Nesting at Summerhall Review
Peter McCormack’s unsettling new play begins with an outrageous premise: a man living with Motor Neurone Disease is offered an escape by a seagull willing to take over his body. It sounds absurd. It is absurd. Yet within minutes, the surrealism gives way to something far darker, evolving into an uncomfortable and thought-provoking examination of care, autonomy and what we owe to the people we love.
This is not an easy watch, nor is it trying to be. Nesting constantly challenges its audience, sitting in ethical grey areas without offering simple answers. Assisted dying, family obligation, identity and the fear of becoming a burden all sit at the heart of the piece, creating a production that feels deliberately unsettling rather than sentimental. The absurdity isn’t there to soften the subject matter; if anything, it makes it even more disarming.
McCormick’s writing is confidently ambitious. The dialogue balances moments of sharp, often very dark humour with conversations that feel painfully authentic, allowing the emotional weight to emerge naturally rather than forcing it. Developed alongside people living with Motor Neurone Disease and their carers, the play carries a clear sense of respect for the realities it explores, never reducing its characters to symbols for a wider debate.
Billy Mack gives a quietly devastating performance as Francis. His gradual loss of independence is portrayed with remarkable restraint, making the smallest moments carry enormous emotional weight. Francesca Hess is equally compelling as Emma, capturing the impossible position of loving someone while quietly carrying the exhausting responsibility of caring for them. Together, they create a father-daughter relationship that feels entirely believable.
Then there’s the seagull.
Michael Guest somehow turns what could have been an outlandish gimmick into one of the production’s most compelling presences. Funny, unsettling and strangely persuasive, he constantly shifts the atmosphere, keeping the audience unsure whether to laugh, recoil or question whether his impossible proposition might actually make sense.
Ben Standish’s direction embraces the play’s surrealism without losing sight of its emotional core. The seagull’s striking physical visual imagery combines to create moments that linger.
Dark, disturbing and deeply thought-provoking, Nesting is the kind of theatre that refuses to let you sit comfortably. It won’t be for everyone, but for audiences willing to wrestle with difficult questions, it’s one of the Fringe’s most memorable new plays.
Nesting will be playing at Summerhall at 16.30 until 31st August
★★★★
Written by Liam Arnold for Theatre and Tonic, August 2026.
