As the highly anticipated 2025 Edinburgh and Camden Fringe festivals draw near, Cambridge creatives are gearing up to take their work to the big city. This year’s line up features a diverse and dynamic array of original student productions. From thought-provoking dramas to witty comedies, here’s your guide to the standout Cambridge shows to catch this Fringe season!
At the Edinburgh Fringe:
This Side of Life by Matt Williams
30th July – 17th August at C Venues Aquila Temple
Manhattan Island. The swinging 60′s. The Golden Age of Broadway. Nina and Robert are buskers with dreams of the big stage. Jack and Ernie are two money hungry Cockney lads scheming their way to the top. Ambition collides with deception in this high-energy, original student musical packed with jazz, charm, and chaos. Will dreams take flight – or fall flat under the spotlight?
Footlights Tour Show 2025: Fragile Contents
30th July – 25th August at Pleasance Dome, King Dome
This year’s Cambridge Footlights International Tour show hits the Edinburgh Fringe! Presenting what the troupe have described as “a show about falling apart”, expect razor-sharp wit and the trademark brilliance that launched generations of comedy legends.
The Cambridge Impronauts
30th July – 25th August at The Penny - Gilded Balloon Patterhouse
Set for their 9th run at the Edinburgh Fringe, Cambridge’s improv troupe rocks the stage with a smorgasbord of hilarious scenes, wacky games and silly capers all completely made up on the spot! No script. No rehearsals. Just pure, unpredictable comedy – every time.
Loos Loos by Ella Thornburn & Grace Boag-Matthews
1st – 17th August at Greenside at Riddle’s Court
Set in the girls’ toilet of a secondary school, Loos Loos is a dynamic exploration of the intensity of female friendship and the raw realities of adolescence. While tackling deeper, darker themes with unflinching honesty, the play focuses on the truthful, humorous, and nuanced relationship between the 17-year old protagonists and asks important questions: how can you confront assault and revenge porn before you have language to name it?
Penelope Quadrangle and the Meaning of Friendship by Amenie Groves
1st – 16th August at Ivy Studio at Greenside at George Street
Girl time before heinous crime! This heartwarming and hilarious ode to female friendship follows the Bridget Jones-esque protagonist Penelope Quadrangle as she struggles through a chaotic “friendship breakup” from her serial killer best friend Natalie while dodging her next-door neighbour Bridget’s insistent attempts at becoming friends with her. Through a dazzling array of glitter, blood, and girls’ nights, what will Penelope discover about the consequences of unwavering loyalty? See Josh Pritchard’s interview with Amenie Groves or Alice Mainwood’s review here.
Me and my Year of Casual ‘Monasticism’ by Emily Knutsson
1st – 23rd August at Greenside at Riddles Court Pickle Studio
In her debut one-woman show, Emily Knutsson plays Mary, a troubled new student at Cambridge University pondering on her shockingly traumatic first few weeks of term. This raunchy, irreverent, and brilliantly creative play blends medieval academia and stand-up comedy, inviting audiences to question if they really are both a Madonna AND a whore. See Shan Tan-Ya’s interview with Emily Knutsson and Millie Wooler’s review here.
Cockaigne Drinking Society by Frederick Upton
1st – 23rd August at Greenside @ Riddles Court (Willow Studio)
It’s the week before the Cockaigne High School drinking society fundraiser and something’s gone terribly wrong, if only everyone could agree on what that something was. Pique Theatre Company’s debut play is a dark satirical farce that boils down the most despised aspects of the UK education system, grappling with the most unbearable yet relatable periods of school life – student politics, underaged drinking, and even being hunted by a serial killer.
Gross Domestic Product by Christian Lockerbie
1st – 23rd August at Greenside @ Riddles Court (Willow Studio)
Finlay McGowan, a consultant, is an unremarkable man, and he has woken up in Whitehall, tied to a chair. Two civil servants inform him of a new governmental technology, “The System,” which is unfalteringly committed to economic growth, but demands Finlay to willingly put his life at risk for the purpose of growing GDP. Shortlisted for the Peter Shaffer Postgraduate Award for Playwriting, Gross Domestic Product is a dark comedy that asks us the question – in 21st century Britain, when push comes to shove, how much is a human life really worth?
Dunhuang By Cai Yuqing
1st – 14th August at theSpace, Symposium Hall ‘Annexe’
Dunhuang is a musical set along the Silk Road, where A-Lai, a modern student, works to restore ancient Buddhist murals in the Dunhuang caves. After damaging a statue, she is transported back in time and meets Liansheng. Together, they uncover secrets tied to a missing lotus and explore mystical caves, asking questions about the endurance of art and culture through time. See Leon Rake’s review here.
Managed Approach by Jules Coyle
8th – 24th August at The Coorie, Gilded Balloon Patter House
This striking play is centred around the Managed Approached initiative following the opening of the UK’s first legalised red-light district in 2014 in Leeds and decriminalisation of sex work. Merging verbatim interview material into a plotline that portrays the dynamic between a mother and daughter who live in Holbeck, this play delves into complex yet important conversations on the sex worker community. See Shan Tan-Ya’s 5-star review here.
Glass House by Charlie McGuire
18th – 23rd August at Olive Studio - Greenside @ George Street
A boundary-pushing mocku-theatre piece, Glass House involves pre-recorded interviews with its ‘real-life’ characters as they share their renditions of what happened on the night of February 14th, 2011. On a night of unrelenting rain and flooding in the British countryside, a standoff between a stubborn bus driver and a houseless man who can’t afford a ticket slides into a mire of tension and social conflict which brings the passengers to a repugnant dilemma.
At the Camden Fringe:
Symptom of Life by Wahida Seisay
2nd – 3rd August at The Cockpit Theatre
Join protagonist Lara on a journey to redemption as she reflects on the decisions and experiences that shaped her past and present self. This confrontational yet moving play explores themes of faith, control, and blackness, challenging audiences to confront their own stance on morality whilst being the judge of another’s. Try to think about the worst thing you’ve ever done. Would it be easier if you were judging the actions of someone else? See Josh Pritchard’s interview with Wahida Seisay and review.
1816: The Year Without a Summer by Nat Riches & Natasha Atkinson
6th – 7th August at Theatro Technis
Trapped indoors by torrential rain, legendary romantic poets Byron, Percy and Mary Shelley, and their friends, Polidori and Claire, search for inspiration by the gloomy Lake Geneva. But things fall apart the longer they are stuck together.
Two Cowboys Get Stuck in a Well by Lucy Molnar
13th – 17th August at The Rosemary Branch Theatre
Clay Hudson is a stone-cold vigilante. Wyatt is an incredibly guilty man. Neither of them would choose to be stuck at the bottom of a well together, but life has a funny way of happening downwards sometimes. This play explores survival, softness, Old Western masculinity, and the inevitable confrontation with self identity and truth.
Tickets for all of these shows are available on The Edinburgh Fringe and The Camden Fringe Websites.
