REVIEW: Mother, Maiden and Crone, EdFringe 2025 ★★★★

A perfect blend of queer culture, intelligent literary allusion, and deliciously crude humour, Mother, Maiden and Crone is a riotously good time. A very loose adaptation of Macbeth set in a queer club, this production doesn’t take itself too seriously, but still serves up incredibly witty commentary on both Shakespeare’s original text and the politics of queer spaces.

The play takes place in fictional queer Club Limbo, where drag queen, Mother, shot boy, Maiden, and DJ, Crone, are confronted by the hen party from hell, and forced to change the course of McBride’s big night out forever, thus teaching the hens how to behave in queer spaces. A la the witches from Macbeth, Mother, Maiden, and Crone cause havoc, planting seeds of doubt in McBride’s head that bloom into a wonderfully chaotic, and often-times hilarious, garden. Complete with lip-synching, buckets of scheming, and a Gaga Judas dance off, this production tackles the problems that arise when queer spaces aren’t respected head-on, with vicious humour and fierce love for the queer scene tempered by an undercurrent of tender acceptance and the desire to welcome (respectful) outsiders into the fold.

The nine-strong cast are committed and consistently impressive, throwing themselves into the play (and sometimes onto the floor) with abandon. The hens delight in playing such obnoxious, love-to-hate characters, with each actor managing to find elements of depth that elevate their characters beyond caricatures. The stand-outs, predictably, are Mother, Maiden, and Crone, played by Lewis Gemmell, Ewan Burns, and Fin Watt respectively, who are the definition of charisma, and are clearly enjoying themselves so much that you simply must join in. The role of club owner Hector (aka Hecate) is used as a vehicle to showcase four local drag artists, each taking on the role for a few shows before passing the baton, with the wonderful Mystika Glamoor performing the role with gusto the night that I attended.

Ewan Burn’s script is wickedly sharp, effortlessly blending each disparate element and delivering the message of the piece without becoming preachy or losing the frenetic energy required. This excellent script is in safe hands with director Lewis Gemmell, who brings the atmosphere of the queer club to life with superb visual gags and strikes a perfect campy tone.

Effervescent, riotous, and remarkably dextrous, this production is a very worthy addition to the canon of Fringe Shakespearean adaptations.

Drink recommendation: Lots!

You can catch Mother, Maiden and Crone at Studio at theSpace @ Niddry Street from 11th to the 19th August at 21:05 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.