Written by John Dinneen and Alex Urwin, The Jolly Fisherman is a sharp, gripping new play making its run at Underbelly George Square during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe through August 31. Directed by Layla Madanat and produced by Kick It Anywhere, the production explores a decade of change in a fictionalized East London pub, charting community displacement, shifting demographics, and a changing friendship against a backdrop of economic pressure and social tension.
The Bottom Line
The Creative Team: Written by John Dinneen and Alex Urwin, directed by Layla Madanat, and staged by Kick It Anywhere at Underbelly George Square.
The Premise: Tracks a decade in the lives of boyhood friends Alan (Alex Hill) and Amir (Jonny Khan) against the backdrop of a changing East London pub facing conversion and community upheaval.
The Core Conflict: Explores how economic pressures and cultural shifts expose latent tensions, racism, and Islamophobia beneath the surface of a seemingly tight-knit neighborhood.
Mapping the Decade at Underbelly George Square
Capturing the essence of an East London local is a delicate craft, and The Jolly Fisherman delivers it with seamless, razor-sharp elegance. Landing at Underbelly George Square with exceptional craft, the play charts a decade in the lives of boyhood best friends Alan and Amir. Reviews from WhatsOnStage note that rather than descending into a heavy-handed polemic about gentrification, pub closures, or changing demographics, the work instead unfolds with much greater subtlety.
Set inside a red-brick pub ten minutes north of Barking town centre, the narrative echoes real-world transitions. Two years ago, local reports noted that a derelict pub in Barking named The Jolly Fisherman had found a buyer in a Muslim charity planning to turn a drinking establishment into a place of abstinence. Playwrights John Dinneen and Alex Urwin use this real-world friction to examine what community change feels like on the ground.
Performances That Anchor the Tension
Director Layla Madanat steers the production with slick, conversational precision, ensuring the script sidesteps clichéd issue-play tropes. The production naturally weaves together issues of young masculinity, belonging, and social displacement, embedding them deep within the authentic daily realities of the characters. At the heart of the show is a tour-de-force pairing.
Alan is portrayed by Alex Hill with a grounded and vulnerable intensity, having spent his entire childhood anchored to the pub’s stools following his mother’s passing. Opposite him, Jonny Khan is magnetic as Amir, a second-generation British-Pakistani lad arriving in the area. Though their backgrounds and circumstances pull them in vastly different directions as the years tick by, the chemistry between Hill and Khan remains utterly palpable.
Production and Societal Stakes Explored on Stage
| Element | Detail |
|---|---|
| Playwrights | John Dinneen and Alex Urwin |
| Director | Layla Madanat |
| Cast | Alex Hill (Alan), Jonny Khan (Amir) |
| Venue | Underbelly George Square (Buttercup), Edinburgh Fringe |
| Production Company | Kick It Anywhere |
The play smartly avoids simplistic stereotypes. While Brexity opinions surface among some of the pub regulars, they nonetheless broadly welcome Amir into their fold. Beneath the apparently welcoming and accepting demeanor of characters like Alan, economic pressures ultimately bring underlying racial and Islamophobic prejudices out into the open.
Covering a ten-year timeframe, the storyline transitions from the upbeat atmosphere of beer-garden gatherings to the isolation experienced during the pandemic, alongside the far-right demonstrations and counter-demonstrations of July 2024. Hill and Khan capture the boyish exuberance of natural friends, making their eventual falling out a poignant commentary on the social importance of gathering places and the fragility of community cohesion when those spaces are lost.
The Wider Cultural Echoes of Fringe Breakthroughs
As festival season highlights fresh theatrical talent, works like The Jolly Fisherman demonstrate how regional British stories resonate on broader cultural stages. By examining micro-level social shifts through an intimate lens, productions at venues like Underbelly continue to shape the theatrical landscape.
Theatre enthusiasts tracking the Edinburgh Fringe slate through August 31 will find this Kick It Anywhere staging offers a vital, complex look at modern England. How do community spaces transform when the communities themselves shift around them? Drop your thoughts in the comments below.
