Your guide to Cambridge’s shows at the Edinburgh Fringe

2025’s Edinburgh Fringe continues that time honoured tradition of exporting Cambridge’s theatre to Britain’s hub of stand up and experimental comedy. From the hilarity of improv to tongue in cheek interrogations of drinking culture, here’s what Cambridge has to offer the Edinburgh Fringe this year:

The Cambridge Footlights International Tour Show 2025: Fragile Contents

Another year of a legendary comedy troupe graces the fringe. This generational comedy powerhouse puts its best foot forwards and showcases Cambridge’s rising comedy talents. Sure to be a crowd pleaser, the Footlights are playing from the 30th July – 25th August at Pleasance Dome, King Dome – get your tickets here!

The Cambridge Impronauts

For fun and outrageous spontaneity, look no further than the Cambridge Impronauts for a show so original not even the performers know where it will take them. Providing completely unscripted comedy since 2003, if interactive capers pique your interest, catch the Impronauts at their 9th run at the Fringe from the 30th July – 25th August at The Penny Gilded Balloon Patterhouse- get your tickets here! 

Me and my Year of Casual ‘Monasticism’ by Emily Knutsson

Emily Knutsson’s debut one-woman show sees a year at Cambridge figured through the analogy of monasticism and is titillating, outrageous and medieval. Starring as Mary, Knutsson navigates the intricacies and idiosyncrasies of her new home, relating the modern student experience to that of a monk in the middle ages, and we the audience join her as confidants on this atypical coming of age story. See Eliza Cane-Honeysett’s review here. Me and My Year of Casual ‘Monasticism’ will be at the Fringe from the 1st – 23rd August at Greenside at Riddles Court (Pickle Studio), grab your tickets here!

Cockaigne Drinking Society by Frederick Upton 

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This dark satire sees Pique Theatre Company upbraiding the dark underbelly of the UK’s education system in an outrageous gallop towards murderous intrigue and underage drinking. The production places us in the week before Cockaigne Drinking Society’s fundraiser and sets the ball rolling towards disaster. Promising great fun, Cockaigne Drinking Society is on at the Edinburgh Fringe from 1st – 23rd August at Greenside, Riddles Court (Willow Studio)- secure your tickets here!

Penelope Quadrangle and the Meaning of Friendship by Amenie Groves

What would you do if your best friend murdered someone? For more fatally good fun, Penelope Quadrangle and the Meaning of Friendship sees loyalty take on new ramifications when Penelope’s best friend reveals a penchant for murder. Come along to see the Cambridge Amateur Dramatic society test what lengths you would go to in protection of a friend. Penelope Quadrangle and the Meaning of Friendship is showing from 1st – 16th August at Ivy Studio at Greenside, George Street- get your tickets here!

Loos Loos by Ella Thornburn & Grace Boag-Matthews

Funny, rude and raw, Loos Loos sees best friends Lou and Freya unpack 6 weeks of teenaged friendship, with the adolescent beauty advice and minor humiliations entailed- all set within the confines of a toilet cubicle. When darker elements of reality threaten the girls’ friendship, Loos Loos asks its audience how you can confront assault and revenge porn before you even have the language to name it. Read what Eliza Cane-Honeysett thought of this “raw and heart-warming play that deals creatively with heavy subject matter” here. Written by co-writers Ella Thornburn and Grace Boag-Matthews during their A Level Year, this production offers a heartfelt spotlight to the genuine teenage experience. Loos Loos is showing from the 1st – 17th August at Greenside at Riddle’s Court- make sure to grab your tickets here!

This Side of Life by Matt Williams

Cambridge University’s Musical Theatre Society invites us to a world of Manhattan buskers, cockney con-men, and Broadway dreams, prompting an exploration of the struggle for artistic recognition, the lengths people will go to “make it” and the importance of staying in love with the art you create. Catch this feel-good Golden Age throwback musical at the Edinburgh Fringe from 30th July – 17th August at C Venues Aquila Temple- get your tickets here! 

Gross Domestic Product by Christian Lockerbie

For a more macabre and existential experience, look no further than Christian Lockerbie’s Gross Domestic Product for an inspection of the worth of a human life under late stage capitalism. Gross Domestic Product sees a horrible thought experiment driven to its logical extreme, and is showing 1st – 23rd August at Greenside, Riddles Court (Willow Studio)- grab your tickets here!

Dunhuang By Cai Yuqing 

The modern and ancient words collide in CCS Musical Theatre’s excavation of ancient China and its inheritors. Dunhuang sees a saturated, mystical world where the ancient Silk Road meets the present, and centuries-old murals come alive. For a real visual and auditory treat, catch Cai Yuqing’s Dunhuang at the Edinburgh Fring from the 1st – 14th August at the Space Symposium Hall ‘Annexe’. Get your tickets here!

Managed Approach by Jules Coyle

For a compelling portrait of a contentious and troubled industry, Open Aire Theatre’s Managed Approach takes its name from the UK’s first legalised red-light district, opened in the Holbeck area of Leeds, where in 2014 sex workers were able to operate with police supervision and without fear of arrest between the hours of 8pm and 6am, known as the Managed Approach. Combining genuine interviews a fictional story, Managed Approach offers a real humanising vantage- catch it at the fringe from 8th – 24th August at The Coorie, Gilded Balloon Patter House. Get your tickets here!

Glass House by Charlie McGuire

Described as a “boundary-pushing mocku-theatre piece”, Glass House matches pre-recorded footage with live acting to foster an energy of intrigue focused around the contested events of a specific night. A must-see for fans of mystery, Charlie McGuire’s Glass House is showing from the 18th – 23rd August at Olive Studio, Greenside at George Street. Grab your tickets here!

Featured Image credit Eliza Cane-Honeysett