By Grace Hatcell
You know when you’re younger and you assume that by your late twenties you’ll have everything sorted?
Career going nicely. Money in the bank. Perhaps a nice flat. You’ll know exactly who you are and where you’re going.
Yes. About that.
MNÁ, meaning “women” in Irish, is arriving at the Edinburgh Fringe with two women, rather a lot of questions and the uncomfortable discovery that getting older does not automatically come with an instruction manual.
The new play runs at Greenside’s intimate Sprout Studio on George Street from 18–22 August and follows two women through their late twenties as they wrestle with societal pressure, their own expectations and the small matter of trying to work out who on earth they actually are.
Frankly, Grace approves already.
Francesca Garry and Jodie Sweeney take us into the lives of two women returning from New York and attempting to adapt to what comes next.
Leaving home to find yourself sounds wonderfully adventurous.
Finding yourself, losing yourself and then realising you don’t actually know yourself, all in the space of a year?
Slightly less convenient.
Through humour and spoken word, MNÁ explores the choices the women make and how those decisions begin shaping their adult lives. There’s also the question of what it actually means to be young, broke and attempting to make it as an artist in 2026.
I suspect the answer isn’t “excellent pension contributions and a sensible packed lunch.”
There’s a lovely story behind the company too.
Irish creatives Francesca Garry and Jodie Sweeney met while living in New York City before co-founding Suaimhneas Theatre Company. Their first short play, Mo Smaointe, was written, directed and performed by the pair at the RiffRaffs Immigrants Festival in Brooklyn in May 2025, exploring what it means to live away from home while still trying to carry a little piece of it around with you.
Now they’ve packed their latest creation off to Edinburgh.
Suaimhneas Theatre says it wants to make work that cannot simply be ignored or scrolled past, and MNÁ certainly isn’t short of things to explore: womanhood, identity, expectations, artistic ambition and that peculiar period of adulthood when everybody else appears to know what they’re doing.
Spoiler: they probably don’t.
Sadly, my satchel and I have already left Edinburgh, so I won’t get the chance to pop along myself. But Theatre Village was created to champion independent theatre, and being hundreds of miles away isn’t going to stop me having a little nosey at what new companies are bringing to the Fringe.
And for Suaimhneas Theatre Company, this one is particularly special.
MNÁ is their Edinburgh Fringe debut.
So if you’re still in Edinburgh and fancy 40 minutes of spoken word, humour, women trying to navigate adulthood and the reassuring confirmation that nobody really has life completely figured out, this might be one to pop into the diary.
MNÁ (women)
18–22 August
Sprout Studio, Greenside, George Street
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
Now, if anyone does find that adulthood instruction manual, please forward a copy to Theatre Village.
I have been waiting for years.
MNÁ (women) | Edinburgh Festival Fringe
About the Author
