A review of The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy!, Fringe, 2026

Written by Matthew Howell and Jack Michael Stacey for Cabbage Productions, The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy! is a chaotic satirical farce comedy show about saving a library before it’s sold off to become luxury flats.

Vibe

We all know libraries are vital for communities, but in reality they’re under-funded and under-supported across the UK. Fictional Plumbstanton Library, the focus of The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy! is no different, with its collapsing shelves, leaky roofs and prop book stands made of cardboard!

The vibe is a dingy-looking old library, with a portrait of the late assistant head smiling at us with a book in hand; it’s not clear when I sat down where on Earth this might be going, but I was there to find out. The show has been described by its creators as a mix between the spirit of Fawlty Towers and The Thick of It.

The show itself

When the head librarian is killed by collapsing shelves in the Agatha Christie section (slightly sus), and a new head librarian is called in by way of a disgraced former civil servant, the staff at Plumbstanton Library must find a way of somehow saving the failing institution by getting more people in to borrow books. But how?

Between picking which packet of biscuits to open (custard creams get my vote!), and working out how to keep the failing lights on, they realise an inspector is coming with hardly any notice – and they need to impress him! It only gets more chaotic from there, with a fictional Jeremy Clarkson book signing and a rabble to deal with. Oh, and some of the books are actually just cake.

I really enjoyed the sheer silliness of the ‘inspector’ interactions with the cast trying to keep him busy and distracted whilst ticking everything off his list. The sign switching and moving around the stands was my favourite part, with lots of laughs from the audience.

The characters play off each other well and it all feels a bit hectic and slightly hopeless for old Plumbstanton at times. But is it? There could be more going on than initially meets the eye, and the old-fashioned library comms network might actually prove useful!

Overall

I enjoyed The Librarians: A Very Serious Comedy!, particularly the performances of the new Assistant Head (former civil servant) and Work Experience. There were quite a few laugh-out-loud moments, and if your vibe is satirical farces such as The Thick of It, it’s definitely a good shout for you to see this Fringe.