Review: Jenny Ryan - Björn Yesterday | Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
- Lisa in the theatre
- 9 hours ago
- 2 min read
Jenny Ryan from The Chase returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe with her new solo musical comedy show that examines if Swedish pop sensations ABBA ever really existed. Jenny Ryan – Björn Yesterday, plays at the Pleasance Courtyard at Edinburgh Festival Fringe until Sunday 17th August.
Björn Yesterday: Jenny Ryan ★★☆☆☆
review: 7 August 2025 | Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Jenny Ryan's Björn Yesterday is a solo comedy cabaret show that sees the beloved brainbox from The Chase TV quiz show investigate the truth behind Swedish pop legends ABBA, and present her findings to the Edinburgh Fringe audience.
Jenny herself is warm and passionate about her subject, so it's unfortunate that this show doesn't live up to its full promise.
Taking the format of a lecture, Jenny stands in front of a whiteboard and regails the audience with tales of how she first came to be aware of ABBA, the Eurovision winning pop supergroup, and her lifelong love of them thereafter.
It's clear that Jenny has spent time researching all things ABBA lore, and the facts she presents and the theories she reveals are genuinely perceptive and interesting.
Jenny is a little uncertain at times and it does take a while for her to get to the place where she introduces ABBA into her personal story. But she has some interesting tales to weave and funny, creative ideas with props and comic sound effects with which to liven up her hour long monologue.
Unfortunately these come too infrequently. Some of the sound effects are mis-timed, the jokes don't always land, and I'm sorry to say the audience was restless throughout. Take the example of the hit films Mamma Mia: Jenny spends too long outlining the plot of each movie with very little payoff.
Legend has it that multi-talented Jenny has a fab singing voice, but we only hear mere snippets of it during this show - a few bars of ABBA hits teased here and there, until the very end when she invites the audience to join her in a singalong.
Jenny is so likeable and obviously very intelligent. She has a solid idea for a unique pop-filled, musical comedy cabaret show here, and the artwork and posters for Björn Yesterday that parody the 'ABBA Voyage' concert production in London are right on the money (money, money.) But the format of the show itself needs some work to truly strike (ABBA) Gold. ★★☆☆☆
Jenny said:
“I’ve spent over a decade answering other people’s questions - now it’s time to ask some of my own. Like: have ABBA been holograms all along? Should we be worried? And - without a song or a dance, what are we? Wait, that’s one of theirs… ”
Jenny Ryan, Björn Yesterday at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
Performance Details:
● Venue: Cabaret Bar, Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh
● Dates: 30 July – 17 August 2025
● Time: 17:30 – 18:30
● Tickets: £10–£17
