Jake Mace
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My mission is to uplift marginalised and unheard voices at every festival I attend, and this upcoming EdFringe will be my 10th anniversary attending, and 8th reviewing. So, should you want to connect yourself with live performance born and bred on the periphery, check out my 25 hot picks that have caught my attention so far. I suspect they will make your Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025 an unforgettable (and as to be expected, pretty queer) one.
Friday August 1st – ALTAR
Theatre / Queer / Trans
Kick-off your Fringe weekend with this ode to the complex intersectionality of being LGBTIQA+
and a person of faith. Em Tambree’s new writing debut follows Dan, a trans adult invited to their childhood friend Sutton’s wedding under their deadname. Fresh from a sold-out Australian tour, Tambree aims for this to be a tender and fervent exploration of growing up and into queerness, or away from it.
July 30th – August 25th (not the 6th, 12th or 19th), 14:50 (60mins), Underbelly George Square – The Wee Coo, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: JM Tubera
Saturday August 2nd – Big Gay Afterparty
Cabaret / Queer
Queer Cabaret Icon and Master of Ceremonies Aidan Sadler aims for this to be the ‘first ever’ LGBTQIA+ launch party for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with all the bells and whistles that entails. Expect a cabaret smorgasbord of bonkers, out-there, and emerging artists – all lip-syncing, voguing, singing, dancing, and providing plenty of laughter through the night as we ring in the first weekend of Fringe 2025.
August 2nd & 15th, 23:00 – late, Just the Tonic @ La Belle Angele, Click for Tickets.
Sunday August 3rd – House Party
Theatre / Politics / New Writing / Comedy
Wipe off that hangover with an upbeat afternoon show about partying – Chakira Alin is blending stand-up, dance and social commentary in her genre-defying EdFringe debut, as she sets out to answer the question “why don’t people throw house parties anymore?”. An ode to the dancefloor and the power of a good boogie, mixed in with unique political commentary on the UK’s ongoing housing crisis, homelessness, and gentrification.
July 30th – August 25th (12th or 21st), 15:20 (60mins), Attic at Pleasance Courtyard, Click for Tickets.
Monday August 4th – Mushroomification (Legs, Legs, Legs)
Theatre / Absurdist / Comedy
I reckon this one might have legs (sorry, it was right there). Start your week off with something a little more curious – a show about a talking mushroom, desperate to break away from its’ authoritarian mycelium network and become an individual. Our mushroom friend then meets a scientist dreaming of creating a human hive mind. I suspect there’s more than meets the eye with Edinburgh-based, avant-garde, early career collective Heads on Crooked’s debut. And I can already see that mushroom costume turning heads as it bounds down the Royal Mile for some flyering.
July 30th – August 5th, 12:50 (55mins), Just the Tonic at the Mash House, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Tianhui Wu
Tuesday August 5th – A Stan is Born!
Theatre / Queer / Musical Comedy
Listen, I’m no pop culture fiend, but Alexis Sakellaris’ infectious energy and dedication to whimsical, fervent storytelling keeps this firmly in my top ranks of ‘shows I’ve already reviewed that are returning this year’. His vocals are pitch perfect, and his life story as a stan for divas across the decades hits every note with delightful charm. You’ll leave this one upbeat, nourished, and in my case at least, much better read on divas of past and present.
July 30th – August 25th (not the 11th), 15:00 (60mins), Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose – Blether, Click for Tickets.
Wednesday August 6th – Sam Nicoresti: Baby Doomer
Comedy / Stand-Up / Trans
Rising star of the Fringe comedy circuit Sam Nicoresti’s debut show Wokeflake used absurdist character comedy to explore identity politics, the alt-right and gender. Now they’re back with something seemingly more personal. From a comedy night in a care home, to the standing stones of Cornwall, Sam says this is a story about losing your mind, finding it again, and the hunt for the perfect skirt suit.
July 30th – August 24th (not the 11th), 14:50 (60mins), Bunker Two at Pleasance Courtyard, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Rebecca Need Menear
Thursday August 7th – ROADKILL
Theatre / Queer / Political
Arriving right on time and not a minute late, DYKEish Productions & Niamh O’Farrell-Tyler’s EdFringe debut explores the aftermath of an act of transphobic hate and violence through the eyes of Cosmo, a young trans person unapologetically talking about period sex, working at Tesco, living with their parents, and the Rocky Horror Picture Show – a solo show about trans euphoria, sexuality and survival.
August 1st – 9th, 19:30 (45mins), theSpace on the Mile – Space 2, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Kallum Linnie
Friday August 8th – Deaffy Drag Queeny: Glitter, Gags and GSV
Drag / d/Deaf-led
Part of the always exciting programme put together for Edinburgh Deaf Festival and showing for one night only at stalwart charity Deaf Action’s Blackwood Bar. This show from Gerard Mary Maguire and Danny Lee aims to bring outrageous fun, cheeky charm and deaf queer pride to the stage using BSL and Gay Sign Variant (GSV), looking to entertain and empower their audiences.
August 8th, 22:30 (60mins), Blackwood Bar at Deaf Action, Click for Tickets.
Saturday August 9th – Tell Me Where Home Is (I’m Starting to Forget)
Theatre / Queer / Storytelling
Michael DeBartolo looks back to his pubescent anguish in this journey to expose the dark recesses of the queer mind. With clear Dorothy imagery and the boisterous claim that Glinda the Good Witch was “full of shit”, DeBartolo lands in Edinburgh from New York City with an introspective spring in his step. Packing a whole adolescence into 50 minutes is no mean feat, and I suspect you can look forward to a heavy dose of heel-clicking, reminiscing, and maybe a little bit of reckoning.
August 1st – 23rd, 22:35 (60mins), theSpace @ Surgeon’s Hall – Theatre 3, Click for Tickets.
Sunday August 10th – Youth in Flames
Theatre / Politics / Storytelling
This one caught my attention when writer-performer Mimi Martin pitched me a self-penned article about her experiences during the 2019 Hong Kong Student Protests. What struck me was the care with which Mimi outlined her position as a resident and also an outsider, and a sense of the privileges she endured among the great precarity for her co-inhabitants of the Hong Kong SAR. Her show portrays a city in chaos, rebellion, and on the brink through a seemingly very unique and inventive lens.
July 30th – August 25th (not the 6th, 12th or 19th), 14:50 (60mins), Underbelly George Square – The Wee Coo, Click for Tickets.
Monday August 11th – A Xerox of a Deer
Theatre / Queer / Puppetry
The opening Monday of Week 2 gives light to an entire new roster of unique shows. Amongst them, Irish puppeteers The Horgles (Kyle Moss and Ceilbí) open their story of identity, roadkill and queerness following an unlikely friendship blooming on a country road late at night. I have bumped into some friends who saw this at Cork Fringe and Theatre502, and if I’m to believe the hype, there’s scant chance you’ll be disappointed with this unique, contemporary absurd show which The Horgles describe as “Irish as muck”.
August 11th – 16th, 19:10 (45mins), theSpaceTriplex – Studio, Click for Tickets.
Tuesday August 12th – Pigs Fly Easy Ryan
Performance Art / Queer / Climate Crisis
Is this list queer enough yet? Time to include some performance art. Performers Nonstop describe this show as “aviation bimbofication transubstantiation ritual for big-boy audiences 18 and over”. In the face of climate collapse and rising global fascism, we’re invited to check in to this impersonation of flight attendants by two ‘flamin’ hot crash fetishists’. So much of this listing is having to be put in brackets because I have no idea what to expect with this, but I’m so in.
July 31st – August 24th (not the 11th or 18th), 20:10 (60mins), Underbelly Cowgate – Iron Belly, Click for Tickets.
Wednesday August 13th – Su Mi: THISMOTHERPHUCKER
Clown / Queer / Asian Voices
Tack another surreal and unhinged day onto Week 2 with Su Mi’s unabashedly bonkers alternative comedy-clown piece follows a dysfunctional anti-clown whose only mission is to “destroy ego”. Su told us in a recent interview that we should expect to “wake up in a ditch with no pants on… eating a subway sandwich”. Deeper than it perhaps seems, Su also aims to challenge the narrative of comedy whilst navigating a predominantly white cis space. You’ll leave this one breathless and panting, I’m sure.
July 31st – August 24th (not the 12th or 19th), 18:40 (60mins), Underbelly Cowgate – Iron Belly, Click for Tickets.
Thursday August 14th – Don’t Tell Dad About Diana
Theatre / Queer / New Writing / Comedy
Detox with something a little different – a Coming of Age play set in 1997 Dublin, and following two friends as they prepare for the crowning of Alternative Miss Ireland with their Princess Diana drag act, under the nose of their hardline nationalist families. The show follows an unravelling of secrets, friendship, and plans to leave Ireland through a high-energy, fast-paced two hander ‘packed with comedy’. And with Linus Karp’s infamous Diana solidly in the freezer until after he’s married live on stage, there’s definitely room for a new interpretation.
July 31st – August 24th (not the 12th), 12:50 (60mins), Underbelly Cowgate – Belly Dancer, Click for Tickets.
Friday August 15th – Edward (in Memoriam)
Theatre / Queer / New Writing
Make it a queer history double bill with Bristol University DramSoc’s reimagination of Christopher Marlowe’s classic play. Writer Noah Robinson showed me in a recent interview that he has done an impressive amount of research into the lives of Queer Veterans, inspired by testimonies given in the 2022 Etherton Report to explore the maltreatment faced by personnel serving under the ban on LGBQTIA+ people serving in the armed forces, lifted 25 years ago. This looks to be a thorough, fresh, and inventive look at a theme I’ve not seen greatly covered on stage.
August 11th – 16th, 17:20 (50mins), Jade Studio at Greenside @ George Street, Click for Tickets.
Saturday August 16th – Big Red
Cabaret / Drag / Alternative Comedy
Let’s take it high octane and unabashed for your Saturday afternoon show. Georgina Musgrave describes her drag alter ego Big Red as a terrifying, hilarious, disgusting, lesbian ex-wrestling sensation from Brisbane, Australia. We’re promised bloody delights, cutting insights and hilarious smackdowns, amongst a smattering of oversharing and delusion exploring queerness, sex and trying to survive an acute awareness that modern society’s collapse is nigh. Check out our interview with Georgina where Big Red unexpectedly burts through.
August 1st – 24th (not the 6th, 13th or 20th), 17:10 (60mins), ZOO Playground – Playground 3, Click for Tickets.
Sunday August 17th – KINDER
Drag / Theatre / Queer
Keeping it Down Under and diving deeper into the Queer psyche for Sunday. Arriving from a five-star run at Adelaide and Melbourne Fringes, Australian performer Ryan Stewart dons the stage as Goody Prostate, a drag artist who is tasked with hastily putting together an all new show in real time for a crowd of unruly children and their parents. At Adelaide Fringe our Deputy Editor Moss Meunier called this show “raw, furious, and ultimately compassionate – ★★★★★“
July 31st – August 24th (not the 6th, 13th or 20th), 14:50 (60mins), Underbelly Cowgate – Big Belly, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Alex Winner
Monday August 18th – A Small Town Northern Tale
Theatre / Working Class / Race & Identity
For the start of Week 3, take yourself back to the early 2000s with Nathan Jonathan’s Y2K-drenched coming-of-age comedy-drama. Follow David, moving from the city to a small Northern town where being the only Black kid means fitting in isn’t an option – expect lads mags, MSN and questionable fashion in what Nathan describes as a love letter to the Working Class North. I’m convinced by his confidence in his artistic process, he told us in a recent interview: “putting everything together like this in such a raw, exposing way is probably the most fulfilling thing I’ve ever done.”
July 31st – August 24th (not the 11th), 12:40 (60mins), Underbelly Cowgate – Iron Belly, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Charlie Lyne
Tuesday August 19th – Falling: A Disabled Love Story
Theatre / Disability / Disabled-led / Comedy
For Tuesday, take a look at this ‘uncomfortably sexy’ and ‘hilariously vulnerable’ stumble through Aaron’s misadventures searching for love, lust and life after disability. Aaron Pang’s true-to-life comedy storytelling piece follows his journey to understand this new body in the uncertain world of first loves, online dating and sex. Aaron told us in a recent interview that he’s setting out to make his audience question “not just the stories they’ve been told about disability and love, but also how they’re reacting to those stories in real time.”
July 30th – August 25th (not the 6th or 18th), 15:00 (60mins), Bunker Two at Pleasance Courtyard, Click for Tickets.
Wednesday August 20th – All the Boys I Blocked
Theatre / Clown / Musical Comedy / Queer
Get rid of any mid-week blues with Chanel & The Circus’ solo clown musical (you read that correctly) – an accordion driven rollercoaster of blocked exes, train-wreck relationships and ultimately self-acceptance arriving from Pittsburgh Fringe in the United States. Chanel tells us to expect all the queer joy of a Chappell Roan concert mixed in with searing honesty and humour – and by the looks of it plenty of verve and flash.
August 11th – 23rd (not the 17th), 23:00 (60mins), Pickle Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court, Click for Tickets.
Thursday August 21st – Someone Has Got to Be John
Theatre / Queer / Trans / New Writing
Binge Fringe Queer Performer’s Award winners Speakbeast return to the Fringe with an all-new show that has just seen its first previews at Theatre Deli in London. After last year’s trans agriculture romp, this year the trio have decided to put on a tribute band to the Beatles, which they describe as “a fever dream” they’ve been having about trans-medicalism. If it’s anything as off-the-wall and unencumbered as The Freemartin, you can expect a Thursday trip over the edge of the existential abyss, all tightly wrapped up with whimsy and style.
August 11th – 23rd, 18:05 (50mins), theSpaceTriplex – Studio, Click for Tickets.
Friday 22nd August – An Adequate Abridgement of Boarding School Life as a Homo
Theatre / Queer / New Writing
Don’t miss this one while it’s here for a full run this year. Warm, playful, and ultimately very introspective – I was wowed by Ned Blackburn’s new writing debut last year that saw pretty widespread critical acclaim and an extension to its run. The story of not-so-closeted Boarding School Student Johnny and very-much-closeted (or maybe not even gay?) rugby boy Harry. The piece navigates getting onto Grindr, hyper-masculinity and an ‘institution rife with shame’.
July 30th – August 25th (not the 11th), 12:50 (60mins), Underbelly Bristo Square – Friesian, Click for Tickets.
Saturday 23rd August – Is There Work on Mars?
Theatre / Neurodiversity / Asian Voices
Faye Yan’s highly successful EdFringe show returns, exploring neurodiversity, society’s expectations and a tongue-in-cheek thinly veiled knock towards a certain billionaire. Attempting to move to Mars via the Worker’s Visa, a woman with ADHD and dyscalculia finds herself in SpaceY’s testing lab. She fights through with her wide array of talents – striptease, beer pong and cheerleading – to not be the Asian failure who is just never enough.
August 1st – 24th (not the 6th, 13th or 20th), 14:50 (60mins), ZOO Playground – Playground 1, Click for Tickets.
Sunday 24th August – Lost Girls / At Bus Stops
Theatre / Queer / New Writing
If you can only see this show on one day (and by no means I’m saying you have to only see it on one day), make it this one. Róisín Sheridan-Bryson’s queer romance is set on the last night of Fringe, following Jess and Iona on a late night wander around Edinburgh. Róisín told us in a recent interview “There was a lot of longing for Edinburgh as a place I had made my home in, and the Fringe being such a big, beautiful, romantic part of that, it felt like it had to be set during August.”
August 15th – 24th, 14:20 (60mins), Assembly George Square – The Box, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
Monday 25th August – Stampin’ in the Graveyard
Physical Theatre / Immersive / AI & Technology
Thought we were done? Well, you can see this show across the full run, and I’ll leave it as one last hot pick. I first caught Elisabeth Gunawan in 2023 with her show Unforgettable Girl – which was truly unforgettable and absolutely out there. She’s returning to this year’s Fringe playing ROSE, an AI chatbot that gives advice for the end of the world, powered by a black box of memories from people whose worlds have already ended. Across the hour, ROSE unboxes her training data of human memories (and fabricates some in true AI fashion), to learn about the woman who created her.
July 31st – August 25th (not the 11th or 18th), 12:15 (60mins), Summerhall – Red Lecture Theatre, Click for Tickets.
Image Credit: Valeriia Poholsha
Lamesha Ruddock
Jasmine Silk
