becomes clear that there is more to the story of Sherman’s death – and of his relationship with Denise – than any of the women ever guessed. As Denise’s buried memories return, backed by hard evidence, all three are thrown into crisis. “Who are the men who do this kind of thing?” asks Pauline, in a moment of despair; and although the story of Shake Rag Hollow may be predictable from its early scenes, it is delivered with such exquisite detail and eloquence by Sofia Ayral-Hutton, Dana Brooke and Beth Lincks (aka playwright Arlene Hutton), that it’s difficult not to join her in that heartbroken cry, and in the quiet moment of hope that sees the women beginning to repair relationships, among themselves.

JOYCE McMILLAN

THEATRE

Derby Day ★★★★☆

Studio at theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38) until 23 August

Good people do bad things—that’s the resounding message of Derby Day. Set in a small Fife town, it cleverly drips information about a shocking murder within a group of football-watching friends, revealing the sinister, almost understandable motivations behind it.

The play boasts a strong ensemble cast portraying sympathetic characters, yet Xander Cowan is especially impressive as Danny. He’s an emotional volcano who slips between being a jovial big brother and erupting into a storm of anger and vitriol that makes you wonder what he might be capable of, before breaking down in the climactic scene of the play. Tears stream down his face as he grabs his head, endlessly repeating “I didn’t mean to” in a heart-wrenching portrayal of mental collapse and remorse.

Thick accents and colloquialisms can make some of Derby Day’s script tricky to understand, though they also enrich the world-building and heighten the tension of key scenes. It keeps the audience on tenterhooks for its entire 50-minute duration, even delivering some thought-provoking jabs at the justice system in the process.

EMILY MAY

THEATRE

Tale of a Potato ★★★☆☆

Zoo Playground (Venue 186) until 24 August

For those who don’t know Sardinian company Batisfera’s similarly miniature previous Fringe hit The Gummy Bears’ Great War, its follow-up Tale of a Potato sounds like one of those Edinburgh performances which asks you to roll your eyes at the low-budget, over-simplified gimmick on which it’s built.

Yet while the advertised idea – the life story of an anthropomorphic potato, as related by an actual potato – is what the audience sees, it’s all told with such skill and attention to detail that the results are captivating, and at times profound. Valentina Fadda is performer, storyteller, puppeteer and lighting technician, as she slices open a potato on a wooden table, gives it little screws for eyes and begins illuminating it with tabletop lamps as it sets off on its journey.

This potato is named Protagonist, although it’s rechristened with the names of two random audience members, building on the humanity Fadda’s performance and writer/director Angelo Trofa’s words give it. Protagonist grows, falls in love, finds a nemesis at work and lives their life, accumulating an ensemble of vegetable friends on the way. It’s a small play for adults, just 30 minutes long in an intimate space for around the same number of people, but an epic work in its own way.

DAVID POLLOCK

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THEATRE

The Sound of Water ★★☆☆☆

theSpace @ Venue 45 (Venue 45) until 23 August

There's a welcome energy to the dance and physical theatre interludes in this meditative piece on climate change written and directed by Julia Ott. Set in the near future in the American West – successfully evoked by some well-choreographed barn dancing – it is, unfortunately, a pretty dry affair otherwise. The cast are strong but the style veers between a pretty solid appropriation of Taylor Sheridan-style trouble-on-the-ranch realism and sub-poetical introspective monologues. It’s an ambitious mix that never really blends and its slippery structure means that it winds towards an unsatisfying conclusion.

RORY FORD

THEATRE

The Silly William Gambit ★☆☆☆☆

theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (Venue 53) until 23 August

As technically accomplished as this one-man show by Connecticut writer and actor Matt Bader is, it’s also joyless, airless and arduous: like something written left-handed by Wes Anderson after a fevered cheese dream. The narrative is a series of chess matches — all illustrated by an AV screen onstage — between Bader’s protagonist and his nemesis, Bum Fiddler. As remarkable as Bader’s recall of his own script is, his performance is overly mannered and his favoured mode of expression is declaiming at the top of his voice with great speed. For someone who plays chess every day, this was gruelling — for anyone who doesn’t it might be tortuous.

RORY FORD

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