EDINBURGH 2026: Review: OVERTONE, Pleasance Dome
This is theatre that packs a punch, but prepare yourself for the heavy content.
Content warning: Overtone deals with themes of abuse and coercion which are referenced in this review.
Paul has finally got into choir and he and new friend Maggie are going to give everything they’ve got to impress their choir master, Alan.
Overtone is told across two timelines, Paul and Maggie meeting as teenagers at choir, and then together as adults at the world’s most uncomfortable dinner. Writer Tom Brennan masterfully ekes the plot out between the two periods - leaving the audience to piece together what’s happening as the grim reality unfolds.
As we’re drip fed information, Overtone does take a while to get going but perhaps this mirrors how the teens are slowly manipulated by their charismatic choir leader.
Scott Fletcher and Claire Dargo effortlessly move from one age to another. Their optimism and ambition is palpable at sixteen. And Brennan’s script has such lovely touches, like how children have to include the surname or second initial when talking about friends because so many people have the same name. It makes Paul and Maggie seem even younger.
In one particularly heartbreaking moment, Paul silently cleans Maggie’s bloodied knee. It’s such a beautiful act of kindness that’s entirely judgement free. Fletcher is so tender and careful as he applies cream and a plaster, you could hear a pin drop in the room.
And as adults disenchanted and holding on to each other by a thread. The weight of the trauma they’ve experienced sat on their shoulders. And Fletcher and Dargo are able to flit between the two seamlessly.
It is heavy going for a 14:40 performance, but that is just one of those things about the Fringe. You definitely feel like you've been knocked for six, and the audience left Jack Dome pretty quietly as we processed what we'd seen. I still have a knot in my stomach when I think about the disturbing ending.
Importantly though, Overtone isn’t a slog, it’s theatre that packs a punch. I would just prepare yourself for the content better than I did!
Overtone runs at Jack Dome at the Pleasance Dome until 30 August (not 26 August).
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