Credit: Michael Aiden
By Grace Hatchell, writing from somewhere near George Square, where I’ve had to swerve a bicycle, three flyer teams, one overexcited comedian and a great big upside-down purple cow.
Underbelly has announced its 2026 Edinburgh Fringe programme, with 185 shows across Bristo Square, Cowgate, George Square and Circus Hub on the Meadows, including major comedy names, international circus, Japanese sumo, new writing, cabaret, children’s shows, musicals and expanded accessibility.
There are days when this job is simple. A few press releases in the satchel, a nice cup of tea waiting somewhere sensible, maybe a biscuit if the theatre gods are smiling.
And then Underbelly announces 185 shows for Edinburgh Fringe 2026, and suddenly I’m looking at my delivery route like a woman who has accidentally agreed to carry the entire Fringe in one bag.
Mooove, Purple Cow. I’ve got mail to deliver.
Underbelly has revealed its 2026 Edinburgh Fringe programme, and it is not so much a neat little bundle of listings as a full theatrical stampede across the city. From 5 to 31 August, Underbelly will take over four major Fringe sites: Bristo Square, Cowgate, George Square and Circus Hub on the Meadows. Each one has its own personality, its own rhythm, and quite possibly its own way of making you late for the next show.
Cowgate remains Underbelly’s original home, with late-night chaos, new writing and the sort of theatrical oddities that make you think, “I’m not entirely sure what I just saw, but I’ll be telling people about it for years.” George Square brings back the iconic upside-down purple cow, the Udderbelly, which celebrates 20 years in 2026. McEwan Hall at Bristo Square will host some of the biggest names of the Fringe, while Circus Hub on the Meadows will once again offer space for large-scale international contemporary circus.
It is a programme built on scale, but also on contrast. The 2026 line-up includes major comedy names, international circus, Japanese sumo, queer drama, rave theatre, children’s shows, cabaret, musicals, opera, accessibility-led work and new writing that stretches from deeply personal stories to absolute mayhem.
In other words: if you cannot find something in this programme, you may need to check you are still awake.
One of the major stories this year is international circus. The Palestinian Circus: Step and a Half, from Palestine’s Circus School in the West Bank, will bring a powerful blend of contemporary circus and Dabkeh to Edinburgh. The production explores a world where circus becomes woven into daily life and resistance, making movement itself a form of expression, identity and survival.
Québécois company Les Foutoukours will bring Glob, a tender, wordless journey through a magical world, while WakeThe Beast and Circus Zambia present Afronauts, a piece inspired by Zambia’s extraordinary 1960s space-race ambitions, told through acrobatics and theatre. From Chicago, the team behind Brave Space bring The Pieces by Aloft, where performers climb, swing and build shifting structures to a living soundscape.
That is one of the things that makes Underbelly’s programme feel so large this year. It is not just putting shows next to each other. It feels like a giant suitcase has been opened and half the world has tumbled out.
Making its UK debut at the Fringe, The Sumo Show HIRAKUZA will bring the world of sumo wrestling to the stage, with former professional wrestlers delivering live bouts, audience participation and an introduction to the rituals and rules of Japan’s national sport. I’ll be honest, I’ve delivered some unusual theatre post in my time, but “Japanese sumo at the Fringe” is one of those envelopes that makes you stop in the sorting office and check you’ve read it correctly.
Returning Fringe favourite Abandoman is also back with Afterglow, a new improvised hip-hop comedy show where audience suggestions are transformed into live, never-repeatable anthems. There is something wonderfully Fringe about a show where nobody, including the performer, knows exactly what is going to happen until it happens.
Tweedy’s Massive Solo Show brings all-ages physical comedy, chaotic props and increasingly absurd situations, while James Phelan: Showman arrives fresh from a sold-out West End run with mind-bending illusions and comedy drawn from his acclaimed back catalogue.
And then there is the comedy programme, which is not exactly travelling light.
Sara Pascoe, Simon Amstell, Rory Bremner, Russell Kane, Nina Conti and BAFTA-winning Jack Rooke are among the headline names announced for Underbelly’s 2026 comedy line-up. Sara Pascoe: For One Night Only will bring the award-winning comedian, author and presenter to McEwan Hall for a single performance. Simon Amstell: I Love It Here arrives following a sold-out London run for two performances only. Rory Bremner: Making an Impression sees the satirist return for two evenings of stand-up and conversation, while Russell Kane: HyperActive marks the return of the Edinburgh Comedy Award winner with his sharp wit and physical energy.
Jack Rooke: Good Grief sees the BAFTA-winning writer and performer revisit his debut show from a decade ago, exploring family and grief while mixing in new original material. Nina’s C*nti Cabaret will bring award-winning comedian and ventriloquist Nina Conti together with her masks, Monkey and a line-up of favourite acts from across the Fringe for a late-night cabaret.
There are also returning favourites and improv staples. Austentatious: An Improvised Jane Austen Novel returns for its 13th Fringe year, creating a brand-new Austen-style story each night from an audience-suggested title. BATSU! returns after a sold-out 2025 run, with live improv and Japanese-style punishment games, while Shoot From The Hip bring their unscripted performances after becoming the first UK improv group to headline the Hammersmith Apollo. Chris Turner: In The Moment will create improvised freestyle rap from audience suggestions.
Honestly, if my satchel starts beatboxing by the end of August, I’ll know who to blame.
Cowgate, meanwhile, looks set to be one of the places where the stranger and sharper edges of the programme live. Underbelly’s theatre programme brings together original voices from across the UK and beyond, with work spanning Scots dark comedy, queer Irish drama, rave culture, horror, true stories, immersive experiences and plays exploring sex, identity, grief and myth.
Scottish work includes hame. teeth. CLUB., a dark comedy written in Scots, following Morgan, a young working-class woman drawn back week after week to Dalkeith Miners Club. Returning to the programme, Desperate Wee Gay Boy dives into queer nightlife through Ollie’s chaotic London adventures.
From Ireland, Secrets Secrets Shhh! presents the character sketch of a lonely cloakroom attendant who imagines the lives of her customers through the objects they leave behind. Spin Cycle, winner of the Off West End 2026 OffFEST award, is a queer contemporary play following two ex-lovers who reconnect in a laundrette.
The Pigeon Factory is an absurdist dark comedy about Walden, who works his pigeon children into the ground and feasts upon their eggs for sustenance. I read that sentence twice, and no, it did not become more normal the second time. But that is very much the Fringe. Sometimes theatre gently taps you on the shoulder. Sometimes it hands you pigeon children and asks you to keep up.
Deluge draws on magical realism and more than 40 interviews to depict the grief that follows a break-up, while The Jolly Fisherman, based on a true story, follows childhood friends Alan and Amir as they navigate their relationship through shifting community tensions, race and identity in contemporary Britain.
Jerk Off! follows Nadia Manzoor over several years of her life as she navigates love, grief and cycles of violence, finding liberation through comedy, movement and ritual. In the Black, shortlisted for the Popcorn Writing Award, is a darkly comic solo play about an ambitious Black accountant fighting for success on Wall Street in a system not built for him.
There are also three shows exploring rave and dance culture. Raves R Us follows a group of young people who transform an abandoned warehouse into a rave space after losing their jobs in a declining Britain. House of Life is an interactive, music-filled experience led by the glitter-clad RaveRend, inviting audiences to dance. In The Late Utopians, a journalist in an unravelling America becomes immersed in an underground rave scene promising a different kind of future.
I will say this now: if Theatre Village ever opens a rave branch, I am not doing the night shift. I have calves to think about.
Sex and relationships also run through the theatre programme in very different forms. Operotica: Lovers in Every Lifetime follows a kinky opera duo through many past lives. Pink Rabbit is a dark comedy about a young Muslim OnlyFans creator navigating intergenerational and cultural conflict. Crush begins in a clinic waiting room, where two Somali teenagers form a connection in a funny and honest coming-of-age story.
True stories take their own place in the programme. Steve Burns: Alive reflects on the strange internet mythology that declared the Blue’s Clues presenter dead after he left the show. Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella sees Linus Karp, known for Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story and Gwyneth Goes Skiing, tell the true story of a homophobic attack he experienced before dramatising the trial that never took place. The Ghost of White Hart Lane follows a son uncovering the life and legacy of his footballer father, reflecting on football and the grief of growing up without a parent. My Grandpa Doesn’t Follow Me On Instagram sees Yoz Mensch recount a road trip to the Scottish Highlands with her grandpa, revisiting what they shared with him and what they did not.
Then come the horror plays, because apparently Underbelly looked at 185 shows and thought, “Do you know what this needs? More feral girlhood.”
SUCCUBUS follows a young woman whose body and appetite begin to bloom, putting men on the menu. Rip Her to Shreds is a fast-moving horror comedy about four young women trapped by competitive hierarchies and a single college dorm room, discovering the dangers and delights of their own unruly magical powers. TWITCH by Liliana Padilla, directed by Jack Ferver, follows a mother’s obsessive search for her son without leaving her couch in an American town.
WENCH is a folk horror comedy musical following the trial of eccentric strumpet Martha Tallow as she stands before her community accused of being annoying. As accusations go, that is one many of us could face after a long day with a Fringe schedule. The award-winning Japanese company behind Shunga Alert and Space Hippo also return with Book of Shadows, a shadow puppetry occult mystery involving conspiracies and cultists.
Immersive work is also part of the programme. DeepFake turns an audience of one into the Head of Public Relations at an AI company, asking them to navigate ethical dilemmas and argue their view on the appropriate use of AI. Ten Ways to Die Happy gives willing audience members a new life on stage, where each decision shapes relationships, careers and rivalries until the end of that life.
There is something almost terrifyingly Fringe about paying to make life choices in public. I make enough questionable decisions trying to choose a meal deal.
But if Underbelly 2026 has its wild side, it also has a serious heart.
Goodbye Dandelion is a new work about assisted dying and becomes the first recipient of Underbelly’s new Future Fund initiative, which supports the development of new work beyond the Fringe. That feels significant. The Fringe is often talked about as a launchpad, but supporting work beyond August matters if new shows are going to have a life after the festival heat dies down.
BLACKBOX is another striking theatre highlight: a play disguised as a magic show, exploring the true story of Henry Brown, an enslaved man who shipped himself to freedom in a wooden box in 1849 before becoming an abolitionist speaker, performer and magician.
Accessibility is also a major part of Underbelly’s 2026 season. Underbelly begins a new partnership with Extant, serving as principal venue partner for the company’s 2026 Fringe programme. Underbelly has committed to ensuring every show in its programme includes at least one visually impaired accessible performance. It will also host three performances as part of Enhance, a new showcase featuring visually-impaired-led work.
That is worth pausing over. In a Fringe programme this big, access could easily have been a footnote. Here, it is part of the architecture. Every show having at least one visually impaired accessible performance is not a small claim; it is a programme-wide commitment.
The Enhance programme includes Jellyfish, a tale of two twins going to extremes to live forever, and Aarian Mehrabani: How’s Your Head?, the anticipated debut stand-up show from the multi-award-winning writer of the 2023 Fringe hit It’s a Motherf**king Pleasure, about his recent brain cancer diagnosis.
Underbelly’s Big Brain Tumour Benefit also returns for its eighth year, raising funds for The Brain Tumour Charity through a special night of stand-up featuring guest performers from across the Fringe.
The children’s programme, meanwhile, brings science, acrobatics, bubbles and storytelling to the Fringe, with George Square and Circus Hub also offering lively family spaces with food stalls and circus equipment for visitors to try between shows.
Did You Hear What I Saw? is written and performed by best friends Tom Skelton, who lost his eyesight, and Tom GK, who lost his hearing. Through songs and comedy, the show tells the story of their friendship while offering young audiences a look at disability.
New Zealand drag king and comedian Hugo Grrrl presents Hugo’s Rainbow Show, combining science and fabulous costumes in a show about the science of rainbows. BATSU! presents: GANBA!! invites families into the dojo for outrageous challenges, teamwork and ninja training.
Returning favourites include Splash Test Dummies, transforming bath time into a comedic spectacle of acrobatics, juggling, slapstick and stunts, and Mario the Maker Magician, who returns with magic, robots and humour. Bubble lovers get two chances for joy: The Flying Bubble Show, combining immersive theatre, aerial movement and lightscapes, and Amazing Bubble Man, with world-renowned bubble artist Louis Pearl blending science, comedy and interactive bubble wizardry.
Now, I know what you’re thinking: Grace, are bubbles theatre? And I say, if I’ve learned anything from the Fringe, it is that everything is theatre if you put it in the right room and charge admission.
Dance, physical theatre and circus continue the international flavour of the programme. PACE, from Swedish company Below Zero, combines hand-to-hand acrobatics, choreography and physical theatre as two performers navigate equality, vulnerability and control against a Scandinavian-inspired soundscape of Nordic folk and electronic beats.
The Revel Puck Circus returns with The Wing Scuffle Spectacular, bringing stunts, aerial, chainsaws, physical comedy and a giant rola bola. YOAH, the acclaimed contemporary circus production from Japan’s Cirquework, also returns, following a young dreamer through a surreal digital landscape with acrobatics, electronic soundscapes and traditional Japanese instrumentation.
Other returning audience favourites include Sophie’s Surprise 29th, with its chaotic 90s house party gone off the rails, Brisbane’s internationally acclaimed Circa with Circa: Wolf, and Black Blues Brothers: Let’s Twist Again!, delivering family-friendly circus rock ’n’ roll in a smoky train station.
Cabaret and variety are also out in force. Bernie Dieter’s Club Kabarett returns with cabaret, circus and live music led by Bernie Dieter and her gin-soaked haus band. Fempaths: Transistor Radio Hour is a politically charged cabaret blending original music and lyrics from trans icons and their adversaries, exploring queer history, bathroom politics, tarot, Alzheimer’s disease, sexual assault, PTSD, immigration, fascism, addiction, disability and Kim Petras.
Liberace and Liza – A Tribute imagines the spectacular collaboration that never happened between two of entertainment’s most flamboyant icons, with piano from David Saffert and vocals from Jillian Snow. Taiwan Season: Birthday Party, from theatre-trained magician Lin Lu-Chieh, combines autobiographical storytelling with elegant sleight of hand.
The musicals and opera programme may need its own separate satchel.
Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody leads the section, inspired by the hit hockey show and written by Dylan Marcaurele, with Broadway veterans Jimin Moon and Jay Armstrong Johnson. The show follows golden boy Shane Hollander on his journey from power center to power bottom, which is not a sentence I imagined I’d be typing when I first put on this postal uniform, but here we are.
Woody Sez returns to the Fringe after a long absence, offering a musical journey through the life and music of Woody Guthrie. Performed by four actor-musicians playing more than a dozen instruments, the production features more than two dozen of Guthrie’s songs. Tokyo’s 2ShoulderPads: GALAXY TRAIN, winner of the 2025 Spirit of the Fringe Award, also returns with its poetic musical inspired by Japanese classical literature, performed by a cast wearing only shoulder pads and using Kabuki-inspired movement to explore mortality.
For late-night weekend audiences, DJ Yoda: 90s Mixtape Live will bring an audiovisual celebration of the decade that shaped modern music, film and pop culture, remixing music icons alongside cinema moments.
Legendary is rooted in Chinese mythology, queer joy and history. Apparently Ugly: A Stepsister Story reimagines Cinderella through the eyes of her overlooked stepsisters. Social media stars the Gilbert twins bring Under the Influence, an original musical comedy about the world’s most co-dependent non-couple.
Penelope offers a contemporary chamber musical retelling of The Odyssey from Penelope’s perspective, featuring a Richard Rodgers Award-winning folk-pop score and starring Broadway performer Grace McLean. Hole! returns with an apocalyptic love story set after a bizarre event leaves only those wearing butt plugs surviving the end of the world. Rounding out the programme is MUSE: The Shakespeare Mayhem Musical, a pop musical comedy imagining a young William Shakespeare battling characters from his own plays in a race to become Shakespeare’s one enduring legacy.
Somewhere, Shakespeare is either delighted or asking for a stronger drink.
Underbelly also continues its partnership with the Edinburgh Book Festival through The Front List, a line-up of 15 events featuring internationally celebrated voices whose work shapes how contemporary culture, politics, history and society are understood.
Charlie Wood and Ed Bartlam, Co-Directors of Underbelly, said the programme brings together contemporary international circus, major comedy names and the UK debut of Japanese sumo on stage. They described each venue as having its own character, from Cowgate’s late-night comedy and theatre to McEwan Hall’s big Fringe names, Circus Hub’s large-scale circus and George Square’s iconic upside-down purple cow. Their hope is that audiences come for the big names, discover something unexpected and leave having seen something they have never experienced before.
That line feels like the key to Underbelly’s 2026 programme.
Because yes, people will come for the names they know. They will come for Sara Pascoe, Simon Amstell, Russell Kane, Rory Bremner, Nina Conti, Jack Rooke, Abandoman, Austentatious and BATSU!. They will take photos near the purple cow. They will plan carefully, then immediately be derailed by a flyer, a friend, a queue, a rainstorm or a sudden desire to watch something with absolutely no explanation.
But the strength of this programme seems to be in the detours.
You may arrive for a famous comedian and end up watching Palestinian circus. You may mean to have a quiet afternoon and somehow find yourself learning about Japanese sumo. You may take children for bubbles and acrobatics, then return later for rave theatre, horror comedy, cabaret or a play disguised as a magic show. You may go looking for spectacle and stumble into something about grief, disability, resistance, identity, care or survival.
That is the Fringe at its best: not tidy, not predictable, and absolutely not designed with a postwoman’s lower back in mind.
Underbelly’s 2026 programme is enormous, yes. It is colourful, noisy, international, weird, emotional and occasionally completely unhinged. But beneath the scale, there is also a clear sense of direction: bring in the big names, make room for the unexpected, support future work, improve access, and keep giving audiences reasons to wander.
So, to the upside-down purple cow of George Square, I say this with affection and mild professional frustration: mooove along, love. I’ve got 185 shows to deliver, a satchel full of chaos, and August is already looking dangerously full.
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