Mayflies
Mayflies is a show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026, performing at Brown's of Leith. It has 21 performances listed, running from Fri 7 Aug, 16:00 to Sun 30 Aug, 16:00. The run has finished — every listed performance has taken place.
About this show
Award-winning Fringe favourites Grid Iron present the world premiere of Mayflies, a site-specific adaptation of Andrew O'Hagan's best-selling novel. Everyone has a Tully Dawson: the friend that defines your life. This tale of 80s youth and facing mortality in middle age is a joyous and heart-breaking elegy to the young people we still carry within us. With an epic soundtrack forged straight from the heart of the 80s, a former metalworks in Leith echoes the iconic venues of Manchester's music scene, providing an ideal setting for this love letter to friendship, and a pledge: go at life differently. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Details
- Venue: Brown's of Leith
- Space: Rear Warehouse (Tower Street Entrance)
- Genre: THEATRE, Site-specific, New writing
- Country: UNITED KINGDOM - SCOTLAND
- Running time: 100 minutes
- Room size: about 150 seats (Rear Warehouse (Tower Street Entrance)) — the Fringe box office sells a share of the room, not all of it
- Performances listed: 21, of which 0 still to come and on sale
Accessibility
- Wheelchair access: level
- Access features: Step-free access, Accessible toilet, Captioned performances, BSL signed performances
- Venue notes: Accessible entry: Audience access to the Rear Warehouse of Brown's of Leith is from Tower Street (opposite Malmaison). There is limited paid on-street parking in the area. The nearest blue badge on street parking is approximately 285m away on Burgess Street. There are no steps to access the space but the street is cobbled in places and a little uneven. The floor, once in the space is also uneven. Front of House staff will be available to help and can be waiting to greet you if we have advance notice. Wheelchair access type:Level Access Stairs: None Number of stairs is provided as guidance and is not in addition to any wheelchair access type (lift/ramp etc) stated above.
What the reviewers said
We have captured 6 published reviews and 12 audience reviews for this show from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe’s own listing. The excerpts below are the reviewers’ words, not ours — follow each link for the full review.
Grid Iron’s site-specific Mayflies is in part a massively spirited hymn to the youth culture of the 1980s. But you don’t have to have lived through that decade to appreciate such a melancholy yet defiantly bright…
— All Edinburgh Theatre.Com (4 out of 5 stars)
Consistently sparking conversation and bringing life and art to the disused, hidden, or overlooked venues of Scotland, Grid Iron’s latest endeavour is a reminder of the strength and versatility in storytelling with…
A gorgeous coming-of-age story that makes the journey, the warehouse and the audience’s individual perspective part of the theatre: flawed, ambitious and utterly Fringe.
— Disrupting Stages (5 out of 5 stars)
Performance dates and ticket availability
- Fri 7 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £23.50
- Sat 8 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £23.50
- Sun 9 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £23.50
- Mon 10 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Wed 12 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Thu 13 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Fri 14 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Sat 15 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Sun 16 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Mon 17 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Wed 19 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Thu 20 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Fri 21 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Sat 22 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Sun 23 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Mon 24 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Wed 26 Aug, 16:00 — Cancelled — £28.50
- Thu 27 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Fri 28 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Sat 29 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50
- Sun 30 Aug, 16:00 — Already performed — £28.50