EdFringe 2026
Witches Corner
★★★★☆ Defiant
Magic or misogyny? asks Witches Corner, a new sociopolitical play from Encapulus Productions that packs laughter, rage, song, and grief into an hour that questions how much has really changed for women since they were burned and hanged and stoned as witches.
Mayflies
★★★★☆ Sparkling
Grid Iron’s site-specific Mayflies is in part a massively spirited hymn to the youth culture of the 1980s. But you don’t have to have lived through that decade to appreciate such a melancholy yet defiantly bright production.
Carnegie
★★★☆☆ Informative
Returning after a successful run in 2016, Carnegie at Braw Venues @ Grand Lodge is a contemporary musical inspecting the life and achievements of Andrew Carnegie from all angles.
Bombs Over Byker
★★★★☆ Pacy
Bombs Over Byker from Lucas English is a show with some big ideas, crammed into the smallest of venues at Clover Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court.
The Spider Witches of Appalachia
★★★☆☆ Well spun
The title of Spider Witches of Appalachia (at the Outhouse as part of the Free Fringe) might sound like a B-movie, but instead conceals a low-key but assured storytelling performance by Jenna Baer, who has devised, written and performed the piece.
Cavalleria Rusticana / Pagliacci
Aria Alba – Opera For All brings a double bill of one-act operas to Stockbridge Church this Fringe, with the classic pairing of Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci in a programme that emphasises the women in these narratives of male jealousy and coercion.
Afternoon Arias
★★★★★ Transcendent
Brian Bannatyne-Scott, Beth Taylor and friends bring operatic treats to Edinburgh New Town Church with Afternoon Arias (Airs dans L’Apres-Midi) for one performance only.
CQD to SOS: A Titanic Story
★★★☆☆ Haunting
Bringing the Edinburgh Rep Company’s lineup of six centuries in six shows at the Fringe into the 20th century is CQD to SOS: A Titanic Story, a glimpse into the infamous sea disaster through the eyes of its wireless operators: two on Titanic herself and one on Carpathia, racing through the ice-filled night to render aid.
Transmission
★★★★☆ Messy fun
Transmission, produced by Sanctuary Queer Arts at the Anatomy Lecture Theatre at Summerhall, is angry, hopeful, fragmented and whole.
The Ostrich Principle
★★★☆☆ Powerful message
David Hughes and Kirsten Milliken’s The Ostrich Principle at the Scottish Storytelling Centre combines time-honoured storytelling techniques with urgent political issues, in a way that does not always knit together but has considerable effect.
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