Review: Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay at Cymera

I settled down in a packed theatre to enjoy a whodunnit with monsters.

I think Strawmoddie Theatre’s production of Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay was one of the highlights at the multi-highlighted Cymera Festival. Certainly, people queued in the rain to go see the Sunday production with me.

Tickets were about £18 each and sold out on all three nights, at least according to the Cymera website, and I certainly didn’t see a spare seat.

I didn’t know what to expect in terms of production budget, and I hadn’t read Feet of Clay, which is the 19th Discworld book, and I think the third in the ‘City Watch’ series. As it turns out, it doesn’t matter. I am sure someone with no Discworld experience would enjoy Feet of Clay.

To enjoy Feet of Clay, you need to appreciate high fantasy, comedy, and locked-room mysteries. That sounds like it’ll be a rare combination, but it really isn’t.

Knowing Discoworld will help, though. The plot as Commander Vimes of the City Watch trying to figure out who (and why someone is) trying to kill Lord Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. A Discworld fan will wonder who’s going to figure it out first: Vimes or the victim?

At the same time, something is up with the city’s golems, and people are dying. Vimes’s instinct is that it’s all connected.

Feet of Clay acting

The Cymera “What’s on” page for Feet of Clay says Edinburgh’s Strawmoddie Theatre’s is an amateur production. If so; it’s a very professional amateur production!

No one hung around awkwardly on the stage, and every single actor successfully managed to bring their characters to life. We had facial expressions, gait, and evening singing.

Actually, there was quite a bit of singing. I don’t imagine the original Feet of Clay had singing planned by Pratchett, but all of Strawmoddie’s choices worked, and the actors carried off the challenge.

I was especially keen on two tall actors – the vet and the vampire, both of whom physically dominated the stage.

Feet of Clay production

We had golems in this so-called am-dram. Okay, they weren’t movie props or even LARP monster level, but there were skeletal humanoids that towered approximately over the human actors. These golem constructions were giant puppets, and they worked.

We had a flying gargoyle, vampires, and dwarves.

We had a stone-clad troll. At least, I think the character was a troll, as I failed my Pratchett lore check on that.

We had various backgrounds and scenes.

All in all, it was an impressive set-up and the stage changes were managed very professionally! I regret only risking taking my phone out to snap a picture during one of the ‘distract the audience while we change things’ scenes in front of the curtain, but even that photo shows off the costumes.

Overall

I’m impressed and have checked the Edinburgh Fringe website for Strawmoddie, but couldn’t find them. However, that does not mean they’re not active in August.

Currently, the company’s Instagram page appears to be a good place to track them.

I enjoyed Terry Pratchett’s Feet of Clay, especially in the comfort of the Pleasance Theatre, and would watch another production from these actors.

When Cymera 2026 is announced, pounce on these tickets.