Review: For Dolores, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Travfest26

Lisa in the theatre
2 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 14 hours ago

Irish theatre company Fishamble brings Eva O'Connor's excellent new play For Dolores to Edinburgh for its UK premiere. For Dolores, directed by Jim Culleton, is at the Traverse Theatre until Sunday 30th August as part of TravFest26, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Read my review below.

For Dolores ★★★★★

Review: 7 August 2026 | Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

When we first meet Mo - the Scottish one (Catriona Faint), and Réaltín - the Irish one (Lara McDonnell), they're attending a therapy session, trying to explain their complicated relationship, and outlining why they're now living together as "chosen family".

As Eva O'Connor's excellent new play flashes back and forth in time, we learn how the proud, loud Glaswegian Mo and the middle-class Dubliner Réaltín first met in Edinburgh. Through their individual, messy, sometimes conflicting accounts of their shared history, we relive the key events that brought them to this point, somewhere in Glasgow, some years later.

Perched atop a sea of nick-nacks amassed from their chaotic past lives, the pair conjure up vivid images of wild parties fuelled by Buckfast and The Cranberries' songs, reveal some questionable life choices, and uncover the finer details that led to a traumatic, devastating event.

Brought to the Edinburgh Fringe by much-loved Irish theatre company Fishamble - who support over 50% of the writers of all new plays produced on the island of Ireland each year- For Dolores makes its UK premiere as part of the Traverse Theatre's Travfest26 following an initial run at the Galway International Arts Festival in July.

Masterfully directed by legendary Fishamble director Jim Culleton, For Dolores is the kind of play that it's best not to read too much about before you see it. And to try to explain the storyline as a mere linear plot would be to do it a disservice.

Staged in the intimate Traverse 2 studio theatre, For Dolores is expertly structured to deliver maximum entertainment and impact with minimal staging. The drama is revealed gradually via the sharpest, wittiest script I've heard for a long time. And O'Connor's razor-sharp, sometimes shocking dialogue is delivered with glorious timing and conviction by just two performers - Catriona Faint and Lara McDonnell - who bounce off each other with a delightfully natural, playful chemistry.

I do think that the Scots and Irish work wonderfully together, and this brilliant mix of an Irish play, set in Scotland, starring actors from both sides of the Irish Sea proves to be the perfect theatrical pairing.

I firmly believe that Catriona Faint is one of the best actors working in Scotland today. Seeing For Dolores has not altered my opinion. She's utterly outstanding. Full of brutal opinions and epic swearing that conceal a deeply vulnerable soul, her Mo is a mesmerising character.

Lara McDonnell is no less impressive as the naive University of Edinburgh student who jumps on a Ryanair flight from Ireland to Scotland, and who becomes engaged to a Finnish man (to the absolute horror of her new pal) known simply as "Finland".

The joy in this riveting new work is getting to spend some time with these amazing young women. They're funny, they're flawed, and their story is at once raw, hilarious and heartbreaking.

For Dolores could be the surprise hit of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year. Go see it. It's sublime. ★★★★★