A thrill to have her back … Bryony Kimmings in Bog Witch. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/the Guardian View image in fullscreen A thrill to have her back … Bryony Kimmings in Bog Witch. Photograph: Tristram Kenton/the Guardian Edinburgh festival 2026 Edinburgh festival 2026: 10 terrific shows we’ve already reviewed From returning comedy award winner Sam Nicoresti to Flo & Joan’s cheeky One Man Musical, these are surefire standouts at the fringe
Prefer the Guardian on Google Bog Witch It may contain a brief moment of actual tree-hugging but this bracing solo show by Bryony Kimmings finds fresh and compelling perspectives on the horribly familiar plight of our planet. Season through season, she recounts a year of upheaval after moving to a regenerative permaculture homestead with her son, her partner and his daughter. It’s a thrill to see Kimmings back, in a climate reckoning of both cosmic and quotidian proportions – and a theatrical time capsule of the way we live now. Chris Wiegand Read the review . Traverse, 8-30 August
“Shall we give ourselves a night off from being funny?” There are unassuming performance styles, then there’s David Elms. At a festival that teems with ingratiating theatrics, it’s quite the gearshift to watch Elms deliver this hour of improv with no mic, props, a set or anything else prepared. We have to lean in, which is useful for a show that relies on the audience’s suggestions to crank things up. A lovely, skilful and understated hour of extempore comedy. Brian Logan Read the review . Pleasance Courtyard, 5-30 August
HMP Woodhill houses young men outside Milton Keynes – “a box of souls on our front door”, says a local person. Even within the British prison system, it has a notoriously poor record of care. Tracing vulnerable men who took their lives in prison, writer Matt Woodhead and choreographer Alexzandra Sarmiento have created a verbatim documentary that finds devastating physical form. It honours the dead and those who fight for change. Campaigning theatre is reimagined with astonishing force. David Jays Read the review . Zoo Southside, 7-30 August
View image in fullscreen Alaa Shehada performs The Horse of Jenin. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/the Guardian The Horse of Jenin Writer and comedian Alaa Shehada takes us back to a rambunctious childhood in Palestine’s Jenin city, moving through the decades in picaresque strides, from his inseparable friendship with Ahmed, who is born on the same day as him, to growing up in the rubble of repeated invasions, a disastrous romance, and the grandfather who gives him a small model horse. It builds to a gut-punch, although there is no self-pity or sentimentality. This is a production that chooses to find joy amid the horror. Arifa Akbar Read the review . Pleasance Courtyard, 18-30 August
This may be the ideal festival show – it has supreme levels of skill but also humour and audience participation. There are gasps and laughs and even a gymnastic game of Pictionary. Australian circus company Gravity and Other Myths have already picked up multiple plaudits for Ten Thousand Hours, an ode to the countless hours spent building the muscle, the reflexes and the precision skills that allow you to make your living flying through the air. Lyndsey Winship Read the review . Assembly Hall, 6-30 August
“Is this show a legal minefield? Yes it is. But on we go.” So begins musical comedy duo Flo & Joan’s fringier-than-fringe venture placing Andrew Lloyd Webber centre-stage in his own auto...