Review: Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch @ Cymera Festival (Pleasance Theatre)

Birdy made it along to the Pleasance for her first event of Cymera 2026 – a live theatre performance of Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch. And wow, what a show!

A sell-out theatre production full of heart, that once again does justic to author Terry Pratchett‘s original work.

The dull (but necessary) intro

I wasn’t sure what to expect from Terry Pratchett‘s Night Watch, but a fabulous time was had last year by Girdy at Feet of Clay, so I decided to sign myself up for this year’s offering. In fact, Strawmoddie Theatre have made quite a name for themselves with their sell-out shows of Guards! Guards! (2023), Men at Arms (2024) and Feet of Clay (2025).

Now, I’m not only writing this as the ‘Birdy’ to Andrew Girdwood’s Edinburgh Reviews ‘Girdy’, but also as Geek Native Mother, Bronwen Winter Phoenix, and… I have a confession to make. An embarassing one!

I’ve never read Night Watch. In fact, I’ve only ever read half a Terry Pratchett novel (half because we don’t talk about the co-author) and that was Good Omens (which I loved, by the way). People have been telling me to read Terry Pratchett for years, but I guess I just couldn’t find where to start, and never really started anywhere.

So, I suddenly find myself amongst so many Pratchett fans and lovers of his books, and I feel a little… like I have a dark secret and do I really deserve to be here? Girdy assured me via text that no back context is required, so onwards I went, up the stairs, in the large queue, and perched myself in a strategic yet effective seat for seeing the show. And, I’m so glad I did!

The vibe

The vibe begins when I’m seated, but people are still filtering in trying to find their seats, and on stage we see this character – who I later find out is called Lu-Tze, an unassuming history monk or ‘sweeper’ – sweeping the stage. Sometimes he has a cigarette in his mouth, and every so often he stops to look out at the audience. He’s wearing crocs. I am easily amused, and this feels like a nice way to start off the show.

Once the show starts proper-like, the tone is light, silly and entertaining throughout, despite the somewhat overarching dark plot of Night Watch. One of the highlights for me were the musical interludes by Constable Reg Shoe, and I particularly loved when he sang When I’m Cleaning Gravestones (adapted from ‘When I’m Cleaning Windows‘ made famous by George Formby)! Very funny.

Performance

Okay, so I need to first tell you what when I read this was described as an ‘amateur production’, added to the fact I have very little knowledge of the Terry Pratchett book itself, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I’m now here to tell you that this production feels anything but amateur – I was absolutely blown away by how well it was performed.

The show is filled with so many entertaining, fully-formed characters full of joy and perfectly acted and without a moment of stumbling or hesitation.

To get a little extra input, I actually joined a Terry Pratchett group and I’m fairly certain from other comments from the night that they are indeed true to the book and have done it absolute justice – despite putting on a Terry Pratchett play seeming like a daunting task, as there’s no space for any of his famous entertaining footnotes in a play. It didn’t matter.

I loved watching how these characters came to life, and almost right from the beginning you’re rooting for the time-travelling Commander Sam Vimes, who has a dangerous run-in with dangerously vicious criminal and absolute maniac Carcer, and then has to step into the shoes of Sergeant-at-Arms John Keel.

I’d have had no idea this was an amateur production, and can now see why Strawmoddie Theatre have gotten such a solid name for themselves!

The relationships Sam forms as he’s trying to work out just what’s going on and why he’s put where he is, whilst so much chaos and hilarity go on around him is just wonderful. I was fully hooked and engaged, with no idea what was going to happen next, but 100% here for it.

It’s a smooth, very professionally run show filled with heart and soul; you can tell a lot of love has gone into its production, right down to the small Terry Pratchett tribute of what looked like the man himself in his chair with the actual book. The pacing is great, and I laughed out loud so many times.

It’s also a long show (2hr 30 minutes, with an interval in the middle) but it didn’t feel like it.

Overall

This was a very slick, highly entertaining and fabulous production that kept the energy up throughout, with lots of silliness and musical interludes, even down to just introducing the interval. The set was also very well designed, with the barricades etc. and I even enjoyed all the action with the sword fighting.

I actually managed to chat to director Jonathan Whiteside after that show, who said: “It’s my favourite Terry Pratchett book and so pleased to be able to direct it! Myself and Young Vetinari (Blair Flucker) my Co-Director had a brilliant time.”

Well. It’s not often I attend a play and decide that, actually, I want to start reading Terry Pratchett! In fact, that’s never happened before, but it’s exactly what happened here. So, thanks, Strawmoodie Theatre – I hope to see more of your work in future, and in the meantime I have some books to enjoy!

Unfortunately all the tickets are sold out now (and can see why), but here’s the official page anyway.