Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella
Awkward Productions
Genre: Autobiography, Documentary, LGBTQ+ Theatre
Venue: Underbelly
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A new, more personal show from the team behind Fringe hits Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story and Gwyneth Goes Skiing.
Review
Linus Karp Was Hit With An Umbrella is a major departure for the two chaps who make up Awkward Productions, headliner Linus Karp and his husband, Joseph Martin. Their prior Edinburgh Fringe shows, hits both, had Karp playing iconic women: Princess Diana and Gwyneth Paltrow. This time round, he plays himself.
In July 2024, the week before Karp and Martin arrived in Edinburgh to perform the hilarious Gwyneth Goes Skiing, Karp was assaulted near SoHo Theatre in London by a crazed man who slammed Karp with an umbrella while yelling a homophobic slur. The assailant was unknown to Carp, and the two had never before interacted. Karp was just walking with Martin — in a très gay area of London, it should be noted — and… kapow!
The blow was so hard that the handle of the umbrella came off its handle and required Karp to be rushed to hospital. The man didn’t get away; Martin bravely chased him down and kept him from escaping until the police arrived. (Martin, we find out, is actually a policeman himself, and not in the Village People kind of way.)
Karp dutifully recalls the incident from start to finish in front of Damien Stanton’s terrific set, giving us the details and related side anecdotes with his dry Swedish wit. And as he does so, two surprises emerge.
The first is that the show, despite being so different from Awkward Productions’ prior sillyfests, is beautifully written. The account is well-structured and paced, and Karp exhibits great self-awareness as he recounts what was understandably a traumatic event.
The second surprise is that Karp doesn’t yet feel totally comfortable onstage playing himself. Not that he lacks confidence or that he’s not a compelling storyteller, but there is room for him to develop more stage presence when he’s playing himself and not a storied diva.
It’s understandable. Like many great actors, it’s easier for Karp to inhabit someone else for a few hours than reveal himself; wigs and costumes can’t be employed to better find the character. Nor are they needed, because Karp knows how to hold a stage, even when baring his heart to strangers.
