Make It Happen, an eye-opening take on the 2008 financial crisis set in Edinburgh, starring Brian Cox as Adam Smith and Sandy Grierson as Fred Goodwin, is one of two MustSeeTheatre.com recommendations for this year’s Edinburgh International Festival theatre strand. Cliff Cardinal’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling, is the other.
Make It Happen, written by one of Britain’s most in-demand playwrights, James Graham, is the epic, satirical play, directed by Andrew Panton, that will open the 2025 EIF. A co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland, EIF and Dundee Rep Theatre, it is the first major work to tell the story of Royal Bank of Scotland’s role in the 2008 financial crash, and marks the return of Cox’s to Scottish stages for the first time in a decade.
Also tackling the power of truth-telling, Cliff Cardinal’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling gets its Scottish premiere this August, but while Shakespeare’s title promises something for everyone, cultural provocateur Cardinal reimagines the Bard strictly for the open-minded. An Indigenous Canadian artist based in Toronto, Cardinal’s take is bold, unapologetic and unafraid to tackle the thorny truths of our times, balancing black humour with raw emotion.
Which will you see? Or will you see both?
Nicola Benedetti, EIF Director, says, “Our 2025 Edinburgh International Festival invites you to explore The Truth We Seek – a journey into the elusive nature of truth, in our personal and public lives. In an era of ‘alternative facts’ and manipulated narratives, the arts offer us something deeper: a poetic and metaphorical wisdom that is both more nuanced and more precise. This Festival -born in the city of the Enlightenment – has championed artistic expression as a means of discovery, insight, and mutual understanding.”
Tickets for both productions will be available here from Thursday 27 March.
