Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Sobremesa
Table 61 Productions
Genre: Drama, Feminist Theatre, Fringe Theatre
Venue: Gilded Balloon Patter House – Blether
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
At Alma’s birthday dinner, tensions rise when her sister Billie introduces a new boyfriend. Agnes Perry-Robinson’s intimate drama examines sisterhood, memory and misogyny as conversation turns towards religion, politics, money and sex. Sobremesa asks how far we should go to protect the people we love from their own possible mistakes.
Review
Sobremesa is a naturalistic three-hander set around a restaurant table at Alma’s birthday. Her sister Billie arrives with her new boyfriend, James, and the dinner exposes tensions between them. The sisters’ history emerges through disagreements and what they avoid saying. Alma fears for Billie, who wants to make her own choices. How far should we go to protect someone we love when they may not want our protection? James’s presence disrupts their relationship. The play explores misogyny, sexual assault, victim-blaming and how boys protect boys. It also examines coercive control: how a partner can isolate a woman from the people around her while placing expectations around motherhood upon her.
The production rings true in the silences that hang unspoken within areas of middle and upper-class British society. Shame remains with those who do not hold power because of their gender, rather than those responsible. I was shocked by this, but it also felt familiar. Within this heteronormative world, entitlement to sex is assumed and reinforced through social conventions. Even in 2026, watching educated women being manipulated in this way made me question how these patterns continue.
Alejandra Deane, Athena Vlachos and Benjamin Sumrie give strong performances, with chemistry. The audience responded. Felix Sutton’s direction keeps our attention on the relationships within the intimate space. However, I wanted more grit. The play deals with rape, sexual assault and coercive control, but I did not always feel enough darkness, danger or underlying threat. The emotional tone needed greater variation, and I think the production needs to take more risks. It rests too much on safe ground.
Sobremesa is well acted and raises important questions about sisterhood, memory, misogyny and power. It will be stronger if it enters more dangerous territory and make us feel what is at stake.
