Edinburgh Fringe 2026
A Microscopic Odyssey
Mycelium Theatre Company
Genre: Devised, Physical Theatre, World Theatre
Venue: Beside at Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A Microscopic Odyssey follows the life of James, a man who, after trauma, turns to the hidden universe of microbes and discovers an entirely new world for himself there. What follows is an epic tale of survival, re-emergence and wonder.
Review
James comes across an overhead projector lying idle, and like any curious child, he starts playing with it. He puts some objects on it, arranges them carefully and essentially starts creating shadow puppetry. He’s overjoyed at discovering this whole new world. But his happiness is short-lived. His father takes away this joy from him.
James’ trauma makes him quite a reserved person. In a beautifully designed scene, we see James in a sliver of light, peeking outside, before he fully comes out. He grows up to become a microbiologist, and the worlds he comes across in the microscope become his way of understanding life.
A Microscopic Odyssey is a marvellous piece of theatre. It aces every department to create one of the most complete works I’ve seen in a very long time. Devised theatre often follows the rule of “less is more”, and while many struggle with truly sticking to it, Mycelium Theatre shows us how it’s done. A Microscopic Odyssey uses mainly two things – bodies and lights. Bodies talk, move, dance, manipulate puppets, and become characters. Light gets projected, reflected, bounced, contained and refracted. When these come together, we get an embodied, visual and poetic masterpiece about hope and wonder.
Director Hope Wishart and designer Enza Kim seem to have created this piece with a lot of sensitivity and care. It’s one of those shows that make you want to stay back and talk to the makers about their process. The cast, consisting of Ben Boulton Jones, Greta Abbey, Allie-Rae Fossum and Elijah Bai Bangura, do a phenomenal job as performers. It’s often difficult to know who contributes to what in a devised theatre process due to its fluid and non-linear nature. But it’s not possible to create a show this wonderful without having unity and trust among all the team members.
The story deals with the effects of PTSD and how James navigates his life within a world he creates for himself. He loves studying the water bear. He even has a favourite water bear fact. James is a nerd about the inner world of everything. As we learn more about water bears, we may realise how his love for the water bear comes from his resonance with them. Water bears survive by shutting down, and so does James. They wait, sometimes for a very long time, before returning to the world when conditions feel survivable again. When will the world become survivable for James again?
The awe-inspiring music and visual language of A Microscopic Odyssey reminded me of the film Tree of Life by Terrence Malick and the writings of Carl Sagan. It connects the personal to the universal, and often makes you feel less alone in this large world. Knowing that even a water bear can have tendencies similar to yours makes you feel a little more accepted and belonged.
This show is built on the hopeful and revolutionary spirit of its makers as much as it’s built on their technical abilities. At one point, James questions if the water bear is truly alive or just surviving? It becomes a moment of reflection on his own relationship with trauma. It’s a moment of reflection for the audience as well. How often do we allow ourselves to see the little things around us and the universes it carries within them? How often do we let wonder guide us? How often do we interact with the more-than-human world?
Mycelium Theatre’s immensely innovative A Microscopic Odyssey is a highly recommended show for anyone who wishes to experience hope, wonder and beauty in times of shielded survival.
