Andrew Eaton-Lewis

The Scotsman announces five week-two winners of its 2026 Fringe First awards: Amnesia, The Distance, HAM, Parasocial Activity and Salty Brine: HOW STRANGE IT IS (The Neutral Milk Hotel Show). The awards recognize outstanding new writing premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe, with winners selected by The Scotsman’s critics and judging panel. Xhloe and Natasha and Cora Bissett will appear at the final ceremony at Pleasance Grand on 28 August, supported by Queen Margaret University Edinburgh.

The Scotsman announces its first six 2026 Fringe First winners, recognizing outstanding new writing premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe. The winners are The Bridge, Mayflies, The Singer, Toast, Supposing, and Bigfoot Ripped My Dog in Half I Saw It. The awards, established in 1973, are selected from theatre, dance, physical theatre, musicals and opera by The Scotsman’s critics and an expert judging panel. This year’s ceremonies are sponsored by Queen Margaret University Edinburgh and hosted by the Pleasance.

Five Iranian or Iranian-background performers appearing at the Edinburgh Fringe challenge reductive portrayals of Iran as merely a war zone or a single political identity. Aarian Mehrabani discusses Persian identity, bisexuality and internalized stereotypes; Layla Warren emphasizes Iran’s ethnic, cultural and political diversity; Sohrab Haghverdi invokes Persian poetry and compassion beyond Western sympathy; Shaparak Khorsandi focuses on trauma, protest violence and the need to question personal assumptions; and Patrick Monahan describes his Arab-Iranian family’s multilingual and multicultural heritage. Together, their perspectives stress that Iranian people cannot be represented by one government, spokesperson or narrative.