Compared with the mega-productions running on the West End and Broadway, Fringe shows have fewer industrial spectacles. However, from time to time, you come across a show where you can genuinely feel the passion of the artists making it, as well as their love for the material and the audience. How Strange It Is (The Neutral Milk Hotel Show) by Salty Brine is one of them.

Walking into the familiar Dissection Room at Summerhall, we find the seats rearranged in a cabaret style, surrounding a square stage, with a few small pieces of clothing hanging in the air. Brine starts the show with ‘The King of Carrot Flowers’, the song from Neutral Milk Hotel’s 1998 album In the Aeroplane Over the Sea. Between lines of the song, he begins to introduce the show, the stage, the lighting and even the fire exits, which luckily we never have to use. He then slowly weaves together the story behind the making of the album, Anne Frank’s Diary of a Young Girl and his own diary.

He talks about many things, from his first love to the dirty poems he wrote as a young gay man, from the structure where Anne and her family lived to her first love, from the idea of reincarnation to the process of reproduction. Brine fills the space with his storytelling, singing, movement, and interactions with the audience. Often treated as a tragedy, Anne’s story is brought back to life by Brine in such a colourful way that you rediscover how lively she was and are reminded that, before the tragedy, this was essentially the diary of a young girl full of life and hope.

It can feel cynical at times to have an existential crisis in a world like this. Yet the existence of artists such as Salty Brine, who performs with such passion and engagement and with a firm belief in the power of theatre and the once-in-a-lifetime experience that only theatre can offer, can make you believe again in people and in the meaning of being alive. Even witnessing him pull off his sweaty clothes, put on a funny, ridiculous headpiece and sing for you as if this were the most important night of his life feels like enough. Ultimately, How Strange It Is is a show of pure magic that is difficult to describe in words, and one that will blow you away if you get the chance to see it for yourself.

HOW STRANGE IT IS (The Neutral Milk Hotel Show) is at Dissection Room at Summerhall until Sun 30 Aug 2026