The Scotsman 6 June 2023

Meghan Tyler doesn’t do things by halves. They made their full-length playwriting debut in explosive style with Crocodile Fever, a Fringe hit for Edinburgh’s Traverse in 2019. Not for the fainthearted, the play married Tarantino-esque violence and feminist rage to create an over-the-top comedy about the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

There was a lot of blood and a style somewhere between punk and magical realism. “The whole event blazes with energy and talent,” said Scotsman critic Joyce McMillan.

A year earlier, Tyler had been part of the all-female cast of Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of) at Glasgow’s Tron. In Isobel McArthur’s irreverent, funny and surprisingly faithful Austen adaptation, the Newry-born actor played Elizabeth Bennet (a “persona non-starter”) with wit and intelligence. The show turned into a national success, touring some of the country’s biggest theatres and playing the West End where it won an Olivier Award for Best Comedy. [READ MORE]

By Mark Fisher

MARK FISHER is a freelance theatre critic and feature writer based in Edinburgh and has written about theatre in Scotland since the late-1980s. He is a theatre critic for The Guardian, a former editor of The List magazine and a frequent contributor to the Scotsman and other publications. He is the co-editor of the play anthology Made in Scotland (1995), and the author of The Edinburgh Fringe Survival Guide (2012) and How to Write About Theatre (2015) – all Bloomsbury Methuen Drama. He is also the editor of The XTC Bumper Book of Fun for Boys and Girls and What Do You Call That Noise? An XTC Discovery Book (both Mark Fisher Ltd).