It Happened on a Tuesday at Studio at theSpace @ Niddry St Review
Nothing interesting ever happens on a Tuesday - except, apparently, the theft of £60,000 in cash from the boss of a post-it note company. Who it's from, what it's for, and why he point-blank refuses to involve the police are questions It Happened on a Tuesday has absolutely no intention of answering. Instead, this new comedy, a workplace sitcom smashed into a whodunnit, locks six employees in an office and forces them to re-enact their movements from that fateful morning, each retelling more self-serving and more unhinged than the last.
On paper, watching an hour of people retracing their steps around a stationery company sounds like a terrible way to spend an afternoon. In practice, it's a hoot. The script is stuffed with humour - quirky, off-beat, gloriously awkward and frequently ridiculous - and it's delivered by a cast so animated and so watchable that even the show's most mundane office business becomes an event. These are performers who understand that the funniest thing in the world is a person taking something very silly very seriously, and they commit to the bit with fervour.
The staging also deserves a mention. The thrust configuration is used brilliantly and the company squeezes remarkable mileage from minimal set and props. What could feel bare instead feels deliberate: every re-enactment is tightly choreographed, every transition crisp, and the lighting design is superb. It's scrappy, inventive, resourceful theatre; in other words, it is the Fringe at its best.
If there's a frustration, it's that the play withholds slightly too much. We never learn what the money was for, who it came from, or why the police were never an option - and while ambiguity is clearly the point, a little more payoff would have made the mystery land as satisfyingly as the comedy does.
Still, this is confident, tightly drilled storytelling that never lets the audience's attention wander. A concept that could easily have been an hour of admin is instead one of the daftest, most engaging offerings of the week. Not bad for a Tuesday.
It Happened On A Tuesday is running until August 22nd at theSpace @Niddry Street at 2:40pm
★ ★ ★ ★
Written by Ellora for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
