Fringe Review: On The Other Hand We're Happy ****

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The three actors in this beautiful, moving, and funny, play, deserve every accolade going.


On The Other Hand, We’re Happy, **** (Summerhall), until August 24 

When your show has no props or scenery, it stands, or falls entirely on the cast.

The three actors in this beautiful, moving, and funny, play, deserve every accolade going.

They tell the story of a young couple planning to start a family and taking their first steps down the road of adoption when she  is killed, leaving the husband to grieve and then rekindling that journey.

He meets the birth mother, and then the young girl, and the story of their lives, complete with every rocky bump in the road, unfolds.

On The Other Hand is told on a circular floor space in the heart of the tent at Summerhall, and it has to be one of the hidden gems on the venue’s Fringe schedule.

With nothing other than choreographed movement to change the scenes and introduce new characters - the social worker, the birth mum and the young girl - they paint a vivid picture and, gently, pull the audience into the show by speaking directly to them.


It deals honestly, and sensitively, with some mighty big topics, but also leaves you full of hope.

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