The Besties awards celebrating the best across Edinburgh’s August Festivals are now in their third year. The Award is a partnership between Radge Media, Capital Theatres and Premier Scotland.
The Skinny and Fest, Capital Theatres and Premier Scotland are delighted to announce the week one winners of The Besties.
Stanislavski Can’t Save Me From the Apocalypse: The Superpower Agency Award
This award was selected by the young people who participated in this year’s Superpower Agency critical writing summer camp, a collaboration with the teams at The Skinny and Fest.
Five women went to teach theatre for the summer. They just didn’t know the world would end before camp did. In Stanislavski Can’t Save Me From The Apocalypse, life at a theatre camp in the northern woods of Maine takes a shocking turn when five counsellors suddenly become responsible for more than forty campers after the world ends on the final day of camp. Their artistic dreams collide with the abrupt demands of survival, forcing women who once built imaginary worlds onstage to confront a terrifying new reality offstage.
The young reviewers said, “We really enjoyed this innovative theatre production, set at a kid’s theatre camp in the aftermath of the apocalypse. This is an ambitious show that takes risks with its unconventional structure and pulls them off. They did a lot with a tiny venue, minimal set and a cast who were passionate and talented. The characters were realistic and the show’s depiction of young adult friendship was funny and relatable. A hopeful and meaningful take on a potentially dark subject.”
Ethan and Gigi present The Movement: The Radgie Award
Believing themselves to be revolutionary leaders, two overconfident artists attempt to liberate the masses through the power of theatre. Ethan & Gigi are here to upstage fascist pigs and break legs (literally). The revolution will not be televised, it will be live! Alt-comedian legend Chris Gethard says: ‘These kids are funny, brave, some of the hardest workers I’ve ever met and also might be legitimately unwell in a mental sense. Either way, huge fan. Restores my faith and makes me believe in the connective power of comedy.’
The Skinny/Fest editorial team said: “Ethan and Gigi’s commitment to the bit is what makes this faux so-bad-it’s-good comedy stand out from the rest. A pair of revolutionaries riddled with interpersonal issues but convinced they’re on the brink of an anti-fascist revolutionary movement, the New York clown duo never let you see where they start and the characters end. There are big, insane swings in this show that wears its brashness deceptively lightly; swings that you’re only likely to see at The Fringe.”
Xhloe and Natasha: Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It –
Fringe Legends
Two teenagers perform fake Bigfoot sightings in their Appalachian town, until a neighbour’s dog turns up torn to pieces. Aside from sparking a panic that spirals out of their control, it forces them to question what might actually be terrorizing their under-resourced and already superstitious community. From 2022, 2023 and 2024 Fringe First award-winners and ‘the Fringe’s most dynamic theatrical duo’ (Telegraph), Xhloe and Natasha, comes a Brechtian puppet show ripped in two about conspiracy, misdirection and seeing something with your own eyes.
The Skinny/Fest editorial team said: “It may be early in the 2026 Fringe to declare a legend award, but the judging team could think of no title more fitting for clown duo Xhloe and Natasha. Since their 2022 debut with And Then the Rodeo Burned Down they’ve built a devoted following amongst Fringe-goers in general and the Skinny-Fest teams in particular. This year they’ve returned with their fourth original show, Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It, and it has once again lived up to the hype.”
Elf Lyons is the woman on the edge: The Heart Award
‘I’m sorry, I’ve said too much…’ Sky Arts Award-winning comedian Elf Lyons is The Woman on the Edge. A completely normal, autobiographical (and in no way complex) – observational stand-up show about love. A perfect show to take yourself to. Inspired by Vertigo, Apollo 13, the opera Pagliacci. Directed by Ingmar Bergman. One of The Telegraph’s 50 Funniest Comedians of the 21st Century.
The Skinny/Fest editorial team said: “The Fringe has practically belonged to Elf Lyons for a while now. Swan was mad; Raven was fit for a King. So to hear, in Elf’s new show, that she had lost herself earlier this year was heart-rending. If someone so singular can lose sight of who they are, what hope is there for the rest of us? By the end of her new hour, there’s no question that that isn’t the case anymore.”
House Fly: The Buzz Award
Bzzzz. Enter the surrealist world of a house fly. She’s come to share her story before she dies! In an astonishing historical first, a house fly has learnt human behaviour. Wanting to warn us about the worldwide insect shortage but getting lost along the way. This is Tess O’Shea’s first show after training at Gaulier clown school – it’s a theatrical exploration on the life of a fly and their cultural history. Come and see a fly’s observations on the absurdity of modern life, inspired by Kafka and the surrealism of Dali. Swatters strictly prohibited!
Fest writer Xuanlin Tham said: “the humble fly is often constituted as nothing more than a filthy pest. Yet carrying on in the grand surrealist tradition of Kafka, Dalí, and also Ratatouille (masterpiece), Tess O’Shea’s House Fly paints the life story of one fly so vividly that the last thing you want to do is swat it away … The buzz is real.”
Eva Peroni: Jungled – Emerging Talent Award
At 17, Eva moved from Livingston to Costa Rica on her own. She dropped out of school and moved to Costa Rica a boy-mad wee bam. She came back a bald lesbian without shoes. A fast, brutally funny debut about how you can take the girl out of Livingston, but maybe Costa Rica is too far. ‘One of the best young acts on the Scottish circuit’ (One4Review.co.uk). ‘A rising star’ (List). Support for Kim Blythe, Sam Nicoresti and Susie McCabe.
The Skinny/Fest editorial team said: “Eva Peroni is anything if not precocious. The 22-year-old’s debut Fringe hour is crammed with joke after joke, drawing on themes of identity and belonging and remaining sharp and uncompromising throughout. Taking inspiration from her coming-of-age in Costa Rica, the comic probes questions of national identity and Scottishness, with tongue firmly in cheek…”
Reflecting the broad and diverse coverage both magazines produce every summer and celebrating the breadth of Edinburgh’s Festivals, The Besties span all the festival activity taking place in the city over the month of August, including the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Winners of The Besties are chosen each week by the editorial teams of The Skinny and Fest, drawing on their cross-festival expertise to celebrate the best work happening anywhere in the festivals. 2026 winners will be announced at weekly ceremonies taking place at Festival Theatre in Edinburgh on 15, 22 and 29 August.
The Besties awards, designed by artist Camillo Feuchter a graduate of Interior & Environmental Design at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design in Dundee, use recyclable plastics gathered by the partners and leftover wood sourced locally.
