With The Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln - Edinburgh Fringe 2026

What happens when one of America’s most famous presidents meets another in the middle of an election crisis? With the Possible Exception of Abraham Lincoln takes that wonderfully unlikely premise and turns it into a sharp, often funny exploration of performance, power and the stories people tell themselves.

Set in the Lincoln Bedroom within The White House in the early hours of the morning when the media is expected to declare Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 Presidential Election, Donald Trump is confronted by Abraham Lincoln. It is an fantastic premise, but David Chocron's play uses this extraordinary meeting to explore two very different ideas of leadership and America.

Mark Coleman is excellent as Trump. Rather than reaching for an easy caricature, he gives us a subtler performance, capturing Trump's mannerisms, confidence and extraordinary ability to construct his own version of reality and captures him in a rare weakened and vulnerable time behind closed doors. Jau Nemor's Lincoln provides a strong contrast, his incredibly smooth voice capable of suddenly packing a real punch when Lincoln challenges Trump.

The play's most interesting idea comes through its wrestling metaphor. Trump introduces Lincoln to a very different form of wrestling from the one Lincoln would have known: the WWE world of heels and faces, kayfabe and gimmicks. It becomes a clever way of explaining Trump's worldview. Politics is performance; opponents become heels, supporters become faces, and truth becomes something that can be shaped for an audience.

That makes the meeting between the two men more than a political debate. They are arguing over what politics itself should be. Lincoln represents an idea of leadership rooted in responsibility, integrity and the power of words, while Trump sees the presidency through the logic of spectacle, victory and the performance of strength.

There is something wonderfully absurd about seeing these two figures debating this in the Lincoln Bedroom, surrounded by KFC, McDonald's and Cola. Yet beneath the humour is a much darker conversation about ambition, democracy and the dangers of treating politics as entertainment. 

Lee Hutchison

4/5 
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Forest Theatre at Greenside @ George Street 7th-29th August (not 16th, 23rd) 4.10pm