It’s that time of the year again for my annual pilgrimage to the biggest arts festival in the world, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2025. Once again I am visiting as part of the National Theatre yearly patron trip. With around 14 shows and multiple social events all squeezed into 3 days. Some of these hand picked by the NT staff and some from my own choices. This trip is always a hectic but thoroughly enjoyable one. The idea of these posts are to provide a quick review and feedback about each show and also provide a type of diary of the whole trip.
And that brings an end to my 2025 Edinburgh fringe trip with the national Theatre for another year. Once again it’s been a brilliant trip with only one 0 star show. You have to have at least one 0 star show for it to be an actual fringe trip. Breakfast this morning involved siting at the table with the new NT director Indhu and the cast of Hot Mess, Danielle Steers and Tobias Turley and some fellow patrons. Sat at the airport waiting for my flight south back home. I am thinking back to some of the highlights of this trip. The ones that come to mind are Hot Mess, Nina Conti, Nerds musical, consumed and breakfast with the MD and creator of “I wish my life was like a musical”. I can’t wait to do it all over again for a fifth consequituve time next year.
Full reviews of each show and details of each day can be found using the links above. Here is all 16 shows I watched ranked from best to worst.
Nina Conti: Whose face is it anyway? – 5 out of 5 stars
Hot Mess – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Adam Riches and John Kearns are Ball and Boe – 4.5 out of 5 stars
I wish my life were like a musical – 4.5 out of 5 stars
Nerds: The Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs comedy musical – 4 out of 5 stars
Shantify – 4 out of 5 stars
She’s behind you- 4 out of 5 stars
Consumed – 4 out of 5 stars
Abnormally funny people – 4 out of 5 stars
Aquapella – 4 out of 5 stars
The beautiful future is coming – 3.5 out of 4 stars
The big bite-size breakfast show – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Thanks for being here – 3 out of 5 stars
Ohio – 2 out of 5 stars
Best of the fest: The new class – 1 out of 5 stars
Club NVRLND – 0 out of 5 stars
A SPURDLE reviews 