REVIEW: HAM, Hotter Project, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

Disclaimer: In the spirit of ‘Think Less, Feel More’, what follows is a stream of consciousness to capture the feeling of watching this show. It is therefore an extended piece to suit this expansive form.

A blood-spattered curtain. Or perhaps it’s proscuitto. Projected onto it’s fleshy fabric: home video footage of Mary Higgins and Ell Potter at the farm. Piglets suckling teats, piglets headbutting their mother’s teat, idyllic farmyard scenes – I love that they’ve done their research, all playwrights deserve an ‘away day’. 

ACT I

To eat, or not to eat (meat), that is the question. Gertrude in a bodycon dress and Hamlet in Nike shorts and a ruff – Rūta Irbīte’s costume and set design definitely eats (not meat). I’m not sure where I stand in this modern ‘eco-hijacking’ of Hamlet; at first it all feels a bit… hammy.

Mary and Ell are doing voices, altering bits of Shakespearean dialogue to make it sound like Hamlet is grieving the death of pig, rather than the death of his father, The King of Denmark. Why has it taken Hamlet 19 years to realise where Tesco wafer thin ham comes from?

It’s giving ‘There is no ethical consumption under capitalism’. I’m tired of watching individuals held to account for their choices rather than giant corporations held to account for their wanton destruction. 

This topless eco-King asks me if I know that choosing a plant-based diet is the single most effective thing an individual can do to reduce their carbon footprint, ranking higher than not having children, not owning a car and not flying. As someone who travelled by train for years in an attempt to give up flights, NO, I did not know that. I wish I did, because it sounds a hell of a lot easier. 

ACT II 

Mary and Ell break the fourth wall and are themselves again – THANK GOD. I am so relieved. I feel uncomfortable watching them pretend to be other people. Why? Perhaps because they’re more interesting themselves than any character they could play. 

So Mary is a vegan, and Ell is…very much not. NOW I’m hooked – thins just got personal. This is a relationship drama about eating meat, role-played via Shakespearean Tragedy. And you don’t need to know a thing about Hamlet to enjoy it. As a (bad) vegetarian who has dated nothing but meat-eating men in my lifetime, I realise this is an argument I’ve never even ventured into. Why not? 

Something I can only describe as… pig-human factory-floor Burlesque happens. I applaud the restraint it must have taken the team NOT to use pictures of these cheeks in their marketing materials. I APPLAUD YOU. 

ACT III

A fringe show within a fringe show. We’ve reached peak framing-device genius as we are initiated into a BDSM roleplay put on for the displeasure of Mummy Gertrude.

Now playing Mother, Hamlet invites a meat-eating audience member to submit to punishment for their rank deeds – consensually, of course. Whilst Hamlet’s mummy issues hit hard, I do wish he’d spank this smug man’s hands a little harder.

INTERLUDE: this is the part where Mary and Ell question the efficacy of eco-theatre in changing people’s minds, to the soundtrack of the Kinks best song. The music in this show SLAPS, I need the playlist; do Hotter Project DJ vegan events?

But does eco-theatre ‘work’? I bloody hope so. With a nod and a wink to their Arts Council funding grant, we’re shown statistics about the impact of meat-eating in the UK during this meta-interlude. 

ACT IV 

The funeral. The only other character who made it into this meaty adaptation is Ophelia. Fifi. Or, the ashes of. The ashes of Ell’s actual dead cat, RIP. Of whose funeral we are all now in attendance of. Audience members are invited to share names of their own beloved pets who’ve passed. It would be touching if it wasn’t so absurd. 

We all rise to stand and sing a hymn together, the perfect hymn, because every aspect of this show is thought through to its ridiculous end – until Hamlet crashes the funeral and commits the most heinous act I’ve ever seen on stage. Jaw to the floor in awe. Shocked, horrified and laughing my loins off. 

“Am I mad? Am I mad to feel?”

“You just they ate the cat!””

The audience literally cannot look at these slaughterhouse reels Hamlet is subjecting us to – the woman to my right is hiding behind her blonde fringe, the woman to my left is shielding her eyes with her hands. If you can’t watch the way your meat is killed, you shouldn’t eat meat, I think to myself, a smug vegetarian, until my  hands are over my own eyes all of a sudden – I can’t look either.

I have never wanted to know what everyone in the audience is thinking more than now. Are they considering going vegan? Vegetarian? One vegan breakfast? Do they feel bad? Do they feel attacked, defensive, angry? HOW IS EVERYONE FEELING? I want to ask. Is anyone feeling swayed? 

ACT V 

Everyone dies. We watch the world burn on the meat-sheet as Ell and Mary sing us a creepy lullaby about lambs. I’m waiting for the inevitable shot of Edinburgh on fire this summer, which I know is coming. As if it didn’t hit close enough to home already. 

I hate to admit it but I’m seeing vegans in a whole new light – they’re not holier-than-thou buzzkills trying to make the rest of us feel bad, they love life on earth so much that they’re willing to give up the godly gift of a bacon sarnie to keep experiencing it. Fuck. Maybe vegans are genuinely just good people. What does that make the rest of us? 

This is a show about our collective cognitive dissonance. How it is possible to be both terrified about our world burning, whilst still stoking the coals of our massive meaty barbecues, even whilst knowing that animal agriculture is responsible for at least 51% of annual greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

HAM displays the impressive feats of willful blindness and self-deception humanity is capable of in the pursuit of pleasure in all it’s naked glory.

Ell and Mary embody the battle of Hedonia versus Asceticism in the guise of kinky boots. “We don’t all have vegan dads, Mary. Some of us have dads who call us the Sausage Queen.” There are lines in this play that rival the Bard himself. 

As Ell describes her favourite sausage (apple and pork, the way the apple caramelizes, crisps up, its perfect girth) some audience members are still MMMMing and AAhhhing their agreement. I actually feel a little bit sick. I have to bring my partner to this. And my friends. I have to bring EVERYONE to watch this. 

As I leave, I scan the QR code for more resources, and then I cry. Not because the future that Ell and Mary imagine for us is horrifying OR beautiful (the choice is ours) but because of how much they care. And because now, maybe, I have to go vegan. At least for breakfast. 

But I’m mostly crying because they care SO much about life on earth – about your life, about our lives – they have drawn all over their naked bodies in permanent marker to make a show about it. For you. For me. For all of us. 

“That’s the best thing I’ve seen so far”

“So talented”

“I think the most shocking thing was when they ate the cat!””

If this government cared about life on earth, they would fund Hotter Project to take this show on a nationwide tour. They would pay for this show to be played in every town hall, every school, every church, every music festival, every theatre and every prison in the country.

If anyone rich who’s reading this loves life on earth, they would give Hotter Project the funding to take this show on tour nationwide – WORLDWIDE. I dare you to watch this show and not want to change. Not even a little bit, not even at all. 

Recommended Drink: The Mind Eraser. A 1980s twist on the Black Russian made with vodka, coffee liqueur and club soda. Drink and forget to keep pleasing your tastebuds, or stay awake long enough to save the world. 

Catch HAM at Summerhall from August 19-30 at 19:30 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.