Theatre reviews: Miss Saigon | Hauns Aff Ma Haunted Bin!

Miss Saigon, Edinburgh Playhouse ★★★★

Hauns Aff Ma Haunted Wheelie Bin!, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

Some stories never grow old; and even 50 years on from the events that inspired it - the dramatic final withdrawal of US troops from Vietnam in April 1975 - Boublil and Schoenberg’s blockbuster musical Miss Saigon, itself now 36 years old, remains as passionate, powerful and heartbreaking as ever.

Conceived as a late 20th century version of the Madam Butterfly story, the show opens in the chaotic last days of the war, and centres on the brief but intense love affair between young American soldier Chris, and a beautiful Vietnamese girl, Kim, who seems different from the other prostitutes in the bar where she is forced to work.

As the Viet Cong march into Saigon, though - subjecting the “Yankees” to one of the most humiliating defeats in US history - Chris and Kim are driven apart. The rest of the story focusses on Kim’s long wait for Chris’s return; and his struggle, alongside other veterans, to come to terms with what he has seen and done in Vietnam.

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Miss Saigon is a tale of late 20th century colonialism, in other words, and of the deep human tragedies it brings in its wake; and Jean-Pierre Van Der Spuy’s memorably intense, fast-moving and spectacular new UK touring production, which opened at the Playhouse this week, handles the story with a fine, angry 21st century energy, capturing not only the sorrow and pity of the tale, but also the grotesque culture of exploitation and abuse that still haunts the west’s relations with Africa and Asia.

It’s a culture embodied in the vital character of The Engineer, the perennial pimp and deal-maker in whose Saigon bar Kim works; and in this production, Seann Miley Moore’s astonishing Engineer dominates the stage with his fervent yet deeply ambivalent passion for the American Dream, stopping the show with his big final stars-and-stripes number. Julianne Pundan, as Kim, brings a matching emotional power to her role, as she fights to protect her precious child and give him a future; Jack Kane is a persuasive Chris with a beautiful singing voice.

And the rest of the 20-strong acting, singing and dancing ensemble also win huge cheers from the audience, for their powerful evocations of thronging bar girls and their clients, serried ranks of grim-faced Viet Cong fighters, or desperate crowds of Vietnamese staff trying to board the last US helicopter out of Saigon; in a 1970s story that might have been written for the age of Make America Great Again, as both a reminder, and a warning.

Meanwhile, back in Scotland, this week’s Play, Pie, Pint show Hauns Aff Ma Haunted Bin! celebrates the Halloween spooky season in fine style, with a merry theatre-of-blood sit-com written by the blazingly talented Eimi Quinn, and set in Maryhill.

The show’s central character is Lisa, whose marriage to a controlling and abusive husband is brought to an abrupt end when her visiting Auntie Sandra lamps him with an iron, finishing him off. The show opens as Lisa and Sandra - dressed as fairies for a Halloween party - are gazing aghast at the body in the kitchen, and considering what do to with it.

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The answer, needless to say, involves Lisa’s wheelie bin; but when the pair are plagued by interruptions - not least from camp cousin Mark, a would-be spiritualist medium - the situation goes from bad to hilarious, with Mark accidentally contacting the raging spirit of Lisa’s man, now resident in the bin.

In Jennifer Dick’s beautifully-crafted production, an outstanding cast - Eimi Quinn herself, Isabelle Joss, and Gavin Jon Wright - never miss a comic beat; and Quinn’s quick-fire dialogue fairly sparkles, in what emerges as a small gem of a Halloween show, nestling in the proverbial rubbish-heap.

Miss Saigon is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh until tomorrow, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen, 3-7 March 2026, and the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, 9-20 June 2026. Hauns Aff Ma Haunted Wheelie Bin is at Oran Mor, Glasgow, until tomorrow.

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