The Edinburgh Festival Fringe can be a brutal environment. There are thousands of productions competing for attention and not everyone can return a winner.

The production needs to be urgently and drastically rethought

The ambition and exuberance of a young company coming to Edinburgh for the first time, therefore, has to be admired.

However, much as I wanted to like Dead Animals, the production needs to be urgently and drastically rethought.

The premise, the script, the performances, the relationships, the staging and the direction all require root and branch rework. It is sincerely hoped that this very likeable cast and crew return another day.

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Reviews by Roger Kay

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Mama Biashara
Kate Copstick’s charity, Mama Biashara, works with the poorest and most marginalised people in Kenya. They give grants to set up small, sustainable businesses that bring financial independence and security. That five quid you spend on a large glass of House White? They can save someone’s life with that. And the money for a pair of Air Jordans? Will take four women and their fifteen children away from a man who is raping them and into a new life with a moneymaking business for Mum and happiness for the kids.
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A surreal journey about reconciling with grief through the natural world. Jesse returns to the cottage he grew up in with a photo and cardboard box. The land is just as he left it, and his grandmother is brash as ever, but why did it take him so long to come back? Dead Animals uses vibrant soundscapes and fast dialogue to awaken nature and transport us the muckiest four miles in all of Canada. From award-winning Canadian playwright Jesse Stong comes a lively and heartwarming new play about returning to the place we left our loved ones.