Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Before The Sun Comes Up
First Byte
Genre: Contemporary, Theatre, Youth Theatre
Venue: Studio @The Space
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Under Burnley’s grey skies, a group of teenagers try to find where they fit. When two friends announce an impulsive engagement, the group is swept into a blur of cheap suits and reckless love. They feel invincible, until one night changes everything. Before the Sun Comes Up is a warm, gritty exploration of growing up in a place that doesn’t wait for you, navigating the space between childhood dreams and the reality of adulthood. When the laughter fades and the future looms, FirstByte Theatre asks what remains of the friendships and places that defined you?
Review
Tubthumping teenagers greet you as you take your seats for Before The Sun Comes Up. They hang out, sing and dance a little, then check their phones, enjoy each other’s company. They stop frequently to take photos in a set up for a show where this cast will barely be off stage- instead they use tableau, heading to the edge of the stage to watch the action in a lovely, rounded and flowing ensemble. They take pictures to end a sequence and to demonstrate the desire to capture a way of life that is ending. They tell us it’s the story of their last summer before Uni, and that continuous flow of devised group storytelling is put to good use as we hear all their plans- furtive, certain, dashed, subject to change- and explore their relationships to each other.
It’s truly a group effort, every actor has their moment and they also come decidedly as one. There’s great synchronicity and generosity in how these actors perform together. There’s the photographer (photos of the group hang in strings for set dressing) and his twin sister, there’s the couple with a big announcement that will bring the group together and drive the plot, a would-be pair trying to decide whether it’s wrong to get together when they are about to go in separate directions, one friend working out how to hold onto her judgement while falling for a new girl they meet on a night out. They have teenage problems. Grades, the clearing system, an ill mum, a desire to stay or leave, an experience of racism and the particular difficulty of how that sits for the person of colour within a predominantly white friendship group.
They pull you into their world of relative freedom and hope before their results or the start of their working life. There’s partying, shopping, plan-making. JP (or Jacket, for jacket potato obviously), the photographer, wants to use his photos of the group to apply to an opportunity with the National Gallery. There’s so much lovely work here, from the whole group playing the voice of the McDonald’s drive-through, to their descriptions of Burnley all lit up at night popcorning from the cast who speak one at the time but together. The set up of a group talking to each other, chatting through whatever is going on for them, creates opportunity for so many incidental stories to be woven in- one of the casts tells them about a woman who also used to bring him choc ices as a child now canvassing for Reform. The ease of weaving in social commentary from First Byte youth theatre while telling us a joyful, funny, and emotional story is more than many adult theatre companies can manage.
Continuous action on stage for an hour is a feat for any theatre company and there are moments, especially the ones of very quiet or very loud that could be finessed. The ending creates definition and a point to very clearly stop and see all the characters clearly in a different emotional tone. I would love however to see this group work with a script that doesn’t rely on a big set piece event- they have so much here already, this group is vibrant and full of stories and turning points without hinging on a twist in the tale.
This is a story about hopes that hang on circumstances. Some will pan out and some won’t. Their individual and collective wills meet uncertainty, home supports them but it is also beginning to look different now. One character says Burnley “is showing me the way I just don’t know it yet”. The mournfulness embedded in the title takes centre stage by the end, there is also a lot of joy and enough hopes realised- this play feels like being let into a world of resilience and support, with a huge capacity for fun. I leave feeling more hopeful for the future.
