REVIEW: The Understudy, Eva Seymour, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

Cast into the wings, our pity-evoking Understudy can’t quite seem to put her finger on why she’s not centre-stage, both in her career and in her own personal life. Eva Seymour’s inventive, playful and whip-smart comedy explores the unexpected whimsy in desperately trying to reach your career goals, with a characteristic light touch. Filling in for all of the roles (both as performer and as character), we witness a slight descent into madness from a careerist actor on the brink, deployed in creative form that asks the audience to consider the plight of the people on the sidelines in the arts.

We watch our Understudy catapult herself from cringe-inducing social climbing through to difficulties in her relationship, and a reckoning with approaching reality when the story of your life isn’t the one you were hoping to be told. Seymour delivers the endeavour with candour and sensibility, in what is sometimes a despairing yelp from the character for basic recognition of her talents and individuality. Shining a spotlight on the struggle is the central thrust, yet a parallel subplot makes it so clear that our human tendencies can often hinder our own self-enlightenment.

There’s a foreboding character in The Understudy never on the stage – the industry itself. How it drains those who feel its call, and how much they’re willing to self-sacrifice in order to be delivered unto the life they dream of. As we see our Understudy cast off life-long friends and established relationships to glimpse an opportunity, there’s an overwhelming sense that everything with the way we perceive live performance careers is wrong. Seymour plays a deft hand, however, in keeping levity at the core of her performance, providing plenty of belly laughs as we see the ends to which her character will go to self-realise, self-actualise, and manifest her future.

Formally, the piece plays fabulously with multimedia elements that gently evoke the work of filmmaker Jordan Peele and theatre-maker Susanne Kennedy. It’s evident there’s something unnerving bubbling under the surface of The Understudy, as memory gaps begin to appear in the mind of our central character. The show wastes no time in taking us between vignettes of emotional extremes, providing only the pits of our Understudy’s experience, providing as much distressing depth as there is fanciful play. While the piece runs a little short to offer the pathos it attempts to unwind in its final act, there’s nonetheless much to admire in Seymour’s imaginative creation, directed with verve and tightness from Olivia Charalambous.

Moments in which we see our Understudy trying to restart conversations, or feel the words of the audiobook she’s been contracted to narrate invade her own life, blur reality to its finest, asking us how far we can drag our own sense of self to find fame, fortune and that oh-so-needed gratification of having someone else perceive you for your talents. The Understudy is sharp, bracing character comedy that gleefully unpacks precarity in the industry.

Recommended Drink: Head out for a few glasses of wine with your theatre bestie, and try not to be overwhelmed by your jealousy.

Performances of The Understudy have now concluded at EdFringe 2026.

Image Credit: Nick Robertson