Edinburgh Fringe 2026
The Umbrella Man: What We Talk About When We Talk About the JFK Assassination
Martin Fitzgerald
Genre: Spoken Word
Venue: theSpace@Surgeons Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Fascinating, amusing and engaging examination of the moments before and after JF Kennedy’s assassination where the focus is on the many and varied characters that avoided the crowds and scattered themselves randomly on Dealey Plaza, becoming unwitting witnesses to the crime that unfolded during those fateful six seconds.
Review
‘Six seconds that changed the course of history – the most talked about six seconds of the 20th century.’ So opines Martin Fitzgerald as he embarks on an absolutely fascinating, amusing and engaging examination of the moments before and after JF Kennedy’s assassination at 12.30pm on 22 November 1963 in The Umbrella Man: What We Talk About When We Talk About the JFK Assassination (surely a front runner for 2026 Fringe Longest Show Title).
But Fitzgerald’s focus is not on the estimated 200,000 that lined the miles long route taken by the motorcade as it trundled through downtown Dallas that fateful lunchtime. Instead, his research focuses on the many and varied characters that avoided the crowds and scattered themselves randomly on Dealey Plaza, thereby becoming unwitting witnesses to the crime that unfolded during those fateful six seconds.
Like the ordinary looking guy holding a common or garden brolly (albeit on a sunny autumnal day); the woman with a camera that provided instant pictures – yep, these things existed pre-smartphone, they were polaroid cameras that used a dry development process to generate a picture in around a minute – and a dressmaker with a penchant for home movies who suffered from chronic vertigo.
There were an estimated 397 other folks present on Dealey Plaza in the sunshine, most of which were identified and became witnesses (with varying degrees of credibility) at the various inquiries, commissions and other investigations that rattled on and on in the decades that followed Kennedy’s untimely demise. However, some never came forward, Fitzgerald points out, and probably for very good reason given the racial and other prejudices endemic in pivotal parts of Dallas society at that time.
Fitzgerald is a font of knowledge on what is a little explored angle of this seismic historical event, presenting a stream of fascinating, strange but true stories about people who avoided the main event but became inextricably part of it, by accident of where they were standing rather than any positive action on their part. But what’s even stranger are the tales of those people who somehow managed to insert themselves into the event after the fact, presumably driven by the need for their fifteen minutes of fame.
Fitzgerald is a master at the art of storytelling, his clear delivery is engaging, educational and littered with great throwaway lines, each delivered with impeccable comic timing, all aided and abetted by an excellent choice of photographs from the incident itself to add illumination to his oratory.
It’s an addictive fifty minutes – you really don’t want the story flow to stop. That it hooks the packed audience at theSpaceUK’s Surgeons’ Hall from start to finish is largely down to Fitzgerald’s scripting and expert delivery. Judging by the enthusiastic burble I picked up as I exited, Fitzgerald has hit the proverbial nail on the head with this show. Well worth hunting down, even if you do need to get out of bed at an ungodly Fringe hour to catch it.
