Grid Iron stages Mayflies in Leith warehouse — Edinburgh review
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- Grid Iron stages an adaptation of Andrew O'Hagan's semi-autobiographical novel 'Mayflies' at Rear Warehouse, Brown's of Leith, Edinburgh, running until 30 August under director Ben Harrison.
- Harrison rejected the novel's mid-80s Ayrshire flat or a clinic evoking the character's Dignitas end, instead using the warehouse space to evoke the Thatcher-era shift from heavy industry to leisure at Manchester's G-Mex and the Haçienda in 1986.
- Lewis den Hertog surrounds the four-sided audience with projections of Morrissey and Marr plus Peter Saville's Factory Records colour palettes, while David Paul Jones's soundtrack threads in Joy Division, the Smiths and the Fall.
- Graham Mackay-Bruce plays the adult Tully — given a terminal cancer diagnosis who insists on 'no mawkishness' — opposite Matthew Pidgeon as Jimmy, Carmen Pieraccini as Jimmy's wife Iona and Lucianne McEvoy as Tully's wife Anna.
- The reviewer judges that the play's narrative energy peaks in the first third covering the Manchester pilgrimage, with the remainder reading as adult reflection on that trip — a tension Harrison's fidelity makes both the production's strength and its weakness.
Why it matters: By staging 'Mayflies' in a warehouse rather than a clinic or flat, Grid Iron collapses the novel's youthful Manchester pilgrimage and Tully's terminal decline into one space. Four-sided seating paired with Factory-records imagery turns the venue into an exhibition — a trade-off the reviewer calls a 'decent fit' despite echoey acoustics.
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