Aged six, she packs her rucksack, determined to set off on an adventure. The only person who understands her six-year-old yearning to shake off the shackles of her family and discover a new world is her grandfather. Fast forward 12 years and her grandfather is dying. He hasn’t been home since he fled Albania forty years before. She has one last opportunity to accompany him.

‘In The Land of Eagles‘ is a beautiful, beautifully constructed play from writer and performer Alex Reynolds. The script is lyrical and lovely. She gobbles up swathes of Albanian history and shares it in bitesize chunks to give us a window into the expectations that her grandfather has carried with him into his new life. Reynolds’ descriptions of the bustling streets of Albania’s capital city, Tirana, the quiet mountain villages, pothole-riven roads and soaring mountain peaks would do a travel writer proud.

She sidesteps into life in Albania now, reflecting on the lack of opportunity that blights this beautiful country whose economy has been crippled by forty years of a communist dictator. Luck becomes a haunting riff, contrasting her privileged upbringing with her grandpa who only seems to moan about how he didn’t ever have enough milk.

There are lots of reasons to go see this show. Reynolds is a compelling performer, weaving a rich and interesting tale that’s full of gentle self-reflection. Her delivery is swift and assured and she has a great portfolio of throwaway one liners: ‘Tirana’s not like London: it’s honest’.

It’s carefully directed (Martha Geelan), atmospherically lit (Rachel Sampley), the set has just the right number of nods to the story and the evocative soundscape (Nicola T. Chang) scoops you up from the busy Pleasance Baby Grand and dollops you down amongst the soaring peaks of the Albanian mountains. The production team is entirely female which always warrants brownie points. But above all, the storytelling is superb – the breathtaking, heartbreaking twist will see you staggering back into the light with a fuller heart and all sorts of food for thought.

‘In the Land of Eagles‘ is at Pleasance Courtyard – Baby Grand until Mon 25 Aug 2025 at 15:00