11 must-see Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows with a legal twist in 2026 including Joanna Cherry KC and Jekyll & Hyde

Seasoned Fringe reviewer Peter Ranscombe rounds up this summer’s crop of law-related theatrical and comedy shows as the world’s largest performing arts festival rolls into town once again.

Iain Dale: All Talk with Joanna Cherry KC

Venue 150b: Lomond Theatre at Pleasance at EICC

The Edinburgh International Conference Centre – or the EICC to its friends – has turned itself into a stalwart of the Fringe in recent years, including by hosting various series of high-profile political interviews. This year’s offering includes Iain Dale – best known as a presenter on LBC radio – jousting with advocate Joanna Cherry, “the controversial lawyer and Member of Parliament for Edinburgh South West from 2015-2024”.

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Dreams of Peace and Freedom

Venue 21: temple at C ARTS, C venues, C aquila

Fancy something with a bit more heft to it? Then look no further than Dreams of Peace and Freedom, which tells the story of Scottish lawyer David Maxwell Fyfe, one of the prosecutors at the Nuremberg war crimes trials and one of the architects of the European Convention on Human Rights. Told using Maxwell Fyfe’s personal papers, Sue Casson’s ethereal music and archive footage, this unique piece of theatre marks the 80th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials.

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The Tale of the Original Jekyll and Hyde (Told by a Mad Hatter from Stockport)

Venue 16: Willow Studio at Greenside @ Riddles Court

One of Edinburgh’s most notorious sons, Deacon Brodie, is the star of a new play by writer and performer Andy Dickinson, a veteran of the Fringe, who has previously brought the stories of mountaineer George Mallory, explorer Ernest Shackleton and noted lamb chop fan Napoleon Bonaparte to Edinburgh’s stages. Cabinetmaker by day and housebreaker by night, Deacon Brodie went on to inspire Robert Louis Stevenson to write Jekyll and Hyde.

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Adrian Minkowicz: Latin America

Venue 156: Batcave at PBH’s Free Fringe @ Banshee Labyrinth

Part of the Free Fringe at the always-awesome Banshee Labyrinth, Adrian Minkowicz – a stand-up comedian, lawyer and human rights advocate – promises “an epic road trip through 500 years of the history of Latin America”, including diving with sharks off the Galápagos Islands, protests at Machu Picchu and a visit to the place where – depending on your politics – visionist revolutionary or violent terrorist Che Guevara died.

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The Unsolvable Case of Keir Starmer

Venue 38: Studio at theSpaceTriplex

He may barely have had time to clear his recorder and Arsenal tops out of Number 10, but inevitably former prime minister Sir Keir Starmer was already on course to be the butt of jokes at this year’s Fringe. This play is based around imagined conversations between Starmer and a therapist, charting his journey from lawyer to politician. It sets the bar high by describing itself as a “wryly comic look at a political unravelling of frankly criminal proportions”.

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With the Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln

Venue 236: Forest Theatre at Greenside @ George Street

Now here’s an intriguing concept for a piece of theatre: it’s the night of the 2020 US presidential election and Donald Trump encounters the ghost of one of his predecessors, Abraham Lincoln, in the White House. The play – which is enjoying its world premiere at this summer’s Fringe – promises that the “tall lawyer from Illinois” will wrestle the truth out of Trump.

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You Talkin’ to Us?

Venue 39: Space 1 at theSpace on the Mile

Stand-up comedy may be the backbone of the Fringe, but the space in which comedy meets theatre is often where the fun is really happening. Authentically False Productions is staging a show that promises “three vaguely incompetent gangsters” who decide to unionise against their “tyrannical boss”. We’ve all been there, right? They hire a “recently graduated, unemployed lawyer” to fight for their cause.

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Sashi Perera – Pear Tree

Venue 27: Just The Tonic at The Subway at Just The Tonic at Subway

Describing herself as “a Sri Lankan Australian comedian, writer and recovering lawyer”, Sashi Perera is bringing her stand-up comedy show to the Fringe as part of a wider tour of the UK and continental Europe. She promises to link Portugal, Sri Lanka and Australia through her storytelling. It’s worth a wee look at the videos of her past shows for a flavour of what’s in store.

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Justice

Venue 180: Room 1 at PBH’s Free Fringe @ Carbon

Another offering from this year’s Free Fringe, performer Tiffany Esteb is staging a solo show that mixes theatre with politics. Her character, Sarah, is a lawyer at the top of her game who has forged a career by defending tech companies against people who are suing them for harassment. But, when the tables are turned and Sarah is harassed, she’s faced with the world that she helped to create.

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3 Times I Killed

Venue 186: Playground 1 at ZOO Playground

“There were moments when I felt completely out of my depth,” confesses Andrea Coleman, a New York attorney. “Being a litigator, I was often in unexpected situations and had to make quick decisions that I didn’t always have the authority to make. So I improvised.” She’s putting that talent for improvisation to good use at the Fringe this summer with her solo comedy show, which recounts what happened when she started receiving divine communications while in court.

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Monster Made

Venue 29: The Annexe at Paradise in The Vault

Amanda Crowley is an unyielding lawyer who takes on the case of Thomas Duncan, a man accused of a heinous massacre. Even though she knows he’s guilty and the case is lost, she still wants to take on his brief; not to win, but instead to get inside the mind of a killer and understand his motivations. Monster Made is billed as “a captivating, psychological, intimate play” – and its 4.20pm kick-off slot means there’ll be time to decompress afterwards.

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