Scotland 2025: Edinburgh - Fringe Festival

The timing of our vacation to Scotland revolved around the schedule for Edinburgh Fringe which runs annually during the first three weeks of August.  Rich and I love live theatre and regularly attend the Toronto Fringe Festival which launched in 1989 as part of an international network of Fringe festivals inspired by the original one in Edinburgh.  I have always wanted to attend the festival that started it all.

In 1947, the Edinburgh International Festival was initiated after World War II as an effort to celebrate art and reunite people through cultural exchange. The invited performers came from prestigious companies spanning music, theatre, dance and opera.  Eight lesser known and uninvited theatre groups arrived independently and set up their own shows in smaller, alternative venues, performing on the “fringes” of the main festival.  Over the years, the number of uninvited performers grew until the Fringe Festival was formalized in 1958, offering open access, unconventional venues and the spirit of creative independence, experimentation and public engagement.  Other countries joined in over the decades and as of 2025, there are around 300 Fringe festivals worldwide.

We decided to attend the last week of Edinburgh Fringe and selected 8 shows to watch in 5 days, which was a bit ambitious since we had a show on the day that we landed and were quite jetlagged and struggling to stay awake.  While the overall concept of Fringe is the same in Toronto, there were some marked differences that we noticed in Edinburgh. The Toronto Fringe festival runs for 12 days in July with around 100 shows at 22 venues, mostly in small, conventional theatre spaces.  Each show appears at the same venue throughout its run but varies in terms of start times so that there is opportunity for people to watch during the day or in the evening.

By contrast, the size and scope of Edinburgh Fringe is significantly larger.  In 2025, it featured 265 “theatre spaces” hosting more than 3350 shows over 25 days.  Each show played at the same location and the same time throughout the festival, which makes sense since it would have been a logistic nightmare otherwise.  However, this restricted us as to which shows we had time to see, since we also wanted to visit museums and other attractions during the day.  The types of spaces chosen for venues ranged widely from traditional theatres to churches, pubs, hotels, office meeting rooms, university classrooms, shops and stores, temporary tent structures and pretty much any space where rows of chairs could be set up.  Often, this made sightlines difficult since many of these spaces had no rake to speak of.

Attending the Edinburgh Fringe has much more of a drinking/party atmosphere.  You are expected to wait at the bar, drinking and listening to music until your show is announced just a few minutes before start time. At this point, you form a quick queue that is rushed into the theatre. However, those who wait in the bar tend to end up at the back of the line while those in the know figure out where the queue will start and just wait there.  This was more important than ever at this festival because the lack of a rake in the seating often meant I would not see if we were not seated in the front row.  Being from Toronto, we are used to queuing in line for at least 30-60 minutes if we wanted good seats, awaiting to be let into the theatre 15 minutes before the show starts.  For Edinburgh, we only showed up 20 minutes before start time but the volunteers were always shocked at how early we were!  The show starts almost immediately after you are seated. The quick turnover between shows was always impressive as immediately after a show ends, the entire cast participates in tearing down their sets and props to clear way for the next one.

The entire city is consumed by Fringe during these three weeks, to the point where restaurants don’t take reservations and some smaller attractions shut down their usual opening hours since they are hosting shows instead.  Given that the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo runs at the same time, over 1 million tourists descend on the city during this period. Every wall, lamppost, fence or other flat surface was plastered with advertisements for shows.  Given our scheduling time constraints, we pre-selected our shows ahead of time and pre-purchased our tickets so we unfortunately did not have time to add more.  Some of the titles and images for shows were hilarious or just plain weird.

In addition to the shows, the streets were lined with buskers singing, juggling, miming, performing feats of magic and even basketball tricks.  We were also inundated by hawkers trying to pass out flyers promoting their shows, often dressed in wild costumes from the shows and standing on bollards to attract attention.  On a daily basis, we walked by the same woman on Grassmarket, just a few steps from our apartment.  She was balanced on the same bollard each day in a different outfit trying to draw attention to her show.  It felt rude to continually refuse the flyers but also wasteful to take one since we knew we could not add more shows.  People tried all different ways to get us to take a flyer. One husband and wife duo were handing out the out together and the husband’s schtick was “Please take a flyer.  It’s the only way my wife will let me see the children!”.

Although it was exhausting visiting tourist attractions by day followed by watching theatre in the evening, we had fun with our Edinburgh Fringe experience.  We never really got used to the differences and continued to arrive early to await entry for each show.  We had selected 7 musicals and 1 comedy, of which 3 of the shows were historic in theme while 4 of them were detective/crime/mystery related and one was a meta-musical that dealt with the love of musicals.  Although selecting fringe shows is always a crapshoot, we figured we were safe with 7 musicals because even if the plot was dumb, at least there would be singing.  This didn’t quite work out as planned but at the end, six out of eight of our picks were winners which we thoroughly enjoyed.  That is not such a bad percentage since you never know what you get at Fringe, at least in Toronto.

We started out with our sole non-musical, which was the hilarious slapstick farce The Shoddy Detective and the Art of Deception. At a high level, the show was about the mystery of a missing priceless painting and a pair of hapless detectives who interview a slew of wacky suspects to try to solve the case.  But the plot was really incidental and more of a showcase for the comedic talents of four actors including two playing the eponymous and incompetent “Shoddy Detective” Stuart Pidcock and his adversary, the criminal mastermind turned detective Dusty Wills. 

The other two actors are each billed as “Multi-Roller” meaning they played many roles, switching them adeptly using the door on the left and a window on the right of the stage as means of exiting and re-entering in different costumes.  These include Lord and Lady Rayburn, the owners of the manor where the action takes place, the gardeners, the cook, the maid, and a Russian countess.  The male multi-roller also plays an insurance broker and his wife to great comedic effect by dressing half as the man and the other half as the woman, which he reveals as he turns in profile to expose each character.  Initially these characters are only seen from the door opening but eventually “they” come onto centre stage and have a hilarious fight with “each other”.  But the female multi-roller Becky Bartram was the standout playing all other female characters including the maid who is repeatedly struck in the face and flipped out of a window.  Her acrobatic prowess was astounding and it made sense to learn from reading the program that she is also a trained stuntwoman.

This first show was held in the Gilded Balloon at Appleton Tower which is an entertainment venue hub opened in 2023 that hosts 7 separate theatre spaces with capacities ranging from 44 to 300 seats.  The smaller spaces consist of rows of chairs or seats on the floor with no slope while the larger ones have raised stages and raked seats.  As with all the Fringe venues, there is also a lively bar.  As our show was more established and popular, it was held in one of the larger spaces so we sat in the second row and had fairly good sightlines.

We noticed that many of the venues were prefaced with “Gilded Balloon”.  It turns out that the name came from the original Fringe venue at Edinburgh’s Cowgate St, housed in a former warehouse built in 1823 for a silk merchant’s shop called “The Gilded Balloon”.  The name was retained when it became a comedy venue in 1986 but the building was destroyed in a fire in 2002.  As a tribute to this original space, some newly created Fringe venues have added “Gilded Balloon” to their names including the Appleton Tower where we watched this very entertaining show.  We were off to a great start.

Our next show was I Wish My Life Were Like A Musical, a song cycle describing both performers and audience members who love musicals (that’s me, so this was right up my alley).  The opening number self-referentially talked about a show’s opening number including the 5-minute warning before start time (which ironically, we didn’t get), no cellphones or noisy wrappers for candy (described as "boiled sweeties"), the heart-pumping anticipation for the actors as they hear the opening overture, and complaints about latecomers, timed hilariously just as actual latecomers were let into the show to a big laugh. Subsequent songs deal with aspects of musicals an actor’s perspective.  A song about the grind of auditioning included picking a “unique" song just to find out 3 people before you chose the same one, showing vocal and emotional range in your song, and touching up your photo so much that it no longer looks like you.  This song reminded me of Kathy's lament in the musical The Last Five Years.  

Next, an actor tries to adjust to a faulty piano accompaniment by changing the key of his song when a note played is too high, too low, to loud and then silent before finally giving up and singing acapella.  The vocal agility of the performer as he adapted to the change of key in each verse was admirable and made for a funny tune.  Other songs from the actor’s perspective included performing while sick, preparing for a role through sleep, diet and exercise regiments, requiring to kiss a co-star with bad breath, being the understudy guy that no one wanted to see, the diva and so on.  There were also a few songs from the audience’s point of view.  There was the superfan who buys all the soundtracks and dresses up like the characters including Elphaba from Wicked and the Phantom.  The final two actors came out in costumes that looked like Captain Hook and Smee from Peter Pan but turned out to be Hamilton and Cosette.  Then there were the secret musical lovers who outwardly would not seem like the types including a punk rocker, serious academic, tattoo artist and jock.  The theme song “I Wish My Life Were Like a Musical” was sung twice including the finale before ending with an Encore song.  As expected, I loved this meta-musical about musicals!

This time the show played in Gilded Balloon at the Museum, which is a venue at the back of the National Museum of Scotland with a 210-seat auditorium.  Once again, we had a real theatre with raked seating so we started to think that all of our shows would be like this.  We would find out by the next show that this was not the case.  For this one, we sat in the second row and found ourselves too close to the wide stage.  This became an ongoing dilemma between sitting up front so I could see or sitting further back to get a proper perspective.

Our next show, the “musical” Grey, gave us our first taste of how diverse and experimental Edinburgh Fringe could be both in terms of venue and performance. The show was held in Riddler’s Court, a historic structure built around 1590 as a luxurious townhouse for a wealthy local magistrate where banquets were hosted for royalty including King James VI. The location was first used for Fringe after a renovation in 2010 and now contains 4 small theatre spaces. 

Our show was in the Clover Studio, the smallest theatre that only holds up to 20 seats. The tiny claustrophobic space offered two rows of three folding chairs on each side with a centre aisle in between and no rake. The first row was so close to the performance area that your feet would be overlapping it. We had a split second to decide whether or not to sit in that front row and I wrongly chose not to. Unfortunately, from the second row, I could only see the top of the lone actress’ head for most of the performance.  At least I stuck to my guns and insisted that I sit on the aisle instead of shifting over as the ushers requested so I could lean across to see more whenever the actress moved to the centre of the stage.

Grey refers to Lady Jane Grey, a sixteen-year-old Protestant and great-granddaughter of Henry VII who became a political puppet and tragic martyr when she was proclaimed Queen of England and Ireland in 1553 by supporters who wanted a Protestant Monarch.  Known as the “Nine Days Queen”, she was deposed and imprisoned by the more powerful Mary Tudor who was Catholic.  The play opens with Jane in prison in a tiny room in the Tower of London (thus appropriate for this theatre space) with just some books, candles, writing material, a chair and a chest on the floor.  As she awaits her fate, still hoping that she will be set free, she reminisces about how she got there.  I use the word "play" instead of "musical" because we waited for almost half the show listening to a non-stop monologue before a song was sung. In total only 2 or 3 songs were performed over an hour-long show and they were for mood only as opposed to propelling the plot. By my standards, this does not qualify as a musical.  The play ends dramatically with Jane being blindfolded and beheaded.  Based on this, for our next 5 shows which were all supposed to be musicals, I held my breath until the first song was sung.  Luckily this always happened within the first few minutes so our experience with Grey was an anomaly.

This actually was not a bad show and I might have enjoyed it if I knew what to expect.  As it was, given that I could not see, had not properly researched the history to understand what was happening, and waited most of the hour for singing, I would pronounce this as our first dud.

Because of our experience with Grey, I was determined to sit in the first row whenever we walked into a theatre with no rake, as was the case for our next musical Dirty Money.  This one was held within a room within the Radisson Blue Hotel, which is a new building erected in 1990 but designed to look historic with a stone façade and a turret in front, in order to blend in with its surroundings.  Three spaces are allocated for the Edinburgh Fringe.  The one for Dirty Money consisted of a small floor space marked off for a thrust stage with chairs arranged on three sides.  We snagged the last two seats in the front row facing the stage, so seeing over heads was not a problem but we were too close so it was more difficult to see or hear any action on the other side of the floor in front of us.

Dirty Money opens with a ne’er do well named Luke, whose failed business enterprise resulted in a large debt owed to a violent mobster.  At the same time, a wealthy and powerful billionaire has been incarcerated for corruption and has offered half her fortune to anyone who can break her out of jail.  Forced by the mobster to attempt this jailbreak as a way of paying off his debt, Luke ropes in his friends in the caper, without telling them that the promised reward would all go to the gangster.  The musical had fun and sometimes heart-felt songs. Despite the cramped space and sparse staging consisting of a chair positioned within a wall-less metal enclosure and multiple wood tables that were stacked into various configurations, the stagecraft and clever choreography easily conveyed all the different settings dictated by the scenes.  A missed musical cue at the start of Luke’s big redemption song was handled adeptly by the actor who said “cue the music” twice before singing acapella until the score kicked in. 

We had started to notice at the end of Grey and again with this show that the bows at the end of the show were abrupt so that the actors could race off the stage and return quickly to dismantle the sets.  Such is the life of a Fringe performer.

Our next show Gladiatrix would become our favourite show of this festival.  It is based on the lesser-known historical existence of female gladiators (or gladiatrices) who competed in the Gladiator Games fighting each other or against exotic animals.  They were considered salacious novelty acts until Emperor Septimius Severus outlawed them in 200AD.  The musical explored the various possible reasons why a woman might become a gladiatrix with each of four actresses singing a song that revealed her reason.  One was a slave who signed a contract to fight 100 battles after which she was to be set free.  The second one had a birthmark which at the time was considered taboo and was shunned from her community.  A third was a servant whose affair with her rich patron was discovered by his jealous wife after which she was cast out.  And finally, a wealthy noblewoman did it for kicks, seeking excitement, fame and glory.  Two male gladiators acting as narrators and other roles as well as the Emperor himself filled out the cast.

This musical stood out not only for its wonderful songs but especially due to the stunning, acrobatic fight scenes with swords, shields and spears, often while singing.  One actress did cartwheels and flips as part of her battles.  Creative use of a long red cord was featured in a scene depicting the servant being beaten after her dalliance was discovered, and at the final battle scene to signify blood after a kill.  The actor playing Septimius Severus was hilarious and channeled the role of King Herod in Jesus Christ Superstar.

This show was held at “The Space @ Venue 45”, which is a historic theatre venue within the Old St. Paul’s Church Hall.  We walked into what felt like a large gym auditorium to find floor seats on three sides.  Once again, we took the front role but this time it was perfect since the stage area was huge to allow for the fights and we had the best view.  It was interesting seeing the actors dressed in the gladiator costumes hanging out with the audience in the bar area while waiting for the previous show to end so that they could take the stage.

Our next musical Detective Demise was another fun show held a unique location called Just the Tonic at the Caves, which is a venue with six performance spaces set in ancient underground chambers or caves.  Most of the spaces have just floor seats but our show was in the Fancy Room which has a very slight rake in the seating.  Because of this, we tried to sit in the second row to get more of a perspective of the stage and after sitting on my coat, I was able to get high enough to see most of the action.  The venue is quirky and whimsical on the outside as well since there are parts of the front or rear of cows jutting out of the façades.  Perhaps this is a nod to the space being on the street Cowgate which was once a medieval route for herding cows to market.

Detective’s Demise opens at the birthday party for police detective Ben Stone who is murdered by one of his five guests which include his materialistic wife Kate, alcoholic brother Alex, partner at the precinct and best friend Will, stepsister Lucy and Lucy’s boyfriend Joe.  When junior detective Arthur Evans comes calling after the death, he steps in to investigate and finds out that each of the suspects have a potential (some quite silly) motive for killing Ben.  As Arthur interviews each suspect, they recreate past scenarios in clever flashback numbers featuring Ben.  We thoroughly enjoyed this show with its great songs and good comedic acting.  We therefore had high hopes for the next one which was scheduled later in the evening at the exact same theatre and with the same theatre group, even featuring a few of the same actors.

Unfortunately, we did not like Escape Room at all as we found the plot convoluted and difficult to follow, and for some inexplicable reason, the sound quality was off so it was difficult the hear.  This was surprising since it was in the same theatre space and even reused a few of the backdrops from the previous show!  The overall premise was that six college friends are tricked into attending an Escape Room event (although it was supposed to be at Fringe in some meta way which made no sense).  Inexplicably, a seventh character showed up (presumably accidentally) but spoke mostly French so that the others (and the audience!) did not understand him for the most part.  As they work to solve puzzles to facilitate their escape, old conflicts and rivalries are brought to the surface that need to be worked through.  A few of the actors that we found so charming and endearing in the previous show just came across as annoying.  This became our second dud and we really hoped that we would enjoy the last pick since it is always better to end on a high note.

Luckily, we loved the final show very much and it became our second favourite.  Jackie! was a biographical musical about former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy starting from her early days as a young plucky reporter/photographer nee Jacqueline Lee Bouvier when she first met John F Kennedy.  Actress Nancy Edwards who plays Jackie was picture-perfect in the role and reminded me of Katie Holmes who also took on this role in a TV miniseries. 

The rest of the characters were played as caricatures, exaggerating (or maybe not?) aspects of their real-life counterparts. The actor who played JFK adopted an exaggerated Boston accent that was a bit jarring to hear at first. Patriarch Joseph Kennedy was depicted as controlling and domineering almost to the point of being mobster-like.  He welcomes Jackie to the family with the song “Bought and Paid For” talking about materialistic items that the family owned but also referring to Jackie herself.  Robert Kennedy was portrayed as the family idiot which seemed harsh and inaccurate and perhaps played for laughs.  The final actress in the cast played both Jackie’s sister Lee Radziwill as well as Marilyn Monroe, singing the infamous “Happy Birthday Mr. President” song to highlight JFK’s infidelity.  A throwaway line alluded to the rumour that Monroe was murdered when she became inconvenient to the Kennedys.  

It was quite impressive how a 60-minute show so adeptly portrayed Jackie’s journey from ingenue to First Lady, becoming a style icon admired for her intelligence, grace and beauty, to being beaten down by the political pressures and pressed to use drugs prescribed by “Dr. Feelgood”, to her rebellion before and after JFK’s assassination, and finally escaping the Kennedys’ grasp by marrying billionaire Aristotle Onassis (depicted as totally gay).

Held in the Gilded Balloon Patter House which hosts 10 performance spaces and is known for its bright pink façade, we were in the Big Yin theatre and finally back to having a real stage and racked seating.  This was a wonderful show and a joyous ending to our Edinburgh Fringe experience.  Fringe has been successful springboards for past shows which went on to achieve commercial success.  These include Six the Musical, Drowsy Chaperone, Kim's Convenience, Fleabag and more.  It would be great to see Gladiatrix and Jackie! expanded further into full professional productions.