LAUGH ALONG WITH THE MAYHEM BEFORE THIS SHOW GOES TO THE EDINBURGH FESTIVAL FRINGE

What Happens In the Dark

Following an award-winning 2025 premiere at the Hollywood Fringe Festival, this topsy-turvy new farcical comedy is now headed to Royal Mile! And you can catch it at the Hobgoblin before it goes to Edinburgh.

In What Happens in the Dark the lights are ‘opposite’ – what’s dark to the characters is fully visible to you – giving you a front row seat to wild physical comedy, mistaken identities, and escalating mayhem. The show begins when a burglar breaks into a married couple’s house right in the middle of a disagreement, and what started the night as a simple marital spat soon heightens into chaos as the pair must now outwit the intruder, protect their compounding lies, and somehow save their marriage – all while navigating total darkness.

The idea for this new work started in 2017 with lead actor and writer, Kris Buxton-Dean, alongside director Casey Buxton-Dean and actor Hannelore Berlin. In the decade since, the story began resonating in new ways Kris never expected, paralleling his own marriage and journey of self-discovery and sexuality. In 2025, he revisited the script, with actors Andrew Puente and Lee Pollero joining the cast, and what started 8 years prior as a straight-forward farce morphed into something equally silly, but significantly more deep and personal.

Writer and actor Kris Buxton-Dean says, ‘I believe we are at our most vulnerable state in complete darkness, and that’s what’s so exciting about this play: it’s a rare and wacky opportunity to see characters literally stumble through the darkness as they find themselves.’

What Happens in the Dark is coming to Edinburgh Festival Fringe through Identity Crisis Productions (Nominee for Best Comedic Theatre and Winners of the 2025 StageCrafts Freeway Circuit Award at the Hollywood Fringe Festival) to share this heartfelt romp with new audiences around the world. This is the first Identity Crisis Productions show to come to Edinburgh, however producer Kelly Lynne D’Angelo is no stranger to bringing hits to Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Previous credits include: Les Millénniables (2023) and The Anti “Yogi” (2025) with sold-out and award-winning runs. This team is ready to brighten (or perhaps darken) the Royal Mile this August! And catch it in LA first on July 10th and 11th.