By The Newsroom

Published 15th Aug 2023, 13:31 BST

Updated 17th Aug 2023, 01:01 BST

Land Under Wave *****

Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30) until 27 August

The Young Edinburgh Storytellers (AKA Mark Borthwick, Ailsa Dixon and David Hughes) begin with some playful conversation in the foyer; assuming you are one of the fae, they invite you down to the faerie court in the theatre below. Three tellers are trapped in the otherworld – otherwise known as Tír na nÓg, the land of the young, or Tìr fo Thuinn, land under waves – and each is competing for a once-in-a-hundred-years chance to win their freedom to roam the earth once more. To win, and for the enchantment to work, they need us to vote for the most important story told.

The deceptively simple premise elegantly reveals an original and densely woven narrative from the beginnings of life to the ends of it, underscored by a magical folk session on cello, looped guitar, shruti box, bodhrán and fiddle. Mentored by the Scottish Storytelling Centre, the three performances have their own voice but are equally masterful in narrative and lyricism.

Borthwick’s tale delves into elemental mystery and is unusually told from a non-human perspective, exploring the lifespan and significance of the Salmon of Knowledge within Celtic mythology, and creativity itself.

Dixon’s poetic telling unfurls a delicate lesbian love story which reinvents kelpie mythology, representing the nature of transformation as rooted in unbearable human emotions.

Hughes transports the audience into the present and the future with a selkie tale which reflects on the march of technology from the blacksmith of old to the dredging and destruction of the seas.

All three tellers are as gut-wrenching as they are humorous and the circularity of show is breathtaking in its final moments. The whole package is a potent response to the Anthropocene and what they describe as a need to rewild the human race with stories that reassert the true value of life. Laura Cameron-Lewis

Rewind ****

Summerhall (Venue 26) until 27 August

At its heart, this is a show that pays homage. To those disappeared by oppressive regimes for having alternative political views, to those left behind without answers, and to those helping to expose state-sanctioned murders and bring about a sense of closure.

On a busy stage filled with drawers, musical instruments, microphones and a projector, five performers introduce us to the work of forensic anthropologists. For those unfamiliar with this particular career choice, they’re the people who dig up bones and study them for medical and legal purposes. And, we’re told, they’ve really got their work cut out in Latin America where dictatorships have led to a disproportionate amount of people aged 20-35 going missing.

Statistics might capture the scale of a problem, but Ephemeral Ensemble knows that if you want people to fully engage, it needs to be personal. Enter Alicia, a fictional young woman whose fate, like so many others, started with peaceful protest. We see her as a child being gifted two things by her mother: a denim jacket and a sense of injustice. Via video projections, physical theatre and live music, the performers take us on Alicia’s journey from childhood to activism and beyond. The denim jacket – like the red coat in Schindler’s List – serving as a constant visual reminder of who once wore it.

If there’s anything lacking here, it is an awareness of what the protestors were fighting for. But perhaps that list is just too long to tackle. Instead, the show’s creators focus on the devastating impact of losing a loved one and having no idea if they’re dead, how they died or where their remains are. Seeing forensic anthropologists solve the mystery and literally put the pieces together is deeply moving. As is the closing montage, when we meet the real-life victims of these horrendous government crimes. Kelly Apter

Everything Under the Sun ****

Army @ the Fringe (Venue 358) until 27 August

Often the West’s own knowledge of military actions its troops are involved in around the world escapes public attention. One such theatre is the West African country of Mali, where a UN operation named the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (or MINUSMA, its francophone acronym) was established in 2013 following the previous year’s Tuareg rebellion.

MINUSMA was discontinued in June 2023 after a decade in operation, although this play by Scottish writer/director Jack MacGregor is set at a point when it was still firmly ongoing. Written using both publicly available reportage and testimony, and interviews with those who have returned from the task force, it is not only about Mali. It is steeped in the country’s recent situation but the spectre of the far wider rising strategic importance of the African supercontinent looms large.

Ibrahim (the excellent Thierry Mabonga) is a Malian translator who’s learning English from the internet. He’s paired with Scottish UN officer Kelly (Rebecca Wilkie) to investigate the lack of communication from a remote base on the edge of the vast Sahara. On the way, he educates her about his country, about his pride in Bamako – the modern capital city of “vapes and 4G and Facebook” – and how the presence of the UN has been good for business.

At the deserted base they meet sinister Russian Wagner mercenary Kolya (Bartosz Pol), who attempts to persuade Ibrahim to his cause. “There is a beautiful chaos in this country,” he growls menacingly. “A sense of possibility that has vanished from the world.”

As the text points out more than once, the Malian conflict is not the one in Afghanistan, and we need to think differently about it – and about Africa – if we are to be able to predict the future direction of global politics. David Pollock

Cat Sh!t Crazy ***

theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38) until 26 August

“Who am I without my cats?” says Cindy D’Andrea, crouched on the floor with a focused stare of a slightly intense feline companion. She’s had therapy for 20 years, so we don’t have to be it. Instead, we join her on a “journey involving plant medicine” in Costa Rica. Chime bells tinkle in the background and as she narrates her intriguing story, it has a has a mediative, contemplative but also playful mood that feels a bit like spending an hour with a cat – the kind that she’s here to see if she can live without.

Written and performed by D’Andrea, this is a skilfully structured monologue that slowly reveals its purpose in a way that anyone who has had a pet will relate to. And it’s also Cindy playing all of her (four) cats, capturing each of their quirky little personalities, and raising issues of animal abandonment. “Save cats,” she says, after a night wielding a torch around a neighbour’s garden. There’s also the sadder times having a beloved pet involves, which leaves most of the audience in tears while pretending not to be – a poignant reminder of the surprising and profound effect that animals can have on all of our lives and that being a “cat lady” isn't so crazy after all. Sally Stott

Crash and Burn **

theSpace @ Niddry Street (Venue 9) until 22 August

An uneasy mixture of political comedy and environmental thriller, Wiliam Leckie’s new play doesn’t really succeed in blending all its elements. A Scottish oil magnate returning home in a private jet for COP26 is hijacked by climate activists but credibility quickly flies out the window at 40,000 feet when its revealed that the leader, a well-known terrorist, has been working in private air industry for years. The performances are a mixed bag but there’s a nice sense of movement so things never feel static. However, the sudden swathes of speechifying towards the end while everyone should really be worrying about plummeting to their doom seems a curious decision. Rory Ford

The Hearth ***

Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30) until 27 August

Edinburgh-based multi-instrumentalist Tom Oakes invites us to sit with him by his metaphorical hearth as he shares memories of late loved ones and influential figures in his life along with the tunes they have inspired him to write. His great aunts Beryl and Dorothea are affectionately sketched in his unassuming, conversational style. Beryl (AKA the Queen of Leeds) is commemorated with perky, impish pipes while arts-loving Dorothea, or Dodo, is heard reading one of her own stories as a coda to Oakes’s composition.

He conjures the spirit of Joe Scurfield of Old Rope String Band with a whistle selection from Scurfield’s archive of traditional tunes as well as his own tribute The Topiarist, while his homage to Shooglenifty’s charismatic fiddler Angus Grant came to him in a dream. Why wait until these precious characters have passed to recount their stories and exploits? Oakes is conscious of the tendency to memorialise after the fact – perhaps his next fireside session will celebrate the living – but for now this is a very likeable show with a gentle integrity. Fiona Shepherd

Edinburgh Festival Fringe theatre reviews: Land Under Wave | Rewind | Everything Under the Sun | Cat Sh!t Crazy | Crash and Burn | The Hearth