REVIEW: AETHER, TheatreGoose, EdFringe 2025 ★★★★

Spectacular, ponderous, and quick-witted, TheatreGoose’s AETHER aims to reveal the secrets of the universe through the eyes of five women: a PhD student, a scientist, a mathematician, an illusionist, and a medium. These stories traverse the ages, constructed of intelligent, playful, and all-encompassing blue matter, bound together by the obsessive search for knowledge and the ultimate question: who gets to decide what is true?

Wittily written and deftly directed by Emma Howlett, this production is aware of its own intelligence, and for the most part, brings the audience along with it. Each story is compelling, raising issues of gender, existentialism, and agency, giving each of the superb actors the space to shine. The strongest moments of this play are narratively driven, as we follow PhD student Sophie in her academic quest to un-blind her tutor’s study, ancient mathematician Hypatia in her final moments before her murder, Victorian teenage medium Florence who hoodwinks the male scientists of her age, and Adelaide, widowed magician. The four-strong chorus, consisting of Abby McCann, Anna Marks Pryce, Gemma Barnett, and Sophie Kean, take on these roles and more with gusto, switching accents, physicality, and characterisation with ease.

The meta-narrative of the play being performed by chaotic and playful agents of blue matter is slightly contrived, and not fully resolved by the conclusion of the production, and the transitional sequences scattered throughout are the weakest moments for the ensemble, creating a rift in the performance rather than a bridge. The five stories also feel unbalanced, with PhD student Sophie the clear protagonist of the story. Each following segment is devoted less and less time as the play progresses until finally Vera Rubin is reduced to a disembodied mention, as though Howlett was constrained by the run time. While all four actors are exceptional, Kean and McCann stand out, with Kean providing a deep sincerity and intensity throughout, and McCann’s charisma and skill at transforming between characters and sections elevating the production.

The technical and design elements of this production are superb. A heavy blue curtain hangs around the back of the stage, forming a perfect circle with the Anatomy Lecture Theatre’s seating bank, encapsulating us within the world of the show. Every prop, set, and costume item is black, white, or this same blue, creating an otherworldly atmosphere, and saturating the stage with blue matter. The addition of a gilet, a blazer, a scarf, or a cage crinoline allows the actors to indicate their switching of characters, giving the audience just enough to picture the historical context of the scene. The use of an outmoded slide projector to display headings and equations on the ceiling and light scenes (aided by striking and evocative lighting design by Edward Saunders) is inspired, neatly engaging with the content of the show and the atmosphere of the venue.

he only downfall of these ambitious design elements is the inevitability of human error in such a jam-packed, fast-paced, pressurised production. There were a few slips and drops of prop and costume items, which were not down to incompetence or covered poorly by the actors, but which broke the spell of the play none the less. The small, constantly-spinning, turntable centre-stage hurt the production more than it helped, never utilised in a way that was particularly striking or inventive, serving only to undermine the actors’ stellar performances by forcing them to shuffle their feet in order to remain facing the audience. While eminently competent and watchable, this production is not perfect. A little tweaking of the scene transitions and script, and reconsideration of the bells and whistles would raise this production into the stratosphere.

Academic, esoteric, and charming, this production is well worth revisiting your student days for – even if you hated physics. And while the secrets of the universe may wish to remain secret, one thing is for sure: TheatreGoose is one to watch.

Recommended Drink: Cups and cups of strong tea to help you through an all nighter discovering the secrets of the universe.

You can catch AETHER at Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall from 31st July to 25th Aug (ex. 11th, 18th) at 19:15 (60 mins). Tickets are available from the EdFringe Online Box Office.