2026 reviews will be added here throughout the festival
TWELVE: Going The Distance
New York choreographer Marisa F Ballaro makes a strong Edinburgh debut with TWELVE: Going The Distance, staged inside a boxing gym and following five women through twelve rounds of shifting rivalry and alliance. Confident, character-driven dance-theatre performed with real commitment by its cast - a promising first Fringe outing worth catching if you can.
★ ★ ★ ★
Week One Roundup
A whistle-stop summary of my week-one reviews for the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe
Elba
Following his abdication in 1814, Napoleon Bonaparte was exiled to the small Mediterranean island of Elba, where he was made sovereign. This dynamic and engaging two-hander follows the former general and André Pons de l'Hérault, a French revolutionary turned administrator, living on Elba during these months.
Never boring, Elba races through its runtime, taking what could be a dry or uninviting subject matter and making it hugely entertaining while still remaining thoughtful and smart.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ .5
Film Noir Frog
A very silly show, with a very silly premise, Film Noir Frog is an entertaining, short, sharp blast of toad-ally ridiculous fun. If I said I was entirely able to follow the plot I would be lying, all I know is that it had a lot of laughs and somehow Dance Dance Revolution saved the day.
★ ★ ★ .5
Improv Comedy with Box of Frogs
Hilarious non-stop improv from the Birmingham-based Frogs incorporating sketches, mini games and songs. If you are looking for a solid hour of silliness and laughter this is the show for you!
★ ★ ★ ★
exit strategy's How to Win a Gameshow
Part bleakly dystopian satire, part interactive improv comedy, any description I give of How to Win a Gameshow will fail to do it justice. There's dancing, there's singing, there's a very tantalising cash prize..
I'm loath to say much more for fear of spoiling it, but I can't recommend this show enough. Go for a shot at the money; stay for the hope of ever leaving.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Macbeth: Blood and Bluegrass
The ‘Scottish Play’ is a bit like Imagine - endlessly covered and often wildly reinterpreted. I might have said I never needed to see another; however, I love good music and I'm a sucker for a fresh take (hey, I once saw Dannii Minogue play Lady Macbeth at the Fringe and it wasn't half bad), so I couldn't resist the premise of a bluegrass reworking of the famously cursed tragedy.
An interesting spin on one of the most famous plays in history - If you fancy some cracking live music with a side of Shakespeare, you should certainly give it a go.
★ ★ ★ .5
Mark Vigeant: OUT THERE
I loved Mark’s previous Fringe outing The Best Man Show so much I saw it two years in a row, so I had high hopes for his latest expedition into the more rugged subject matter of outdoor adventuring. I’m glad to say I may have left the theatre a little soggy, but in no way disappointed.
If you like your comedy on the verge of a breakdown, this is one for you - just make sure you pick a big fern on the way in, you’ll thank me later.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Dear Michelle Kwan
As a former figure skater and survivor of Skate Camp, I was naturally drawn to the subject matter but I was not prepared for the bonkers, bedazzled spectacle that was about to unfold. If the Judy Blume-sounding title gives the impression of something sweet and reflective, this is in fact a wonderfully weird little show with a darkly comedic tone. Dear Michelle Kwan balances its girlish silliness with the spiralling horror hilariously and to great effect. Dear Edinburgh Fringe audiences, please go and see this!
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ .5
I Made You A Mixtape
I Made You A Mixtape is an absolute joy from start to finish. There are glowsticks, there is beer pong, there is audience participation, and above all there is fantastic, exuberant dancing. There are a few downbeat moments but the overall feeling is one of pure exhilaration and the kind of glorious, effervescent girl-bonding that, if we are lucky, lives on in our own mental mixtapes too.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Sweaty Clowns
What's not to love about a pair of miserable clowns spiralling into failure, dragging the whole of Boogie Woogie Entertainments towards bankruptcy with them? Less of a sad trombone, however, and more of a slapstick farce, the plot of Sweaty Clowns hinges on a potentially career-saving gig delivering a posho party to eighty rich-kid brats as the group hurtle towards the inevitable, proverbial slow-moving clown-car crash when everything possible begins to go wrong.
★ ★ ★ .5
What Happens in the Dark
What Happens in the Dark runs on a clever, well-executed concept: the audience sees everything the characters, plunged into darkness, cannot - and the lights snap on and off according to what's dark to them rather than to us. It's a well-drilled hour of comedy, and kudos to the actors for commiting to an in-character, in-the-dark curtain call.
★ ★ ★ ★
Bliss
When I saw the poster for Bliss my first thought was ‘the inevitable SIX rip-off’ but the short Instagram trailer I watched hooked my interest with some solid-sounding tunes so I was keen to see the show for myself. And yes, the comparisons do extend further than the flyer, with the opening number bearing more than a passing nod to the Ex-Wives; however, from that point on it very much becomes its own thing.
★ ★ ★★
Detective Heartbreak
A gleefully daft parody that puts a hard-boiled gumshoe on the case of modern romance, tasked with cracking his most baffling mystery yet: why Connor got left on read after a seemingly successful(ish) date. A fun, lighthearted and silly look at the modern dating landscape that is well worth catching.
★ ★ ★ ★
Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It
As both a huge fan of Xhloe and Natasha’s previous Fringe shows and someone who has voluntarily listened to a fourteen-hour podcast deep-dive on the Patterson–Gimlin film, I think it’s fair to say that this was my ‘must see’ for the festival - and I’m glad to report it did not disappoint.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Spare Room
A darkly dramatic and acerbic portrait of student life amid a never-ending blur of booze, bravado and boy-banter as a daily hazing ritual. I would certainly recommend Spare Room to anyone familiar with the particular hell that is sharing a flat whilst drowning in British binge-drink culture.
★ ★ ★ .5
Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025
An archive collection of Edinburgh Fringe Festival reviews from 2025.