Edinburgh Festival Fringe Top Picks 2026: PLAYS
The days are getting longer and we’re starting to see the sun a little more frequently which can mean just one thing - festival season is just around the corner, and for theatre and comedy fans, most notably that means the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The full Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme for 2026 has been released featuring 3649 shows across 258 venues - that’s 53,884 performances taking place in Scotland’s capital city during the three-week long festival!
“How do you narrow down what you want to see out of the thousands of options?” we hear you ask! Worry not, Besties! We’ll be sharing some of our top picks, starting today with the plays. Grab a cup of tea (or a can of Irn-Bru), and in no particular order, here are some of the plays that stand out to us.
Cathy
Elaine C Smith, beloved Scottish pantomime star and actor, leads the cast of Cathy at the Traverse Theatre, a new play written and directed by young Scottish writer Eilidh Loan and designed by Kenny Miller who won the award for Best Set at The Pantomime Awards 2026.
ROLEPLAY - Photo credit: Gracie Steindl
Cathy is a new comedy inspired by Loan’s grandmother and how she dealt with grief in her unique way after losing her husband. Cathy herself insisted that Smith must play her and so she is.
ROLEPLAY
This world premiere at Summerhall is produced by Francesca Moody Productions, the producers behind Fleabag and Baby Reindeer that started at Edinburgh Festival Fringe and have since taken the world by storm, as well as Moulin Rouge producers Global Creatures.
In Hannah Reilly’s play, a broke feminist podcaster rebrands as a provocative slutfluencer in pursuit of fame, only to lose herself in the performance. It is an interrogation of modern sex, womanhood and the commodification of feminism in the age of the personal brand.
Jitters
Also at Summerhall is Jitters, a razor-sharp, darkly funny and emotionally explosive new two-hander from acclaimed double act ‘Britney’ (aka Ellen Robertson and Charly Clive).
There’s one hour to go before the wedding but before Charlotte walks down the aisle, she must meet her future stepdaughter, a woman who happens to be exactly her own age. By the time they’re done talking, the wedding may not be going ahead.
After Party
Whilst Paines Plough’s Roundabout may not be at the Fringe this year, Paines Plough will still be presenting a piece of new writing at the Traverse Theatre.
Scottish playwright Morna Young’s play After Party is about matriarch Vivienne Blackwood who has always lived life on her own terms, much to the frustration of her fractured family. She gathers her family for her 80th birthday, but little do her family know that the party isn’t what they expected - it’s the celebration of a lifetime.
Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella
Fringe favourites Awkward Prods return to Edinburgh once more, this year with a more personal and introspective show. In July 2024, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin (of Awkward Prods) were holding hands whilst walking through London. Out of nowhere, a man hit Linus with an umbrella in a homophobic attack. Now Linus returns to that moment to examine its lasting impact, as well as reflecting on performing at the Fringe in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
Linus Karp - Photo credit: Dave Bird
Despite the more serious subject matter, the show, performed at Underbelly Bristo Square, will remain rooted in Awkward Prods’ signature style: witty, queer and theatrical, with audience interaction and multimedia elements woven in.
44 Minutes
44 Minutes is a brand new play with a wonderfully intriguing premise, staged in the Front Room at Assembly Rooms. It comes from 17 year old playwright Lev Steinberg which could make this a great opportunity to see a future star’s early work.
Four men. Strangers. Trapped in a cage. Desperate, they try to piece together what their captors might want from them. Soon enough, they discover that they’ve been thrown into a perverse psychological experiment: they must choose one of them to die so the others might live.
Amnesia
Coronation Street star Kimberley Hart-Simpson writes and performs this new play in Bunker Two at Pleasance Courtyard in which she plays Kelly, a dementia carer in Rhyl (and daughter of two Tom Jones tribute acts). She is brilliant at her job. Concealing her own life-altering news, she spirals out of control and risks losing everything.
We Had Fun
This new play, written and performed in the Old Lab at Summerhall by neurodivergent artists Emmeline Hartley and Jack Mullings, is directed by Olivier and Tony Award nominated Carrie-Anne Ingrouille, most well known for being SIX the Musical’s choreographer.
It is a sharp, dark and distinctly unromantic comedy exploring the murkiest areas of modern dating in the age #MeToo, cancel culture and the so-called “post-truth” era. As Oscar and Ela piece together their hazy, conflicting memories of what happened last night (re-hashing the events through innovative physical theatre), we are forced to confront our own biases and assumptions about who to believe and why.
We Had Fun - Photo credit: Sam Frank Wood
Returning productions:
An array of acclaimed plays from previous years are returning to the Fringe this year. If you haven’t seen them yet, we’d definitely recommend taking a look! These include…
Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Play
Tom Foreman’s play Boiler Room Six returns to the Fringe, after we gave it five stars last year!
Read our review of Boiler Room Six: A Titanic Play
Foreman will also present a new play, Stay A Little Longer, which could well be worth a look if his previous work is anything to go by.
Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story
Awkward Prods have been touring this show across the world on and off for well over a year now. It returns to Edinburgh this summer for seven performances only!
Read our review of Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story
Alone
The award winning play Alone in which two female astronauts are fighting to save Earth whilst on a failing spacecraft returns to The Box at Assembly George Square. We gave the sci-fi drama five stars last year!
Be sure to check back for more of our picks of this year’s Fringe, Besties…