From the moment we entered the auditorium, Golden Beryl made uncertainty part of the experience, drawing the audience into a show that was deliberately difficult to pin down.
Comedy, theatre, radio drama, sound experiment, or something else entirely? Golden Beryl brought their scripted narrative podcast to the stage at the Pianodrome in Bruntsfield, Edinburgh, as part of this year’s Fringe.
A work in progress
Every time I visit the Pianodrome, there seems to be something new: another development, another sign that the place is evolving. This time, it was a series of excellent photographs running all the way around the auditorium. It felt a world away from my first visit to the Pianodrome’s Bruntsfield home, when the space was dark, cold and dusty, and the floor seemed to have been undergoing sanding for what felt like many, many days. This time, after the performance, sunlight streamed in, creating a lovely sense of airiness and warmth. The light brought out the best in the woodwork, including the piano wood that gives the auditorium its distinctive character. Clearly, they are not standing still.
There is something satisfying about arriving early at a Fringe venue and picking up the atmosphere before a performance begins, and as I waited, Tim Vincent Smith, co-founder of the Pianodrome, was discussing a few issues with team member Emily Martinelli. These are the kinds of problems that inevitably crop up during a busy Fringe, particularly when a venue is busier than it has ever been. On this occasion, a splintering door, one that had been ‘repaired enough times’, was the focus of their conversation. It might need replacing. As Tim put it, the whole place is ‘a work in progress’.
In the Fringe tradition
Over the last few years, the Pianodrome has risen in profile, and its new home in Bruntsfield gives it a location relatively close to the city centre, as well as one surrounded by a substantial residential area. Using old churches and church halls, such as St Oswald’s, is very much in keeping with Fringe tradition. Places such as the Cranston Street Halls, where Michael Palin and Terry Jones made their first Fringe appearance, are just one example of the many venues woven into Fringe history. The Pianodrome is surely on its way to becoming an established part of that history, particularly as it stays open throughout the year, rather than just during the Fringe. Although the venue’s focus is generally on music, this performance by Golden Beryl added to the range of what it can offer, demonstrating its potential as a location for theatrical performance. As a stage for drama, it offers an example of theatre in the round, as seen in places such as the Globe, so the audience gets a different perspective depending on where they sit.
Nine minutes till we start
Before long, some of the actors arrived, slightly hurriedly, while the Pianodrome team continued getting everything ready. The audience was let in about fifteen minutes beforehand, and with a performance like this, there is always a sense of uncertainty: exactly when will it start, and who among those sitting in the auditorium is actually part of the show? One figure, sitting motionless in a black balaclava, was clearly no ordinary audience member, although what his involvement would be was unclear. It all added to the feeling that we were in for something interesting and unpredictable.
Loud whispers from behind the auditorium suggested we were getting close. ‘That’s nine minutes till we start, guys’, delivered with a real sense of urgency, indicating the degree of pre-performance tension; tension which performers need to give their best. A bell sounded and we were off. The unseen narrator told us to ‘prepare for confusion’, somewhat breaking the fourth wall by adding that ‘if you find it poorly written and under-rehearsed… then you haven’t understood it’. This playful tone continued throughout the performance, easing the audience into the right mood, relaxed enough to enjoy the experience rather than sitting on edge trying to work out exactly what was going on. The segments of the show varied considerably in tone and pace, but there was never a sense of things getting stuck.
From podcast to stage
Golden Beryl started life as an online podcast. It’s not the kind that dominates the form, with experts discussing a particular field. Instead, these are skilfully scripted narratives with a sophisticated use of sound and music. It sits closer to radio drama, but with a far greater sense of artistic freedom and experimentation than you might hear on, say, Radio 4. It has the anarchic energy of improv, though everything is in fact tightly scripted. The podcast itself is a surreal, Dada-inspired blend of comedy and audio fiction. Off-kilter narratives, fragmented monologues and absurd character studies recall alternative sketch shows like The League of Gentlemen or The Goons. Its episodes are short and bite-sized, favouring bizarre vignettes and slices of absurdity: a shopkeeper fighting battery theft, a man trying to hide a dangerous plot. Rich soundscapes, voice acting and audio design build these disorienting, funny little worlds. The overall vibe is avant-garde and unpredictable; and transferring it to the stage has successfully maintained that mix.
Sophisticated use of sound and music
One interesting question going into the performance was how they would use sound effects when the audience could see them being made. Some of the best moments came from combining a visual gag with an aural one. A broom with shoes attached to it, for example, was used to create the sound of someone falling down the stairs, and it was a particularly effective touch. Similarly, some of the musical background was played on a record player, meaning that even the slightest nudge of the needle could have thrown things off course. That knife-edge quality helped maintain the energy of the live performance, creating the sense that, despite the tightly scripted nature of the show, anything could happen.
Voice and accent work
Much of the narration is delivered in the style of a parody of a Samuel Pepys style diarist, full of literary language that sits in creative tension with the reality of the action, gently pricking the pretensions of the diarist. This was particularly effective in a long exchange about a hot dog stall. It sounds ridiculous when described in such detail, but it was actually one of the real highlights of the performance. It also brought to the fore some excellent voice and accent work. Holly Janowski, making her Fringe debut, showed a particularly wide range, switching from a Cockney, EastEnders type voice to something deeply posh, a blend of Joanna Lumley and late 1980s Margaret Thatcher.
Is it comedy, is it theatre, or is it other?
Sections like this raise the question of what exactly we were watching. As the narrator asked us, ‘is it comedy, is it theatre, or is it other?’ … ‘it feels like other’. The audience seemed to enjoy this sense of something that could not easily be defined. At times the narrator was comedic; at others he adopted a deeply calm voice, like some sort of self-help guru, asking the audience to close their eyes and absorb the sound of waves hitting a beach, before turning to tell us that ‘Oblivion is near’. Clearly, the aim is not to allow the audience simp0ly to sit comfortably…
Good-natured joshing
Apart from the offstage narrator, we had interludes from ‘Frank’, who mixed good-natured joshing with audience members with rather more menacing threats, including the suggestion that our physical safety was under threat from snipers as we left the building (some audience members may have had nervous glances up as they left!). These sections made good use of the performance space. The theatre-in-the-round auditorium places audience members on each side, giving everyone a slightly different view of the action, and the layout also creates good acoustics, allowing the actors’ voices and sound effects to reverberate satisfyingly around the space. The unseen area outside the auditorium was used effectively too. From there came a stream of disturbing noises and general weirdness, adding to the audience’s sense of uncertainty, especially when the noises came from directly behind them. At one point, a pack of wolves circled while a Radio 3-style announcer on stage calmly addressed the audience; at another, stage cries reminiscent of the singer Scott Walker on his album Tilt unsettled the room. These moments showed the performers, and the director, making good use of the space, as well as demonstrating the shift from a narrative podcast to a live performance, in which audience interaction is part of it.
You really feel part of it
Matthew Oakley, who has led the team and writes the scripts, thanked the audience profusely for choosing this one show out of the 3,500 others on offer at the Fringe, including those who had been ‘bullied into attending’ on the Meadows. He thanked the Pianodrome for the use of the ‘wonderful venue’, encouraged attendees to go to other Pianodrome Fringe 2026 shows, and ended by encouraging everyone to seek out Golden Beryl’s podcasts online.
Another member of the team, Tom Nelson, explained that they had, after scoping out possible venues in 2025, initially hoped to secure a venue through PBH’s Free Fringe, but that hadn’t worked out. The Pianodrome, where Nelson works, finally agreed in April to host Golden Beryl Live, and they had a dry run in June to test out the venue. Nelson, who has been a keen Fringe-goer for many years, was enjoying experiencing it as a performer this time round: ‘you really feel part of it’, in a different way. Nelson related that the usual Golden Beryl team had been augmented by actors based in Edinburgh, and that this had added a new element, the sense of it being a departure from the podcast.
Too far from the Royal Mile
The Golden Beryl team have been delighted at the rising numbers in the audience, including 43 for one show, well above average for first-time Fringe performers. That was helped by shifting their promotional efforts from the usual stretch of the Royal Mile to the Meadows, since, as they put it, the truth is that the Pianodrome ‘is just too far from the Royal Mile’. To advertise their show, Golden Beryl have been producing daily newsletters that give a flavour of what you will see and hear, along with a ‘Self-Help Booklet’ offering a solution for those with a ‘spare hour’ at the Fringe.
Details
Golden Beryl will continue their Fringe run with performances at the Pianodrome (Bruntsfield, EH10 4BN) on August 13th, 14th and 15th, with shows starting at 4pm. Tickets are available via the Edfringe website and also at the door.
