The 9 best shows heading up to Edinburgh Fringe this year, and where you can catch them in London before they go
TLDR: Just head to Soho theatre
The pilgrimage up to Edinburgh in creative pursuit has been done for years by artsy students who had a gap year and want to find themselves – or at least find themselves at a raver with a free joint in hand. However, it’s also a journey done by hundreds of top and emerging comedians, playwrights, and actors with some of the best of (undiscovered) talent making their mark on the historic city.
But before they make the journey up north, plenty of shows will be putting on small runs across London theatres for a Fringe warm up, meaning you can catch all of the theatrical goodness without any of the jacked up hotel prices or packed trains with their inevitable delays.
1. Big Dog
Hit playwright and five star recipient Izzy Radford is back at fringe with another play for 2026. Following her sell out run of her debut play Seating Plan, Big Dog is another comedy but this time interrogating the true crime industry, influencer culture and workplace politics. It asks who gets to tell certain stories, who profits from them, and who ultimately bears the emotional consequences., all with Radford’s razor sharp wit and observation.
- Catch it at Riverside Studios from 30th July-1st August.
2. REDACTED: The Cover-Up of a Cover-Up of a Cover-Up
Sounding like something that could equally be a BBC/ Telegraph / Daily Mail headliner about literally any country’s leader, this play is “Fargo meets The Office meets The Matrix”. It’s a high-octane darkly comic thriller set in 1973. And if it didn’t sound enough like a safe bet, it’s proper theatre with live music from the multi-award-winning Voloz Collection.
- Catch it at Pleasance London on 22nd July
3. Remember, Remember
No, not a reminder from your girlfriend to take the bins out the night before bin day, but a showstopping new production that’s got everything. And by everything we mean a voiceover from national treasure Sir Stephen Fry. Dubbed the lovechild of Operation Mincemeat and SIX, this production is “an incredibly misformed, inaccurate retelling of one of Britain’s most infamous tales of treason”. It’s got songs, forbidden, love, explosive action, and some pretty impressive musical chops.
- Catch it at The Pleasance on 24th and 25th July.
4. Big Stuff
The idea of an improvised comedy about the loss of a parent sounds like something you’d have to be dragged to. However, that’s until you hear about Canadian comedy duo Matt Baram and Naomi Sneickus’s new show Big Stuff. The married duo bring their signature mix of storytelling and improv from Canada to the Fringe via a quick London pit stop after selling out on home turf at Toronto’s Crow’s Theatre.
- Catch it at Omnibus Theatre on 22nd and 23rd July.
5. An A-Z Guide to Dating
Not my memoir, but a brand new brilliant one-woman musical from the wunderkind Grace O Keefe. Specifically, it’s actually based on the real life dating advice book O’Keefe’s mother wrote which publishers said “would set feminism back 20 years” – and it's being put to the test. With an original 80s-inspired score. “The theatrical equivalent of a little girl struggling in her mother’s heels,” it blends romance with comedy, and a whole load of performance. What more could you want?
- Catch it at Underbelly Boulevard in Soho on 29th July.
6. The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy
If this sounds like something the legendary Mischief theatre would come up with, you’re actually not too far off, as it has been penned by Mischief alum Matthew Howell and Jack Michael Stacey who actually met whilst performing The Play That Goes Wrong in the West End. This play is a chaotic romp set against the crumbling Plumstanton Library which is on the brink of being shut down. It’s a fast paced satire which sort of acts as a mirror for modern Britain: clinging to tradition, strangled by red tape, and desperately trying to keep up appearances as everything quietly collapses.
- Catch it at The Pleasance on 30th and 31st July
7. Target Audience
If a political style thriller is more up your reading list, then Target Audience might be one to catch. It’s a dark comedy set in the near future and explores the increasingly complex relationship between media, government, and technology. A satire style play that follows in the tradition of shows like In the Loop, and Dr Strangelove, it’s a more nuanced take on your usual fringe affair but with all the entertainment you’d want.
- Catch it at the Pleasance on 25th July
8. Tarang Hardikar: If I’m Not Wrong
Stand up comedian Tarang Hardikar is making his Fringe debut across August, but before he deos, he’s giving London audiences a treat with his take on life’s contradictions, cultural chaos, and eternal questions. If you haven’t seen his sketches on Instagram, you’ve probably caught segments of his at favourite spots on London’s famous comedy circuit. It will be one of those ones you can brag about in a couple of years time hwere you point at a screen and go “I saw them before they were big you know” – bragging power: what everyone goes to the theatre for.
- Catch it at Soho Theatre from 30th July-1st August
9. Jitters
Okay, so first up we need a disclaimer, you can’t actually see Jitters in London before it heads up to Fringe. However, Jitters has been created by acclaimed double act Ellen Robertson and Charly Clive (who starred alongside Steve Carell in Roosters), the latter of whom you can currently see in Relics alongside Sally Phillips at Lyric Hammersmith Theatre. Jitters is set an hour before a big wedding is taking places, exploring themes of ownership, tradition and the all-important 'L' word of any relationship: leverage. It's well worth a watch if you're at the Fringe but if not, head to Relics and have a good old laugh anyway.
- Catch Charly Clive in Relics at Lyric Hammersmith from 18th June- 18th July
Fringe Exclusive must-sees:
As always, there are a couple of elusive shows which are making their world debut at Edinburgh Fringe (and fringe only) but are worth having on your radar, even if it's just so you snag tickets when they inevitably do a sell-out run at London's Soho theatre post-fringe.
- Father, Away She Goes by Elektra Kolb
- Roomies, Julia Stephens
- Roleplay, Francesca Moody
- Concerts of the Future, Ciaran Frame
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