Edinburgh Fringe 2026
BearGirl
Hey Thanks! Theater Collective
Genre: Comedic, Dark Comedy, Fringe Theatre, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: Assembly Roxy
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
BearGirl is the quintessence of good Fringe theatre: minimal staging, maximal performance, and a downright wacky concept.
Review
Playwright Emery Schaffer returns to the Edinburgh Fringe this year with a new play inspired by Anton Chekov’s The Bear. Though some of the core elements of The Bear form the framework of BearGirl (a young widow, left in debt by her deceased husband), Schaffer takes the rest of the story in an entirely new (and more literal) direction. Schaffer’s young widow decides to don a bear costume as a misguided attempt to cope with her grief, regularly reciting the mantra ‘Bears don’t think, bears just do.’ As a concept, BearGirl is wacky in the way a Fringe show ought to be, but many Fringe shows make the mistake of focusing too much on the ‘weird’ factor and fail to execute a good story. This play is a happy marriage of weird and well-written.
Grief is a frequently chronicled subject in every form of media, yet this particular play has managed to explore it in a way that has never been done before. The stage had 2 chairs and a rectangle of LEDs. Nothing else. Many Fringe shows have a minimalist set up and small team, and adjust their show accordingly. Usually, they stay within one or two locations, a chronological plot, and the cast is limited to a few characters. Schaffer takes a significant risk having the play take place in multiple locations, with multiple characters (and only 2 actors to portray them), and with flashbacks in the timeline.
Thus, the entire success of this production hinged on great acting.
It delivered.
The set and costuming were so minimal that the acting and writing had to make it abundantly clear exactly where the scene was set and which characters were there, and the audience was never lost for a moment. The actors led us through the story effortlessly. BearGirl, played by Rachel De Fontes, acted as both the protagonist and narrator, smoothly switching between dialogue and soliloquy. When it was meant to be, it was always clear whether she was meant to be speaking out loud or thinking to herself through her body language and eye-contact with the audience.
Jimmy Kavanagh played every other character— and there were quite a few. He never changed costume, only his voice and body language, yet it was always obvious exactly which character he was playing. His various accents were spot on, and his physical acting was absolutely outstanding. Because of these two actors, the story was immersive, engaging, and easy to follow. By the design of this play, it would have been easy for the story to get lost with two lesser actors. Their chemistry, regardless of which character Kavanaugh was portraying, was effortless. Kavanaugh and De Fontes are the best two actors I have ever seen in a Fringe show, and that is only a credit to their extraordinary ability, not a slight to others.
Supporting the actors in guiding the story was the technical team. The lighting and sound cues were absolutely on point, down to the millisecond. Everything, lighting changes, slight droning sounds, sound effects, all enhanced the points of impact throughout the story. It never lagged, it never missed, and it never felt extra or unnecessary. All of the tech choices felt tasteful and subdued.
The backstory of how BearGirl met her husband— a student falling for her exceptionally young literature professor, whom she hated at first— felt like it came straight out of a fanfiction. However, the husband being older and more established in his career was an important dynamic to the story. As the narrative progressed and more about their relationship was revealed, the romance-novel backstory made more sense, especially coming from a narrator who said she loves romance novels.
BearGirl was a near-perfect dark comedy: laugh-out-loud funny, gut-wrenching, and full of surprises. Though I did not know what to expect when looking at the posters of a girl in a rubber bear mask, whatever notions I had of this show were thoroughly supplanted by the beautiful story flawlessly executed by every single element of this production team.
