Listings: Mon 15 – Sun 21 Sept 2025
What’s on Edinburgh’s stages this week?
A relatively quiet week, but still plenty to see. Although not all the offerings support the promises of their premise…
That said: top tip is one-act psychological drama Breaking Point (Two perfs Sat: tickets) at the Bedlam. Headfirst examine the place where young men’s mental health collides with flawed, misunderstood attempts to reject toxic culture.
The Talented Mr Ripley at the Festival (ends Sat: tickets) can hardly have a better provenance than Patricia Highsmith’s novel and its film adaptation. However, our critic’s first note (for “a one-note” show) is that Ripley’s repeated complaint ‘it’s all so boring’ is not out of place.
A better (but not great) note for Our Brother (ends Sat: tickets), this week’s lunchtime theatre at the Traverse. “Well acted”, our critic says, but the structure of Jack MacGregor’s script about a Scottish academic visiting Khmer Rouge leader Pol Pot “occasionally lets it down”.
The Lyceum seems to be filling in well as a one-nighter alternative to the Kings for smaller touring acts. Best of them is Buffy Revamped, (Thurs: tickets) – all 144 eps of Buffy in 70 minutes.
Finally to the Queens Hall, where Eddie Izzard is giving her solo Hamlet (Fri: tickets). Long sold-out, there is a list for returns, so you might be lucky.
The rest is silence; for this week at least.
Listings for the week to Sunday 14 September 2025:
Click on the name of the show or the Book here link to go to its ticketing site.
Bedlam Theatre
11B Bristo Place, EH1 1EZ.
Breaking Point (Headfirst Theatre)
Sat 20 Sept 2025
Two shows: 5pm & 8pm
A one-act psychological drama following Josh, a young Scottish man struggling with mental health issues, who finds himself arrested for alleged misogynistic behaviour online. The play examines how the crisis in young men’s mental health collides with flawed, misunderstood attempts to reject toxic culture—and how the fear of being labelled ‘toxic’ can itself become a form of psychological torment. Book here.
Festival Theatre
13/29 Nicolson Street EH8 9FT. Phone booking: 0131 529 6000.
The Talented Mr Ripley
Tue 16 – Sat 20 Sep 2025
Evenings: 7.30pm; Mats: Thurs, Sat: 2.30pm.
Step into a world of deception, desire, and deadly ambition. How far would you go to become someone else? This electrifying new stage adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s iconic psychological thriller has razor-sharp dialogue, simmering tension, and a dangerously charismatic antihero. In Ripley’s intoxicating world nothing is quite as it seems. Book here.
Lyceum Theatre
Grindlay Street EH3 9AX. Phone booking: 0131 248 4848.
Buffy Revamped
Thurs 18 Sept 2025
Evening: 7.30pm.
Seventy minutes. Seven seasons. One Spike. This fast-paced gem brings you the entire 144 episodes of the hit ’90s TV show, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as told through the eyes of the one person who knows it inside out… Spike. Funny, satirical, and bursting with ’90s pop-culture references, it’s the perfect parody for Buffy aficionados and those who never enrolled at Sunnydale High alike. Book here.
The Best Thing You’ll Ever Do (George Lewis)
Fri 19 Sept 2025
One show: 8pm
Described as “the funniest dad on Instagram”, stand-up comedian George has racked up hundreds of millions of views for his hilarious online sketches about the big things in life, like owning an air fryer, watching a David Beckham documentary, and the excruciating experience of trying to do a jigsaw with your kid. Book here.
How Very Hannah – Live
Sat 20 Sept 2025
One performance: 7.30pm.
Hey stagey friends!!! This isn’t just a podcast – it’s a show, with backstage stories, games, public challenges & brilliant chats with guests from the stage & screen. From sharing my own industry stories to getting the inside scoop from fellow theatre lovers – this show’s all about the joy, chaos & magic of the stage. Book here.
Queens Hall
85-89 Clerk St, EH8 9JG.
Hamlet (Eddie Izzard)
Fri 19 Sept 2025
One performance: 8pm.
Direct from her critically acclaimed, triple-extended New York, Chicago and London solo performances of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Akin to the original performances of ‘Hamlet’, Eddie will perform on the blank canvas of a bare stage, letting Shakespeare’s words and pure storytelling take the spotlight. Book here.
Traverse
10 Cambridge Street, EH1 2ED. Phone booking: 0131 228 1404.
Our Brother (PPP)
By Jack MacGregor.
Tue 16 – Sat 20 Sept 2025
Lunchtime: 1pm (Trav 2).
Æ Review: ★★★☆☆ Serious
It’s 1978 and Cambodia is ruled by the ruthless Khmer Rouge. An idealistic academic from Stirling is invited into this closed society, enamoured by the regime and its promises of a better world. Accompanied by an American photojournalist, the academic is given a rare audience with the secretive leader of the Khmer Rouge, a man they call ‘Brother’. Book here.
*NB: This is intended to be a complete listing of all public theatrical productions on in Edinburgh. If you are staging a show which is not listed, or a listing is inaccurate, please get in touch through the contact page, here.
