REVIEW: We Were Sisters, Julia Van Praagh and Tigs Edwards, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

What happens when your supposed “built-in best friend” becomes someone you can’t stand?

When Celia loses her phone after a night out, it sets off a chain of small, seemingly inconsequential, events that force Celia and Josie to accept their incompatibility. Beginning as a morning-after comedy of errors, the fuse is lit for the play to slowly develop into the unravelling of sisterhood. Through clashing personalities and different life stages, distance creeps in. This funny and honest play begs the question: how well do we understand the people we love, and what happens when we don’t?

This show to me it was one for the young women that grew up with Jacqueline Wilson stories. It felt that the characters lifted off the pages and onto the stage and even though there were no Jacqueline Wilson references, it is a story of sisterhood that is very much recognisable from the early 2000s but remains ever relevant.

The girls performances throughout are so incredible and the differences between them both we see in the first two seconds on stage even down to the costumes were so developed in the short space of time. Going from their early twenties to mid 30s we see decades of their lives in this 40 minute production

Josie, played by Tigs Edwards, is a girl that has a life figured out by her 20s. She’s the queen of corporate – always organised and Mary Poppins bag in hand – but when we begin to see her life fall apart, her insecurities begin to seep through the cracks, pulling her into these conflicts that we see with Celia . We can see the moment that both of them start to drift apart and it is equally heartbreaking and bittersweet, as the girls that we met at the beginning of the piece grow up.

Julia Van Praagh’s Celia is exactly opposite to what Josie would ever wish to be. Very chaotic. Her life is a bit all over the place but she takes it by the reins. Even when it goes in unpredictable directions she has a quiet confidence allowing her to follow through on her decisions. As we see her side of the story, we can definitely see her heartbreak as she realises she’s starting to lose the person that was her built-in best friend

The set adds a further heartbreaking element, as these difficult moments take place in a childhood bedroom. Among pillows and blankets in this warm environment the friendship begins to unravel and the connection breaks. We are constantly reminded throughout of what they used to be and that they were children that loved each other, but we know that life can’t stay simple forever.

We Were Sisters is a story that people can connect to whether they have siblings or not, from friends to wider family this is a cathartic piece that shouldn’t be missed this Fringe.

You can catch We Were Sisters at theSpace Surgeons Hall from August 7-22 at 18:50 (40 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.