REVIEW: Head. Heart. Hand., Stef Smith, Traverse Theatre 2026 ★★★

What say does an institution like a university have in the professional, personal, and private lives of those who surround it? From underappreciated women appearing for cookery lessons 150 years ago through to the lecturers suffering from the marketisation of higher education in the 2020s, Stef Smith’s play documenting the evolution of what is now Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh is a kaleidoscopic encounter with an establishment built on very human foundations.

Played in vignettes capturing eras both in eye-catching costume design and in sensibilities and attitudes, the piece flashes us the most historically turbulent periods facing the university and the sector of education as a whole. In each set, a trio of actors emerges from a spirited ensemble cast dressed in Show Black outfits erstwhile.

Smith’s script is of two halves – the first seeking to situate the radical beginnings of QMU teaching domestic courses to women through to the impact these skills had on society during the wars, through the eyes of those women who were expected to step up to the plate as men were conscripted. We are gently guided through this period with thematic brush strokes and hefty exposition, though the show’s delivery is elevated in resolute performances from the cast. Each character carries some weight with them in these early moments, and this translates well into Smith’s mission to dutifully demonstrate the equal parts of institution, gender, and personal contribution to both progress and tragedy.

As we shift into an exploration of the place of protest, activism and responsibility in the play’s second act, washes of 1970s protests roll into heavy questions about the rights of students under the COVID pandemic, and a series of existential questions for a generation of students, teaching, and professional staff under the commercialisation and casualisation of higher education. There’s a great deal unpacked in a 75 minute runtime that feels as though each element might deserve to be afforded greater weight.

The flittering through themes does Smith’s otherwise stellar writing a disservice. There are points within where Head. Heart. Hand. comes across more as a performance of a prospectus than a tangible story. As the piece attempts to fit in as much representation as it can of QMU’s varied student life and educational programme, it’s hard not to feel like the piece trades off depth too often throughout. While insight comes in the exploration of the burdens on students and staff, it is only really in the closing moments that it finds potency, against expectation to depict the wide-ranging interests of everyone within an institution with a long history.

There are fiercely pertinent moments of clarity in the show’s finale, that unwinds recent developments including the mismanagement of certain unmentioned higher education institutions. Writing as someone who was intimately involved in relevant protests during the time and place that the piece mentions, it felt that Smith’s script did a valiant service to the efforts of the collective university community, ranging across staff, students, and beyond, to ask what we should expect of institutions that nourish, encourage, and challenge us, especially when other, dispassionate interests have been thrust to the fore.

Moments of physical theatre within the piece struggle to find an impactful theatrical language to insert themselves into the narrative, and clash a little against the naturalistic performances of each time period. While it feels as though these moments should cornice and progress the narrative vignettes, there are points when they convey more cliché than style, even if performed with gusto and verve.

A charming cast pull together this expansive piece, that more often than not feels like it either needs another half an hour to explore itself or a thematic tightening up to leave an audience with questions that they will take away with them as they leave the auditorium.

Recommended Drink: Pair this with a Tom Collins – sparkling, zesty, if a little straightforward.

You can catch Head. Heart. Hand. at the Traverse Theatre on Saturday 21st February at 2pm and 7pm (75mins). Tickets are available through the Traverse Theatre Online Box Office.