And that’s another Fringe done and dusted! We arrived on 7th August and we left on 1st September. During that time, we saw 142 shows, which was twelve fewer than last year, but we did shorten our Edinburgh time by two days, so that explains that. We only had one cancellation due to the time of the show changing, but we replaced it with something else anyway!
Here’s a quick reminder of the 4 and 5 star shows we saw, by star rating and in date order of when we saw them:
5 STARS:
SpinQueen
Baby Everything
Jitters
Long Way Home
Buggers
Evaldas Karosas: A Very Capable Man
No Hard Felix
Dinner with the Wolves
Lear’s Fool
The BBC’s First Homosexual
Annie Wobbler (Revisited)
Casey Filips: What a Character!
Christian Dart: GUMSHOE!
Robin Grainger: Lemonade
Dribble
Max Fulham: Memory Foam
The Distance
Diary of a Mad Man
The Night Ali Died
Apples in Winter
Mortal Sin
The Past
Alfie Dundas: First Class Panic
Clive
BIRDS: Alex Hines and Sarah Stafford
EVITA TOO
The Second Best School Shooting
Patient 13
Demi Adejuyigbe Sells Out
Slayers
The Shocking Truth about Flat Earth
Rapism
Safety
Nuns!
Hope This Helps!
Behind Closed Doors
Christopher Hall: Pizazz
Crocodile Rock
4 STARS:
An Audience with Virginia Woolf: Writing One’s Mind
Two Halves
A Cat in a Box
COPYCAT
The Joker and the Thief
Table for Two
44 Minutes
Big Stuff
Kwami Odoom and Jack Henry: Support Group
HR The Musical
Bachelors of Fine Arts
Ulysses of Scranton
Olivia Raine Atwood: Oops!
Sami Abu Warden Hates You
Sodom, The Quintessence of Debauchery
Madeleine Brettingham: Legend
Mandy: Prince of Darkness
January 6th the Musical
You Talkin’ To Us?
The Jolly Fisherman
Bombs over Byker
Target Audience
Tim Biglowe: Plonka!
The Pitch
Matt Forde: Project Holy Moly!
Miscast Sondheim
The Eight Faces of Ellie Morrison
Millicent Sarre is too Tired to Smash (Patriarchy)
Spare Room
Daughter of Sweden – That One Princess Who Got Drunk with Lizzie I and Thrown Out of England
Only Fans for Therapy
Dogberry and Verges are Scared
“Be Good!” with Paulette
Angela Bra – Secret Diary of a Bingo Call Girl
Operation Blank
Overtone
ELBA
The Misfortunes of a Spy and her Mystic
Betsy and Patty Find Out
Chelsea Birkby: Is in Full Control the Entire Time
Jake Baker: The Gentle Men’s Club
Shotgunned
Thermodrama
The Last Audition
The Last Mad Man
Improbotics Presents: Artificial Reality
Georgina Thomas: Hysterical Soprano
Rizal van Geyzel: Arrested
00:45:00
58 to Go
You’re Not My Mum!
Ambitious Underachiever
Nathan Cassidy: Ewwww!
Blackbox
FUCCBOIS: LIVE IN CONCERT
1 Missed Call
Collateral Damage
Padlocked!
The Shit Table
Our Other Organ
UNDERGROUND MONK SHOW
Sobremesa
Steffan Alun: Windows
Congratulations to all these great shows. Just as a cheeky comparison, I’ve awarded 4 stars to exactly the same number of shows as last year (63 shows) – but there are also 8 more 5 star shows than last year (38 shows), which reflects on the truly excellent standard of productions for 2026. And there weren’t any 1 star shows, hurrah! As to working out which of them are the absolute best – you’ll have to wait until the Chrisparkle Awards for 2026 are announced in January!
Remember – as I always say – reviews are only what one person thinks, they’re purely a personal reaction. And star ratings are even more unreliable!