Award-winning theatre creators Awkward Prods have introduced that they’ll be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe this yr with a model new present.
Titled Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella, this can be a extra private and introspective present than their earlier productions, which embody Diana: The Untold and Unfaithful Story, Gwyneth Goes Snowboarding and The Match Prince.
For the primary time ever, Awkward Prods will likely be tackling a real story, filtered by their distinctive mix of comedic efficiency, storytelling and theatrical invention.
In July 2024, shortly earlier than taking Gwyneth Goes Snowboarding to the Edinburgh Fringe, Linus Karp and Joseph Martin – a few eleven years – had been strolling by London holding arms when out of nowhere, a person approached them, struck Linus throughout the top with an umbrella, and shouted disturbing homophobic slurs. Joseph chased the attacker, tackled him to the bottom, and restrained him till the police arrived. The person was arrested on the scene.
Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella takes that incident as its place to begin and follows all the pieces that got here after: the shock of the assault, the sluggish authorized course of that adopted, and the emotional aftermath of being focused for being visibly queer – and in London’s Soho, a traditionally queer a part of the capital.
Now, with a long way from the occasion, Linus returns to that second, to look at its lasting influence – from the fast shock to the way in which it has formed his on a regular basis life as a queer individual. The present explores the unease that may comply with: round acts so simple as holding arms in public, and a heightened consciousness of danger in areas as soon as taken with no consideration, alongside the extra complicated emotional aftermath of the incident, together with the dissonance of processing violence while grappling with surprising emotions of sympathy in the direction of the individual accountable. Linus additionally displays on performing on the Edinburgh Pageant Fringe within the fast aftermath of the assault – stepping again onto stage and in entrance of audiences while nonetheless processing what occurred.
Transferring past memoir, the ultimate part of the present transforms the stage right into a fictionalised trial, the place the buildings of justice will be reimagined, and the questions left unanswered in actual life can lastly be confronted. In placing the attacker theatrically on trial, Linus creates area to look at the realities of hate crime, the boundaries of authorized decision, and what it means to hunt closure when no verdict ever got here.
Regardless of its extra critical subject material, Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella stays rooted in Awkward Prods’ signature fashion: witty, queer and distinctly theatrical, with audience-interaction and multimedia components woven in. True to their work, the present blends darkish humour with absurdity and playfulness all through.
Carried out solo by Linus Karp, with Joseph Martin as stage supervisor and artistic collaborator, the present 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, and Doulla Croft and Sam Goodman for Facet Hustle Productions and Chris Darby for Daddy’s Cash, with David Thomas Tao as Affiliate Producer.
In 2025, Linus and Joseph turned the primary couple to legally marry on stage on the Edinburgh Fringe as a part of the competition’s official programme. This yr, their work continues to share private points of a queer relationship, taking a look at the right way to navigate by a traumatic hate crime.
Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella will likely be enjoying at Underbelly, Bristo Sq. (Friesian) between August 5-30 (not 18th) at 8:20pm. Awkward Prods may also be performing their cult hit Diana: The Untold and Unfaithful Story at Underbelly, Bristo Sq. (Ermintrude), between August 24-30, at 10pm.
Work in progress reveals may also be happening in London forward of the Fringe, with performances at 8:30pm at Park Theatre on July 23-25.
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