REVIEW: Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence, Crash Theatre Co and House of Oz, EdFringe 2025 ★★★★

419 years ago, William Shakespeare put quill to paper on what would be one of his most popular works ‘Macbeth’. The show infamously named to the point you cannot say it in the theatre without bringing bad luck onto your production or the production you’re about to see. This is where Macbeth comes in with the Dunsinane Hell Hounds Netball Team to add an Australian musical twist on this classic story.

Crash Theatre Co have been developing Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defense since early 2024 and this Fringe run is the productions UK debut thanks to the House of Oz season at Assembly George Square Studios. This musical has already had critical acclaim on the homeland with several festival wins to its name and multiple sold out performances in Edinburgh before they even stepped on the plane. 

This early 2000s Disney channel original movie esc musical has absolutely lived up to the hype in my book. The stellar all female cast have the natural chemistry of a year 11 netball team (minus the rumours, ‘broken ankles’ and backstabbing). Courtney McManus’s book and Bec Price’s direction and composition these songs will have you leaving the theatre singing and TikTok dancing to the next one. It’s main goal of inspiring young women to be interested in both the arts and sports achieving ten fold with the majority of the audience being the demographic the show portrays the most.

Orla Poole’s Mac Beth carries the musical on her shoulders where she is practicing her shots one moment, battling the verbatim Shakespeare soliloquies and following through with girl band prophesies the next. Her right hand woman Summer Banquo (Kate Sigley) also stuns with the full of kindness heart and nothing but admiration for her friend but as the show goes on and the shift in both of them grow she comes to her own and explores the confidence none of us saw coming but rewarded! 

Shannon Rogers’ choreography balancing netball positioning, techniques and balls flying around almost every second with TikTok viral dances, this show knows exactly its target audience and is running with it! Her portrayal of Chloe MacDuff is exactly the popular netball stereotype we need who’s driven but gets pushed away too soon fighting to get her own back. If not for MacDuff it is Ana Ferreira Manhoso’s Mia Porter, the state team captain who has achieved every young girls dream and wants everyone to know about it. Her group number in particular being one of my favourites.

The girls’ battles with MacManus’ Coach Duncan is almost verbatim itself what you see 16 year olds do on the court and Duncan rounds these girls up and trains them to the best she can as one goes down one by one. We definitely confide in her desperation from multiple stand points and hope she does eventually catch a break.

If you want to see this for yourself, get down to Assembly George Square Studio One before August 25th and they’ll hopefully “See you on the court b*tch!”

You can catch Lady Macbeth Played Wing Defence until August 25th at Studio One at Assembly George Square Studios from 16:15 (60mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.