Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Forget About Me
Despite the Monkey
Genre: Horror, Magic, Storytelling
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Justifying its review tags of horror, magic and storytelling this genre-blending show uses some classic horror techniques as well as sleight of hand magic tricks to explore childhood memories, creating a creepy little ghost story.
Review
In a remote, north-east village Dylan’s dad is spending his weekends doing a DIY renovation of a Victorian fixer-upper. Of his three children Dylan, the youngest aged 10, is the one who chooses to stay with his divorced dad in the chaotic building site, enjoying the variety of bed spaces his dad rigs up for him, although he is less keen on the weird kid Connor from next door. Knocking the house about seems to have disturbing effects which culminate in a spooky weekend. The consequence is a fractured teenage relationship with his Dad, but as they reminisce together now, the adult Dylan struggles to remember whether there really was something frightening lurking in the bathroom or it was all a figment of his overactive imagination. Or was it, audience? Honouring all good horror shows there is one delicious final twist.
Forget About Me (created and performed by Dylan Howells) has lots of classic horror tropes but is as much a play about memory and how unreliable it can be as it is a magic show with some great horror special effects. The latter are really effective; the audience knows something scary is going to happen but they still jump and gasp when it does. Howells is a consummate and confident trickster and although his tricks are familiar – props disappearing from an audience member’s grasp, signed objects reappearing in locked boxes – it still foxes and delights. Howells is also good at staging and lighting (as seen in It’s the Economy, Stupid! playing at the Pleasance) and makes the most of the tiny stage in this intimate space with authentic DIY paraphernalia repurposed.
Howells is less strong at storytelling and performing. Although billed as a true story it still requires more discipline and structure to come alive for us on stage than this slightly lackadaisical offering. Saying you can’t do certain accents (Dylan’s dad is allegedly from Tyneside) is a poor excuse to substitute a generic Yorkshire one. Connor, the irritating boy next door, is voiced in person by Joe Sellman-Leava (talented writer/performer of It’s the Economy, Stupid! and Copycat – also at this year’s Fringe) and he pretends to make a poor job of it. Although this is played for laughs, along with Howells’ weak impersonation of his dad, all this does is break the atmosphere that Howells’ special effects have built up. This is a shame.
The theme of a disrupted childhood and unreliable memory is rich source material for a potent story. As it stands Forget About Me is like a work in development, enjoyable enough for now, and the audience in the performance reviewed did appreciate it. But there is a lot of potential here to build on Howells’ strengths to create a really strong show and it could be realised with detailed attention to characterisation and even more horror and magic.
