Divine Folly and Palestinian Testimonies at the Edinburgh Fringe

Photo by Winston Tjia on Unsplash

Justin Butcher is playing in his beautiful and profoundly moving one-man play Scaramouche Jones at the Edinburgh Fringe in a celebratory silver anniversary run.

He plays a centenarian holy fool who has witnessed atrocity and inhumanity throughout his life, with seven cataclysmic moments evoking the seven sorrows of Mary.

Yet he manages to pour a balm upon the world with life-affirming comedy and capacious empathy.

You can find a review of the twentieth-anniversary production here: www.indcatholicnews.com/news/42498

Butcher, along with the grassroots- and human-rights-supporting Amos Trust with whom he works, are also championing five Palestinian plays at the Fringe, including Majenin: A Palestinian Love Story.

Marena Riyad, who wrote and co-stars in the play, along with Nadia Dawber, from Nazareth, and George Kreitem, from Bethlehem, has spoken of her desire to escape the limiting frame of war and colonisation in her Palestinian Drama.

The Arabic word 'majenin' means 'crazy people' and this evokes love-induced madness. The three actors deliver fine, sensitive and passionate performances with a little bit of stand-up to boot.

Nevertheless, the play cannot escape from Palestine's tragic history. It is the inescapable narrative in which the three actors live and move and have their being. Cue ironic puns around the 'occupation' of one's lover.

Riyad was brought up in the Tulkarm refugee camp in the north of the West Bank and from which tens of thousands of Palestinians have been forcibly expelled by Israeli forces since early 2025.

She moved to Texas with her family while still a child and the play is shot through with the sense of the divided self of the exile whether this be broad American accents versus Levantine Arabic or liberal Western mores versus conservative Middle-Eastern values. Add to this the pain of separation and fragmentation within the diaspora. The striving after love in the West with another scarred and exiled soul from Palestine is fraught indeed.

Amost Trust says: it is proud to be financially supporting "five extraordinary shows telling Palestinian stories - of borders and belonging, love and loss, humour and hope."

Fresh from a sold-out run and a Fringe First Award, Alaa Shehada's acclaimed solo show The Horse of Jenin returns. Drawing on his own childhood in Jenin, it's a funny, haunting coming-of-age story built around the real-life sculpture made from the rubble of a 2002 military incursion - friendship, family and resilience, seen from beyond the headlines.

Shehada is also performing his new work, The Bridge. Alaa carries a container of olive oil from his mother in Jenin to her sister in Amman - and in doing so, takes us on a bizarre, funny and moving road trip through the checkpoints that stand between them. Storytelling, stand-up and physical comedy collide in this Fringe First winner's latest show.

Hanna Shammas Takes It To Heart is the new solo show from Palestinian actor, comedian and storyteller Hanna Shammas, unpacking a hospital visit, a hole in his heart, and what it means to live as a Palestinian in Haifa, within the 1948 territories. Storytelling and stand-up, woven together with warmth and wit.

Come Back Home is a full-length solo piece from Fadi Murad, winner of Summerhall's 2026 Meadows Award. Using text, video and sound, Fadi explores grief, loss and the meaning of home - anchored in a childhood memory of singing at his mother's memorial, and in the everyday realities of life in Palestine today.

Scaramouche Jones plays daily at 4.10pm.

Bijou at Assembly @ St Andrew Square

For tickets to Scaramouche Jones see: www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/scaramouche-jones

For details of the five Palestinian plays at the Fringe please visit: www.mailchi.mp/amostrust/edinburgh-fringe-2026-1?e=fd636468c7