Fringe 2026: Awkward Prods Return With New Show Inspired By Real-life Homophobic Attack

Fringe favourites Awkward Prods have announced that they will bring a brand-new show to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this year, titled Linus Karp Was Hit with an Umbrella.

Known for sell-out hits Gwyneth Goes Skiing and Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story, the company’s latest production moves into more personal territory.  In July 2024, shortly before taking Gwyneth Goes Skiing to the Edinburgh Fringe, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin – a couple of eleven years – were walking through London holding hands when out of nowhere, a man approached them, struck Linus across the head with an umbrella, and shouted disturbing homophobic slurs. Joseph chased the attacker, tackled him to the ground, and restrained him until the police arrived. The man was arrested at the scene.

Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella takes that incident as its starting point and follows everything that came after: the shock of the attack, the slow legal process that followed, and the emotional aftermath of being targeted for being visibly queer – and in London’s Soho, a historically queer part of the capital. 

Now, with some distance from the event, Linus returns to that moment, to examine its lasting impact – from the immediate shock to the way it has shaped his everyday life as a queer person. The show explores the unease that can follow: around acts as simple as holding hands in public, and a heightened awareness of risk in spaces once taken for granted, alongside the more complex emotional aftermath of the incident, including the dissonance of processing violence whilst grappling with unexpected feelings of sympathy towards the person responsible. Linus also reflects on performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in the immediate aftermath of the attack – stepping back onto stage and in front of audiences whilst still processing what happened. 

Moving beyond memoir, the final section of the show transforms the stage into a fictionalised trial, where the structures of justice can be reimagined, and the questions left unanswered in real life can finally be confronted. In putting the attacker theatrically on trial, Linus creates space to examine the realities of hate crime, the limits of legal resolution, and what it means to seek closure when no verdict ever came.

Despite its more serious subject matter, Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella remains rooted in Awkward Prods’ signature style: witty, queer and distinctly theatrical, with audience-interaction and multimedia elements woven in. True to their work, the show blends dark humour with absurdity and playfulness throughout. 

In 2025, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin, a real-life couple of eleven years, made headlines when they became the first couple to legally marry on stage at the Edinburgh Fringe as part of the festival’s official programme. This year, their work continues to share personal aspects of a queer relationship, looking at how to navigate through a traumatic hate crime. 

Performed solo by Linus Karp, with Joseph Martin as stage manager and creative collaborator, the show is developed with dramaturgy from Olivier Award nominee Haley McGee (Age Is A Feeling) and produced by Awkward Prods, alongside Eric Kuhn for Eric Kuhn Productions,  Doulla Croft and Sam Goodman for Side Hustle Productions and Chris Darby for Daddy’s Money, with David Thomas Tao as Associate Producer.

Performances are 5th – 30th August (not 18th), at 8:20pm at Underbelly, Bristo Square (Friesian). There’s also Work In Progress performances from 23rd – 25th July at 8:30pm at Park Theatre, London. 

Awkward Prods will also be performing their previous sell-out cult hit Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story during the final week of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, 24th – 30th August, 10pm. 

Tickets are on sale here: