The Mary Dick Award 2026 Winner, a partnership between Summerhall and Birds of Paradise.

You and Me (and Whoever Comes Next)
(Patch of Blue and 3hc)

15:00 at Old Lab – Summerhall (6 – 29 August)

Recipient of the 2026 Mary Dick Award. Keron Day is disabled. Dani is his Personal Assistant (not as fancy as it sounds). A touching and funny exploration of how care goes both ways.

40/40 (Two Destination Language)

14:30 at DB3 at Assembly @ Dance Base (18-23 August)

An inspiring and moving celebration of Katherina Radeva’s 40 years as a woman, a migrant and an artist. Claiming space on a dance floor, she dances with joyous abundance and presents stories of her past, present and future. From the little girl dancing at her parents’ student parties, to the teenage rhythm gymnast who was body-shamed, to the creative who refuses to be categorised we see a choreography of all the joys and sorrows of 40 years. Radeva is an irresistible performer whose authenticity and generosity shines in this life-affirming piece from award-winning Two Destination Language.

Aarian Mehrabani: How’s Your Head?

16:45 at Bluebell at Underbelly, George Square

Aarian is a triple threat. Brown, blind and bi. Arguably already too many things to talk about in a debut stand-up hour. Then 2024 came, and he only had to go and get fking brain cancer. The highly anticipated debut stand-up show from the multi award-winning writer of the 2023 Fringe hit It’s a Motherfking Pleasure. ‘Ridiculously entertaining’ (TheStage.co.uk). ‘Hilarious and incisive’ (Playbill.com). ‘Aarian Mehrabani has naturally perfect comedic timing, and left me genuinely winded with laughter a couple of times… Pure genius… as close to perfection as you can get’ (BingeFringe.com).

Boys Don’t Dance (Marc Brew Company)

13:15 at Dance Base, DB1 | Assembly Festival (7 – 23 August, excluding Mondays)

Boys Don’t Dance celebrates individuality and the liberating power of dance, encouraging audiences to embrace their unique passions and find strength in their differences. The show is by world-renowned disabled director and choreographer Marc Brew and is bringing his brand-new dance theatre show to Edinburgh Festival Fringe! Boys Don’t Dance reflects on Marc’s journey as a boy who defied society’s expectations to embrace his love for dance. Performed by a talented cast of wheelchair and non-wheelchair dancers, combining movement with BMX, storytelling, lighting and an uplifting 80s soundtrack – alongside visual projections and animation to create an immersive audience experience.

Conversations With My Ghosts (Sarah Heitler)

12:30 at Whistlebinkies pub, The Small Room  (8 – 30 August, excluding Fridays)

Ever wish you could talk to your multiversal selves? Each old you lives in the liminal space of your mind, just behind your eyes, in the corners of your heart. Join me in the underworld to help me settle my ghosts, and hopefully we can and put your soul at ease too.

It is actually quite easy to get *to* the underworld, getting out is maybe harder. Join your guide Sarah Heitler for a poignant and occasionally humourous tour of all the things that we can so easily lose along the way in our wake. 

This is a PBH Free Fringe event, but 20% of any money from purely optional tips will be donated to the Good Law Project’s campaign to fight the rollback of trans rights in the UK.

Disciples of Anatomy (Out of Fashion Theatre Company)

18:35 at Ivy Studio at Greenside @ George Street (7 – 22nd August)

London’s surgical golden age. A parlour room. Cassandra Thwaite has misplaced her new husband, Adelaide Hall wants out of the countryside and Maud Flemming is pining to go back. Three women, the wives of eminent medical men, endure an excruciating afternoon tea as the table is set for calamity. Tense, darkly funny and true to life, Disciples of Anatomy champions Autistic-led theatre through its protagonist Maud, the first neurodivergent heroine in a period drama. Anatomy is a nasty business, and if the past won’t stay dead, you might as well dig it up again…

Doom and Glitter: A Tribute To Tom Waits (Mr Brake Down)

Various times at The Nightclub at PBH’s Free Fringe @ The Street, and Ballroom at PBH’s Free Fringe @ Voodoo Rooms

The five-star award-winning cabaret band Doom & Glitter return for their fifth year at Fringe with their iconic tribute to cult icon Tom Waits, and it’s accessible to all this year, in conjunction with PBH’s Free Fringe. In this fever-dream hour of his weird and wonderful tunes, this all-trans band offers an oasis from the hubbub of the modern world with a smooth, speakeasy style where the audience joins the band too. As seen on Channel 4’s “Narrow Escapes”, the show is brought to you by boat-dwelling drag king and cabaret host Mr Brake Down, who guides audiences through the artist’s life and works with a swarthy charm and a mesmerising personal exploration. With a rotation of gorgeous burlesque guests and a revolving setlist from Brake and his band, the ultimate night out at Fringe returns, and this time it’s FREE to join the fun.

Extant Showcase

15:00 at Underbelly Bristo Square 
Jersey (18 August)

Extant present this unique showcase featuring the UK’s most exciting visually impaired performing artists who are smashing stand-up, cabaret, dance and theatre, supported by Extant’s trademark creative audio description. Hosted by blind non-binary bisexual drag king Tito Bone, presenting an excerpt from their acclaimed show An Evening with Tito Bone, the showcase features a blunder of blind artists including: Aarian Mehrabani (How’s You Head?), Ebony Rose Dark (Growing Nostalgia), Tom Skelton (VIP Visually Impaired Papa), Neil Skene (The Belligerency of Blindness), Shashank Sharma’s Iranian-influenced The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of, and experimental choreographer Holly Thomas (Half Lights Project).

This show is now sold out sold out, you can email admin@extant.org.uk if you’d like to be added to the waiting list.

Glass Child (House of Oz and The Farm)

13:30 at Old Lab at Summerhall (6 – 16 August)

Powerful, raw and emotional, Glass Child goes beyond fiction and theatre to showcase the extraordinary love of two siblings, Kayah, a young man with Down syndrome and his sister Maitreyah. Expressed through dance, theatre and storytelling Glass Child highlights their connection and how their lives have been affected by other people’s perceptions. Maitreyah has watched Kayah be ridiculed or ignored without understanding why. By bravely sharing their own experience they ask the rest of us to look at how we meet others and why we search for difference when we share so much in common.

Habits (Gooseneck Theatre Company)

22:40 at Just Out Of The Box at Just The Tonic at The Caves (20 – 30 August)

Rita’s decided it’s time to get over her fear of pissing her pants. So she’s blackmailed the usher, a close and not-so-personal friend, to keep her from using the toilet until the curtain closes. Using the performance as exposure therapy, Rita must persevere through delusions, panic attacks and a little bit of blood to make it to the end. Habits is a metatheatrical tragicomedy about OCD, the frustration of slow progress and the harmful things people are willing to do for a little bit of peace.

John Smith: Planes, Trains & Misunderstandings

19:00 at Blackwood Bar at Deaf Action (7 – 9 August)

Award-winning comedian John Smith returns with a hilarious new show about life on the road as a deaf performer. From airport chaos and missed announcements to awkward encounters and cultural misunderstandings, John shares the funny, frustrating and unbelievable moments from his travels around the world.

Performed in BSL with a English voiceover provided by a BSL/English interpreter

The Librarians (HelenandJohn: Alex Nowak and Helen Ainsworth)

17:00 at Blackwood Bar at Deaf Action (14 -16 August)

Step into a world where books burst into life! Meet the wonderfully quirky Miss Book and Mr Page as they discover the adventures hidden in their library of old books. Everyone enjoys their hilarious antics together in this magical show performed in BSL and English. But it doesn’t stop there! After the show, your child becomes the star, creating and sharing their own story on stage through speaking, signing, writing, or drawing. A celebration of everyone’s stories!

Performed in BSL with a English voiceover provided by a BSL/English interpreter

Love in all its Colours (Ross Wilcock)

13:45 at Whistlebinkies – Small Room (22 – 30 August)

Love in all its Colours – is a spoken word show exploring love in all its forms, from platonic, to the lost, the first love, the true love and the self-love. Weaving in and out of the lived experience of navigating life as a Queer disabled person, Ross Wilcock takes the audience on a journey of self-discovery, leaving them with a sense of self-worth.

Maiden | Mother | Whore (Theiya Arts)

17:30 at DB1 at Assembly @ Dance Base (18 – 30 August, excluding 24 & 25 August)

An interdisciplinary mixed-media performance blending South Asian classical-contemporary dance, interactive projection, spoken word and live audience encounter. Created by Theiya Arts in collaboration with academics from Centre for Biomedicine, Self and Society at University of Edinburgh, the work explores gender, power and resistance through a transnational intersectional feminist lens. For Fringe 2026, it is presented as a theatre adaptation. A layered, intimate and politically charged space where you are invited to move through an interactive exhibition environment before entering a live performance shaped by movement, projection art and collective reflection.

Mind Full (Mon Espoir)

15:55 at theSpace @ Surgeons’ Hall (17-22 August)

How do you know what is reality and what is not? Mind Full: new writing by Lewis Teckkam. This surreal, Brechtian and Beckett-esque play combines quirky humour with existential thoughtfulness. Conscience, Memory, Imagination and Intrusive Thoughts explore what it means to live in a body that needs help with everything. Except thinking. Entertaining, provocative and darkly funny, Mind Full examines society, disability, politics, and the arts. It questions our individual and collective responsibilities and hopes to inspire audiences to imagine real change. For the better.

My Grandpa Doesn’t Follow Me On Instagram (Yoz Mensch)

20:25 at Jelly Belly at Underbelly (3- 30 August – not 18)

Written and performed by multi-award winning Aussie storyteller Yoz Mensch returns with her (spoiler) autobiographical one-woman (spoiler) show: a vivid pilgrimage through familial grief to queer joy (promise). Drawn from hundreds of Instagram stories posted during the trip, Yoz revisits what they shared with their grandpa, and secrets they didn’t, unravelling what it means to hide yourself from people you love.

A Night In Sign (Fuse Theatre)

19:00 at Blackwood Bar at Deaf Action (14 -16 August)

A Night in Sign is a vibrant BSL-led cabaret event platforming Deaf and hard-of-hearing talent through comedy, music, poetry and performance. From powerful poetry to laugh-out-loud comedy, soulful music to bold performance art! A Night in Sign is where it all comes alive! This is not your average night out. It’s vibrant, unapologetic, and bursting with Deaf creativity. Come for the vibes, stay for the brilliance. Expect established icons. Discover rising stars. Feel the buzz.

Performed in BSL with an English voiceover provided by a BSL/English interpreter

Other (Rohan Ashar and Mani Ahmed)

13:00 at The Alcove at Laughing Horse @ Bar 50 (6 – 18 August)

Being different is hilarious… once you embrace it! ‘Other’ is a two-person stand-up show about the experiences of being different, trying/pretending to fit in, and learning to embrace your otherness. If you’ve ever been in a situation where you feel like you don’t belong, this show is for you! Rohan and Mani uniquely incorporate elements of observational stand-up, split-bill, double act and audience participation (with a quiz!) to ultimately demonstrate that we’re all ‘other’ in our own ways. Previous audience acclaim from the Camden and Brighton Fringes rendered 5-star reviews and quotes include:
“Thoughtful and awesome. Laughed till my sides hurt!”, “Such a good mix of comedy and heart”, “Fantastic show, sharp, witty – a good time!”, & “such a good vibe with the audience”.

A Pan***ic Play  (Serina Estrada)

16:20 at Supercube Cowgate – Room 5 (9 – 30 August)

A one woman verbatim play exploring the COVID 19 pandemic from the perspective of the most vulnerable in society. This collection of monologues based on real people’s lived experiences is a cathartic release of grief and rage. Run time is less than 50 minutes. Suitable ages 16 and up. Live streamed each day from the YouTube channel SerinaEstrada

Pop, Pomp Poetry… Probably (Zuper Rookie)

19:10 at Pizza Geeks Easter Road (August 22 – 29, NOT 23rd)

It is a multidisciplinary melting pot of weird and wonderful. Blending poetry, physical theatre and the synthy pontificating and ramblings of a truly odd human, Zuper Rookie. It’s “One of the most wonderfully bizarre acts – Modest and mad in equal measure”. And yes, it’s free + in a pizza place, low risk – high reward, ART!

Pray For Me (Sarah Adedeji, ISRA3L.)

21:00 at Blackwood Bar at Deaf Action (14 -16 August)

Pray For Me, written and performed by Sarah Adedeji is a powerful new work-in-progress exploring faith, Deafness and identity, as a Black Deaf woman confronts ideas of cure, belief and belonging through poetry, movement and live music by ISRA3L.

Performed in BSL with spoken English interpretation

Sign Slam (Leonardo Castilho and Anna Luiza Maciel)

21:00 at Blackwood Bar at Deaf Action (7 – 9 August)

Sign Slam is a variety and improvisation show that interacts with the audience, who participate throughout the performance with photo and image projections. This fun and creative contest challenges participants to come up with the funniest and wittiest jokes or stories based on the photo, competing against another participant, while the audience votes by a show of hands for the best improvisation based on creativity, humour and the ability to make people laugh and captivate the audience.

Spill Your Guts (Hendrik Quast)

20:45 at Pickle Studio at Greenside at Riddle’s Court (7-22 August, NOT 16)

His gut has a voice, and it’s relentless. Its only thought: make him bleed! Blending ventriloquism, comedy and musical elements, Spill your Guts plays out as a two-handed waiting room ventriloquist show, as Hendrik Quast and his bloody dummy spiral into chaos as they deal with a chronic, invisible and inflammatory force. Beginning as a classic ventriloquism act, Quast argues with his puppet about shame and what spills out — tales of undigested leftovers, the medical system and outrageous stories of illness, which plunges them into a sh*tstorm about their work together in theatre.

The Quiet Between (The Working Actor)

13:45 at studio at C ARTS | C venues | C aurora (5 – 9 August)

This sharp, playful comedy follows a delightfully miswired mind as it attempts to navigate… well everything. From conversations that de-rail like running trains, to plans that mutate to entirely new plans mid sentence, The Quiet Between is a chaotic celebration of an unconventional mind. As the actors bounce off each other, sometimes in harmony and sometimes with spectacular confusion this performance is not for the faint hearted. Come and watch this fast, funny and unpredictable piece of theatre and join us on the journey of a lifetime..

That’s Ace (Jonny Brace)

12:50 at Just The Fancy Room @ Just The Tonic at The Caves (6-30 August)

Ace has been invited out clubbing for the first time by her school crush, Sasha. However, she’s never been clubbing before. As she waits for Sasha to arrive, she tries to determine whether her feelings for Sasha are romantic or platonic. Is it love? Is it friendship? What’s the difference? That’s Ace explores asexuality, attraction and the feeling of living outside of societal norms.

To Do Lists (Rainy Day Theatre)

17:15 at The Green at Pleasance Courtyard (5th – 31st Aug, excl. 12, 17, & 26 August)

Ever since she can remember, Amy has written a to do list. And every day she must get through it to meet her goals. Until one day, she’s forced to ask herself, what does it mean if you can’t complete your to do list? Who are we without them? It’s time she gathers the mounting years of dusty pages and faces the truth. Obsession, grief, and the rocky transition from childhood to adulthood – join Rainy Day Theatre for an hour of confession, warmth and laughter. ‘A writer to keep an eye on’ (Stage).

Transmission (Nelly Kelly)

19:15 at Anatomy Lecture Theatre – Summerhall (18th – 23rd Aug, excl. Thursday)

Freedom Party leader and founder of the Scots Mission, Big Jimmy, is here to tell you how to keep yur grannies safe and Make Scotland Cis Again! Hilarious, curious and deeply human, Transmission is a darkly comedic, tender-hearted performance by playwright and drag artist Nelly Kelly, exploring Scotland’s shift from world-leading on LGBT+ rights, to fertile ground for the anti-trans movement. Blending DIY-cabaret with political theatre, male impersonation and a heap of mischief, Transmission examines how public perception of trans people is shaped – not by trans voices – but by ‘single issue’ campaigners, political-footballing and media distortion.

VIP (Visually Impaired Papa) (Tom Skelton)

20:15 at Underbelly George Square 
Buttercup (5 – 16 August)

Dispatches from the front line of blind dadhood

After losing most of his sight, Tom thought he might never become a dad. But now he is. And he’s a bit scared. From nappy changing, choking hazards, losing your toddler in the park, to not being able to read to him, see his changing face, or his first goal on the football pitch, this is a hilarious, heartfelt scamper through dadhood and disability.

Perth FringeWorld Weekly Comedy Award Winner 2020.

We Are All Florida Man (Blue McElroy)

14:00 at Lower Theatre at theSpace @ Niddry St

This is a modern myth born from real headlines, a term for the bizarre, chaotic and utterly unbelievable stories that come out of Florida. An absurdist comedy set inside a support group for these infamous characters. Meet the woman who trained attack squirrels, the man who tried to rob a Chinese restaurant using only finger guns, and gloriously eccentric ensembles of headline-makers. As their stories unravel, audiences are drawn into their strange world to question what it really means to be a “Florida Man.” Expect chaos and laughter that will leave rolling in the aisles.