The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!

The Edinburgh Fringe requires you to move fast. Every venue at the festival is jam packed with shows every day, with each show getting only an hour to make an impression. That means that a performer needs to set-up, perform, and then strike their show in about 90 minutes. It's a whirlwind! 

Playbill saw first-hand what a madhouse it is when we followed Linus Karp around during one performance of his one-person show Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story. The story is an unhinged, gay fantasia about the life of Princess Diana—where Karp plays Diana. Meanwhile, a demonic puppet and a cardboard cutout play the figureheads in Diana's life: Camilla Parker Bowles, and Prince Charles (respectively). It's about as wild as it sounds, and left the audiences bent over laughing (Spencer wishes it was this demented). Playbill's Photo Editor Heather Gershonowitz, who took the photographs for this story, even bought merch. 

But Diana isn't a hagiographic look at Princess Diana. Karp gently pokes fun at the late celebrity, noting that, "Despite the hardship, I was still very privileged." And Karp even notes the irony of England having a Queen as its ruling monarch but not being tolerant of "an independent woman speaking their mind."

This show is also a joyful celebration, and unlike the recent films and TV shows about Diana, it allows Lady Di to embrace her own fabulousness, saying, "I was put on the Earth to slay." There's nothing left to say except, "yas, Kween." 

Karp is pulling double duty this year. Diana runs at the Pleasance Dome, King Dome until August 28. Karp has another one-man show starting August 17, called How to Live a Jellicle Life: Life Lessons From the 2019 Hit Movie Musical 'Cats.' Follow along as Karp gets ready for Diana and what his atypical post-show ritual is.

Karp gets ready in the dressing room, with his partner and co-producer Joseph Martin (they've been engaged for four years).

Karp may share the dressing room with all the other shows in the King Dome, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have pieces of flair strewn about.

While Karp is setting up his stage, the previous show is striking theirs.

The props for Diana are strewn about the stage. Who's that puppet? It's Camilla.

It's almost showtime. Martin clears the stage of props.

It's showtime! One of the first lines of Diana is, "It is I, Lady Di." The audience cackles. Pictured alongside Karp here are audience members who were called onstage to play Diana's parents (they were fed lines via the projection screen).

Who plays Prince Charles in the show? Himself, of course.

The show ends with an audience singalong of the phrase, "D-I-A-N-A."

The show is not over yet! While Martin and the crew strike the set, Karp takes a page from the People's Princess by having a meet-and-greet with the audience.

And, of course, there's merch.

See more photos from Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story. Also, we're not going to tell you why there's a Paddington bear in the show—you should see it for yourself to find out.

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See Edinburgh Fringe's Lady Di, Linus Karp, Prepare For Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story

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