Edinburgh Fringe Theatre reviews: SLUGS | After the Service | 1457, The Boy at Rest | It's Gonna Blow! + more

SLUGS

Summerhall (Venue 26)

★★★★☆

What could be more nothing than a slug? Sam Kruger and SE Grummett, the duo behind 2023’s absurdist smash hit Creepy Boys, have some ideas. A picture of a horse? That’s nothing. A picture of a horse in a field? Edging on something. AI, gender identity, climate change? Way, way too much something. And the point – they insist, through a whirlwind blur of anarchic puppetry and musical comedy – is to avoid saying something at all costs.

This proves a little tricky in a world where so much something is happening all the time. And while the pair dive into the nihilistic possibilities of absurdism with gritted determination – there’s a song and dance number about chickpeas, a skit about “Donald Duck-ing it”, and handfuls of googly eyes at the ready – meaning eventually creeps its way into the show following an unfortunate incident involving candy, genitalia, and an offhand joke. This is existentialist theatre for the meme generation: intertextual, self-referential, and unequivocally ridiculous, the pair’s attempts to cover up any kind of sincerity with bawdy humour and Joni Mitchell puppets increasingly fall apart with great hilarity, as it becomes clear there is no escape from the discourse machine.

Kruger and Grummett’s commitment to the bit is stupidly funny, and their splicing together of genres and mediums extremely clever. But it’s the sudden glimpses of vulnerability that lend SLUGS its compelling emotional and ontological weight. “Now I can’t do anything that’s nothing,” Grummett mourns, as their trans identity threatens to eclipse the void of meaning they’ve worked so hard to create. In a world where context is everything and nothing, and the churn of information never stops, even SLUGS’ solution – to retreat to simpler, pre-vertebrate times – isn’t enough. But it’s a delight to watch them give it a red hot go.

ANAHIT BEHROOZ

until 25 August

READ MORE: The Best Edinburgh Fringe Theatre 2025: Every show with a four or five star review from The Scotsman so far

After the Service: Tales of Love and Loss

Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower (Venue 140)

★★★☆☆

There’s a quiet poignancy to this collection of thirty-minute solo monologues themed around the experience of grief by actor/writer Arran R Hawkins; although note that only two will be seen in rotation in each performance. The first piece on the day of this reviewer’s visit starred Hawkins himself as Robert, or Bob, a playwright still haunted by the death of his choreographer partner Clive from AIDS 28 years ago.

As the play develops, Hawkins makes a very powerful point that Clive’s death saw him stereotyped as a promiscuous homosexual man at the height of the AIDS crisis, when really the pair were a quiet, loving domestic couple; in fact, Clive’s infection came as a result of the infected blood scandal which is now in the news. When Bob spits his anger at how his loved one was taken from him, it’s a stark contrast to the measured, gentle, nostalgic delivery with which he recounts their life together.

The second piece, meanwhile, introduces a woman in mourning for David, her husband of 47 years, as once again she describes how their lives came together and heartbreakingly describes the moment she found him dead in his sleep and her life ever since. It’s a very understated hour, but these character studies will resonate with anyone who’s experienced such loss.

DAVID POLLOCK

until 24 August

1457, The Boy at Rest

Assembly George Square Studios (Venue 17)

★★★☆☆

One of the many joys of the Fringe is the opportunities it offers to encounter unfamiliar performance traditions, and international styles and approaches that challenge and stimulate. But, let’s be honest, it’s sometimes that very unfamiliarity that might leave you (or me, admittedly) struggling to connect. So it is with 1457, The Boy at Rest, from South Korea’s Poem and Star theatre company. It’s a somewhat disconcerting mix of pantomime-style hi-jinx from three goblin narrators, and deep but sentimental tragedy on the Hamlet-like story of the 15th-century boy king Danjong, whose brief reign is brought to a sudden end by his uncle effectively murdering him.

If you’re hoping for Western-style depth of character, plot subtlety or nimble pacing, look elsewhere. If you’re after an immersion in intense emotion, colourful spectacle and furiously committed performances, however, you’ll be in luck. Pounding beats and vibrant dance from the ten-strong cast’s traditional percussion ensemble are striking and memorable, but the heart-on-sleeve sentimental solo numbers are far less effective, despite the cast’s fine vocal talents. It’s a rewarding insight into both Korea’s rich history and the country’s deeply individual performance styles, but one that – by European standards, at least – might leave you somewhat confounded.

DAVID KETTLE

until 24 August

It's Gonna Blow!

Pleasance Dome (Venue 60)

★★★☆☆

This is how to start a Fringe show: with an ensemble cast dressed in togas, the “peoples of Pompeii” patrolling the queue with a clipboard asking the audience if they have anything to add to the agenda. Bins maybe? Rumours of a forthcoming volcano eruption? Or is that just fake news?

The conversation with the audience continues in the Forum (theatre), which is half comedy Romans, and half something that might give flashbacks to anyone who’s ever been part of something with the words “community” and “group” in the title. Protestors, farmers, a doomsday prophet in a belltower and multiple audience members apparently called Davidos all vie for attention that anyone looking for a Cambridge Footlights mood will enjoy.

It's high energy throughout, delivered at even higher decibels with 360-degree mutterings, silly jokes, a lot of shouting and endless entrances, exits and character changes that inevitably become relentless. The concept of pairing Pompeii’s local government, civil society and religious temples with their modern-day equivalents has a lot of potential to develop sharp commentary, but the various story stands get trapped, moving too slowly through the chaos, until the volcano finally hits and, the characters frozen in time, a poignant calm descends.

SALLY STOTT

until 24 August

Scatter: A Horror Play

Underbelly, Cowgate (Venue 61)

★★★☆☆

Scatter: A Horror Play can be recommended to fans and aficionados of the classic ghost story. Created and performed by Patrick McPherson, it has all the necessary ingredients: a violent family curse, old creaky buildings, dark winding roads and a forest on the edge of town.

Tom and his twin brother learn about their estranged father’s death from a concerned neighbour. He had been dead for four hot days by the time they arrived, and the scents and sounds that greet them are described in horrible detail. They agree to scatter his ashes in rural Wales, but the supernatural gets there first.

Indigo Productions make excellent use of lighting and sound – their combination of impenetrable gloom and loud noises will have you, literally, jumping out of your seat. A scene with a video camera seems a missed opportunity for surprise, however, since this device grants the audience access to an area of the stage we might not otherwise encounter.

Similarly, the story itself is highly traditional in its reliance on the supernatural. Greater focus could be afforded to the very human horrors of neglect and estrangement that this narrative explores, and which are arguably more terrifying than the stretched figure that haunts it.

JOSEPHINE BALFOUR-OATTS

until 24 August

Wanted

Underbelly (Venue 61)

★★☆☆☆

Writer and actor Eleanor Higgins’ sparky and energetic three-handed queer comedy at first presents as the kind of play lots of young writers bring to the Fringe – a piece about being debauched, directionless and skint - as Higgins’ Erica befriends Jessie (Naomi Denny) and they become flatmates. Then Erica steals a phone from a sleazy guy in a nightclub, and the pair decide their calling is to rob from the rich (anyone they find superficially morally objectionable) and give to the poor (themselves). There’s a neat reversal at the end, where Erica’s cool DJ girlfriend Stevie (Kit Sinclair) becomes embroiled in the scheme and the thieves’ convenient class boundaries begin to blur, but otherwise it feels like a promising work-in-progress.

DAVID POLLOCK

until 24 August

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