We are delighted to share that Lilia Foster, an accredited writer as part of The Student’s 2025 Fringe team, has been named 2025 Fringe Young Writer of the Year. Lilia reviewed a number of Fringe shows for...
The Student Covers The Edinburgh Festivals
THE LATEST IN REVIEWS AND COVERAGE:

Braw Venues’ High School Musical is a perfect rendition of the early 2000s childhood nostalgic film, with their young adult cast performing and singing their hearts out; essentially forcing everyone in the audience to let their Wildcat hearts break...
With immense force, fury, and illuminating insights into Scottish Football Culture, Saltire Sky Theatre Company’s 1902 was an exciting show at this year’s Fringe Festival, outrageously witty and entertaining. Audiences arrive to the The Hibernian Football Club — a liminal space for...
What does it truly mean to be single? And how does a cat, going to therapy, and an air-fryer correlate with this? Winsie Chen: I’m Not a Feminist — Part 2 is an amazing piece of comedic stand-up performed by...
After watching Hasan in 2 Muslim 2 Furious 2: Go Halal or Go Home alongside comedian Aisha Amanduri, I knew I had to go watch his solo show: Hasan Al-Habib: Death to the West (Midlands). And believe...
A charismatic cascade of perfectly curated chaos, retelling the Jeremy Thorpe Scandal, Elle Willcocks’ A Cat’s Parasite was an absolute delight at this year’s Edinburgh Fringe Festival, inducing raucous laughter from the audience at every twist and turn. Presented by...
“Dinnae be a fucking girl”, is the mantra of Nicky McCreadie, the policewoman protagonist of Alright Sunshine, and also most girls. Don’t let them see you cry, don’t get emotional — don’t even let them know you’re...
“I was NOT a pretty 14-year-old!”. Ouch — five women are waiting for their interviews for the same associate art curator job, they get interrupted by a Picasso “hystoracle” feminist monster entity, and things are getting ugly....
TRENDING THIS WEEK
Patti Harrison is back in Edinburgh with her show My Huge Tits Huge Because They are Infected Not Fake, and if you were too nervous...
Dylan Mulvaney’s one woman musical, FAG HAG, made its Edinburgh debut last night. When I entered the theatre, I was greeted by a candy-floss pink...
Is there any relevance and vitality to Edinburgh’s mad jamboree, or has it become the preserve of limp satirists, parodists, and Perrier winners from 2006?...
What does art look like when it doesn’t come from struggle? You’re looking at it . Finlay Christie, or Finale as he’s known on the...
Casually devastating, the play Lights Out manoeuvres conversation from fruit salad to abuse to gender identity in a way that speaks wonders of writer Rae Webb. You will find yourself giggling at jokes about...
Having secured myself a press ticket, I was excited to join fellow curious questers on the first day of this city wide creative puzzle game....
What do we lose when we stop believing? Piskie, a new play from BoonDog Theatre written by Lucy Roslyn, asks us to suspend disbelief and...
What does it take for a town to rot from the inside out? Comala Comala, an immersive experimental production by Conchi León with music and...
With the arrival of comedy’s biggest names pioneering their ‘work-in-progress’ shows, young and new talent can easily be swept under the rug. But (Dis)honest reminds...
Editor’s Note: Due to a minor conflict of interest and Louisa’s general demeanour, we could not in good conscience authorise her press pass. Unfortunately, she...
If you want to relive one of the best moments in 2023 pop culture history, Gwyneth Goes Skiing, a new musical from Awkwardprods (the dynamic...
Riveting, but eerie, Sycamore Grove grips its audience from the moment they enter the theatre. Within the remains of an old church, the feelings of...
A murder mystery, high school reunion, three old friends, a urinal and the body of an old classmate all sound rather cliché, my expectations for Slash,...
Do This One Thing For Me is a one woman show written and performed by Jane Elias, directed by Tracy Bersley and produced by A Park...
The Things I Did While Waiting For You To Fall Back In Love With Me is new dark comedy play by Sarah Hogewood, following her...
Aesthetically beautiful but narratively confused, Crying Shame by Sweet Beef Theatre attempts to take its audience to Cabaret Fragilé. We never get to feel like...
What is there to say about Mr. Cardboard that hasn’t already been said? Basically everything, because not nearly enough people have been talking about this...
Powerful, comedic, fierce, funny — there are endless ways to describe Lovelock’s production of Blandy, which follows the true story of Mary Blandy; a young woman convicted in eighteenth-century England for the alleged deliberate poisoning of her...
Coming back from their Fringe debut in 2024, Shamilton! The Improvised Hip-Hop Musical is definitely a Fringe must-watch. Aside from the obvious factor of the show having a large total of sell-outs, this improv musical is astounding to watch...
Returning again as an Edinburgh Fringe favourite amongst audiences, there is no denying that Box Tale Soup’s 1984 is filled with beautiful storytelling, emotional acting, and impressive puppetry — being both visually stunning and memorable in nature. ...
Performed impressively as a one-woman show by Kara Wilson, Bloomsbury Bell tells the tale of author Virginia Woolf through the eyes of her artist sister, Vanessa Bell, who paints a portrait of her younger sister a few years after...
LATEST REVIEWS CONTINUED
An engaging, effervescent one-woman play detailing the life of palliative care nurse “Flick”, the audience experiences a quirky, zany dark-comedy, with a surprisingly sharp emotional stab,...
When norse mythology meets pro-wrestling, what else can result from this extraordinary combination besides a fantastic piece of unique theatre? Written, directed and produced by...
I attended The Essence of Audrey, Helen Anker’s delightful biopic play, as a huge Audrey Hepburn fan along with a friend who knew nothing about...
One true joy of the Fringe is never quite knowing what you as an audience member are about to witness. The large sign labelled “Believe...
What a beautiful, thought-provoking performance by GCC and AtoBiz, as part of Fringe 2025’s Korean Season! We follow the memories of a mother named Kyung...
With Chappell Roan’s discography playing in the background, as Cabbage checks your tickets upon entry, there is no better start to a show than this....
Created and rehearsed in an impressive nine days, Parody of the Rings assures a fun time for anyone and everyone. Upon entry, you are handed coloured balls...
Gothic, romantic, disturbing. Or, as the Germans, Freudian enthusiasts, and literature students would put it, unheimlich. Bog Body is for all the people who read...
Andrea Coleman possesses a stage presence unlike any other, in her one-woman show 3 White Guys Named John, in which she recounts the stories of how...
Edinburgh University Footlights bring an exciting rendition of Jim Jacobs’ and Warren Casey’s Grease to this year’s Fringe Festival: charming, energetic, and up-beat, it’s a fun piece...
COMPREHENSIVE: ALL REVIEWS CONTINUED
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
The Student at The Edinburgh Festivals
[2019 - 2024]
In competition with all the grandeur and beauty that is the University of Edinburgh’s McEwan Hall, the comedic Irish sketch group Foil Arms and Hog easily grab the headlights tonight. Together, the three members Sean Finegan (the explicator and Comedic Foil), Conor McKenna (whose moving ‘Arms and Legs’ occupy much...
For every Scot, the sight of Edinburgh castle up on its hill is one which always brings home a beating thud of patriotism. Two events in our home city amplify this feeling and both take place under the grandeur of that beloved Castle – Hogmanay and The Royal Military Tattoo....
Bismillah! An ISIS tragicomedy, written by Matthew Greenhough, directed by Johnny Kelly and performed by Greenhough himself and Elliot Liburd, promises to be a risky play. It sets out to tackle many of the most burning and politically sensitive questions of our day, focusing on violence, extremism, discrimination, economic imbalances,...
EUSOG’s production of Sweet Charity is a fun, quirky romp that captures the timelessness of our protagonist Charity’s story as she stumbles through life and love in New York. Some moments in this production are a little rough around the edges, which leave an impression of unfulfilled potential, but these...
Nina Gilligan’s story could easily be presented as a sob story, but rather than fall into the ditch of an X-factor-esque, tear-jerking background she presents her life and journey to find her identity as an inspirational one, doused in hilarity and vitalised by very personable and amicable energy. Her tales...
Oleg Denisov is like a river. Words, thoughts, concepts flow practically uninterrupted for approximately one hour. What is he talking about? Trolls? Yes and no. His show is not just filled with brilliant jokes about Russian politics, philosophy and cultural differences, it feeds on the self-analysis of the author, and...
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