Our Town Needs A Nando's - Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2026

Our Town Now Needs A Nando’s takes the title of Thornton Wilder’s iconic Our Town and asks what “our town” means to a group of Scottish teenagers growing up in a very different kind of place. A group of drama students set out to make a play about their town, but this is no nostalgic portrait of small-town America. 
​
There is a telling emptiness at the heart of their town. They can list what it lacks as easily as they can list what it has. Where are the places to eat, drink, see live music, experience culture or simply spend time? Where are the opportunities to see people like themselves reflected back at them? After 6pm, McDonald’s is about the only option. 

This Scottish new town becomes more than a setting. It becomes a metaphor for these young women’s lives. They are growing up somewhere that feels like an afterthought, a place where nobody seems to expect very much of them. That sense of being stuck seeps into everything. School is a nightmare, boys are infuriating, gossip becomes entertainment and drama has to be created because there is so little else to do. For Beth, Rachel, Zahidah, Ellie and Chloe, the lack of a world around them seems to shrink the possibilities of the world within them. It affects their confidence, their relationships, their sexuality and the way they understand themselves and each other.

There is something particularly poignant about watching teenagers trying to work out who they are in a place that seems to offer so few opportunities to become anything. Growing up is difficult enough, but it is harder when you are queer, the new girl, or simply someone who does not quite fit the version of teenage life your surroundings seem to expect. Our Town Now Needs A Nando’s understands that the places we grow up in can shape our ambitions as much as our families or schools do.

It is an ambitious first outing from a promising group of actors and producers. At times, the show tries to tackle so many of the issues that matter to them that it becomes overstuffed, as though they are determined to say everything because they do not know when they will next get the chance on stage. But there is real energy and honesty here. More importantly, there is a group of young performers with plenty to say and, hopefully, plenty more opportunities to say it. 

Lee Hutchison

Runs at TheSpace UK on the Mile until August 15