Some of the cast from the National Youth Music Theatre Fringe production of Pal Joey during the Edinburgh Festival 1990.placeholder image
Some of the cast from the National Youth Music Theatre Fringe production of Pal Joey during the Edinburgh Festival 1990. | TSPL

Edinburgh Retro: 39 fascinating photos of theatre life in the early 1990s, including Sean Connery and family, Rudolf Nureyev and bingo

Edinburgh’s theatre life is always lively - both inside and outside the Festival.

Here are some fascinating photos selected from the Evening News archives which give a flavour of what was happening on Edinburgh’s theatre scene in the early 1990s.

There are pictures of Sean Connery - and his family - as well as Stephen Fry and Rudolf Nureyev, not to mention singers Barry Manilow and Vanilla Ice.

And there are also pictures of the Empire Theatre as a bingo hall before it was transformed into the Festival Theatre.

Scroll through and get a taste of theatre in Edinburgh three decades ago.

Related topics:
News you can trust since 1873
Follow us
© 2026 Iconic Media Group Ltd. All rights reserved.Cookie SettingsTerms and ConditionsPrivacy notice