The Besties 2025: Week One Winners
Toussaint Douglass, Johnny McKnight and In Bed With My Brother are among the first week winners at our Edinburgh festivals awards, The Besties
As much as it might not seem like it, we are just now reaching the end of the first full week of the Edinburgh festivals, and we're delighted to announce the first winners of the 2025 edition of The Skinny-Fest Festival Awards, aka The Besties.
The only awards celebrating all of the Edinburgh festivals, The Besties will honour the best of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh International Festival, Edinburgh International Book Festival, Edinburgh Art Festival and more across this year's three award ceremonies. The Besties are a collaboration between The Skinny, Fest, Capital Theatres, and Premier Scotland.
Here are our week one Besties winners, as awarded at the Festival Theatre this morning (Sat 10 Aug) in a ceremony hosted by Ayo Adenekan.
Connor McKenna – Seltzer Boy
Winner of the Super Power Award, as chosen by the young critics of The Super Power Agency’s summer school
The group selected Seltzer Boy because they thought it was a clever and funny approach to an interesting, emotional and relatable topic: how we feel about our bodies in a world that teaches us more about how to hate them than love them. They thought the show flowed really well, had plenty of laugh-out-loud moments and that its 'hook' of ranking seltzers was a funny and silly way to get into a more serious topic. They really enjoyed the way that performer Connor McKenna told the story of his childhood struggles with body dysmorphia and diet culture, and felt that his performance will go from strength to strength as the Fringe goes on.
Seltzer Boy, Paradise in Augustine's (Snug), until 16 Aug, 11.20am
In Bed with my Brother – PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD
Winner of the Radgie Award for radgeness
A few years ago, Fest referred to theatremakers In Bed With My Brother as “might be brilliant, or might be shit.” But to quote from this year’s review: “In this algorithmically curated hellscape, isn’t encountering something you’re not [immediately] sure about an immensely powerful and increasingly rare experience?” With PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, In Bed with my Brother take that sentiment and celebrate it to profound effect. Their tribute to the world’s best-worst band The Shaggs is pure, must-see punk theatre.
PHILOSOPHY OF THE WORLD, Summerhall (Red Lecture Theatre), until 25 Aug (not 11, 18), 10.45pm
Toussaint Douglass – Accessible Pigeon Material
Winner of the Debut Award
Our cover star for this year's first review issue of Fest, Toussaint Douglass’s debut hour has truly lived up to the hype. It is, to quote Fest editor Arusa Qureshi’s review, “fundamentally a show about pigeons – an animal, by the end, we can all agree has been overlooked for far too long – but it’s also about grief, masculinity and unconditional love.” It’s a charmingly odd debut, which packs a real punch when it matters.
Toussaint Douglass: Accessible Pigeon Material, Pleasance Courtyard (Bunker One), until 24 Aug (not 11), 7.25pm
Saaniyaa Abbas – Hellarious
Winner of the One to Watch Award
The team wanted to celebrate Saaniyaa Abbas’s Hellarious, her deeply personal show exploring the theme of hell and a particularly noteworthy David Attenborough impression. Fest’s review said: “Abbas is an incredibly talented comedian, and one can only hope to see more of her in the future.”
Saaniya Abbas – Hellarious, Gilded Balloon Patter House (Bothie), until 25 Aug, 8pm
Johnny McKnight – She’s Behind You
Winner of the Dame Good Show Award
Writer of more than 30 of the most intelligent and entertaining pantos to ever grace a Scottish stage, Johnny McKnight’s She’s Behind You, directed by the legendary John Tiffany, began as a lecture at the University of Glasgow. The Skinny’s reviewer describes it as “a fierce love letter and peer review of a culture that has not always been kind or politically correct,” and writes of McKnight that he’s “a force of nature – funny, self-aware and refreshing; it is a privilege to watch someone so immensely talented do what they do best.”
She’s Behind You, Traverse Theatre (Traverse 1), until 24 Aug (not 11, 18), 9.30pm (7-9 Aug), 9.45pm (10-24 Aug)
Kate Dolan – The Critic
Winner of the Breakthrough Award
Nominated by The Skinny’s comedy editor and described by Fest’s former editor as “a wild assault of jokes, voices, act outs and asides,” The Critic may not be Kate Dolan’s first Fringe show but it’s the one where we felt she has truly come into her own. Her approach defies easy definition – to quote the Fest review: “To describe Dolan’s approach is a bit like trying to ascribe Queensbury technique to the vicious frenzy of a street brawler.”
Kate Dolan: The Critic, Assembly George Square (The Box), until 24 Aug, 6.25pm
Alaa Shehada – The Horse of Jenin
Winner of the Outwith Award for international talent
Comedian and theatre maker Alaa Shehada offers many deeply personal definitions of the Horse of Jenin, the five-metre tall sculpture built in 2003 by a German artist and 12 Palestinian teenagers, made from the rubble of houses and ambulances destroyed by the IDF during the second intifada. It felt essential to acknowledge the power and resonance of this work. In their review for Fest, Xuanlin Tham says: “In grief, joy, and the restorative knife of humour well-sharpened, the horse lives on now, everywhere we look. Let us answer Shehada’s call to take care of it.”
The Horse of Jenin, Pleasance Dome (Queen Dome), until 25 Aug (not 9, 16, 19, 20), 2.20pm
Winners of The Besties are chosen each week by the editorial teams of The Skinny and Fest, drawing on their cross-festival expertise to celebrate the best work happening anywhere in the festivals. The categories reflect the diversity of the magazines’ coverage and might be different every week. The next Besties ceremonies will take place on Saturday 16 August at Festival Theatre.