Review: Pickled Republic | Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
- Lisa in the theatre
- Aug 21
- 3 min read
Ruxy Cantir's absurd vegetable cabaret Pickled Republic previously toured Scotland in 2023 to great acclaim and featured at the Manipulate Festival in 2024. Winning the Anatomy Award from Summerhall Arts and funding from Made In Scotland have enabled a full run at Summerhall from 31 July to 25 August as part of the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Pickled Republic ★★★★☆
review: 20 August 2025 | Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Pickled Republic, is a one woman absurdist cabaret set inside a pickle jar. Over the course of an hour, Glasgow-based performer Ruxandra Cantir portrays a succession of preserved vegetables experiencing existential crisis. From abandoned tomatoes to burlesque dancing potatoes, the vegetables lament, mime, shriek and even sing while trapped within the confines of their briny jar.
Each sketch is ridiculous but many of them are also sublime. Cantir is an extraordinary physical theatre performer; her dramatic facial expressions and hilarious, over-the-top movements and physical comedy so well suited to bringing life and colourful personalities to an array of expiring vegetables.
The vegetables have passed their best you see... If you look closely at the lid of the jar, you will find the expiry date. Genius!
Pickled Republic is very silly and terrifically surreal. Ruxy Cantir gives a tour-de-force performance in a frankly unbelievable display of intense theatrical talent. Part clowning, part puppetry, Cantir's energy and commitment is remarkable in this unusual play. Is it a play? This is another Edinburgh Fringe show I find it entirely impossible to categorise.
What it is though, is an impressive one-woman physical comedy cabaret supported by exquisitely timed technical theatre elements: clever design and sound effects, background music and intelligent spot lighting. (Fork!!) Cantir herself is the star of course; utterly spellbinding and deeply intense, she somehow manages to translate a ragtag group of decaying vegetable into a metaphor for our own very real existential fears and desires.
As is the nature of such a farcical piece, some sketches may appeal more than others. My personal favourites were the eponymous Pickle and the maniacal spring onion; while I was not such a fan of the scene involving real tomatoes. That just felt like unnecessary food waste.
Pickled Republic will probably divide audiences who will either love or hate Cantir's over-the-top clowning. I personally am not a fan of clowns; I'd never go see a show explicitly advertised as "a clown" at the Edinburgh Fringe. However Ruxy is something else - she's an exquisite performer with a wild and vivid imagination and I'm so glad I took a chance on this unusual show.
Pickled Republic is the bizarre embodiment of what the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and fringe theatre is all about. You're unlikely to find anything else like this - anywhere. ★★★★☆
Pickled Republic plays at Summerhall until Monday 25 August 2025 for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Find full details below.
Pickled Republic at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
Summerhall (Anatomy Lecture Theatre)
Dates: 31 July - 25 August (not 11, 18)
Time: 13:15 (50 mins)
Access performances:
BSL integrated on 9, 16 and 21 August, (BSL Interpreter Yvonne Strain, Script/ Text Print Out available for hard of hearing audience upon request)
Relaxed performance on 19 August TBC
Age Recommendation and Content Warnings: 14+ (age for guidance, this show is aimed at adults) | Contains Strong Language, Flashing Lights, Haze, Tomatoes
