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Ascension

 
A. A. Lewis Review by A. A. Lewis 4 Published: 19 Aug 2025 Bedlam Theatre Show Dates: 30 Jul 2025-25 Aug 2025

A sleeper hit from last year’s festival, Dan Hazelwood’s lost history Ascension returns to the Edinburgh Fringe at Bedlam Theatre until 25 August. The play, largely a one-man show performed by Hazelwood himself, richly sketches a portrait of the Dutch sailor Leendert Hasenbosch, who was marooned on Ascension Island in the South Atlantic in 1725 for sodomy. Its contents are inspired by Hasenbosch’s diary, discovered after his death, in which he detailed his daily survival on the island, surrounded by barren rock and sublime ocean, haunted by the demons of his past.

Intelligent, pristinely choreographed, and technically impressive

Hazelwood has constructed a sensitive and uplifting, if slightly meandering, memory play about Hasenbosch’s life, boldly updating – or rather, repurposing – his tragic story for 21st-century audiences. The play attempts to assimilate themes as far-reaching as religious trauma, the weaponisation of faith and the internalisation of shame, explorations of queer identity, love, family, acceptance, self-acceptance, intimacy and the absolute. For the most part it tackles these themes relatively seamlessly, threading them together within the purview of a deathward plot. This is an intelligent, pristinely choreographed and technically impressive hour, bolstered by a dynamic central performance from Hazelwood that keeps viewers hooked.

The predominant focus of Ascension is recollections from Hasenbosch’s past, which the play successfully dramatises and weaves around the events of his present (his dying days) – from sexual awakenings to his employment with the Dutch East India Company. These are the most compelling parts of the production, counterposing religious piety with desire and romantic discovery. While the play suffers here and there from being overly explanatory in its themes – particularly its political and social messaging – and thus trusts its audience slightly too little, there is real subtlety and brilliance in its vignette-like structure, as well as eloquent catharsis in Hasenbosch’s ending.

There is a neatness and simplicity to this play’s narrative, structure and purpose, which audiences have clearly been responding to. No doubt this year’s festival will not be the last we hear of Ascension – or of Dan Hazelwood.

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The Blurb:

Dan Hazelwood's wonderfully rule breaking play returns to EdFringe, reclaiming the story of an 18th-century exile marooned on Ascension Island for the crime of sodomy. As light on its feet as it is in its disposition, Ascension adapts his 300-year-old diary, infusing it with original writing, fluid physical theatre, and post-modern flourishes to transcend its historic roots into a play firmly rooted in the 21st century. Ascension explores weaponised religion, self-discovery, and self-acceptance through a lens of optimism, compassion, and wit. 'I laughed, I cried, I wished I'd brought more tissues' **** (TheStage.co.uk). **** (ButchFemmePress.com). **** (EdFringeReview.com). **** (TheRealChrisparkle.com).