Review: Skye - A Thriller | Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025

Name: Skye: A Thriller
Brand: Ellie Keel
Rating: 3 (1 reviews)

Lisa in the theatre
3 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 1 day ago

Sunday Times bestselling author and award-winning theatre producer Ellie Keel makes her playwriting debut with the world première of SKYE: A Thriller at the 2025 Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025. A co-production with Summerhall Arts, directed by Matthew Iliffe, and starring Dawn Steele, Skye: A Thriller plays at Summerhall from 2 - 25 August.

Skye: A Thriller, by Ellie Keel ★★★☆☆

review: 20 August 2025 | Summerhall, Edinburgh Festival Fringe

When holidaying on the Scottish Isle of Skye in 1995, a group of four siblings see their dad across the beach. But it can't be him: he died four years prior. Skye: A Thriller is a drama that sets out to solve the mystery of that sighting and of a silver car that the family sees speeding away from the shore. Could it have been their dad? He was identified by more than one of them after all.

Taking the form of a video podcast recording, elder sister Annie (Dawn Steele) arrives at a studio thirty years later to give her account of the incident that happened when she was a teenager. Framed as a thriller, maybe even a ghost story, the audience and the podcast interviewer settle down to listen to Annie's tale.

The impossible sighting is an interesting set-up for Ellie Keel's debut play, but the story of 'Skye: A Thriller' does lean more towards the unhappy family drama than the spooky Scottish thriller I was hoping for. Actors Dawn Steele and James Robinson both play multiple characters. Robinson is strongest when portraying volatile brother Bron, and Steele as narrator Annie. However, despite the best efforts of them both, I found the other many characters became confusing, and their stories and timelines muddled. The tale is tragic rather than supernatural, and it does lack any real chills or thrills in its telling. It makes me wonder what type of podcast Annie had been invited on. What did the podcast host hope she was going to say!?

Technically the production is good with powerful use of live video projections and extreme close ups of Dawn Steele and her sublime acting. David Doyle's lighting adds a welcome dark and mysterious air to the otherwise square, bare room. The central focus of the performance space at Summerhall is an intriguing small table covered in heaps of sand. The purpose of this when revealed is terrific, but it's sadly underused. The exhilarating scene on the table lasts about 20 seconds and it would've been great to see it feature more.

Ellie Keel's writing is lovely, her dialogue authentic and the family relationships painfully sad. I know not everyone is a fan, but I loved the use of frequent call backs to drive the key points of the mystery home. But ultimately, as much I admire the storytelling, it feels like this play could've taken place on any island or in any seaside town. Perhaps my interpretation and expectations from the name 'Skye: A Thriller' were too high, but the story as presented here in a 60-minute timeslot at Edinburgh Fringe doesn't feel unique to Skye nor is it overly thrilling.

What it is however is a beautifully performed, well written, compelling family drama, with lots to love about it and bucket loads of promise. I could see it work well as a TV series with sweeping backdrops of the beautiful Skye scenery and more time and space for the complex characters and story to breathe ★★★☆☆

Skye: A Thriller plays at Summerhall until Monday 25 August 2025 for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Find full details below.

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