one4review | On 22, Aug 2026

Kayla Boyle gives a spellbinding performance in Call Me Elizabeth: From Lassie to Cleopatra, an intimate portrait of Elizabeth Taylor at a moment when her glittering public image masked considerable private turmoil.

Newsreel footage immediately adds authenticity, showing the real Taylor being wheeled across an airport tarmac by Eddie Fisher after surviving pneumonia, before going on to win her Oscar for Butterfield 8. The action then moves to the Beverly Hills Hotel, where a glamorous Elizabeth, her tracheotomy scar barely visible, sips champagne and records notes for a possible autobiography.

She begins her life story with her first role in Lassie and how early success and her body developing quicker than would normally be expected meant that she didn’t get a chance just to be a normal young girl and was thrust into adulthood far sooner than was healthy for her.

As she recalls failed marriages to Nicky Hilton and Michael Wilding, the vulnerability beneath the Hollywood façade emerges. The ever-present threat of gossip columnists such as Hedda Hopper makes that pressure palpable.

Boyle makes us feel as though Taylor is confiding her deepest secrets directly to us. Constant interruptions from Fisher suggest yet another marriage in crisis, with his principal contribution seemingly a steady supply of painkillers for the back problems Taylor traces to her fall while filming National Velvet.

There is tenderness, too, in Taylor’s recollections of Montgomery Clift and Rock Hudson. But it is when she speaks of her great love, Mike Todd, that she truly lights up. Boyle captures that transformation beautifully, completing a compelling and remarkably convincing performance. For tales of Hollywood glamour and a screen goddess at the height of her fame, you’ll see no better performance this Fringe – apart, of course, from Part 2 of Call Me Elizabeth. Review to follow shortly!

Reviewed by Rona

Assembly George Square – Studio 2

Until 29th August (Odd Dates Only)

!5.30 to 16.30