REVIEW: Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella, Awkward Productions, EdFringe 2026 ★★★★

An insightful and emotional piece of the reality around queerphobia, buzzing with the comedic joys that come along with all of Linus Karp’s work. 

Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella follows the true story of Linus Karp’s experience being attacked in a queerphobic hate crime on a night in Soho with his partner. In 2024, shortly before coming up to Edinburgh for the Fringe, Linus was hit over the head by a man wielding an umbrella. Linus spares no details in describing the event, the homophobic abuse he faced and the ongoing consequences of this attack. 

To say Linus makes light of this situation would be a lie, though his tale is interspersed with humour, he speaks of the reality of this experience and the reality of queerphobia as a whole in a way that is sincere while still being accessible. The show features statistics and advice and uses the actual recordings of the call his partner Joseph had with the police at the incident. As a queer person who has experienced queerphobic abuse (though never on this scale), the details of this are frankly, terrifying, but that is to the benefit of the show. With Linus, I felt safe, I felt prepared for the inevitable, and I felt empowered to fight hate with visibility. 

The comedy throughout fell into a similar tone to Awkward Production’s other shows, but the overall mood of the piece was far more sincere, I felt connected to Linus as he spoke, as though it was a friend telling me about their life. The show also featured a running joke throughout where Linus would use any segue possible to turn the show into a pitch for a run as Soho Theatre, a very famous new comedy theatre which resides very nearby the scene of the attack, that I greatly enjoyed.

My main criticism of the show was the pacing, often when Linus would go into jokes or adjacent stories and I felt impatient wanting to learn more about the show’s core subject matter. Linus’s story is so enticing and so important, but was separated into very short segments throughout a show that felt almost padded with other stories and comedy, and as much as I enjoyed that padding, it didn’t always feel needed. I also found that this wasn’t helped by the moment’s of audience interaction. Selecting audience members to play characters throughout is a classic of Awkward Productions, but having audience members stand to read out single lines or tweets felt to me that they were slowing down the show and taking away from the sincerity. 

This show came at the audience as a mix of stand up, theatre and true crime documentary, this show invited us to get educated and stay safe as queer people, this show celebrated what it means to be queer and invited all that were there to do the same, this show proved that the only way to respond to queerphobia is through loud and proud queer joy!

Recommended Drink: A Soho Theatre Neon Lager, to enjoy at Soho Theatre, where I get the idea that Linus would love to perform.

You can catch Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella at Friesian at Underbelly, Bristo Square from 5-30 (not 18) at 20:20 (60 mins). Tickets are available through the EdFringe Online Box Office.