Protecting the Past. Securing the Future. Sustaining Scotland’s Cultural Life.
Securing a future for the arts at Summerhall
Summerhall is far more than a building. It is a distinctive cultural and community asset in Edinburgh, a home for artists and audiences, and a place where creativity, innovation and collaboration thrive.
Its contribution to Edinburgh and Scotland’s cultural identity, creative economy and international reputation must be fully understood and recognised in any plans for its future.
Summerhall Arts wants to remain at Summerhall and will support a viable proposal that secures our future and enables us to continue delivering our year-round programme of arts and cultural activity.
Our ambition is to see Summerhall continue as a thriving cultural destination, protecting the building’s unique character while enabling its artistic contribution to grow. We recognise that any future proposal must be financially realistic and operationally sustainable.
For Summerhall Arts, viability also means having sufficient affordable, appropriate and usable space to continue supporting and nurturing the wider community, artists, presenting work and engaging audiences throughout the year.
Why Summerhall Arts matters
Supported by Creative Scotland multi-year funding, Summerhall Arts has established itself as a leading supporter of the arts in Scotland, both locally and nationally. Building on Summerhall’s legacy of diverse performance and exhibitions, Summerhall Arts has developed new and exciting professional artist development opportunities for emerging and established artists.
Our work extends beyond presenting performances and exhibitions. We provide opportunities for artists to develop their practice, support new creative work and contribute to a wider ecosystem of festivals, theatres and cultural organisations across Scotland and beyond.
The 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe showcased Summerhall Arts’ international significance, featuring work from 24 countries and a record-breaking number of award-winning shows and audience numbers. This reflects the importance of Summerhall as a cultural destination that connects Edinburgh with artists, audiences and creative communities from around the world.
The spaces within Summerhall are central to this work. Their individual character, facilities and flexibility enable a diverse programme of artistic activity that would be difficult to replicate elsewhere. Any plans for the future must fully recognise the relationship between the building, its spaces and the cultural activity they make possible.
What does a viable future look like?
We want to work constructively with AMA to help establish a viable, sustainable future for the arts at Summerhall.
For Summerhall Arts, this means securing enough affordable, appropriate and usable space to continue delivering our year-round programme successfully. It means ensuring that the practical needs of artists, performances, exhibitions and professional development are properly understood and reflected in future plans.
We believe there is an opportunity to develop a model that combines appropriate investment in the building with a sustainable programme of arts and cultural activity and community spaces. Achieving this requires a full understanding of the existing spaces, their cultural significance and their role in supporting the site’s activity.
Summerhall Arts is ready to contribute its experience and knowledge to this conversation. We want to be part of a constructive process that recognises the realities of developing a viable proposal while protecting the cultural purpose that makes Summerhall so important.
Repair, not demolish
We are concerned that the current plans appear to earmark some of Summerhall’s most distinctive spaces for demolition. These spaces are not simply parts of a building. They are integral to Summerhall’s identity, character and cultural offer. Their loss would have implications for the arts activity that takes place across the site and for the wider experience of artists, community and audiences.
We believe the potential for repair, renovation and continued cultural use deserves serious consideration as part of the search for a viable long-term solution.
Preserving Summerhall does not mean preventing change. It means recognising what makes the site special, understanding the value of its existing spaces and exploring how they can be maintained, adapted and used sustainably for the future.
Edinburgh’s reputation as the world’s festival city rests in part on distinctive cultural spaces such as Summerhall. Protecting these places helps sustain the city’s cultural identity and its ability to attract artists, audiences and visitors from across the world.
Have your say: help shape Summerhall’s future
The consultation is an important opportunity to ensure that the cultural significance of Summerhall and the needs of Summerhall Arts are properly understood by AMA as it develops its plans.
We encourage artists, audiences, cultural organisations, supporters and everyone who values Summerhall to participate. Please explain what the site means to you, why its spaces matter and why retaining an established thriving arts presence should be central to its future.
Your feedback can help demonstrate that Summerhall’s value extends far beyond the property itself. It is a cultural and community asset that supports artists, engages audiences and contributes to Scotland’s artistic life, locally, nationally and internationally.
We want to be able to count on your support not only during this consultation, but throughout the future stages of the process. A strong collective voice can help ensure that the search for viability fully considers the cultural activity the site supports and the space required to sustain it.
To view the current plans and submit your feedback, visit the consultation website:
We believe Summerhall can continue to be a place where artists create, audiences discover new work and Scotland’s cultural reputation flourishes.
With a shared commitment to finding a workable solution, there is an opportunity to protect the site’s distinctive character while securing its continued contribution to cultural and community life.
Sam Gough, CEO of Summerhall Arts, says: “Whilst our intention is to remain here and work with AMA to continue the provision of arts within Summerhall, the future space needs to be viable, and we are hopeful that the plans will provide that.
“We are encouraging all those who love Summerhall and its spaces to contribute to the consultation, to help the developers understand how important they are to what makes this already thriving arts centre what it is.
“At the moment, I have not seen anything that demonstrates this.
“So many of the beautiful, special parts of Summerhall, such as the historic Anatomy Lecture Theatre, the unique Dissection Room, Tech Cube 0 and the ever-so-wonderful Royal Dick pub, are earmarked for demolition.
Our message is ‘repair, not demolish’. Edinburgh’s name as the world’s festival city rests partly on places like Summerhall. Developers, like arts organisations, are remembered for what they leave behind, and I would much rather AMA be remembered as the owner who protected it.”
Summerhall is an asset to Edinburgh and to Scotland.
We want to work towards a future that protects its cultural and community spaces, sustains the arts, health and wellbeing and enables Summerhall Arts to continue its work for generations to come.
From early-stage development and residencies to award wins, national tours, festivals and international collaborations, Summerhall Arts’ year-round support is helping artists build the work that drives Scotland’s cultural life
Following a hugely successful Edinburgh Festival Fringe, with eight Scotsman Fringe First Award wins, more than 65 five-star reviews, over 180 four-star reviews and increased visitor numbers across its performance and visual arts programme, Summerhall Arts is highlighting the vital year-round artist development work taking place at its Edinburgh base.
While August provides a high-profile showcase for the work developed at Summerhall, the organisation’s support for artists continues throughout the year. To date, Summerhall Arts has supported more than 400 artists, delivered 48 Summerhall Surgeries, provided 35 paid development spaces, held 40 Exhibitions and supported artists through its Studio programme, residencies, commissions and partnerships.
This work provides artists with space, financial support, rehearsal and development opportunities, creative feedback and connections with audiences and industry professionals, helping early ideas develop into work that can go on to Scotland’s festivals, theatres ,venues and galleries as well as national and international stages.
Imogen Stirling, Development & Producing Lead at Summerhall Arts, said:“Having a year-round base in Edinburgh is vital.
“The development work we do here doesn’t simply fuel our Fringe programme, it supports artists to create work that goes on to venues and festivals across the city and beyond.
“It gives artists space to experiment, develop ideas and build new work throughout the year, making it an important part of Scotland’s cultural infrastructure.”
FROM SUMMERHALL SURGERIES TO FRINGE FIRSTS, FESTIVALS AND INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATIONS
At the heart of Summerhall Arts’ artist development work are its Summerhall Arts Surgeries, a live works-in-progress platform giving artists the opportunity to test early-stage ideas in front of supportive audiences, peers and industry professionals.
The programme has now supported 48 projects, providing artists with vital feedback, creative exchange and the opportunity to build relationships that can continue long after the initial presentation.
Increasingly, the Surgeries are becoming the beginning of a longer development journey, with artists moving into further development space, residencies, Summerhall’s own performance programme and opportunities elsewhere in Scotland and beyond.
Recent examples include F-Bomb Theatre’s Float, which progressed through the Summerhall Arts Surgeries before being selected for Made in Scotland at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe, followed by a presentation at Gilded Balloon and a London tour.
Corinne Salisbury’s Slayers developed through the Summerhall Arts Surgeries before progressing to Assembly at the 2026 Fringe, where it won a Fringe First Award.
Hey Thanks! Theatre Collective’s BearGirl similarly progressed from a Summerhall Surgery to Assembly at the 2026 Fringe, where it was an Assembly ART Award runner-up.
Wonder Fools’ Tether received development space at Summerhall before becoming a Fringe First-winning Summerhall show at the 2026 Edinburgh Fringe. Development of the work also helped initiate a significant international collaboration with Korea, a relationship that was formed at Summerhall in 2025..
Sadiq Ali Company’s Tell Me received development space at Summerhall before going on to Manipulate Festival and a sell-out 2026 Edinburgh Fringe run.
The longer-term impact of Summerhall’s support can also be seen in the development of Biff Smith’s Dance With The Silence, which progressed through Summerhall’s Surgeries and Studio opportunities before Biff went on to become world champion of spoken word.
Summerhall’s residency and development programme has also supported artists whose work has gone on to significant national opportunities, including Emma Howlett, who was selected for The Stage’s Fringe Five following her residency at Summerhall with the work Aether that awarded her with the National Theatre Studio Directors Course and the Royal Court Writers’ Group in 2025. and then her fourth Summerhall show, a successful five star run of her new show The Plot in the Main Hall at this years’ Fringe.
Looking ahead, Babyplay by Amber Charlie Conroy represents another developing Summerhall pathway. The work was selected for the Summerhall Arts and the Hugo Burge Foundation New Writing Commission, has been written and shared, and took part in the Summerhall Arts Surgeries. It will continue its development at Summerhall as part of the organisation’s 2027 Edinburgh Fringe programme.
MORE SPACE, MORE TIME AND MORE SUPPORT FOR ARTISTS
Summerhall Arts is now expanding its artist development offer, providing opportunities at different stages of the creative process.
The organisation will offer 11 free space weeks, 12 supported weeks with £500 bursaries and eight enhanced residencies offering £1,000 of support, allowing artists to access everything from essential rehearsal space to more substantial financial support for projects requiring dedicated development time.
The Summerhall Arts Studios programme provides further intensive development opportunities, with support worth up to £3,100 per week.
The first Studio artists of Year Two, Delululand, have already demonstrated this longer-term pathway. Following participation in the March Summerhall Arts Surgeries, the company is now continuing its development through a supported Studio week.
Summerhall Arts will also deliver two editions of the Surgeries each year. A winter edition will support six companies whose work could progress towards presentation at the 2027 Fringe, connecting directly with the new Recovery Room initiative.
Recovery Room will give selected artists a further week of dedicated rehearsal and development space following their Surgery, allowing them to respond to audience and industry feedback and adapt their work towards presentation at Summerhall.
A spring edition will focus on earlier-stage work with potential to develop towards the 2028 Fringe and beyond, creating a clearer pathway from initial experimentation through to production and presentation.
Summerhall Arts has also selected Cat MacLeod and Raymond Wilson for its First Draft Commissions, supporting both artists to develop new pieces of writing from their earliest stages towards completed first drafts. Alongside the financial commission, the programme provides an ongoing relationship with each artist, including opportunities for conversation, creative feedback and development.
YEAR-ROUND PERFORMANCE, VISUAL ARTS AND CINEMA
Summerhall Arts’ commitment to artists extends across its year-round programme of performance, visual arts, cinema and creative learning.
The second half of 2026 will see Summerhall Arts present and support Concerned Others by Tortoise in A Nutshell, The Rhinestone Cowboy, Imaginate Festival, Tom Molineaux with Andy Arnold, Junk Ensemble and Kate Taylor, Accidents of the Soul from Shotput, Not For Glory by Charlotte Mclean, Jack Anderson and Malin Lewis. and Offspring by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir.
The visual arts programme continues with current exhibition Forming Space with Garvald Edinburgh and the upcoming Conversation with our Ocean by Elizabeth Ogilvie and Robert Page, Didar, Out of Sight Out of Mind with CAPS Advocacy, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Colour in Silence: Memorial Exhibition by David Peacock, Rosita Mackenzie’s Touching Light, Ruth Dafnis’ Second Hand Smoke, two Winter Market Exhibitions and the next season of Multi-Year Funding exhibitions featuring Jules Bradbury and Johanna Flanigan, with a third artist to be announced.
Also continuing are the Reconfigure Life Drawing Exhibition, and the third annual Group Show, for which applications will open in December.
The In Vitro Residency programme, in partnership with the Hugo Burge Foundation will include residencies and exhibitions from Flore Gardner and Juliana Capes, while Summerhall’s creative learning programme will offer a programme of workshops, running Wednesday to Sunday between 11am to 5pm from November through April in the Histology lab.
Summerhall Arts will also continue its work with screen culture through the Edinburgh Short Film Festival.
Sam Chapman, Head of Visual Arts and Cinema at Summerhall Arts, said:“Our visual arts and cinema programme is an essential part of Summerhall Arts’ year-round commitment to artists.
“It is about much more than presenting exhibitions and films – it is about creating opportunities for artists to develop their practice, experiment with new ideas, make connections and reach audiences.
“Through our exhibitions, commissions, residencies, partnerships and moving image programme, we are able to support artists at different stages of their careers and give them a platform within a genuinely interdisciplinary environment.
“That sense of connection is particularly important in Scotland, where artists and arts organisations are often working across different disciplines and sectors.
“We want Summerhall to be a place where artists can come to develop an idea, take a creative risk, meet other artists and audiences, and build something that can continue beyond these walls.
“The strength of Scotland’s visual arts and wider cultural ecology depends on having spaces where that work can happen throughout the year.”
A CULTURAL ECOSYSTEM THAT DOESN’T STOP IN AUGUST
The work audiences see at the Edinburgh Fringe, Scotland’s festivals and on stages around the country often begins months or years earlier, with artists needing somewhere to experiment, develop ideas, rehearse, receive feedback and take creative risks.
Sam Gough, Chief Executive of Summerhall Arts, said:“The success of August is only one part of the story. What audiences see at the Fringe is often the result of months or years of development, experimentation, rehearsal and support.
“The Surgeries are particularly important because they give artists somewhere to take those first risks, but the real value comes from what happens afterwards – the relationships that continue, the work that develops and the opportunities that open up.
“We have seen artists come through our many development programmes and go on to win Fringe Firsts, be part of the Made in Scotland showcase, national tours, major festivals and international collaborations. That is why year-round support matters.
“The Fringe and Scotland’s festivals do not exist in isolation; they are part of a wider cultural ecosystem that depends on artists having places to develop work throughout the year.
“At a time when that ecosystem is under enormous pressure, with organisations including The Skinny and the CCA among those lost or facing significant challenges in recent years, protecting year-round cultural infrastructure and the spaces where artists can take risks is vital. The future of our festivals depends on the artists and organisations that create and develop the work long before it reaches August.
“As Edinburgh considers the future of the Tourist Levy, it is important that the income generated by visitors is recognised as an opportunity to invest in the cultural infrastructure that makes the city what it is. Supporting year-round venues, artists and risk-takers helps sustain the whole ecosystem, not simply the festival period.”
REMOVING BARRIERS FOR AUDIENCES
Alongside its support for artists, Summerhall Arts is also looking at how audiences can access work.
While the exhibitions programme is always free to attend, the organisation is now introducing a new Pay What You Want approach to the performance programme, removing the requirement for audiences to qualify for a concession.
Rather than asking audiences to prove that they are unemployed, a student or eligible for another concession, audiences can simply choose the price they want to pay to support the performance and Summerhall Arts.
The approach forms part of Summerhall Arts’ wider commitment to removing barriers and creating a more open relationship between artists, audiences and the organisation.
From a first experiment in a Surgery to a Fringe First-winning production; from a residency to a national tour; from a development week to an international collaboration, Summerhall Arts’ year-round work is helping artists build sustainable creative journeys.
As Edinburgh’s cultural calendar moves beyond the intensity of August, Summerhall Arts continues to invest in the artists, ideas and organisations that will shape Scotland’s future cultural landscape.
Triple Fringe First winning extraordinaires Xhloe & Natasha, legendary comedian and theatremaker Adam Riches, and return of Comedy Award nominees The Creepy Boys, headline 36-strong second Summerhall Arts festival programme announcement – on sale now
Summerhall Arts announces 36 more shows in its 2026 festival programme, including 55% international artists, 24% artists of colour, 60% female, and 30% LGBTQI+ artists
Summerhall Arts is delighted to announce that back-to-back-to-back Scotsman Fringe First winners Xhloe & Natasha will be at Summerhall this festival, presenting their brand new show, Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It
Adam Riches – Fringe legend, Edinburgh Comedy Award Winner, and creator of 2024 hit, Jimmy – returns to Summerhall with new solo show, The Captain
Summerhall Arts’ Mary Dick Award 2026, in collaboration with Birds of Paradise, goes to Patch of Blue and 3hc,who will premiere moving exploration of care, You and Me (and Whoever Comes Next)
The Autopsy Award, for artists working in Scotland, goes to Althea Young, who presents a humorous and horror-filled account of parental ambivalence in The Dreaming
The Meadows Award, for artists of colour from anywhere in the world, is presented to Palestinian multidisciplinary performance artist Fadi Murad, presenting Come Back Home
Edinburgh Comedy Award nominees The Creepy Boys return with acclaimed show, SLUGS, and new WIP show, Nude Parade
Other highlights include brand new shows or UK premieres from Salty Brine, Adam Lenson, 81 Productions, Magnetic North, Ballaro Dance, Lightning Rod Special, Sadiq Ali Company, OPE-N, and Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg
Home of boundary-pushing performance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, arts charity and year-round cultural hub Summerhall Arts today announces 36 more shows of the 2026 instalment of its renowned festival programme.
Summerhall continues to host diverse and intersectional work, with 60% of the shows female led, 24% led by artists of colour, and 30% featuring an LGBTQI+ narrative. Over 55% of artists and companies are international, bringing work from Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, England, Canada, USA, Colombia, Italy, Greece, Germany, France, Netherlands Luxembourg, Malta, Denmark, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Afghanistan, Iran, Palestine, Taiwan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand to Summerhall’s iconic performance spaces.
This roster of shows reflects an eclectic body of work spanning theatre, performance art, drag, cabaret, puppetry, dance, circus, pole, and comedy, encompassing themes that touch on identity of all forms, digital toxification and misinformation, ongoing conflicts and injustices across the world, mother-son relationships, conspiracies, why men are so odd, existing on the internet, the weight of personal heritage, public vs private apologies, and much more. Music is celebrated throughout the programme, from contemporary opera to Neutral Milk Hotel-inspired cabaret, Korean geomungo, gig theatre, and even one man singing the same song for an hour.
Summerhall Arts is delighted to announce that triple Fringe First winners Xhloe and Natasha will premiere a brand-new show at Summerhall this festival. Co-presented with Soho Theatre and SoHo Playhouse, the duo – described by The Scotsman’s Joyce McMillan as “the most compelling performers on the Fringe” – will perform Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It. Combining precise choreography, absurdist clowning, and a nine-foot puppet, the show is a piercing exploration of conspiracy and misdirection.
Another legend of the Edinburgh Fringe, Summerhall is thrilled to welcome back Comedy Award winner Adam Riches with a brand new solo theatre show. After embodying fiery tennis player Jimmy Connors in his acclaimed, sell-out, smash-hit, Jimmy (Summerhall, 2024), Riches returns with The Captain – the true story of Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to ever swim the English Channel.
Summerhall Arts is excited to announce the winners of its three festival awards to help support artists to bring boundary-pushing work to the most critically acclaimed venue at the festival. The Mary Dick Award for UK-based d/Deaf or disabled artists, in collaboration with Birds of Paradise Theatre Company, goes to Patch of Blue (Cassie and the Lights) and 3hc, who will premiere You and Me (and Whoever Comes Next) – a potent, joyful and moving exploration of care written by disabled actor and writer Keron Day, and former care worker Alex Howarth, supported by Theatre Royal Plymouth.
The Autopsy Award for artists working in Scotland is awarded to Glasgow-based contemporary performance artist Althea Young who will premiere The Dreaming, a stirring blend of autobiography and fantasy that blends performance art, theatre, and choreography, to explore topics including mutant babies, alien insemination and the urge to reproduce.
The Meadows Award, for artists of colour from anywhere in the world, goes to Palestinian multidisciplinary performance artist Fadi Murad and his show, Come Back Home – a contemporary theatre work exploring ongoing grief, dispossession, and how the past continues to inhabit the present, which deals with self criticism, fear, and the unknown through the lens of absurdity.
Summerhall Arts is also delighted to announce the return of several hit shows from past festivals. Edinburgh Comedy Award 2025 nominated Canadian slimeballsCreepy Boys (S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger) return with their five-star anarchic fever dream about nothing, SLUGS (★★★★ – Financial Times, ★★★★ – Guardian, ★★★★ – Scotsman),and present a new work-in-progress, Nude Parade, which is like a live theatre version of the game of Operation – and it’s trans.Actor, writer, clown, comedian, and all-round nincompoop Scott Turnbull returns with his acclaimed 2025 ‘edutainment show’, Surreally Good; New Zealander’s premiere interactive theatre company Binge Culture return with their 2024 immersive hit, Werewolf, perfect for fans of The Traitors; and Summerhall-based Pickering’s Gin return with a revised version of its renowned immersive Speakeasy Experience.
More returning Summerhall favourites include multi-award-winning theatre-maker and director Adam Lenson, who achieved acclaim for his debut solo show Anything That We Wanted to Be in 2023. Adam premieres Is it too late now to say sorry? – a new collision of gig, storytelling, and autobiographical investigation which psychologises the apology, both personal and public. And Buzzcut Productions (Bark Bark, 2024) return with their signature blend of live camera work, puppetry, and a live score to premiere The Wreck, a new show about two siblings diving a shipwreck and discovering the fate of their family’s seaside nightclub.
Exciting Scotland-based artists will also take to Summerhall’s stages this August, including two shows from this year’s Made in Scotland Showcase: playwright and drag artist Nelly Kelly, in collaboration with Sanctuary Queer Arts, premieres TRANSMISSION – a darkly-comedic blend of DIY cabaret and political theatre exploring Scotland’s shift from world-leading on LGBTQI+ rights to fertile ground for the anti-trans movement; and circus and aerial specialists Sadiq Ali Company (The Chosen Haram) premiere Tell Me – a bold fusion of dance and circus offering a fresh perspective on life with HIV.
Award-winning Edinburgh-based company Magnetic North present We Will Hear The Angels – an atmospheric and poignant exploration of the strange state of melancholy, evoked from the power of sad music. Performed by five-actor musicians – Apphia Campbell, Mia Scott, Greg Sinclair, Daniel Padden and Nicholas Bone – it combines words, movement and music in a soundscape that includes Hank Williams, Orange Juice, Etta James, Bach, and more. Glasgow-based Euan Munro presents Playback, a tragicomic true story about a child YouTuber featuring his own childhood vlogs.
In the movement and dance strain of the programme, Summerhall is honoured to be welcoming the world-famous Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, led by their flamboyant new Director, Mr Chevalier. The Great Chevalier will see the unpredictable director, hailed as the ‘Bad Boy of Folklore’, perform some emblematic classics, including the iconic Pigeon Dance.
Summerhall Arts Fringe Producer and Programmer, Tom Forster, commented: “With the Fringe landscape ever changing, Summerhall Arts believes we should challenge ourselves as a venue to innovate year-on-year to the same frequency that we demand of artists.
“To match demand for intimacy with the audience, the Main Hall’s end-on format after 14 years will be reimagined in horseshoe format for Festival 2026. A specific request made by Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg Artistic Director, Monsieur Chevalier; it is the only layout that can host the renowned Pigeon Dance, and, since the International Festival couldn’t accommodate his request, we at Summerhall Arts proudly stepped in.
“Boasting an infinity ceiling clearance of 6 meters, leading to a stunning ceiling mural by John Kindness, this new vision for our largest venue will make the Main Hall the most beautiful venue in the city – giving artists and Mr Chevalier a backdrop they deserve.”
Tamsin Shasha returns to Summerhall for the first time since her Fringe First-winning Everything I See I Swallow (2019), bringing Forgive Me – a highly personal show about a hyperactive mother and a gaming-obsessed son, which fuses pole performance, video projection and song. Sweat meets spectacle in New York City-based company, Ballaro Dance’s UK premiere of TWELVE: Going The Distance– a 47-minute contemporary dance work divided into 12 three-minute “rounds”, which is set in a boxing gym and unfolds with the intensity of a title bout. The Taiwan Season returns to Summerhall with the UK premiere of Seed Dance Company’s The Wall, a dynamic, emotionally provocative quintet packed with restless and urgent precision.
An immersive highlight is Daydreams from 81 Productions – producers of the acclaimed durational theatre installation, Mother Has Arrived (★★★★★ – The Stage’s 50 Top Shows of 2025). An innovative, cinematic work about insomnia, Daydreams involved 3D projection, performance and an ominous soundscape to lock audiences into a sleepless loop where headlines and half-dreams collide.
Summerhall Arts has a growing comedy presence at the Fringe, and this continues in 2026 with Laurie Stevens, known for her 2025 hit character show, David’s One-Man Band (F*ck You, Steven), who this year presents her theatrical debut: An Evening with Gerald Lloyd-Davies. Laurie performs as Lloyd-Davies – an ageing straight Welsh actor, aspiring national treasure and quintessential luvvie. Another star character comedy turn sees actor, artist, and drag king Tessa Parr premiere I AM JOHNNY, performing as very, very male performance poet, Johnny the Biblical Rapper. Co-produced by Camden People’s Theatre, I AM JOHNNY is an unsettling, absurd and hilarious interrogation into the fragile bones of the patriarchy.
Gaulier-trained clown and home-trained OnlyFans content creator Jessica Aszkenasy presents TITCLOWN: daddy’s little girl – a clown show about boobs, the father wound women hold in society, and why it’s so hard to live laugh love with heterosexual men – and features a lifesize Henry VIII doll. Finally, award-winning comedian Conk and Quiet Riot bring a conceptually simple show: Man Sings The Same Song Over And Over Again For An Hour. Which song? You’ll need to come and find out.
Continuing the musical theme, Summerhall is delighted to welcome acclaimed New York-based drag queen, Salty Brine (Stage Fringe Five, 2024). This festival, in his genre-defying cabaret style, he sets his sights on combining Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Anne Frank’s The Diaries of a Young Girl, in HOW STRANGE IT IS (The Neutral Milk Hotel Show).
In the #DANISH showcase, groundbreaking combiners of opera and physical theatre OPE-N present Laughing Out Lonely – a thrilling new solo opera about the faceless existence of life on the internet by composing team Matilde Böcher and Asger Kudahl, with a tour de tour performance from acclaimed countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen. Finally, in PLASTIC, geomungo artist Kim Minyoung merges the traditional Korean instrument with media art, expanding its possibilities into new territories.
Summerhall Arts is also delighted to welcome two uncategorizable shows from the city of Philadelphia to Edinburgh. Koan Brothers – aka Mason Rosenthal, Sohrab Haghverdi, and Benjamin Rosenthal – will present Foriegner, a dizzying solo, anti-identity, anti-comedy, avant-clown show that follows one asylum seeker’s attempt to win an O1-B visa, awarded to individuals of artistic brilliance.
And from Lightning Rod Special, the creators of Fringe First winning Underground Railroad Game (2018) comes Lions, an unsentimental two-hander part-clown show, part-eulogy about fathers, life on hold with corporations after death, and the myths of what it means to be great men.
Also from the US, LA-based multidisciplinary artist, performer and film critic, Gregory Nussen brings a metatheatrical piece about the politics of storytelling and truth, loosely inspired by Italo Calvino’s lf On a Winter’s Night A Traveler. A solo show without a fourth wall, QFWFQ (pronounced “kfwoofk”) touches on everything from architecture, jazz, gender identity and the Israel-Palestine conflict.
Staying on politics and identity – in the #DANISH showcase, Danish-Israeli artist Boaz Barkan brings Our Other Organ, a dissection of antisemitism and its impact on Jewish identity, which culminates in the creation of a “new Zionist body” and its structures of violence and domination. Atop a mortuary table, Barkan digs into a living body to uncover a new organ – the place where racism resides.
Summerhall Arts also welcomes two shows from Ireland. Joy Nesbitt’s Julius Caesar Variety Show scrutinises both the theatre sector and the exploitation of identity in a play that sees a Black actor, a Woman actor, and a Straight White Male actor compete to impress a respected director set on reinventing a Shakespeare play in “unorthodox” ways. And Martha Knight’s new play, The King of All Birds, utilises both voice and vocoder to explore our shared history with the sky: the years it remained untouched, the first ventures into it, and our endless climbing up.
Continuing the animal theme, Hotter Project (makers of 2023 hit, The Last Show Before We Die (★★★★★ – The Guardian), in association with Speakerphone Productions and Soho Theatre, will premiere HAM – a kinky eco-hijacking of Hamlet about meat, madness, and the power of shame that twists the classic high-brow tragedy into a sordid wrestle between a vegan and a sausage-lover.
Finally, from Lyn Gardner-recommended double act ‘Britney’ – aka Ellen Robertson (Vladimir, Mickey 17, The Pale Horse) and Charly Clive (Pure Rooster, Pure, The Lazarus Project) – comes Jitters, a brand new two-hander about ownership, tradition, and the all-important ‘L’ word of any relationship: leverage. And contemporary storyteller and theatremaker Nathan Jonathan takes us back to Y-2-K with They’re Just Small Town (Northern) Lads – a funny and heartfelt solo show about growing up mixed-race in a Northern-industrial-town. Expect gelled quiffs and flip-up phones in an exploration of identity, class and belonging at the turn of the millennium.
These 36 new shows are now on sale. They join seven shows that went on sale in February: As Far As We Know (YESYESNONO), GOOD ENOUGH? (HIMHERANDIT), LANDSFRAU هموطن (Mariann Yar), PUTTANA (Beatrice Festi and TeatroEETS), SAND (Kook Ensemble), Tether (Wonder Fools and Theatre SAN), and Tomatoes Tried to Kill Me but Banjos Saved My Life (Keith Alessi).
The next and final Summerhall Arts festival programme announcement will be on Wednesday 6th May, before the commencement of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2026 from 6th –31st August.
PICTURE (TOP): Clockwise from top left: Salty Brine (Credit: Alex Brenner), Forgive Me, Adam Riches: The Captain (Credit: Matt Stronge, Design: Will Andrews), Come Back Home, The Dreaming (Credit: Tiu Makkonen), Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It (Credit: Morgan Mcdowell), You and Me (and Whoever Comes Next) (Credit: Patch Studio), & TRANSMISSION (Credit: Tiu Makkonen).
