MARIUPOL

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“a gem of a short play, and Katia Haddad draws the audience in with great skill”

Mariupol, Katia Haddad’s poignant drama set against the backdrop of the Ukrainian War, is currently playing at the Pleasance Courtyard Beneath. It’s a beautifully constructed drama about a Russian, Galina, and “Steve” a charming Ukrainian sailor. With deft direction by Guy Retallack, and starring Oliver Gomm and Nathalie Barclay, this is a play you won’t want to miss.

Thirty years pass from that first meeting of these two star crossed lovers in Mariupol. Steve, who got his name playing Stevie Wonder songs for his merchant navy friends, meets a beautiful Moscovite who he playfully nicknames Moskalka at his best friend’s wedding. Steve and Galina are immediately drawn to one another, and their connection is deepened by a night spent by the beautiful Azov Sea. Galina nearly drowns taking a sea shell during a night swim but Steve is there to rescue her, and bring her back to land. Despite the connection, however, Steve isn’t ready to leave the merchant navy, and they part. Galina returns to Moscow, where she puts her shell on a necklace and wears it during the years of teaching, marriage to a Russian, and motherhood to a son, Sasha. When Steve and Galina next meet, it is under less happy circumstances. The shadows of an impending war between Russia and Ukraine have already begun. What started as a light hearted dance at a wedding morphs into something more intense, and tragic. The stage is set for their third meeting in a bunker in Azovstal in 2022, as Russian bombs rain down on the ruined city. Galina is there frantically searching for her POW son, and begs Steve to help her.

Mariupol is a gem of a short play, and Katia Haddad draws the audience in with great skill. She has her own memories of Mariupol and its people to help her, and this shows in the fully rounded characters. They are sympathetically portrayed by Oliver Gomm and Nathalie Barclay. Gomm in particular charms with his initial playfulness, and then makes a convincing shift to the older Ukrainian warrior, haunted by everything he has lost. The whole production is designed to focus the attention on the performers, with a compelling sound track that mixes both the sounds of war with the sounds of the sea. The passing of time is skillfully sketched in by swift costume changes on stage—a jacket added, the tie of a dress untied and tied. These light touches allow the audience to focus fully on Haddad’s words, and the unfolding tragedy.

The show covers a lot of ground in an hour, but it’s time well spent. It is a vivid testament to the consequences of war—not just in ruined cities, and destruction of a way of life, but in the price that people pay with their own lives and the lives of those they love. Memories of a happier past are like the seashell Galina wears around her neck—infinitely precious, but fragile. As the world becomes more unstable, Mariupol is a powerful reminder of all we could lose if we ignore the tragedies unfolding around us.

MARIUPOL

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Reviewed on 3rd August 2025 at Beneath at Pleasance Courtyard

by Dominica Plummer

Photography by Tom Crooke

MARIUPOL

★★★★

“it really is quite an eye-opener to see how many naughty positions the puppets can get themselves into”

I remember working on a puppet show a few years ago and one of the first things the puppetry director said to us was ‘don’t make the puppets do sex acts, ever’. She’d clearly never seen (or wasn’t a fan of) Avenue Q, and I imagine would be walking out of this show in protest. Clearly, Blind Summit are working with a different team and principles altogether, as this puppet show is pretty much just sex (although actually mostly just puppets talking about sex, until the big puppet orgy in the last scene, where it really hits its climax!).

Directed by Ben Keaton and Mark Down, and performed by four brilliant puppeteers (Lucy Lichfield, Isobel Griffiths, Briony O’Callaghan and Dale Wylde), the show takes the format of a series of interviews-to-camera, set up in a photoshoot studio with a white backdrop, each interview consisting of one or two puppet characters, sometimes responding to a question or other times just talking about their relationships. We meet a varied range of people, from the very posh and proper Dmitri and his wife to Katie and Helen, a lesbian couple telling about their experience of a ‘cum blob’.

Each of the performers are incredibly versatile, taking on different accent and voices and finding the very detailed movement and quality of each of the characters. Harry and Frankie are an older couple from New York, Frankie looking a bit like Edna Mode, with dark shiny black hair which she flirtatiously strokes her finger through when things are getting flirty. It’s this sort of detail which really shows off the skill of these performers, and of their directors.

Of course, the success of this show is also very much down to the design brilliance of Russell Dean, who puts so much care and attention to detail into each of the puppets. From Harry’s long tie which hangs below his waistband to Cockney-geezer Clive’s leather jacket, there’s no item, colour or material out of place. Each puppet moves freely with every slight breath or gesture from the puppeteers, allowing the audience to really forget that the puppets aren’t actually alive at all.

Whilst most of the show plays for comedy, there are also some really touching moments, as characters reveal intimate details about themselves, their loneliness or desires. There are also a couple of scenes which have more serious tones. These sometimes feel a little out of place in the rest of the show, but it’s nice to see the versatility of emotion that the puppets are capable off.

The final scene is a hilariously choreographed puppet orgy, and it really is quite an eye-opener to see how many naughty positions the puppets can get themselves into. If you’re looking for some outrageous puppet comedy, with a little bit of heart along the way, then this will be the perfect show for you.

Tag Archives: Pleasance Courtyard

MARIUPOL

★★★★

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

MARIUPOL

Edinburgh Festival Fringe

★★★★

“a gem of a short play, and Katia Haddad draws the audience in with great skill”