Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Dr Orr: A Musical Retelling of Macbeth
Edinburgh University Shakespeare Company
Genre: Musical Theatre, New Writing
Venue: The Space @ Symposium Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Dr Orr is a surgeon who, after an encounter along with her colleague and three strange electricians, finds herself slowly unravelling. The promotion she had always hoped for is being denied. Given the opportunity to remove the blockage from her ambition, she does so bloodily, and in true tragic Shakespearean style ends up with blood on her hands.
Review
There are elements of this which delight whilst there are gaps of theatricality which if they had been closed would have made this much slicker. Clearly approaching the idea with Macbeth in mind, there are elements where it matches but it does seem to be more of a platform than a reimagining. There are musicians onstage who are not completely utilized, and it would have been great to have seen them have a wider role.
Scene changes tended to be clunky with the space not wholly considered when piecing it all together. At times, also switching from the music into more naturalized performance is a very difficult trick to pull off; at times it worked at others not so well.
Having said all that, there was a charm within this which was a bold attempt to rethink a classic in a new context. Setting it within a hospital worked to an extent and we got many of the features we expect including the bloody hands and the scalpel turning its handle towards Dr Orr’s hand! The use of the haunting ghost of the Banquo character worked well and was perhaps the strongest connection aside from the witches and the electricians to Shakespeare’s play.
I wondered however if Macbeth was more of a straightjacket than a platform, and it could have survived on its own as a tale being told by these skilled creatives. The music was effective, score by Glasgow born Buxton Orr, songs were skilfully interpreted and aside from a few awkward moments of acting this effectively told the tale.
It is however a Shakespeare Society, though Baby Reindeer like, it could have been “heavily influenced by imagined events.”
Overall, this company demonstrated that they had every right to be here and did not fall back upon yet another exploration of a classic Shakespearean text. They should take a lot of credit for making the leap, adding a new layer to it.
