Robert Louis Stevenson: The Body Snatcher

Blue Orange Arts returns to the Edinburgh Fringe this year with a new one-man show; Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher alongside revising their solo retelling of Charles Dickens’ The Hanged Man’s Bride from last year (no Hound of the Baskervilles or their duo shows this time round).

Set during the time of the notorious Burke and Hare murders and with oblique references to both them and the anatomist Dr Robert Knox The Body Snatcher is right at home at the Edinburgh Fringe and James Nicholas does not disappoint as he skilfully commands the audiences attention, sympathy and disgust. Atmospheric and engaging, the audience is confronted by the slippery slope of moral relativism through Fettes’ reactions to, and decisions regarding the ‘resurrection men’ alongside Macfarlane’s ultimately unrepentant self-interest.

With a powerful performance by Nicholas, an intuitive use of minimal set, multi-rolling, and great direction by Oliver Hume Blue Orange Arts’ The Body Snatcher is a fantastically staged adaptation that does not pull its punches in reminding us how medical advancement was achieved in the 19th century.

Attended 14 August 2025
Edinburgh FRINGE: Venue 39
Space on the Mile (Raddison Hotel)

I heard your name; I feared it might be you; I wished to know if, after all, there were a God; I know now that there is none.

Blue Orange Arts:
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Blue Orange Theatre
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Further Reading:
The Body Snatcher.pdf
“The Body Snatcher”, 1884 | Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher - The Lancet
Robert Louis Stevenson's The Body Snatcher: A Detailed Summary and a Literary Analysis

Director:
Oliver Hume

Performer:
James Nicholas

Tech:
Nathan Thomas Bower

Photo taken from the Blue Orange Theatre instagram page