Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Collateral Damage
Without Compromise Theatre
Genre: New Writing, Theatre, True-life
Venue: theSpace@Surgeons Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Collateral Damage gives voice to issues that all too often remain under the societal and political radar, in this case exposing how addiction can detonate relationships as three working class women find that estrangement rules and reason has long since departed. Gritty, brutal but with a clear route offered to redemption.
Review
Stacey is slouched in a chair, cigarette drooping from her lips, refilling a mug from one of the bottles of spirits on the table beside her. Detritus lies scattered around her, only a card on the table with the word “LOVE” writ large hinting at a ray of hope – a way out of despair.
That’s the scene greeting the audience at Without Compromise Theatre’s Collateral Damage, an emotionally charged, raw yet occasionally tender examination of the damage that alcohol (and other forms of abuse/addiction) can do to individuals and those around them.
Stacey’s daughter, Hayley, is a nurse. She knows the damage her mother is causing through her refusal to acknowledge that drink won’t cure the longing she feels for her late husband or the hurt that her other daughter, Alex, caused with an alcohol fuelled attack on her partner, leading to a spell behind bars and loss of access to her son. Alex is released on licence but Stacey wants nothing to do with her, leaving Hayley no option but to offer sibling succour and a place to stay in the hope that, somehow, she can find enough sticking plaster to hold this fractured family together long enough to work up a more permanent solution.
Michael Johnson’s script brutally exposes how addiction can detonate relationships, in this case between these three working class women, where estrangement rules and reason has long since departed. The plot unfolds through a series of tightly choreographed scenes as Hayley undertakes a form of shuttle diplomacy, acting as intermediary between her mother and sister. Their respective exchanges are littered with a juicy Glasgow patois that bring raw reality to their back stories; Hayley’s determination to better herself through education and a profession; Stacey’s duplicity and denial; Alex’s anger at the way the system has treated her.
The tale hints at other potential sources of collateral damage too – another sibling’s premature death, the triangularity of the relationship between Stacey, her late husband and the bottle. But, just when you think that this is all going to end in tears, a ray of light at the end of the tunnel suggests that acknowledging denial could be the start of a journey to recovery.
Lucy Pedersen’s assured staging and direction delivers a gripping fifty minutes of theatre, emotionally draining for the audience and no doubt the trio on stage in what was a superb display of characterisation, both orally and physically. Lorna McFarlane (Stacey) exhibited all the signs of a barely functioning alcoholic; shaking hands, poor coordination, polar opposite emotions. Erin Clark (Alex) was the epitome of someone who felt let down by “the system”, yet who refuses to recognise that she might also carry some of the blame for the situation in which she now finds herself. And Charley Crooks (Hayley) nervously navigates the conflicting priorities of work and family, treading on the proverbial eggshells to the detriment of her own wellbeing.
This is another powerful piece from Without Compromise Theatre, giving voice to a range of issues that all too often remain under the societal and political radar. And it left its mark on its audience – gritty but with a clear route offered to redemption. Highly recommended.
