The Edinburgh Fringe is getting bigger. Last year’s total of 3,893 shows is surpassed this year by 4,206 productions. More people are coming to Edinburgh in search of fame but the pressure of numbers doesn’t guarantee quality. Rival events are treading on Scotland’s turf. London produces two festivals in August that appear to challenge Edinburgh directly. The Camden Fringe offers 450 shows covering theatre, comedy, opera and dance, while the Greenwich and Docklands International Festival stages a mix of theatre, circus and street art.

The Edinburgh Fringe used to hold a unique place in the world of British entertainment as an informal talent contest where newcomers were spotted, nurtured and launched as stars. That route has become less attractive to producers who can find new performers online and measure their popularity by checking their viewership. Why spend three weeks watching unfunny comedians in dank pub theatres when you can discover rising stars on your laptop? And the flood of talent appears to have stalled. The top comedy award has been won by an amazing sequence of celebrities including Sean Hughes, Frank Skinner, Steve Coogan, Lee Evans, Jenny Eclair and Al Murray. But since 2000, the list of comics has become less distinguished. Few are well known outside the club circuit.

Meet Farah Ahmed, Jason Arday’s colleague

Let cyclists pee in public

Andy Burnham is already in a migration muddle

And the fringe’s theatrical repertoire has registered only sporadic hits in the past 25 years. Black Watch premièred in 2006 and became the first National Theatre of Scotland play to tour internationally. The fringe claims that Fleabag (2013) was one of its successes but the show held its world première at the Soho Theatre earlier in the same year. The raucous musical Six opened at Edinburgh in 2017 and turned into an unexpected worldwide hit while Baby Reindeer, from 2019, never became a theatre production at all. It went straight to Netflix. These are slim pickings from a festival that launched Beyond the Fringe in 1960 and the Cambridge Footlights Revue of 1981 which........

© The Spectator