Prophets review: an enigmatic tale of faith and doomsday at Edinburgh
A new play at Edinburgh follows a Scottish researcher arriving on a fictional British overseas island where locals await the end of the world under a mysterious prophet. The review praises a strong start but finds the exploration of cult psychology ultimately shallow.
Edinburgh's stage programme features Jack MacGregor's latest play, Prophets, continuing the playwright's pattern of setting stories in remote, politically charged corners of the world — following earlier works set on a deserted Russian research base in Svalbard, among militias in Mali, and in Pol Pot-era Cambodia.
The new play unfolds on the fictional island of Saint John, imagined as a sparsely populated British Overseas Territory in the South Pacific. Scottish researcher Kerris, played by Rebecca Wilkie, arrives ostensibly to study the archaeological record of plant life, but quickly becomes more drawn to the islanders' religious practices. She is welcomed by Joe, a former merchant seaman played by Xander Cowan, who takes on multiple roles in the production.
Kerris soon notices that the islanders gather nightly for church services led by an elusive figure known only as the prophet. While her official work concerns the distant past, the community around her appears to be preparing for the end of days.
Strong opening gives way to a thinner payoff
Directed by Fraser Scott, the production opens strongly, with well-regarded performances and a political undercurrent suggesting a possible cover-up hidden behind the slow-moving bureaucracy of this remote remnant of the British empire, deepening the sense of a cult operating outside normal oversight.
However, as the story develops, focus shifts increasingly toward Kerris's own history with charismatic religious leaders — a backstory the review describes as hazy and revealed too slowly. Because Kerris remains largely an outside observer of the cult, the audience is kept at a distance from the island's events. Ultimately, the play is said to land on the uncontroversial conclusion that cults are harmful, without offering deeper insight into the social conditions that make such movements appealing in the first place.
