Shannon Brooke- a hotly tipped comedian
By Grace Hatchell
Now then.
When I packed my satchel and headed to Edinburgh this August, I wasn’t trying to predict award winners.
I wasn’t trying to work out what The Guardian might eventually like, which productions The Stage might wander into, or who would leave Edinburgh carrying something shiny.
I had a considerably simpler job.
Watch the shows.
And tell you what I thought.
Across 45 shows reviewed by Theatre Village at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026, just 16 received the full five stars.
And now that Edinburgh is beginning to wind down, I’ve been looking back at those sixteen shows to see what happened next.
Crikey.
There have been awards. More five-star reviews. National press attention. And in several cases, Theatre Village was sitting in the audience and waving five stars around before much of that happened.
Not bad for a Yorkshire postie with a satchel.
Maybe I should have seen this coming
There was actually a warning sign last year.
At Edinburgh Fringe 2025, I tipped Hot Mess as one to watch.
And watch it people certainly did.
Hot Mess went on to become one of the talked-about shows of the Fringe, attracting major national attention along the way.
I remember thinking afterwards: “Ooh. I wasn’t far wrong there, was I?”
Still, one Hot Mess doesn’t make me Mystic Meg.
So off I went again in 2026.
And these are the sixteen shows that earned Theatre Village’s five stars.
Youth in Flames ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 6 August
What a way to start.
Youth in Flames was our first five-star review of Edinburgh 2026, and it didn’t take long for everybody else to notice what was happening either.
The production subsequently became a winner of the prestigious Scotsman Fringe First Award, while further glowing reviews followed later in the Fringe.
A pretty good start for the satchel.
DUST ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 7 August
This one has become rather special.
DUST, written and directed by Charlaina Thompson and performed by Craig McArdle, tells a story inspired by the Lofthouse Colliery disaster of 1973 and is dedicated to the seven men who died, alongside servicemen and generations of miners who spent their working lives underground.
I gave DUST five stars on 7 August.
Other glowing reviews followed.
Then came award recognition.
DUST was longlisted and subsequently shortlisted for The List Festival Awards before winning Best Show From Adelaide.
I couldn’t be happier for them.
Sometimes you watch something and just know you’ve seen a special piece of theatre.
DUST was one of those times.
DUSK/NIGHT/DAWN ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 8 August
Two performers. One suspended pole.
And one Yorkshire postie sitting there thinking: what on earth have I just watched?
In the best possible way.
DUSK/NIGHT/DAWN was experimental, technically extraordinary and unlike pretty much anything else I saw at the Fringe.
Theatre Village awarded it five stars on 8 August.
Then, later in the month, along came The Guardian, praising the technical brilliance of performers Donna Carnow and Gina Alm.
Well, hello there.
It was rather nice to see a major national publication discovering some of the same qualities that had left me staring at that pole earlier in the Fringe.
SpinQueen™ ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 8 August
SpinQueen™ was sharp, contemporary and gloriously knowing about the strange world of PR, influence and the stories we’re sold.
It earned five stars from Theatre Village early in its Edinburgh run before further critical coverage followed, including four stars from The List.
This was exactly the sort of Fringe show I love finding: clever, distinctive and with something to say underneath all the fun.
LAUNA ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 8 August
Oh, LAUNA.
This was one of those productions where boldness mattered.
It wasn’t interested in playing things safe.
Five stars weren’t about ticking boxes here. They were about ambition, imagination and the feeling that somebody had decided to make the show they wanted to make rather than the show they thought they were supposed to make.
That’s something Theatre Village will always champion.
Antigone 1989: A Town Hall Musical ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 8 August
I have thought about this musical an awful lot since seeing it.
Antigone 1989 takes Sophocles and transports the story to California during the AIDS crisis, accompanied by some absolutely glorious voices.
Theatre Village awarded it five stars on 8 August.
Further critical acclaim followed, including another five-star review from Binge Fringe, while Theatre Weekly and The Stage subsequently covered the production too.
What particularly made me smile was seeing other reviewers highlighting those voices.
Because that’s exactly what had stayed with me.
Some shows finish when you leave the theatre.
Some follow you around Edinburgh afterwards.
Antigone followed me.
Spraywatch: A Beautiful Rescue ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 9 August
Ah, Spraywatch.
Technically, my relationship with this ridiculous, glorious show began before I’d even arrived in Edinburgh.
Back in May, Theatre Village asked whether Spraywatch might become one of Edinburgh Fringe 2026’s unexpected heroes.
Then I finally saw it.
Five stars.
Further attention followed, including coverage from The Stage.
There is something particularly satisfying about watching a show you’ve been quietly rooting for months earlier become one of your favourite productions of the entire Fringe.
Turns out that little hunch in May wasn’t too shabby.
H.R. The Musical ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 9 August
Who knew Human Resources could be this entertaining?
H.R. The Musical took something painfully familiar to anyone who has ever worked in an office and turned it into musical theatre.
Theatre Village awarded it five stars, with more reviews following as the Fringe continued.
It was funny, polished and ridiculously enjoyable.
I may never look at an HR meeting in quite the same way again.
SHANTIFY ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 9 August
Six West End performers pretending to be men of the sea.
Obviously I was going.
SHANTIFY was enormous fun and earned five stars from Theatre Village on 9 August.
Other critics arrived afterwards, including Theatre Weekly, with further coverage following later in the Fringe.
Sometimes five stars doesn’t need an enormous philosophical explanation.
Sometimes you sit in a room, have an absolutely cracking hour and walk out grinning.
That’ll do nicely.
They’re Just Small Town (Northern) Lads ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 11 August
Northern theatre?
Well, now you’ve got my attention.
They’re Just Small Town (Northern) Lads was warm, funny and full of personality, earning its Theatre Village five stars on 11 August before further reviews appeared later in the run.
And there is something particularly satisfying about seeing Northern stories confidently occupying Edinburgh stages.
More of that, please.
Girlz ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 11 August
Girlz and I already had history.
I reviewed the production at Edinburgh Fringe 2025 and gave it five stars.
When I returned in 2026, it had moved onto a bigger stage, sections had been rewritten, the cast had changed and the production had continued to grow.
And yes.
I gave it five stars again.
I hadn’t even gone specifically to review it this time.
I went for fun.
Apparently I am incapable of simply sitting in a theatre without mentally reviewing everything, so out came the imaginary notebook again.
For me, Girlz demonstrated something important about Fringe theatre.
Shows develop.
They come back.
They learn.
And sometimes you get the enormous privilege of seeing that journey happen.
An Ode to the Casting Director ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 11 August
Sophie Fisher’s autobiographical solo show about surviving the acting industry was funny, painfully recognisable and beautifully performed.
I awarded it five stars on 11 August.
Further reviews followed later in the Fringe, but what stayed with me was Sophie herself.
I wrote at the time that this was a performance worthy of an award.
I’ll stand by that.
100 Million Fish in the Aquarium ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 12 August
Then there was Shannon Brooke.
Before Theatre Village reviewed 100 Million Fish in the Aquarium, there wasn’t a huge pile of critical coverage telling me what I was supposed to think.
I watched her.
I laughed.
And I gave her five stars.
I also said Shannon Brooke was a star of the future and villagers that’s because she is! 2027 will be Shannon’s year, household name. I bet you.
Other reviewers subsequently began appearing, and it has been particularly lovely watching audiences discover her too.
This, more than almost anything else on this list, is what I want Theatre Village to do.
There are thousands of shows at Edinburgh.
Some arrive surrounded by publicity.
Others don’t.
If we can occasionally walk into one of the latter and shout, “OI! COME AND LOOK AT THIS!”, then the satchel is doing its job.
The Yellow Wallpaper ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 12 August
Another one I’m incredibly proud to have championed.
The Yellow Wallpaper earned five stars from Theatre Village and went on to attract a remarkable amount of critical praise during the Fringe, including further five-star reviews.
I said when I reviewed it that this production felt ready to tour.
You could pick it up, put it into another theatre tomorrow and it would work.
As more praise arrived, I became increasingly convinced of that.
This was imaginative, confident theatre that knew exactly what it wanted to be.
Table for Two ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 13 August
Here’s another lovely one.
Table for Two wasn’t drowning in reviews when Theatre Village arrived.
I awarded it five stars on 13 August.
Further critical recognition followed.
And then came the news that Jack Kenyon had received a GOLD Festivals Award from the Fringe Theatre Awards for Table for Two.
Another one for the five-star satchel.
I promise I’m not fixing these things.
Olivia Raine Atwood: Oops ★★★★★
Theatre Village: 14 August
And finally, Oops.
Now, here’s where I happily admit Theatre Village wasn’t first.
Other critics had already discovered Olivia Raine Atwood before I got there.
Good!
This isn’t supposed to be a competition over who physically managed to reach the theatre first.
What mattered was that when I eventually arrived, I thought Olivia was terrific.
Five stars went into the satchel.
So, were we trendsetters?
Steady on.
I’m still a postie from Yorkshire.
But looking back across these sixteen shows has made me rather proud of what Theatre Village achieved at Edinburgh Fringe 2026.
We didn’t always get there first.
We didn’t always agree with everybody else.
And nor should we.
But there were occasions when Theatre Village awarded five stars to a production and, days later, much bigger publications started arriving.
There were shows we championed that went on to win awards.
There were performers we tipped before wider critical attention arrived.
And there were productions we loved that other critics subsequently loved too.
DUST went from our five-star review to winning Best Show From Adelaide at The List Festival Awards.
Youth in Flames became a Scotsman Fringe First winner.
Table for Two picked up a GOLD Festivals Award.
DUSK/NIGHT/DAWN caught the attention of The Guardian.
Spraywatch caught the attention of The Stage.
And that little pattern started to feel familiar.
Because last year there was Hot Mess.
This year there were sixteen more shows that made me sit up, reach into the satchel and pull out all five stars.
Perhaps Theatre Village is developing a bit of a knack for this.
But here’s the important bit
None of those five stars were given because another publication said a show was good.
They weren’t awarded because a production had a brilliant PR campaign.
They weren’t given because somebody was already winning awards.
They were given because I sat in an audience, watched what happened on stage and thought:
That’s brilliant.
That’s ultimately what Theatre Village is about.
Finding theatre we believe deserves an audience and shouting about it.
Sometimes the rest of the world agrees.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
And occasionally you get the rather wonderful experience of watching a little show you championed suddenly gather reviews, audiences, awards and attention around it.
So congratulations to Youth in Flames, DUST, DUSK/NIGHT/DAWN, SpinQueen™, LAUNA, Antigone 1989: A Town Hall Musical, Spraywatch: A Beautiful Rescue, H.R. The Musical, SHANTIFY, They’re Just Small Town (Northern) Lads, Girlz, An Ode to the Casting Director, 100 Million Fish in the Aquarium, The Yellow Wallpaper, Table for Two and Olivia Raine Atwood: Oops.
You made my Edinburgh.
And apparently this little Yorkshire postie isn’t too bad at spotting a good show.
But we’re not quite finished yet.
There are still two rather important things tucked away in the Theatre Village satchel.
Very soon, we’ll be announcing the winners of our two Edinburgh Fringe awards: the Satchel of Stars, celebrating the very best of our five-star shows, and the Satchel of Dreams, recognising productions that dared to be bold, imaginative and take creative risks.
We’ve watched.
We’ve argued.
We’ve changed our minds.
We’ve probably made choosing two winners considerably more difficult than it ever needed to be.
But the decisions have been made.
The Satchel of Dreams and Satchel of Stars winners will be revealed very soon.
Keep an eye on Theatre Village.
There’s still something in the satchel.
Okay, okay…
Before Andrew, the guvnor, starts coughing loudly from the back of the room, I should probably admit that he actually did all the reviewing, running around Edinburgh and handing out those five stars.
Apparently I’m just the Yorkshire postie who gets to write about it afterwards.
Still.
A Yorkshire postie can dream, can’t she?
Now give me back my satchel.
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