Game Theory Forest Theatre at Greenside @ George Street Review
Every so often, if you're lucky, you stumble across a show at Fringe that makes you want to stand outside the venue handing out flyers yourself. This year, it's Game Theory, a new, original musical by Rachel Bellman and Josh Bird about friendship, uncertainty, and the illegal flower trade that is every bit as strange and wonderful as that premise suggests.
Cass is in her first year of university. Freshers week, captured here with an accuracy that will make anyone who's lived it wince and grin in equal measure, sweeps her into the orbit of Mia, the quintessential mean girl until you get to know her; Mia's older brother Tom, a PhD student in plant sciences; and Luke, Mia's boyfriend and Tom's childhood friend. Adopted into their tight-knit group, Cass is soon invited into something considerably less ordinary: a plan to steal orchids so that Tom can develop a medication for anxiety. Cass, who grew up watching her mother struggle under the weight of the condition, says yes. The question the show poses - how far would you go for your friends? - gets answered in ways that are funnier, sadder, and more suspenseful than you'd ever expect from a musical about botany.
The score is gloriously pop-infused and doesn't contain a single weak number. The standout is 'Is It a Crime?', a gorgeous sweeping eleven o'clock number that marks the turning point in Cass's journey and stops the show dead. The cast, drawn from LAMDA's MA musical theatre programme, are uniformly excellent - a large, ferociously talented young company handled with such precision by director Adam Lenson that the stage never once feels crowded. On a minimal set, the whole production is tightly choreographed, and the moments of suspense have the audience holding their breath. As the personal relationships begin to fracture, so does the plan, and the climactic attempt to lift a flower from Kew Gardens plays out against the unravelling of everything these characters have built together.
Game Theory has all the makings of another SIX, a homegrown musical that started small and conquered the world. A transfer to a London new-work champion like The Other Palace or Riverside Studios feels less like a possibility than an inevitability. Game Theory is the rare orchid of this year's Fringe: pick it while you can.
Game Theory is playing at Forest Theatre at Greenside @ George Street at 12:50 until August 22nd
★★★★★
Written by Ellora for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
