Review: Water Colour, Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh Festival Fringe | Travfest26

Lisa in the theatre
2 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 4 hours ago

Milly Sweeney's multi award-winning play Water Colour is at the Traverse Theatre until Sunday 30th August as part of TravFest26, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Read my review below.

Water Colour ★★★★☆

Review: 7 August 2026 | Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh

I'd heard a great deal about Water Colour, the critically acclaimed play by the 'St Andrews Playwriting award-winning' Scottish writer Milly Sweeney. All of it glowing.

Sweeney also won the Stage Debut Award for Best Writer in 2025, and Water Colour won the CATS Best New Play in 2026.

Audiences who missed the play on its original outings in Pitlochry and St Andrews now have the chance to see it at the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh, where it's presented this month as part of TravFest26.

TravFest - the Traverse Theatre's annual August programme of theatre that coincides with the city's festival season - this year celebrates female voices and new writing. Water Colour fits the bill perfectly.

Glaswegian playwright Sweeney's debut play is firmly rooted in Glasgow. Two young people, Esme (Molly Geddes) and Harris (Ryan J MacKay), meet by chance on a bridge overlooking the River Clyde. Esme was bullied at school and is lonely at college. Harris has found himself in the high-pressure environment of a Michelin-star kitchen. They don't know each other, and their paths would never normally cross. But they do, that one night on the bridge. Water Colour is the story of what happens after their chance encounter.

In the intimate studio space of Traverse 2, Water Colour bursts into life full of immediate, urgent energy and vitality. Sweeney's script sizzles with sharp Glaswegian humour, skilfully delivered with outrageous impact by both Molly Geddes and Ryan J Mackay.

Geddes and McKay multi-role, playing not only the central duo in the story, but the key supporting characters in each other's lives too. Molly becomes Harris's overbearing, irrational boss, Chef C (!); while Ryan becomes Esme's insensitive tutor at the Art School.

Directed by Sally Reid - whose phone must be ringing off the hook, she is so busy this year, and deservedly so - this beautifully funny, profound and powerful play looks at how the briefest chance meeting could change the trajectory of your life forever.

It's a hard-hitting, intelligent and poignant play about loneliness and mental health, but it's also hilarious. Water Colour reminds us that our lives can pivot in a heartbeat. And that it's always worth reaching out.

I'm blown away by what the writer and both performers achieve here. Water Colour is a brilliant showcase of bright young Scottish talent, both on and off stage. Believe the hype. Bring it home to Glasgow next please! ★★★★☆