EDINBURGH 2026: Review: KATE BUTCH: A KATE IN THE HAND IS WORTH TWO IN THE BUTCH, Pleasance Dome, King Dome

A Kate in the Hand is Worth Two in the Butch, a riotous, wonderfully hilarious and surprisingly incisive hour which combines sharp stand up with an abundance of sequins, foliage and northern wit.

The stage is adorned with four topiaries spelling KATE, setting the tone for a show which is as fanciful as its star. Kate Butch makes a suitably fabulous entrance looking every inch the glamorous Princess Fiona, before announcing a mission to become a better person, or just consider trying. What follows is an uproarious examination of point scoring, mock self improvement and the balance of being a bad person, but a very good gay.

Proverbs become the unlikely framework for the evening, with Kate gleefully dissecting their meaning and applying them to the messier corners of modern life. Their northern roots are worn proudly, while the audience is given insights to their inner workings, with revelations about their background, including managing an anxiety disorder, looking into childhood with a happy love of the flute and an impressively detailed knowledge of their awful former school bully.

Nothing is safe from Kate’s delightfully petty scrutiny. Park Runs, people playing personal music loudly outdoors, and understandably social media trolls are all evil, while Duolingo, Celebrity Mastermind and Shrek receive considerably more affectionate attention. Kate’s musings on language provides another rich source of comedy as British accents and foreign languages are explored with gleeful absurdity.

The show is at its strongest when the ridiculous meets the serious. Kate turns the lens towards the online abuse which comes with being a queer person on television, revealing the extraordinary level of hatred and discrimination contained within the messages they receive. The laughter becomes more uncomfortable here, precisely because what is being exposed is so shocking. The resilience required to endure such abuse is remarkable, but the fact anyone should have to endure it in the first place is deeply troubling. As ever allyship must be vocal and online policing of hate crime, homophobia and discrimination is woefully poor.

Yet Kate never allows the darkness to overwhelm the joy. Instead, it becomes another opportunity to reclaim the narrative through humour, turning personal experience into comedy which is both cathartic and gloriously entertaining. Their material is delivered with the confidence of a performer completely at ease who they are.
Kate’s comic timing is impeccable, their delivery effortlessly engaging and their ability to move between absurdity and vulnerability particularly impressive.

A Kate in the Hand is Worth Two in the Butch is a sparkling showcase for a performer who understands exactly how to turn personal experience, queer identity and an elite level of pettiness into irresistible comedy. Kate Butch is a fierce diva who owns the stage and knowing their proverbs 'what goes around, comes around' so withthis in mind, let's keep our fingers crossed that this "all star' will be selected for a place on Michael McIntyres ‘The Wheel’ where she can spin us a tale.

A Kate in the Hand is Worth Two in the Butch runs at Kingdome, Pleasance Dome until 30 August (except 19) 2026

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