FringeReview Scotland 2026
BYT Short Plays
Borders Youth Theatre
Genre: New Writing, Youth Theatre
Venue: Duns Cadet Hall
Festival: FringeReview Scotland
Low Down
Three very different short plays with very different outcomes from three young writers. Pyramid Pandemonium, by Lily Peden describes what can happen when an expedition to investigate hidden treasures in some ancient pyramids goes badly wrong. The Mission, from Nicholas Harrison, is to recover the kidnap victim spirited from a local bar by some nefarious looking characters. It’s up to the super sleuth Bounty Hunter to spring the victim. Then it’s One Lady Walked, a fascinating, quite deep and very tender piece of writing from Mabel Peden, focusing on Jane, a lady who does the same thing everyday. Until she doesn’t.
Review
Borders Youth Theatre delivers a wide-ranging workshop and performance project programme across the Scottish Borders throughout the year. The drama workshops provide a fun, friendly, welcoming, inclusive environment and high-quality skills development through the medium of drama, which was manifestly evident in their presentation of three very different short plays with very different outcomes, each written by a member of the company, and aired as part of the DunsPlayFest week.
Pyramid Pandemonium was first up, written with great imagination (and an abundance of dry humour) by Lily Peden. This piece focused on just what can happen when an expedition to investigate possible hidden treasures in some ancient pyramids goes badly wrong. Yep, they all end up crying for their mummies (that’s Lily’s witty introduction, not mine, I hasten to add).
Presented partly in mockumentary style, the quest for treasure rapidly descends into arguments about what they’re actually doing there, the absence of a key member of the team who has met with a very complicated accident…..and the absence of wifi. And when the expedition leader makes the fatal mistake of lifting the statue from its plinth, the wrath of the gods knows no bounds. Until, that is, Alexa arrives via the good old interweb to act as an intermediary between two opposing groups.
This was a clever piece of youth theatre, with a very well constructed plot, thoughtfully defined characters, a few amusing caricatures and a bucket load of physical theatre and mime on a very small stage with a very large cast. And a very crisp and dry denouement to boot.
Next up we had The Mission from Nicholas Harrison, whose main inspiration/motivation, apparently, for writing this piece was his local bakery – which sells exceedingly good pies. We’re in a bar with some nefarious looking characters acting in a very suspicious manner. Sure enough, someone gets kidnapped and it’s up to the super sleuth Bounty Hunter to spring the victim. Aided and abetted by his young nephew, someone with a fascination for the dark underworld of criminality it seems.
Using simple sign boards as, ‘erm, scene signposts, the play skips along at a fair old rate, the opening bar scene being followed by one in a casino and then the bandit cave holding “the target” in a twisty, turny plot flowing with dry humour, great throwaway lines, a neat line in trilbies and a magnificent moustache. Buoyed by some consummate acting from our Bounty Hunter and his mate, this beautifully bizarre tale concludes with a skilfully choreographed stage fight as right triumphs over wrong. Or something like that.
Last, and very much not least, was One Lady Walked, a fascinating, quite deep and very tender piece of writing from Mabel Peden. It focused on the life of Jane, a lady who does the same thing everyday. She gets up, brushes her teeth, has breakfast, says goodbye to her cat, greets the lollipop lady on her walk to work with the same question, buys a particularly complex sounding coffee from the same vendor, arrives at work in time to secure her favourite work tool, works, and goes home. Then repeats the process. Again and again. Until she doesn’t.
In the wrong hands, this could become deadly dull very quickly. But, for someone who hasn’t yet hit her teens, our Mabel has an impressive grasp of narrative structure and a real eye for detail. For example, each time Jane’s day is repeated, it speeds up a little. The background music takes on that tone when a record is played too quickly, the actors move ever more quickly, the exchanges become perfunctory. Then things revert to normal, at which point we’re all looking for something to throw the routine out of its equilibrium. Which it does.
The resultant denouement is as poignant as it is optimistic, touching in that it gains Jane a friend to encourage her to accept that something different can be an opportunity, not a threat. A clever ending to an exquisitely constructed narrative, acted with care and precision by this well-drilled cast.
Three different plays, three different endings. If this is representative of the generation beyond Gen Z’s ability to tell a story, then the performing arts is in good hands…….in this part of the Scottish Borders, anyway. Highly recommended youth theatre.
