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Terms of use

ATTENTION: This legal notice applies to the entire contents of the Website under the domain name broadwaybaby.com (Website) and to any correspondence by e-mail between us and you. Please read these terms carefully before using the Website. Using the Website indicates that you accept these terms regardless of whether or not you choose to register with us. If you do not accept these terms, do not use the Website. This notice is issued by the publishers of Broadway Baby ("the Company").

1.1 - By accessing any part of the Website, you shall be deemed to have accepted this legal notice in full. If you do not accept this legal notice in full, you must leave the Website immediately.
1.2 - The Company may revise this legal notice at any time by updating this posting. You should check the Website from time to time to review the then current legal notice, because it is binding on you. Certain provisions of this legal notice may be superseded by expressly designated legal notices or terms located on particular pages at the Website.

2.1 - You are permitted to print and download extracts from the Website for your own use on the following basis:
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2.2 - Unless otherwise stated, the copyright and other intellectual property rights in all material on the Website (excluding promotional images of shows provided by their producers) are owned by the Company or its licensors. For the purposes of this legal notice, any use of extracts from the Website other than in accordance with clause 2.1 for any purpose is prohibited. If you breach any of the terms in this legal notice, your permission to use the Website automatically terminates and you must immediately destroy any downloaded or printed extracts from the Website.

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3.2 - Access to the Website may be suspended temporarily and without notice in the case of system failure, maintenance or repair or for reasons beyond the Company's control.

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8.2 - Nothing in this legal notice shall exclude or limit the Company's liability for:
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This legal notice shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law. Disputes arising in connection with this legal notice shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.

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Five shows reinterpreting Shakespeare at the 2026 Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Riffs on the Bard tend to feature heavily in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe programme. This is a surefire way to generate some intrigue and there's always room for fresh takes on Shakespeare's classics.

Plenty to see Shakespeare-wise this Fringe

Perhaps there was more room for Bard-adjacent work at the Fringe historically, with Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead premiering in Edinburgh back in the mid-60s. Imagine that now! Two-plus hours of absurdist coin-flipping and a cast of more than ten that barely feature. One can dream, but there is still a real thrill in seeing how Shakespeare's work can be interpreted through the magic of a small Fringe team.

Here are five shows that interpret and re-interpret Shakespeare, all playing at the Fringe this year.

Julius Caesar Variety Show

Joy Nesbitt writes and directs a play about an audition set against the backdrop of a violent riot. Nominated for multiple awards, Julius Caesar Variety Show promises to be a thrilling redressing of the urgent political themes of Shakespeare's play. A Black actor, a woman actor and a straight white male actor provide an interesting cross-section of society, whilst the riot outside echoes the calls for bread that underpin all of Shakespeare's Roman plays. This show seems great - meta-theatrical, cerebral and a clever reinterpretation of the Bard's universal themes.

HAM

Described as 'a kinky eco-hijacking' of Shakespeare's Hamlet, HAM sounds positively insane in the best way. Twisting 'a high-brow tragedy into a sordid wrestle between a vegan and a sausage lover', it seems to be a really intelligent re-calibration of Shakespeare's text. Indeed, a central point of Hamlet is the question of life. If it matters, who deserves it and under what conditions one might take it away. When framed like this, Hotter Project's HAM promises a brilliant yet cheeky examination of the same questions, although letting animals enter a conversation previously centred on humans.

The Great Shakespeare Showdown

This show promises an 'onstage duel of Bardic banter' between 'famed English thespian Charles Goodknight' and 'firebrand all-American actress Harriet Twelvetrees'. Using Shakespeare's language, the show seeks to be an occasion to 'test your own knowledge of Shakespeare', while dramatising this intriguing head-to-head in a new play by Dennis Elkins.

Shakespeare x5

This production promises to put clown back into its rightful place in Shakespeare. Two clowns, surprised by an audience and unprepared, decide to riff on the classic Romeo & Juliet. The show promises to be 'funny until it's not', and I do wonder how these clowns might rebel and what it is they will rail against. Besides, Romeo & Juliet is a surprisingly clownish play, with the Nurse and oft cut-down Peter being brilliant Elizabethan clown archetypes. Peter has Will Kemp written all over him. I wonder if Shakespeare x5 will use this as an in. Either way, it promises to be an intriguing clown show and I'm excited for it.

The Faustus Project

Ok, so it's not strictly Shakespeare - but Half Trick's The Faustus Project is, for my money, the most distinctly 'Elizabethan' thing you can watch at Fringe. By that I mean if we were sixteenth-century layabouts thinking of something to do for the evening, and your options were a public hanging, a cockfight and a play, The Faustus Project could easily slot in for Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy. Both are gory, funny, ambivalent and outrageous. Half Trick's gambit is simple: a new performer tries to do Marlowe's Doctor Faustus every night and they are met with demons tasked with administering theatrical torture that can contain chicken feathers, shotgunned Tennent's, full-frontal nudity and fluids ranging from fake blood to marshmallow fluff. It's carnivalesque, it's camp, it's lofty and earthy in the way the best productions of Shakespeare are. A Fringe highlight for me.

Plenty to see Shakespeare-wise this Fringe. As always there are more shows about, so do flick through the programme to find them! Fringe is an ideal time to discover something new, or maybe discover something you thought you knew anew.

Salvador Kent

Salvador Kent is an aspiring Director and Playwright in Edinburgh. He is especially drawn to experimental theatres including Clown, Postdramatic, Political and Ritual theatres - especially when formally playful. He is co-producer of Edinburgh experimental performance night @theatrelaboratory.