Edinburgh-based Arbery Theatre is bringing two new and very different productions to this year’s Fringe.
A Pound of Flesh offers an imaginative take on Shakespeare’s classic The Merchant of Venice. In this new version lawyer-in-disguise Portia does not make it to court to save Antonio’s life. With echoes of the events in Romeo and Juliet and combining the original text of The Merchant with language and imagery in Shakespeare’s style, A Pound of Flesh moves inexorably towards a tragic end.
Arbery’s second production, Transfers, follows £500 as that sum of money passes from one person to the next in a kaleidoscope of life in Britain today. In a play devised by the actors, eight short scenes reveal very different characters, situations and emotions. The twist? The money goes round and round in a never-ending circle. The second twist? Scenes are presented in random order so the audience is never sure who or what is coming next.
Eleven actors, including long-standing professionals and talented newcomers, come together for the three week run of both plays in one of the Fringe’s most popular venues – theSpace on the Mile. They include Shakespeare specialist Danielle Farrow as Shylock in A Pound of Flesh, Kirsten Maguire as an Older Woman in Transfers, and Michael Robert-Brown, who appears in both plays and directs Transfers. Among the younger generation are Ollie Hiemann (Bassanio in A Pound of Flesh) – a regular on the Edinburgh stage, most recently as Jack in Jack and the Beanstalk – and Millie Deere (Portia in A Pound of Fleshand Young Woman in Transfers).
Behind the scenes is playwright / director Martin Foreman. Martin created A Pound of Fleshwith some help from the Bard of Avon and came up with the concept of Transfers based on the notorious Arthur Schnitzler play La Ronde. Martin’s last outing as director was J B Priestley’s A Pound of Flesh (4 stars from All Edinburgh Theatre). His plays have been produced by several companies in Scotland, England and Germany, including the thriller Taiwan, the comedy Delivery! and the picaresque The Satyricon. Sound design for both A Pound of Flesh and Transfers is by Dug Campbell; lighting for both plays is by Freya Game.
Arbery Theatre is an occasional group of theatre creatives. They previously produced The Satyricon in Edinburgh in 2022 (with EGTG); they last appeared at the Fringe in 2019.
Listings information
- Venue (both plays): theSpace on the Mile (venue 39)
- Dates (both plays): 1 –23 August 2025 (not 10, 17)
- Time: A Pound of Flesh 20:25 (50m); Transfers (50m) 21:20 (1, 2 Aug only), 21.25 all other days
- Ticket price (both plays): £12 / concessions £10 (previews 1, 2 August: £8 / £6) + online booking fee
- Recommended age: 14+ (both plays, guidelines)
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