EDINBURGH 2025: Review: GREY, Greenside @ Riddles Court

Laura-Rose Layden’s powerful solo musical GREY instantly transports audiences to Jane Grey’s room in the Tower of London as she awaits her execution. A musical from the perspective of this fascinating historical figure with such an unfair and tragic end is a brilliant concept and it is clear Layden has put her blood, sweat,and tears into this passion project. She embodies every aspect of Jane - breathing life into the young woman who we until now, only knew from pictures and stories - allowing audiences a glimpse into all the emotions she must have been feeling as she awaited her fate.

The intimate Fringe space works incredibly well - making the production feel almost immersive. Here, we witness Jane firmly come into herself as she grapples with what has been and what is to come. The poetic nature of both spoken and sung words is beautiful, with the backing tracks providing both music and some other clever audio clips that help relate Jane’s plight to that of those in more modern times.

The musical numbers also bring this story into modern times with the music offering an almost art rock vibe, but always with a clear foot in the classic music theatre world. One number, both in terms of the style of music, and the subject matter is somewhat reminiscent of’Gethsemene’ from Andrew Lloyd Webber’ s JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR. Songs of that nature require strong vocals to pull off and Layden delivers in this arena as well.

Overall, the musical numbers are very strong - offering just as much exposition as the spoken word moments. It does take a while before the show launches into its first musical number - to the point where I did start to wonder if I had misread the show description and perhaps it wasn’t a musical at all. Once the music does start, it is paced well throughout the production though.

At times, the production seemed to drag and feel somewhat repetitive. What’s interesting here is that if there was any show where this might actually be intentional, this would be it. We are fully immersed in Jane’s experience and her days would be long and her thoughts would be repeating. Layden does an excellent job of bringing us into Jane’s grief and pain and confusion as she seeks answers to the most existential questions and reflects on her short, but meaningful life. I’m sure Layden will continue to work to find that balance of taking the audience to Jane’s headspace without sacrificing the pacing of the show.

Overall, GREY is a fascinating passion project by an extremely talented Artist. It works incredibly well as a musical and I’m eager to see where it goes next.

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