Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy!
Cabbage Productions in association with Pleasance
Venue: Pleasance Courtyard
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
The Plumstanton library looks like it’s falling apart at the seams, water everywhere except in the pipes, collapsing bookshelves and electrics that are on the dangerous side of dodgy. Hardly surprising that no-one has been in to actually borrow a book in living memory. So the only item on the daily staff meeting is what time to put the kettle on and whether it should be custard creams or hob nobs to accompany their morning coffee.
Review
The Plumstanton library needs more than a little “tlc”. There’s water everywhere, except in the plumbing, the bookshelves collapse at decidedly inconvenient moments and the electrics are on the dangerous side of dodgy. Oh, and the internet a thing of mystery to the staff and no-one has been in to actually borrow a book in living memory. The only item on the daily meeting is what time to put the kettle on and whether it should be custard creams or hob nobs to accompany the morning coffee.
But the times, they are a changing. Following the sudden passing of the former Head Librarian Peter (due to an unfortunate incident in The Agatha Christie section), who’d run the place with commendable indifference for nearly three decades, the remaining trio of Harry Wordsworth, Elaine and “Work Experience” find themselves having to deal with the arrival of new broom Jill, intent on shaking the place up (or at least nudging it towards the 21st Century) and the prospect of a visit from the Spanish Inquisition, aka the library inspector.
They are not alone. Pressure on the public purse has seen many of the libraries around Plumstanton reach the point where a decent puff of wind would flatten them, leaving the council no option but to close the buildings, sell the land to developers and watch luxury flats spring up like mushrooms in their place.
But there’s whiff of suspicion that all is not as it should be in the cloistered world of book lending. Just who is this property magnate? What’s behind the spate of recent of “unfortunate accidents” in libraries? And what’s wrong with the garibaldis?
That’s roughly the premise for Cabbage Productions The Librarians : A Very Serious Comedy, a fast-paced, knockabout farce that’s an exact reflection, sorry, a parody of that bastion of so many communities in Britain today, the library.
Cue a lot of rapid-fire dialogue from writers Matthew Howell and Jack Michael Stacey (who also appeared as Harry and “Work Experience” respectively) in a script that was laced with some punchline pearlers. Given we’re in farce territory here, there was plenty of adroit physical theatre to admire as well, tricky stuff on a tight stage with what’s a relatively complex set but the crashing doors and split-second comings and goings all passed off seamlessly. And the plot gallops along at a decent lick before making a sprint finish towards a surprising and rather deftly delivered denouement that brought the appropriate groans and giggles from the packed out Pleasance Courtyard venue.
Acting was solid throughout, good projection in the big venue, convincing characterisation and plenty of the energy that shows like this rely on. Sound and lighting played an important role too, given the vast amount of action unfolding on stage and the number of very rapid segues. With some subtle allegories having a real dig at the appalling way in which many councils across the UK treat these valuable public learning and meeting places (and even a joke at the expense of Peter Murrell), there’s a lot to recommend in this whirligig of a show.
