Edinburgh Fringe 2026

Knight’s Dream

Muchadoaboutmusical

Genre: Musical Theatre

Venue: theSpace@Surgeons Hall

Festival: Edinburgh Fringe

Low Down

Review

We’re at the opening of “Knight’s Dream”, Oscar Pendragon’s brand new bar down in fashionable downtown somewhere – sassy, chic and right up itself.  However, fiancée Tulisa, a girl with a stare that could strike a man dead at twenty paces, is less than impressed.  Oscar’s focus on the bar has meant yet another postponement of their long-planned wedding – a decade as a fiancée is beginning to take its toll on her equilibrium.  But there’s customers to serve, four of them it turns out and a right paid of star-crossed lovers they look.

Writer/director Connie Evans has spent a whole lot of time and energy fashioning Knight’s Dream, a modernist musical take on what is arguably the Bard’s daftest comedy.  Her script sticks resolutely to the original plot whilst taking the opportunity to highlight a series of current issues, principally the danger of drug spiking, but with a nod in the direction of binge drinking, misogyny, social media use and the exploitation of employees, particularly those who nefarious employers recognise to be in a weak negotiating position.

So unfolds a rapid hour of comings and goings largely precipitated by Oscar’s “Love Drug” being ingested by people for whom it was not intended causing mayhem, madness and a lot of audience laughter.  But “Cupid’s Dart”, the antidote, eventually saves the day.  And everybody lives happily ever after, naturally, except perhaps the defeated, disgraced Oscar.

This pleasantly madcap piece was delivered in some style by its quality cast.  Tom Foley (Oscar, aka Oberon) was the epitome of the narcissistic, misogynist (think David Brent in The Office); Hedda Nordahl-Hagen (Tulisa, aka Titania) looked convincingly lovestruck by the overtures of the vivacious Ryan Addiman as Tim (aka Bottom); and our star-crossed quartet were, well, suitably lovestruck and enraged at the appropriate points in the story, Daniel Rossiter (Luka) standing out as a man mountain with the backbone of the average mouse.

Songs were nicely scattered throughout, with a good mix of tempos, voices and moods.  Some were, well, just catchy sing-along numbers, others gently tugged a few emotional strings.  Simple melodies/harmonies are the order of the day in situations like this – anything else risked disturbing the flow of what was a fast-paced piece of theatre pretty much from start to finish.

But the star of the show was very much Charlotte Teeples as the Bartender, a Machiavellian Puck with a side-serving of mischief that showcased her excellent singing voice, superlative acting and innate sense of comic timing.  You’ve either got that or you haven’t, and Teeples has it in spades.  She extracted every ounce of humour from her character’s lines and asides, her elastic, expressive face aiding and abetting throughout.  Teeples has real talent – one to watch out for.

Evans’ direction was assured, as were the contributions from her production, sound, lighting and costume team.  And there’s another shout out to Ryan Alderman for finding the time to be both in it (see above) and the show’s musical director.

OK, maybe the techies coffee had been spiked the night I attended as there were a number of sound/light bloopers and the “pass the mike to the singer” game that was played regularly on set got a bit distracting – throat mikes next time, maybe – but these were minor issues that didn’t detract from the overall quality of the show.

Knight’s Dream is a well written, staged and executed piece of musical theatre; solid script; catchy songs; competent singing; and excellent acting throughout, with evident chemistry in each of the many on-stage relationships.  Back to that old adage, if the cast are having fun, the audience will.  They were and we did.  What more do you need to recommend it……….

Published August 19, 2026 by Tim Wilcock