Until Next Year!
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
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.
★ ★ ★ ★
Spraywatch: A Beautiful Rescue
“HAIR! TEETH! TITS! FACE!”
If you haven't had this sung to you by the cast of Spraywatch: A Beautiful Rescue, while thrusting their fanny-packs and making increasingly uncomfortable eye contact, then you haven’t really experienced the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe yet. Smart, sexy and thoroughly good fun - make sure you (slow-mo) run, don’t walk, to get your ticket for this before it sells out.
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
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.