That's Ace - Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2026

That’s Ace, written and directed by Jonny Brace, is a funny, tender exploration of what happens when the questions you have about yourself are ones society has never bothered to answer.

Ace has been invited clubbing for the first time by her school crush, Sasha. There is just one problem: Ace has never been clubbing before, and she is not entirely sure what she feels for Sasha. Is it love? Is it friendship? Is there even a meaningful difference? As she waits for Sasha to arrive, the club becomes almost as alien to Ace as one of the planets you might encounter in Doctor Who. Its rules, rituals and expectations are unfamiliar, leaving her trying to work out not only how to navigate this strange new world, but where she fits within it. The night becomes an attempt to untangle attraction, asexuality and the strange experience of trying to understand yourself.

That search for answers runs through the whole play. In the opening high school sex education lesson, Ace asks her teacher questions about lesbian sex that he cannot answer. She turns to her dad and even priests for guidance, only to discover that the male adults around her are just as unequipped to explain the things she needs to understand. When conventional sources of knowledge fail her, Ace finds representation somewhere else entirely: Doctor Who. She renames herself after Ace, the iconic companion played by Sophie Aldred, a fiercely independent, rebellious teenager who travels with the Seventh Doctor. For Ace, the character becomes more than a favourite. She becomes a point of recognition in a world where Ace cannot find herself reflected elsewhere.

What makes Ace so engaging is that she is a glorious contradiction. She is progressive and queer, yet she wants to arrive at the club at opening time rather than fashionably late. She requests Cliff Richard from the DJ. She is Catholic. She turns up to a nightclub wearing her mum’s long, flowery dress with a white collar. None of these things are presented as contradictions that need resolving. They are simply Ace. The play understands that identity is rarely as neat as the labels we use to describe it.

That’s Ace captures the awkward, sometimes hilarious process of figuring out who you are when nobody has given you the vocabulary to do it. It is a play about asexuality, but also about representation, self-discovery and the liberating realisation that you do not have to make yourself fit the expectations of everyone else.

Lee Hutchison

Runs until August 30th at the Caves