Drama

Woke

Woke

After a superb sold-out run in 2017, Apphia Campbell returned to this year's Edinburgh Fringe for one week only. Woke is her powerful show portraying parallel narratives of two womens' civil rights awakenings... 

Picasso's Women

Picasso's Women

Given how many inhabited his life, Picasso’s Women is but a mere glimpse from one side of the bed into what they endured. The great artist once observed, ‘There are two types of women - goddesses and doormats’... 

Losing My Mindfulness

Losing My Mindfulness

Losing My Mindfulness offers an amusing and uncomfortable send-up of the self-help nation we have become. Alongside an array of ‘Improve Your Life’ books, Katie McLeod plays an HR representative running a workshop for her colleagues on staying positive under stress... 

Por Favor

Por Favor

Set against the backdrop of a school production of West Side Story, this is the story of Mr Taylor, a teacher in charge of putting on the production. It also features Jodie, a troubled pupil at the school, who nevertheless turns out to be the most naturally gifted actress that Mr Taylor (Jeff) has ever worked with... 

From Today Everything Changes

From Today Everything Changes

Before Chris’s wife died, she made him promise to be himself. She had known he was gay before he did, but things were different ‘in those days’ and you stayed together. Newly widowed and embracing ‘from today everything changes’, he begins online dating, not really believing he has anything to offer – especially to men younger than his own pensionable age... 

Beep

Beep

Beginning in a frightening dystopia with five people wearing surgical masks manhandling one other as the audience enters, then as the show starts transforming to a happy young party student crowd is a little unsettling... 

Shakespeare Catalysts

Shakespeare Catalysts

Before I begin this review, I would like to clarify, as James Beagon (co-director and actor) did at the start of the show, that Aulos Productions’ Shakespeare Catalysts is a work in progress... 

To Butterfly

To Butterfly

To Butterfly follows the journey of two character’s lives in the build-up to a fateful meeting of finality. Family, school, mental health and the culmination of thousands of hours of experience... 

Alan Bennett's Say Something Happened

Alan Bennett's Say Something Happened

Alan Bennett is a national treasure, and his writings are justly well respected. Say Something Happened was originally broadcast on BBC television in 1982, and this production manages to capture the feel of the 1970’s incredibly well... 

Who Will Separate Us?

Who Will Separate Us?

A true story set in a small town in Ireland between 1899 and 1916. A story of love, life war and tragedy. A riveting and shocking true story. Little is known of the men from Ireland who went to the Western Front in 1914 to fight for Britain... 

1984

1984

It is frightening how Orwell’s nightmarish dystopia continues to ring true, year after year. From Winston’s colleague Syme (Liam McKinnes) exclaiming delightedly ‘It’s a beautiful thing, the destruction of words’, to the proletariat being described as subhuman, those who go against the Party as a stain to be wiped out, even Winston’s desire to sexually violate Julia before murdering her... 

To Butterfly

To Butterfly

To Butterfly follows the journey of two character’s lives in the build-up to a fateful meeting of finality. Family, school, mental health and the culmination of thousands of hours of experience... 

Medea

Medea

Returning to the fringe after their 2015 sell-out debut, the all-female Minerva company bring their unique physical storytelling to this adaptation of Medea. Challenging the assumption of the unconditional bond between mother and child, the play is still tragically relevant today... 

Lines

Lines

With damning questions on moral and personal boundaries, Lines is a stunning and complex portrayal of sexual assault. Rora is violently raped after a night out with friends and two weeks pass before she can bear to discuss the crime with her family... 

Holy Sh*t

Holy Sh*t

Hearing a couple of priests swearing will always be amusing. Hearing a couple of priests swearing whilst digging up the body of a dead parishioner so they can sell the corpse to raise money for the church takes the humour to a whole new level... 

The Screwtape Letters

The Screwtape Letters

This widely acclaimed production returns to the fringe for four performances. Nigel Forde's 'sparkling script' and David Robinson's 'impressive Screwtape' (Stage) bring to life Lewis' classic book, which has sold millions of copies worldwide... 

Alan Bennett's Green Forms

Alan Bennett's Green Forms

An Alan Bennett one act play originally written for TV in 1978. It transfers brilliantly to the stage and showcases the humour and pathos of Britain's best-loved playwright. Green Forms shows Doris and Doreen frittering away their working hours until the spectre of Ms Dorothy Binns and computerisation becomes all too real. 

Grace Notes

Grace Notes

Becky Williams delivers an emotionally charged monologue about murderess Grace Miller somewhat reluctantly seeking a second chance at series of rehab sessions entitled Notes. She mocks the facilitator – the “Otter” as she calls her and the painfully awkward motivational language that cling to these schemes... 

Other People’s Teeth

Other People’s Teeth

Other Peoples Teeth is a unique, visceral and violent vignette, exploring the emotional depths of brutality. The performance opens with a Tarantino-esque scene, featuring two contract killers in a stand-off where only one person can survive... 

Remember Scarborough

Remember Scarborough

War doesn't end when the fighting stops. In a one-sided conversation with his long dead friend, an old man and his younger self look at the naive excitement of young RAF recruits, through the reality and pain of loss to the difficulties of post-war rebuilding... 

The Laramie Project

The Laramie Project

Tectonic Theatre’s The Laramie Project is a masterpiece in verbatim, a chronicle of the 1998 real-life kidnap and murder of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old student from Wyoming. Using over 200 interviews, this play exposes the seismic impact and reaction to a hate crime, by the residents of Laramie... 

Diagnosed

Diagnosed

What if you met someone who was perfect. Now what if you met that person at the worst possible moment in your life? A new piece of writing by first-time writer Matt Anderson. Diagnosed explores the big problems found within relationships, as well as all the little joys there are in-between... 

Hello Georgie, Goodbye Best

Hello Georgie, Goodbye Best

Manchester United fans old enough to remember 1971 may recall the strange weekend George Best went missing. Three quarters of the Metropolitan Police were ordered to stand guard at Sinead Cusack’s flat in Islington as word spread like wildfire that Best was hiding there, overcome with the pressures of fame and skiving a match against Chelsea... 

This Is Yorkshire

This Is Yorkshire

Inspired by the blistering 2007 film This Is England, this hard-hitting new play examines working class life in early 80's Yorkshire through the eyes of a 12-year-old boy who becomes embroiled with two very different skinhead gangs... 

Alan Bennett's Say Something Happened

Alan Bennett's Say Something Happened

An Alan Bennett one act play-originally written for TV in 1982. It transfers brilliantly to the stage and showcases the humour and pathos of Britain's best-loved playwright. June (a well-meaning but very inexperienced social worker) visits Mam and Dad to offer the council's help... 

Alan Bennett's A Visit from Miss Prothero

Alan Bennett's A Visit from Miss Prothero

An Alan Bennett one act originally written for TV in the late 1970s. It transfers brilliantly to the stage and shows the humour and pathos of Britain's best-loved playwright. Arthur Dodsworth's serene retirement is severely jolted by a visit from his malevolent former secretary... 

Extremism

Extremism

The police just took Jamal away. The teacher called them because she had to. All that’s left is a shell-shocked class. Who knew Jamal? What did he do? What will happen next? A play about fear, friendship and the inescapable polarisation of our society... 

Pomona

Pomona

When Ollie's sister goes missing, we are plunged into a dark underworld that reveals pain much greater than the loss of a relative. On her odyssey of perpetual torment through the cold and lonely city of Manchester, Ollie must put her trust in a plethora of bizarre characters and uncover bitter truths, all while walking the blurry line between fantasy and actuality... 

I Love You Mum... I Promise I Won't Die!

I Love You Mum... I Promise I Won't Die!

I'd had a conversation with Dan about Ecstasy. It's one of the things you do as a parent, isn't it? I was more worried about him being safe on his bike than at a party with his friends... 

Pippin

Pippin

In a quiet forest, where magic dwells, the sun sets and Pippin’s world comes to life. An ensemble of creatures tells the story of this young prince who longs to find passion and adventure in his life... 

A World Beyond Man

A World Beyond Man

A badly planned polar expedition in 1912 led to the Russian ship The Saint Anna to be locked into the ice of the Kara Sea. After almost two years trapped in the ice, navigator Valerian Albanov and 13 men decided to trek 235 miles across the ice floes in the hope of being rescued... 

A Necessary Woman

A Necessary Woman

Census night, 1911. Suffragette Emily Davison is hiding in a cleaning cupboard, in the crypt beneath the Palace of Westminster. Emily plans a daring and courageous act in Parliament for Monday morning, but with a greater police presence and security tighter than usual, will she achieve her ambition before she is caught and returned to prison? Written and performed by Deborah Clair and Philippa Urquhart to celebrate the 2018 suffrage centenary... 

Hotel

Hotel

Welcome to the Hotel, a magnificent establishment offering luxury beyond fantasy. Have you checked in? We have artisanal menus, artisanal bed linen and artisanal balconies! Enjoy your stay, but beware; some things may just be too good to be true... 

Those Worrisome Sleeps

Those Worrisome Sleeps

'Wizards, as you know, may not love. But imagine if one ever did.' When grief strikes, some withdraw, others rage, and some destroy the entire world. Lost in despair, Jay attempts to reconstruct her dead love with the most imperfect of tools: memory... 

A Librarian

A Librarian

A naive librarian witnesses an incident that will change the rest of her life. ‘A rich and nuanced performance at the heart of this gripping play.’ (Paul Fowler: Guild of Drama Adjudicators chair)... 

Playhouse Creatures

Playhouse Creatures

Set in the theatrical world of 17th-century London, this classic play celebrates the backstage lives and loves of the first five actresses on the English stage. C6 Productions are proud to present their 2017 One Act Festival finalist production on their first visit to the Fringe... 

Alan Bennett's A Visit from Miss Prothero

Alan Bennett's A Visit from Miss Prothero

An Alan Bennett one act originally written for TV in the late 1970s. It transfers brilliantly to the stage and shows the humour and pathos of Britain's best-loved playwright. Arthur Dodsworth's serene retirement is severely jolted by a visit from his malevolent former secretary... 

Party Night

Party Night

December, 1979. Keith and Valerie have been together for 15 years and are very much in love, but he is keeping something from her. Will a chance phone call change everything? A dark new play inspired by real-life events... 

Integrity

Integrity

A stray hand on the knee – a slip? A meeting at the boss’s place – a set-up? A campaign pledge on student tuition fees – for the bin? This play explores the nuances of political and personal/sexual integrity... 

A Sight of Abject Pity and Ruin

A Sight of Abject Pity and Ruin

In a world lost in time there is a forgotten Figure. Enter his den and lose yourself in an absurd and morbid milieu of mime. In this dark and surreal one-man show, join Fig on his apparently pointless meander through the mind of a melancholic hermit while he explores the nature of life, reality and the human experience... 

Crave

Crave

Deeply tender and sensuous, Sarah Kane’s Crave is set in an unnamed city from which voices and images spring. The play charts the disintegration of human minds under the pressures of love, loss and desire... 

Panopticon

Panopticon

Every move. Watched. Impact Theatre present a society where nothing is secret. How willingly do we share our lives – and who can be trusted in a world of ‘fake news’? Is this science fiction or a direct reflection of our current dystopian reality where elections are bought and truth is subjective? Visceral and challenging, this production will make you question your next Check-in or Like... 

Congratulations You Bastard!

Congratulations You Bastard!

Where do you draw the line? When do you finally say, that’s absolutely f*cking it! Two struggling writers reach this particular end of rope, and after being chewed and constantly spat back out by their beloved industry, they have one last crack at getting it right... 

Plaza Suite

Plaza Suite

Neil Simon's hilarious portrait of three couples successively occupying Suite 719 at New York's Plaza Hotel. A couple return after 20+ years to their honeymoon suite but can't agree the number of years, their anniversary date or if this is the same suite... 

Breathing Corpses

Breathing Corpses

Amy, a cleaner, has found a body in a hotel room. There’s a funny smell coming from one of Jim’s storage units. On a hot summer’s day, furious Kate takes her anger out on her lover Ben... 

Whilst We Were There

Whilst We Were There

A once successful acoustic duo, which was at the top of their game, suddenly breaks up for reasons unknown. The circumstance at hand leaves Curtis (singer-songwriter) at a crossroad – either try to continue with the same musical identity or find another... 

Jericho

Jericho

Jericho is a show about internet journalism, liberal hot takes, and professional wrestling, which is to say that it's managed to be about a lot of my niche interests. It uses the concept of Kayfabe – the division between reality and fiction in the Pro-Wrestling Universe – to tackle ideas of modern media serving as entertainment more than fact, and also as a way for the performers to exist both within and without the story... 

Everything Not Saved

Everything Not Saved

What can you remember from five years ago? Or five days ago? Five minutes ago, even? What can you be absolutely sure, beyond all doubt that you remember? MALAPROP Theatre’s new show Everything Not Saved takes the scientific theory that on a neurological level memory and imagination are exactly the same, open to endless manipulation with sometimes amusing, sometimes chilling results... 

Cepacia – Love Takes His Breath Away

Cepacia – Love Takes His Breath Away

The story of Romeo and Juliet receives medical treatment in Cepacia from Durham School and Shadow Dreams. A boarding school and a foster home constitute the houses of Montague and Capulet, though in this case they are hardly ‘alike in dignity... 

Legacy: The Story of Martin Luther

Legacy: The Story of Martin Luther

In the beginning was the Word, but I honestly don’t know which word to begin with when trying to describe this production. It is epic in scope, travelling from Germany to Rome and covering the sixty two years from Martin Luther’s birth to his death, yet intimate at the same time, with a cast of five taking on roles from Pope Leo X to the Devil himself... 

Boxes

Boxes

Imagine a world where every teen comes of age by receiving an empty box. In this unique drama about coping with pressures and expectations from others, Jack is curious when he receives his box as a birthday present... 

The Canterville Ghost

The Canterville Ghost

Take away the ability to put a scare into the living and what purpose does a ghost have? Sir Simon has been successfully haunting Canterville Chase for over 300 years, but no amount of clanking chains or reappearing bloodstains will scare the new American owners away... 

Goodbye Rosetta

Goodbye Rosetta

Goodbye Rosetta abounds with youthful enthusiasm and passion. That’s hardly surprising given its development by 30 young actors in collaboration with writer Katherine Manners and Director, Conor Baum... 

Daughter

Daughter

I hated Daughter. I think, no I seriously hope, that I was supposed to. I’m still grappling with what I actually think of it but what I do know is I’ve not felt so viscerally angry after a piece of theatre before... 

Queens of Sheba

Queens of Sheba

Great theatre often takes deeply personal experiences and weaves them together into stories and sequences that tap into a universality and profundity that the experiences alone wouldn't have been able to... 

Ulster American

Ulster American

Acclaimed writer David Ireland’s new play is a visceral, violent and incredibly explosive punch to the gut that passionately tears into the confused state of British identity, the politics of theatre, and society's violent undercurrent... 

Care Not, Fear Naught

Care Not, Fear Naught

Piracy is not just a man’s trade in this thrilling piece Care Not, Fear Naught from Temporarily Misplaced Productions. With outstanding flair, writer and director Emily Hutt illustrates the little-known life of Anne Bonny... 

Kids Play
BOBBY WINNER

Kids Play

Glen Chandler, Edinburgh’s theatrical detective story-writing son, returns to the Festival Fringe this year with yet another ingenious triumph. The only similarity to Kids Play and anything that might be found in Taggart, however, is a pair of handcuffs... 

A Fortunate Man

A Fortunate Man

There are books which are called seminal largely because so many people have read them. The Complete Works of Shakespeare. Pride and Prejudice. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (hush you - we're in Edinburgh - show some respect…)Far more intriguing, however, are those texts which are largely unknown outside of a specific community but, for those communities, are touchstones for their profession... 

East Belfast Boy

East Belfast Boy

Prime Cut Productions: East Belfast Boy by Fintan Brady. Pumping techno, pulverising movement and street sharp poetry. East Belfast Boy is a cliche-free zone. Meet Davy. The things he sees... 

The Lucky Durhams

The Lucky Durhams

This play, set against the historically accurate backdrop of the first day of the Somme, features fictitious soldiers from the Durham Pals regiment preparing for 'the big push'. Extensive research of the Durham Light Infantry and local events have shaped the script, with reference to actual newspaper articles conveyed by the editor... 

Banana Boys

Banana Boys

Sports and sex. Cam and Cal have been best friends since jumping off a cliff at the age of eight. But when sex and hormones infiltrate the boys' football team, the boys begin to struggle with their sexuality. 

Breakfast Plays: Youthquake

Breakfast Plays: Youthquake

Three young Scottish playwrights from the Traverse Young Writers’ group join forces with three leading British writers (Ella Hickson, Kieran Hurley and Sabrina Mahfouz) to explore a pressing question of our time: how can the younger generation be a catalyst for social and political change? Paired with pieces from their professional mentors, this brave new body of work from young voices is a defiant demand to be seen as more than avocado-fuelled millennials... 

Death Is the New Porn

Death Is the New Porn

'It doesn’t matter how we do it, we’re always going to end up with the same result.' Three Edinburgh vigilantes crave the thrill of murder to avenge victims of brutal crimes. Cracks begin to show dividing them and audiences alike... 

Power, Fame and Sex

Power, Fame and Sex

As old as humanity itself. As well known as gods. Pillars of our society. But what happens if they are forced to face each other, society’s judgments and – worst of all – themselves? Three powerful personifications trying to show society who and what they really are while getting tangled up more and more in their complicated relationships with each other and their own inescapable natures. 

Our Boys

Our Boys

Our Boys exquisitely showcases life on the battlefield from the setting of an army hospital. Five rowdy soldiers are recovering from injuries on a ward when they find, to much dismay, that an officer is due to occupy the empty bed... 

89 Nights: An Original Musical

89 Nights: An Original Musical

The magic of New York is effectively captured in 89 Nights, a new musical from Troubadour Stageworks. Alice, a Brit on her gap year, arrives with excitement in New York. She is ready to explore the city of her dreams... 

InValid Voices

InValid Voices

When the soldier goes to war what of those left behind? This is the question posed by InValid Voices, a new theatre piece based on interviews with women serving as and married to Commonwealth soldiers in the British Army... 

Titus Andronicus

Titus Andronicus

Shakespeare's classic that has killings, maiming, rape, live burial and cannibalism presented as a latter-day story about a crime syndicate looking to find a new leader in the money laundering business which some say Britain has become... 

Loyalty

Loyalty

A war hero, a statesman, a husband, Alexei Petro had everything… to lose. In one conversation his whole life is placed on a knife edge when his wife Oksana has a special request. The whispered horrors of Stalin’s Russia come to light at the dinner table as Alexei learns you can never truly outrun the past... 

The Laurel and Hardy Story

The Laurel and Hardy Story

Laurel and Hardy – arguably the best comic duo ever, with never a bad word between them. In their careers they earned respect, affection, admiration and love from millions. This two-man show celebrates their lives and careers together on and off screen... 

Urban Unrest

Urban Unrest

Urban Theatre Movement (UTM) presents Urban Unrest, a series of original plays ranging from the absurd to the surreal. LBS (Laughing But Serious) by Gisla Stringer: Directed by Brenda Banda, starring Paul Tully and Gisla Stringer... 

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

Love, hysteria and deception reign in this Victorian reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic. Cesario is in love with Orsino, who’s in love with Olivia, who’s in love with Cesario, who’s really Viola in disguise... 

You Remind Me of You

You Remind Me of You

Girl meets boy. Boy meets girl. It’s a familiar story which becomes complicated when he can’t remember her face. She has her own reasons to distance herself. Adele and Vincent meet in a bar, where most modern love stories begin... 

Antigone

Antigone

Using Don Taylor's BBC-commissioned translation, Malvern Theatres Young Company presents Antigone, directed by Nic Lloyd. Demonstrating the clash and interweaving of human passions and failings, their production of Sophocles' deeply poetic tragedy promises to bring universal themes and cultural archetypes to Fringe audiences... 

The Grimm Truth

The Grimm Truth

The Grimm Tales are wildly reimagined in this exciting retelling using themes from modern Britain. From child sexual exploitation to mental health and everything in between, these are fairytales for the new age... 

Henriad – Histories of Betrayal

Henriad – Histories of Betrayal

Step into the epic with Shakespeare's Henriad! Revel in shorter, vibrant re-imaginings of the Bard's Richard II, Henry IV and Henry V, and see a story of friendship, duty and betrayal... 

MAD

MAD

MAD is a new black comedy from Cam Scriven and Daniel Bainbridge. When Rob and Ian find themselves stuck in a room together, you would think that escaping would be their chief concern... 

That Bastard Brecht

That Bastard Brecht

Bertolt Brecht: genius or charlatan? The question is answered in a piece of pure Epic theatre featuring 15 new songs and choreography. The story is told through the eyes of Brecht’s most significant collaborator, Elizabeth Hauptmann who is now reputed to have written at least 80% of The Threepenny Opera... 

26 Pebbles

26 Pebbles

26 Pebbles is the story of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting on December 14, 2012, and the 26 innocent lives taken. Playwright Eric Ulloa tells this story through the voices of those impacted by this terrible event as they struggle to cope with tragedy... 

Queen of the Air

Queen of the Air

Born in Kansas, home of the South Wind, in 1897, Amelia Earhart reigned as Queen of the Air until her mysterious disappearance over the Pacific in 1937. In 1932, Earhart became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic... 

Walk Swiftly and With Purpose

Walk Swiftly and With Purpose

History Boys meets Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour as we follow four girls on the cusp of adulthood in this new take on the classic coming of age tale. Until now they've lived mostly in their imagination – suddenly real life interrupts and their friendship bears the brunt of it... 

Angelos and Barry: A Matter of Life and Death

Angelos and Barry: A Matter of Life and Death

BBC's Angelos Epithemiou and Channel 4's Barry from Watford return with a new show following their sell-out tour. Barry wants to tell you all about his career in showbiz 'at the end of the pier' while Angelos is onstage to discuss art, poetry, literature and all the other stuff no one is meant to understand... 

Eight

Eight

Eight captivating monologues that offer a group portrait of diverse characters from high-class hookers to 7/7 survivors. These monologues paint a revelatory picture of Britain as it is today... 

The Black Dahlia

The Black Dahlia

Los Angeles, January 15th 1947. The body of a young lady lies in the low cut grass of Leimert Park, a grim theatre later referred to as The Black Dahlia murder. Elizabeth Short was discovered sliced in two without a single drop of blood left in her body and a grim smile carved into the flesh of her face... 

Dib Dib Dead

Dib Dib Dead

A new comedy drama. Lost in Scotland, a group of scouts take refuge in a deserted farmhouse. The night leads to personal issues and conflicts within the group. Then one of them dies... 

Monday at Golden Oak High

Monday at Golden Oak High

Marco was never a popular kid. He was always a little different to his classmates and sort of struggled to fit in. He wasn't sure what to do about that so one day he decided to bring in a gun and impress everyone – especially those who pissed him off... 

Laugh Out Loud (Cry Quietly)

Laugh Out Loud (Cry Quietly)

Follow an eclectic group of twenty-somethings as they navigate wacky text messages, misleading profile pictures and awkward dates in search of true love. Overlapping storylines are woven together to reveal that, ultimately, everyone just wants to love and be loved for all their quirks... 

Rat Race

Rat Race

Rat Race is a dark tragicomedy set in a rat cage that is at the center of a badly handled experiment. Kenneth is just a PhD student doing his best, how is he supposed to know that his three lab rats are going through existential crises? The rats are trying to get on with their work in peace, but they are disrupted by a new occupant in the cage; an occupant who makes them think about their purpose for the first time... 

The Ladies Loo Chronicles

The Ladies Loo Chronicles

The Ladies Loo Chronicles is a fun, feisty and female-powered performance. Join us, as we take you for a trip around the U-bend. Ever wondered what happens in the ladies loo?  

Big Love

Big Love

Big Love – Charles Mee's adaption of Aeschylus' The Suppliants is a modern reexamination of western norms regarding gender and sexuality. Fifty women, arranged to be married, escape their bondage in search of independence... 

Crave

Crave

Deeply tender and sensuous, Sarah Kane’s Crave is set in an unnamed city from which voices and images spring. The play charts the disintegration of human minds under the pressures of love, loss and desire... 

Life on Venus

Life on Venus

True Arrow presents a series of scenes which readjust the balance of male to female dialogue by putting women front and centre with a multi-rolling cast of four women and one man. Come and celebrate everything girly, pink and ever so slightly catty. 

Dancing With Mrs Murphy

Dancing With Mrs Murphy

Citadel Arts Group present Dancing with Mrs Murphy, an edgy new play by Vincent Maguire, directed by Mark Kydd. Rose Murphy, an unmarried mother, escaped Ireland before WWII. In 1956 the Suez Crisis signals the end of the British Empire... 

Life on Venus

Life on Venus

True Arrow presents a series of scenes which readjust the balance of male to female dialogue by putting women front and centre with a multi-rolling cast of four women and one man. Come and celebrate everything girly, pink and ever so slightly catty. 

Fan Girl

Fan Girl

Geraldine is a lonely young secretary living with her invalid and overbearing mother. Her only respite is a hit American television show loosely based on the life of Zenobia, a third-century Syrian Queen... 

Nomad

Nomad

The flat is empty. Everyone had moved out. Except for Laura and her ancient dog named Roy. Tonight she is staring down the lens of her 30th birthday. Come and celebrate one woman's intimate and darkly comic coming-of-age story, a biological kick off the edge of the cliff into the face of her hopes, desires and hot yoga. 

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

This gripping drama explores the intimate bonds of family. Southern matriarch Amanda frets constantly over her two adult children, the painfully shy Laura and her restless son, Tom... 

Warhol: Bullet Karma

Warhol: Bullet Karma

Warhol: Bullet Karma invites you to meet everyone’s favourite eccentric pop artist. We bear witness to Andy Warhol as he tells of his Pennsylvania roots, his move to New York and the establishment of the famous ‘Factory’... 

Nigel Slater’s Toast

Nigel Slater’s Toast

One of the hardest calls for a reviewer to make is where to draw the line between production and play. Can a problematic text be completely redeemed if the production is good or, for new pieces where the audience may not know what to expect, do we have a duty to comment on the work, script and all, so everyone goes in with their eyes open?It’s a quandary I find myself in after stepping out of Nigel Slater’s Toast at the Traverse theatre... 

Beaker's Place

Beaker's Place

Beaker’s only friend in the world, his cat, is dead. With nothing left to live for, Beaker decides to end it all, but not before work comes calling. And he doesn’t have just any old job, he disposes of dead bodies for those who drop them at his door... 

Island Town

Island Town

The Paines Plough Roundabout is an incredibly versatile venue. Though its playing space is small and surrounded by audience seating, it often feels expansive – inclusive of the characters’ whole worlds... 

Cat-in-a-Box

Cat-in-a-Box

A play in 10 short scenes. Henry and Kate are on holiday in a cottage on the Firth of Lorn. Henry is a poet. He has come here hoping to save his marriage. But each time he tries, he is relocated by the power of physics from one parallel universe to another, always looking for the one where his wife still loves and cares for him and won’t eventually leave... 

King Lear (Alone)

King Lear (Alone)

One-man show telling King Lear's story in his own words, using text from the original and new words. Shakespeare’s play, adapted by Edinburgh Fringe award-winning playwright Frank Bramwell... 

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew

Stunningly original Korean update of the classic play returns to Edinburgh. Confucius meets Shakespeare with a dash of hip hop thrown in for good measure. Petruchio, a patriarch of the Confucian dynasty, tries to tame hip hop Kate into an obedient woman, but who will win in the end? This critically acclaimed worldwide tour returns to Edinburgh... 

Twelfth Night: The Ship of Fools

Twelfth Night: The Ship of Fools

Fiesta in sunshine. Siesta in shadows. Black malice. Bright love. Jump aboard British Airways Flight 1212 for the Costa del Sol, January 6, 1980. Wince for folly. Weep for love. Wallow in cruelty... 

Adam Smith: The Invisible Hand

Adam Smith: The Invisible Hand

A dramatic representation of the life of Adam Smith. His friends, his enemies and the person who shaped his life, his mother, Margaret Smith. The play demonstrates how Adam Smith has been interpreted through the ages and why he is relevant to the present time... 

Rocket Man

Rocket Man

Set in the heyday of glam rock and science fiction, Rocket Man is the story of a young man with bipolar disorder. When Tristan is caught in a deadly obsession with fleeing the Earth to live on the moon, he loses his job, his fiancee and his friends... 

Extremism

Extremism

Set in a class of sixteen year olds, Extremism explores the impact of counter-terrorism legislation PREVENT and growing Islamophobia in the UK. Upon entering the venue, a stern teacher calls for a straight line and good behaviour while handing out a quiz on PREVENT, immediately setting the scene... 

I, Sniper

I, Sniper

I Sniper, appropriately enough, starts with a bang. A group of Red Army soldiers march on stage as commands are barked at them in Russian, culminating in a chorus of ‘The Red Army is the Strongest’... 

Specters

Specters

Specters is an outstanding adaptation of Henrik Ibsen’s Ghosts. This translation of the original text is directed by the famous contemporary Ukrainian director Polina Medvedeva. The play is making its Fringe debut after being performed for the first time in 2017 at the Kyiv theatre, Suzirja (headed by Iryna Batko-Stupka and Oleksii Kuzjhelnyi)... 

Agenda

Agenda

Are men really from Mars and women from Venus? Is it still just a man's world? Will wearing the trousers make a difference and what is wrong with wearing skirts anyway? Do I have to be the breadwinner? Throw like a girl? Man up? Cluck like a hen or buck like a stag? Agenda is an episodic play that explores gender, the pressures of growing up and the struggle to find an identity. 

Addiction: The Untold Story

Addiction: The Untold Story

Addiction: The Untold Story and Love is inspired by a true story of one young man’s journey to redemption from sex addiction and alcoholism. A drama sprinkled with some audience improv and light comedy, Addiction deals with sex addiction head on... 

The Unknown Soldier

The Unknown Soldier

Jack stayed on when the guns fell silent, to search amongst the rusty wire and unexploded bombs for those that could never go home. For Jack has a promise to keep and a debt to repay... 

Shackleton's Stowaway

Shackleton's Stowaway

Making their debut at the Festival Fringe, Stolen Elephant Theatre bring to life one of the great voyages of the Heroic Age of Antarctic exploration in Shackleton’s Stowaway. In 1914, young welshman Perce Blackborow stowed away on Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, despite having been rejected as a crew member... 

Blackthorn by Charley Miles

Blackthorn by Charley Miles

Home is a powerful concept. It rejuvenates you but it can also demand; it gives you a solid base from which to move forward as well as the chains that hold you back. So what do you do if your home isn't just a place but also a person?In the village of Blackthorn, two children are born two years apart; Her - precocious, bright and curious - and Him - clumsy and bashful but brave and strong... 

A Joke

A Joke

It was irresistible, I suppose: part way through Dan Freeman’s absurdist play A Joke, the acclaimed Scottish actor John Bett turns to his co-stars to start a joke with: "Doctor, Doctor"... 

Ciara

Ciara

David Harrower’s compelling, award-winning play returns to the Fringe. Against the backdrop of Glasgow’s dark underworld, Ciara must come to terms with her recently dead gangster-father’s legacy... 

Gratiano

Gratiano

With Bassanio murdered, Gratiano is forced to revisit his fascist past. He was never the hero, but did he play the villain? In a challenging sequel to William Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, set amongst the turmoil of post-war Italy, we read between the lines of Shakespeare's classic tale to explore the politics of prejudice... 

The Magic Hour

The Magic Hour

It's 4am and, for a group of teens, it's time to wrestle with the changes in their lives. The DJ of the internet's loneliest radio show gets an unexpected 'like', a serial letter writer gathers the courage to actually send one, best friends confront the reality of growing apart and a modern-day Romeo and Juliet discover balcony scenes are harder than they look... 

...and Peggy

...and Peggy

Attempting to create a spin-off to one of the most beloved musicals of recent memory is a brave choice, and unfortunately it is a gamble that didn't pay off in this case....and Peggy is a spin-off to the hit musical Hamilton, focusing on the very minor character of Peggy Schuyler, and aims to show her side of the now-famous story behind the American War of Independence... 

Primrose Path

Primrose Path

Chriss and Damon are in love. They have rules, they have roles – and they play games. Sometimes, they hurt each other. When they play. Such is love. Love is winning. Chriss and Damon are in love... 

First Dates

First Dates

Come and join the members of the First Dates dating agency on their journey into the world of love. There are highs, lows and many, many secrets in this hilarious new piece of theatre... 

Artificial

Artificial

With an AI in every home, people have become increasingly insular, depending on and trusting their obliging personal robots as much as any person. Dom knows this as well as anyone. By day he sits alone in people's homes prescribing the correct unit for each family... 

Meek

Meek

The Traverse Festival program has jumped into action, already selling out full days' worth of shows at a time. The venue has high reputation for its new writing and for good reason... 

Bad Shakespeare

Bad Shakespeare

Nature versus nurture? Are villains born or bred? Can they ever find true redemption? Theater OCU explores Shakespeare's most villainous characters – Macbeth, Iago, Aaron, Tamora and Lady Macbeth – and asks the question: what is bad Shakespeare? **** (BroadwayBaby... 

Dulce et Decorum Est: The Unknown Soldiers

Dulce et Decorum Est: The Unknown Soldiers

Tommy saw his whole regiment wiped out on the first day of the Battle of the Somme in 1916. In 1941, Ellen waved goodbye to her fiance as he left for Crete, two weeks before the German invasion of the island... 

The Vampire of Barcelona

The Vampire of Barcelona

In Barcelona at the beginning of the 20th century, a vampire walks the streets, invisible to those who choose not to see her. Like a female child-catcher, Enriqueta Marti snatches children off the streets and uses their blood and bones to make the creams and potions that keep her wealthy clientele’s health and youthful looks... 

DNA

DNA

Some teenagers do something bad, really bad, then panic and cover the whole thing up. But when they find that the cover-up unites them and brings harmony to their once fractious lives, where's the incentive to put things right? 

Achilles’ Heel: TLC

Achilles’ Heel: TLC

Tony believes in the healing powers of stories; Iain’s been scrubbing his fingers since 3am; Saffron’s stalking her piano teacher. The group emerges: ready for therapy. But Cressida deflects her gaze... 

Skirt

Skirt

Becs is a single mum and leader of the opposition party in Scotland. Oldest daughter Ellie is about to go off to university while Neve is still at primary school and struggling. Becs is offered the chance to head up the party at Westminster... 

Punk Rock

Punk Rock

Arts One Drama Company present Punk Rock by Simon Stephens. A company of high school and sixth form students from Sutton, Surrey, present the ferociously entertaining Punk Rock. The play follows the lives of private school students and the complex relationships that intertwine between their revision and exams... 

Punching Judy

Punching Judy

Punching Judy is an original piece of theatre, which explores the secretive and insidious nature of domestic abuse. Through the true stories of three relationships the audience are invited to experience and connect the audience to the paradigms of both perpetration and survival... 

The Women of Lockerbie

The Women of Lockerbie

‘Grief is a guest who stays too long.’ Days before Christmas, 1988, the small Scottish community lived among the dead, laying unmoved for days, as forensic investigators searched for evidence surrounding the bombing of Pan Am 103... 

The War of Jenkins' Ear

The War of Jenkins' Ear

Toby Jenkins hates boarding school. He doesn't fit in. When a new boy, Christopher, arrives and announces he is Jesus Christ, Toby is swept up into his strange world. Desperate to defend his new friend who promises miracles, Toby's life is turned upside down... 

No Honour in Blood

No Honour in Blood

When two Spartan warriors find themselves trapped and lost in the underworld, they must outwit a devious enemy, or remain forever in the land of the dead. 

Female Transport

Female Transport

In a cramped cell aboard a ship, six prisoners are being shipped to a life of hard labour. During their six-month voyage, they endure hardship and suffering under the brutish regime of the ship’s crew... 

Sympathy for the Devil

Sympathy for the Devil

A man is bound to a chair with a sack over his head. He has to be held captive for two days. His captors are told not to speak to him under any circumstances. However, when the sack comes off, the bound man begins to manipulate and psychologically dissect the people holding him, turning them slowly against each other... 

Casanova Dreaming

Casanova Dreaming

The greatest master is passion, who makes slaves of us all... Asleep in bed with his first true love, 19-year-old Giacomo Casanova is visited by an old man who shows him his future – but is what he sees a promise or a warning? In this one-act drama, award-winning playwright Martin Foreman casts a sympathetic eye on the famous libertine and the women in his life... 

The Front Page

The Front Page

ETA’s 25th anniversary production of The Front Page, an irresistible comedy with thrills and derring do set in a news room. An amazing array of characters capture the mood of 1920s Chicago in the intimate surroundings of St Ninian's Hall... 

The Dark Philosophers

The Dark Philosophers

A larger-than-life, theatrical celebration of the life and works of Gwyn Thomas. Set in the 1930s, the stories evoke a compelling wistfulness of life in the Rhondda Valley. Tales of death and exploitation, sex and family power are all bound together with wild humour and joyous humanity... 

Breathing Corpses

Breathing Corpses

Amy, a cleaner, has found a body in a hotel room. There’s a funny smell coming from one of Jim’s storage units. On a hot summer’s day, furious Kate takes her anger out on her lover Ben... 

A Scarlet Letter

A Scarlet Letter

Hester Prynne on the entrenched injustice confronting women: 'the whole system of society [must be] torn down and built up anew.' How prescient The Scarlet Letter seems today. In spirit, Hester finds kindred with #MeToo and #timesup... 

Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms

Brothers in Arms tells the story of WWI through the inspiring true story of two soldiers, Noel and Christopher Chavasse. These twin brothers were both highly decorated soldiers who served with great distinction in the Great War... 

The Turn of the Screw

The Turn of the Screw

In Underbelly’s Big Belly, the slow dripping from a leak in the roof onto the stage has never been a more apt presence in a production. The biggest strength this production has is its slow dripping of tension, successfully capturing the mood of the original 1898 classic gothic horror... 

Antigone

Antigone

All eyes are on the city of Thebes. Antigone dares to raise the question: whose laws matter most – the laws of men or the laws that come from natural or divine justice? In defying the powerful Creon, Antigone’s stance invokes a timeless, moral issue and takes 'civil disobedience' to a very dark place indeed... 

Jumpers for Goalposts

Jumpers for Goalposts

After getting sacked from the Lesbian Rovers for being too bossy, Viv has a mission: to make five-a-side LGBT football team, Barely Athletic, league winners – and they’ve started well with a victory over Tranny United (who were playing in stilettos)... 

Someone Somewhere by Sam Potter

Someone Somewhere by Sam Potter

Summer. A music festival. A group of friends celebrate their exam results. Hazel wants to get drunk. Diana wants to lose her virginity. Vampire Boy wants to change and Livi... well, Livi just wants to forget about everything that has happened for a while but some things are just too big to forget, even if it’s only for one weekend... 

City Love

City Love

Both lovely and devastating in equal measure, City Love by Illuminate Theatre Company documents a romance that lives and dies in the bustle of London town. After a humorous exchange on a night bus, a couple’s relationship blossoms as they find themselves transformed by each other’s company... 

Glasgow '14

Glasgow '14

Glasgow ’14 is a one man show, inhabiting the minds of four very different men and their experiences of mental illness. The backdrop is Glasgow 2014, and the events of the bin lorry crash at George Square... 

A Christmas Carol

A Christmas Carol

Olivier Award-winning Guy Masterson, (Under Milk Wood, Animal Farm, Shylock), now brings Dickens' festive fable to vivid life. Globally renowned for his physical and vocal dexterity, Masterson recreates Scrooge, Marley, Fezziwigs, Cratchits and Tiny Tim in an enchanting performance that will dazzle and dunk you in Christmas Spirit – in Summer! (Why not? Australians do it!) A memory that will linger... 

bad things happen here

bad things happen here

The nation has never been healthier. Crime is down. Streets are clean. Civility reigns. But out of the corner of your eye you might catch a glimpse of the men keeping things orderly... 

Breathing Corpses

Breathing Corpses

'Of course I felt sorry for her I'm not f*cking heartless, I didn’t want her, whoever she is, to end up under a bush, god, but I didn’t want it to be me and your stupid f*cking dog that found her either... 

A Wrinkle in Time

A Wrinkle in Time

Join Meg and her band of misfits on a voyage through time and space. Strange creatures and magical lands unfold as our heroes bravely battle evil forces. Can they save the universe from darkness? The New Players Company from Ridgewood, NJ is back with a theatrical version of the classic novel (and blockbuster movie) A Wrinkle in Time... 

The Promise

The Promise

Leningrad, 1942. Three teenagers struggle to survive the savage wartime siege that claimed over two million lives. Through their sufferings, a powerful bond of love is forged between them... 

The Steamie

The Steamie

Tony Roper's perennial comedy hit is sure to have you laughing and crying in this nostalgic, sad and very funny play. It's Hogmanay and Dolly, Magrit, Doreen and Mrs Culfeathers, with a little help from the not-so-handy Andy, are in a Glasgow wash house getting the washing done before the bells... 

The Monster in the Hall

The Monster in the Hall

The Monster in the Hall by David Greig follows a day in the life of Duck Macatarsney as she cares for her dope-smoking biker father who suffers from multiple sclerosis. Duck is anxiously awaiting a visit from social services to check up on them and is terrified she will be taken into care... 

Statements

Statements

Until relatively recently in Western society, children with physical, sensory or learning disabilities, or a wide range of neural and behavioural challenges, were either institutionalised in "special" schools or abandoned to the back of the classroom... 

Starfish

Starfish

I’ve never seen a play in a 20-seat theatre before but, with the gentle storytelling of Starfish, a small venue seems right. Newly written by Luna Rose and performed by a bright-eyed cast of three, it’s the story of a romance and the bumps along the way... 

Animal Management

Animal Management

The Enquiry: Generation Z – not tough enough or the victims of an anxious world that just doesn’t care? The Experiment: one observation room, two psychologists and seven patients... 

Eurydice

Eurydice

In this weird and wonderful adaptation of this mournful legend, Eurydice is presented by concentrating not on the passionate pilgrimage of Orpheus to retrieve his bride but on Eurydice’s descent into the jaws of death... 

The House of Edgar

The House of Edgar

Edgar Allan Poe is dead. His reputation ruined and his legacy crumbling, his work is all that remains. As a rival seizes Poe\'s estate, echoes of the past emerge. Inside these walls, are his stories simply marks on a page, or something else entirely? Based on the life and works of Poe, this critically acclaimed musical weaves the author\'s stories into a ghostly new tale... 

Hamlet – Horatio's Tale

Hamlet – Horatio's Tale

A remarkable solo Hamlet from Horatio’s POV! Shakespeare’s classic tale of madness, murder and betrayal with incredible performance, brilliant original music and Sir Derek Jacobi as Old Hamlet! Something is very right in the state of Denmark! Adapted and directed by Nick Hennegan, it's a must-see theatre event... 

Chiaroscuro

Chiaroscuro

Sir Nicholas Winton organized the rescue of 669 children from Czechoslovakia on the eve of World War II in an operation that would later become known as the Czech Kindertransport. Chiaroscuro tells the story of both Winton’s remarkable and selfless act of heroism and the extraordinary journey of one particular group of children he saved. 

The Political History of Smack and Crack

The Political History of Smack and Crack

'The history of England jumps off its axis. 2am, 8th July, 1981, 20 cities across England burn.' The night of the Manchester uprising. That night should change everything. Drawing on his own personal experience, Ed Edwards’ script crackles with anger, humour and authenticity as he chronicles the fallout for communities crushed by the heroin epidemic at the height of Thatcherism... 

UnSpoken

UnSpoken

As funeral bells chime, a mysterious woman whispers a terrible secret to a grieving wife. Years later, now in therapy, the woman is driven to piece together the jigsaw of her life, the damning relationship with her father and the disturbing truth behind that secret whisper... 

From the Mississippi Delta

From the Mississippi Delta

This touching and often humorous autobiographical account of a young girl's journey from the lowly back roads of the segregated south to the lofty ivory halls of academia is proof that some spirits cannot be broken. 

A Play, A Pie and A Pint

A Play, A Pie and A Pint

We've all been there. The meal is over. It's time to settle up. But who had what? In this hilarious comedy from Robin Mitchell, two couples agree to split the bill, leading to confusion and laughs galore as their true personalities are revealed... 

Sherlock Holmes and the Conundrum of Conan Doyle

Sherlock Holmes and the Conundrum of Conan Doyle

The supernatural. Sherlock Holmes, master of logic and deduction, attempts to solve his final mystery – why did his creator, a man of logic and science, believe in spirits and fairies? Thousands of people wait expectantly for a message from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from beyond the grave... 

Noël Coward's Still Life

Noël Coward's Still Life

'Forgive me? For everything. For meeting you, in the first place. For taking the piece of grit out of your eye. For loving you. For bringing you so much misery.' Coward’s classic play, which became David Lean’s iconic 1945 movie Brief Encounter, is a tale of innocent flirting and iced buns... 

bloominauschwitz

bloominauschwitz

This odyssey for the migrant era takes us through the great storm of 20th-century history in the company of literary hero Leopold Bloom. Escaping from his famous novel in search of a tribe to call his own, Bloom attempts to conjure his true identity... 

Entropy

Entropy

A physicist is on the brink of being able to explain the mysteries of the universe but still can’t figure out his volatile relationship with a rising star. In his struggle to grasp answers, he loses his grip on everything... 

DUPed

DUPed

Written and performed by Scotsman Fringe First Winner, John McCann (SPOILING, Traverse Theatre, 2014) and directed by Erasmus Mackenna. The Reverend Dr. Ian Kyle Paisley was once a young, firebrand, fundamentalist preacher from the heart of Ulster’s Bible Belt... 

Westminster Hour

Westminster Hour

Fatal consequences in this fast-paced and darkly comedic drama with unexpected twists. On the evening Home Secretary Archie Cornwall celebrates the passing of new, tougher sentencing for convicted paedophiles, a seemingly random shooting in South London leads a former lover to implicate Cornwall in a historic abuse case... 

The Island

The Island

The Island is an award-winning and acclaimed apartheid-era play written by Athol Fugard, John Kani and Winston Ntshona. Set on Robben Island and telling a moving story celebrating hope, passion and resilience... 

The School Film

The School Film

'What are great expectations? It means he's going to be rich. And a gentleman.' The whole school assemble in the hall to watch The School Film which turns out to be an old British classic from the 1940s, in black and white no less... 

The Maids

The Maids

This sensational new production from this award-winning theatre company explores the depths of depravity, power, sexual dominance and violent seduction. The great game is in play, the lust of all things decadent and powerful lead to destruction... 

Cry for the Moon

Cry for the Moon

Abbey Road Studios, 1975. Roger is recording the last track for his much anticipated second album. As his creative juices are running dry and time is running out, the studio is invaded by Syd, a long-lost childhood friend... 

Chimes at Midnight

Chimes at Midnight

A distinguished company breathes life into the lusty age of Falstaff, including Sir John's audacious revels with his "King-in-waiting" Prince Hal, his preoccupation with sherry sack, and memoirs all of the very merry age of England... 

Chatroom

Chatroom

In a world where words are power, the influence of “friends” online can make such a difference to the choices we make. When six teenagers meet in an online chatroom, conversations of music and films quickly change to death and murder... 

The Amours of Lillie Langtry

The Amours of Lillie Langtry

Lillie Langtry, the most captivating and wicked woman of her time, has a scandalous secret. Will she reveal it and save her daughter from society's scorn? A new comedy by award-winning writer Joan Greening and starring Sarah Archer and Emma Hopkins... 

Waiting

Waiting

You can't just take a break from your life. No matter how hard it gets, there's no pause button. We're like sharks. Keep moving or die. Victoria Young won't leave her flat. She's not going outside... 

Romeo and Juliet

Romeo and Juliet

BoxLit Theatre presents Romeo and Juliet like you've never seen it before! Combining cinematic film projection, live theatre and evocative music. Love battles with hate, passion battles with power, screens replace true human connection... 

How My Light Is Spent

How My Light Is Spent

'Kitty my hands have disappeared. Pardon?' Every Wednesday evening, Jimmy calls Kitty. Jimmy attempts to deal with his recent redundancy, his estrangement from his daughter and the fact he is literally becoming invisible... 

Peter Pan

Peter Pan

JM Barrie's classic fairytale retold through the eyes of Glaswegian teenagers. Workshopped with young people to shine a new light on the old themes of fantasy, romance, youth and imagination. 

17 Days *CANCELLED*

17 Days *CANCELLED*

Why is it so easy to stop fighting for something that, at one point, was everything? You meet people once, you love people once, you lose people once. 9:40pm. London. Ingrid is waiting for an answer... 

The Witches of Walderzeit

The Witches of Walderzeit

What makes a woman a witch? Who decides? Is it magical powers? Or are they simply women who dared to reject the status quo? In a forest where time moves as it wants, nine women, all accused of some form of defiance, come forward to tell their truths... 

Filth

Filth

From the writer of Trainspotting, Irvine Welsh and Harry Gibson's relentless one-man show returns. Warning: this performance contains sleaze, power and the abuse of just about everything... 

Papaya

Papaya

In Papaya, the illusion of the West is bloodied with false promises and red wine. Recent émigrés, a maid and her husband, experience their new lives in limbo. Adrift and muted, she is victim to the sexual advances of her employer, while counsel to his outspoken wife who suspects her husband's infidelity... 

You All Know Me, I'm Jack Ruby!

You All Know Me, I'm Jack Ruby!

November 22nd 1963. The President was brutally slain and, as the world reeled, the press looked to political, criminal and cultural conspiracies for answers. Within 48 hours, suspected assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was gunned down by nightclub owner Jack Ruby live on national television... 

The Ladies Loo Chronicles

The Ladies Loo Chronicles

The Ladies Loo Chronicles is a fun, feisty and female-powered performance. Join us, as we take you for a trip around the U-bend. Ever wondered what happens in the ladies loo?  

Dr Korczak's Example

Dr Korczak's Example

Dr Korczak was a Polish doctor and writer, who passionately championed every child’s right to freedom, respect and love. Dr Korczak’s Example is set in 1942 in the final days of an orphanage in the Jewish ghetto of Warsaw, where food is scarce, tempers rise and everyone wants to survive... 

Matthew 19:14

Matthew 19:14

A bar. Two strangers. A man and a woman. A missed appointment. A confession. A destiny to rescue. Nothing is as it is. What would you really do to save the one you love? From the acclaimed author Lorenzo Gioielli, a play that has been a success in Italy now is being performed for the first time in English at the Festival Fringe. 

Girls Like That

Girls Like That

Buzz. Click. Pop. Flash. An email. A message. When a naked photograph of Scarlett gets sent to everyone in her small school and goes viral, she becomes the centre of attention for all the wrong reasons... 

The Isle of Muck

The Isle of Muck

Basil abandons university to join his Uncle January, an ageing party boy, on the sparsely populated Isle of Muck. He finds that his uncle, motivated by an irrational distrust for technology and the financial pressure of his castle's upkeep, has set up a rehabilitation centre for internet addicts... 

Get Off the Couch

Get Off the Couch

A story of love, self-discovery, mental illness and ultimately taking responsibility for your own life. We follow three teens through therapy sessions, school days and new relationships: Gwen Bradman, the seemingly perfect girl; Jackson Powell, the boy who is stuck; and Cameron Shaw, a boy struggling with autism and a family who doesn’t understand him... 

Five Women Wearing the Same Dress

Five Women Wearing the Same Dress

‘I think it\'s high time women let themselves just be women for a change.’ Ball’s comedy is set in the early 90s in Knoxville, Tennessee during an ostentatious wedding reception for the despised Tracy Marlowe... 

Off-Kilter

Off-Kilter

Internationally renowned visual theatre artist returns with a dark, comedic, highly physical production incorporating illusions and masterful non-verbal storytelling. Joe Kilter has his own daily rituals – some even call it obsessive... 

The Crucible

The Crucible

After married man John Proctor decides to break off his affair with his young lover, Abigail Williams, she leads other local girls in an occult rite to wish death upon his wife, Elizabeth... 

Blackout

Blackout

Inspired by the true story of a young offender from Glasgow who had committed a violent crime, Blackout is a hard-hitting play about getting bullied, fighting back, trying to make a name for yourself, turning vicious, doing something stupid, losing everything, then finding your way again. 

Stella

Stella

Greetings from The Giant's Causeway, Spring 1967... it's the annual social club trip for a group of knicker factory workers from industrial Middlesbrough, busy enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of Northern Ireland... 

The Greatest Play in the History of the World...

The Greatest Play in the History of the World...

A love story, set on Preston Road, and also in space and in time. A man wakes in the middle of the night to discover that the world has stopped. Through the crack in his bedroom curtains, he can see no signs of life at all... 

Lost in Thought

Lost in Thought

Felicity's on a fantastic date... except she's stuck in the restaurant toilet, trapped by nothing but her own alarming thoughts. If living in her brain is this difficult, how is she ever going to live a normal adult life? A new play from Lucy Danser – **** (WhatsOnStage... 

Yen

Yen

Brutal, heart-breaking and often hilarious, Yen by Anna Jordan explores the relationship between nature and nurture. Bobbie and Hench are home alone in a squalid flat in Feltham, playing PlayStation, streaming porn, watching the world go by... 

Risk

Risk

'Free copy of Risk magazine with chocolate biscuits' shout Gabby and Matt at South Kensington Tube station. They also, of course, like chocolate biscuits (who doesn't?!) and intend to keep some for themselves... 

A Good Enough Girl?

A Good Enough Girl?

It’s 2025 - a world of mystery, spies and secret missions. The history of women has been erased but in every regime there’s a resistance… are you courageous enough to write their stories all over again... 

The Abode

The Abode

Welcome to the subconscious fantasy realm of oppressed white American men! Davey Anderson\'s new play follows young Samuel into the alt-right. Samuel feels like an outsider, unvalued in his own country... 

Black and White Tea Room – Counsellor

Black and White Tea Room – Counsellor

Theatre Hooam makes a welcome return to the Fringe with the award-winning Black and White Tea Room. Jeong-Heong-So offers counselling in the tearoom, but takes one day off every year: the anniversary of his wife’s death... 

Trainspotting Live

Trainspotting Live

Acclaimed immersive adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s classic, staged in a unique tunnel beneath Edinburgh’s streets. The audience are literally part of the action, including the notorious ‘worst toilet in Scotland’ scene... 

Ron the Plumber Meets God-Cilla

Ron the Plumber Meets God-Cilla

Comedy in a boiler suit with a lethal set of ratchets. One-liners, deranged frontal lobes and jokes hot from the porcelain. OCD plumber Ron takes you on a unique journey through the plumbing mysteries of England, alarmingly demonstrating suicide, traumatised French poodles, exploding chemical toilets, the disappearance of God and kamikaze lunch... 

Kin

Kin

A dying father. Two estranged sisters reunite after 20 years. One night to bury the hatchet. In an airless room over a single night, they talk it out. When the only thing they have left in common disappears, is their relationship worth saving? Written by Max Dickins (The Man on the Moor and The Trunk), this gripping story of sibling rivalry examines the meaning of family... 

Blue Heart

Blue Heart

Two funny and disturbing short plays by Caryl Churchill. Heart’s Desire: a family await the return of their daughter from Australia, but the plot keeps diverging in surreal ways. Blue Kettle: a con-man attempts to persuade several different women that he is their long-lost biological son, but is thwarted by a verbal virus that seeps into the play... 

The Ladder

The Ladder

Starring husband and wife, Rob Rouse (Upstart Crow - BBC2, 8 Out Of 10 Cats - Channel 4) and Helen Rutter (Coronation Street - ITV, Playing with Fire - National Theatre) and based on a true story... 

Angelos and Barry: A Matter of Life and Death

Angelos and Barry: A Matter of Life and Death

BBC's Angelos Epithemiou and Channel 4's Barry from Watford return with a new show following their sell-out tour. Barry wants to tell you all about his career in showbiz 'at the end of the pier' while Angelos is onstage to discuss art, poetry, literature and all the other stuff no one is meant to understand... 

Queens of Sheba

Queens of Sheba

Queens of Sheba tells the stories of four black women who have been turned away from a night club for 'being too black' (based on the Dstrkt night spot incident of 2015). The drama focuses on the rise of Misogynoir (misogyny directed towards black women where race and gender both play roles in bias)... 

The Marilyn Conspiracy

The Marilyn Conspiracy

August 5, 1962. Marilyn Monroe is found dead! Official verdict: probable suicide. Seven people are present from 22:30 before police are finally called at 04:30. What do they discuss? In the style of 12 Angry Men, all the known facts are brought together, lies exposed, myths debunked... 

Darlings

Darlings

Night out. Pub. Friends – but one of them is a bit more than a mate, isn’t he? Eve watches Gabe flirt constantly, including with their waitress. He will come to her once the games are over... 

Di & Viv & Rose (In an Hour) by Amelia Bullmore

Di & Viv & Rose (In an Hour) by Amelia Bullmore

’Have you just got exactly what you wanted by working hard and wanting it?’ A courageous look at the enduring bond of friendship. Together three women rollercoaster their way through life, encountering sex, loss and all kinds of love... 

Vivian’s Music, 1969

Vivian’s Music, 1969

Inspired by real events: in 1969, in a segregated city in the American Midwest bursting with racial tension, a 14-year-old black girl, Vivian, was shot by a white cop, igniting one of the worst race riots in American history... 

Eat Me

Eat Me

This gripping new play is a dramatic exploration of three characters’ struggle with anorexia, as we watch Libby, Kate and Jonathan fight to regain control of their lives from the fourth character, Anorexic Voice... 

Henry V – Lion of England

Henry V – Lion of England

Wild young Hal becomes King and lays claim to the French crown. Agincourt as never before! A solo tour de force through Shakespeare’s patriotic masterpiece. Incredible performance, brilliant original music and SFX... 

Nick and Nina

Nick and Nina

In a tiny living room in Edinburgh, a fraught long-term friendship reaches its breaking point. Nick and Nina have been best friends since they were children, but now in their mid-twenties, life has gotten in the way – with the world constantly changing around them, how were they supposed to keep up? Neither knows that the other is struggling, and choose to cling to an image of their friend which is long outdated, until Nick\\\'s impending arrest forces them to confront each other... 

Outcast

Outcast

Growing up is hard. But growing up as immigrants? Even harder. Hania and Zuleikha Amin had always been part of a family that was slightly different but that was never a problem. However, after a local fire unsettles their life and brings forth many harsh obstacles they must face, they begin to question their place and future in Britain... 

Coriolanus Vanishes

Coriolanus Vanishes

A tense, suspenseful, edge-of-your-seat psychological thriller. Chris experienced three deaths, one after another. She's in prison awaiting trial. But she doesn’t exactly know why... 

Tremor

Tremor

Sherman Theatre: Regional Theatre of the Year – The Stage Awards 2018. Once our lives are touched by tragedy, can we ever truly move on? Sophie and Tom’s relationship fell apart in the aftermath of a catastrophe... 

All the Lights Are On

All the Lights Are On

Typical Emmy, to turn brain cancer into a game! Her husband attempts to care for her, even as the illness eats away the woman he knows and loves, and her mother holds faith with internet voodoo and blueberry juice... 

Kokoda

Kokoda

With the Japanese army rampaging through the South Pacific in 1942, the battle to save Australia is being fought along New Guinea's infamous Kokoda track by a motley militia of poorly trained young Australians plucked off the streets of Melbourne and Sydney... 

Build a Rocket

Build a Rocket

'Scarborough is turning into Tenerife. This is global warming gone wrong. This isn't the story of Icarus and Daedalus. It's Yasmin and Jack. And we won't fly too close to the sun. We'll fly through the f*cker... 

...And This Is My Friend Mr Laurel

...And This Is My Friend Mr Laurel

Jeffrey Holland (Hi-de-Hi, You Rang M'Lord) returns in this sell-out one-man show about friendship, memories and a couple of remarkable lives. Set in the bedroom of a sick Oliver Hardy, the show takes place during Laurel's visit to the dying man... 

WEIRD

WEIRD

Critically acclaimed company return to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Yasmin feels different, she feels weird. She longs to be normal like everyone else but that’s proving difficult... 

I Spy With My Little Eye Something Beginning With Why Have You Been Sleeping With My Wife: A Play by Christopher Bliss

I Spy With My Little Eye Something Beginning With Why Have You Been Sleeping With My Wife: A Play by Christopher Bliss

Award-winning comedian Rob Carter's cult-hit creation, Christopher Bliss, is back. The worst novelist in Shropshire has written, directed, and cast himself in his first ever play, alongside both of his friends... 

One Woman Sex and the City

One Woman Sex and the City

Parody on love, friendship and shoes. A loving send-up takes audiences through a laughter-infused six seasons of the beloved show. Comedic whirling dervish Kerry Ipema portrays Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda as they brunch, banter, argue and swoon over men and Manolos... 

After the Cuts

After the Cuts

Produced by Raw Material, in association with the Beacon Arts Centre. A dark comedy by Gary McNair, directed by Beth Morton. It's the future; just like now, but a bit more... well, shitey... 

Outside

Outside

As the UK emerges from a state-mandated curfew, three young friends see their newfound freedom arrive but with shackles of its own. What does it mean to come of age in an age quickly running out of options? A brand-new dramedy produced in association with the Pleasance Trust... 

Not in Our Neighbourhood

Not in Our Neighbourhood

Maisey Mata, a filmmaker, is invited by the Women's Refuge to document their clients in order to raise awareness about domestic violence. There, she encounters Sasha, Cat and Teresa – three individuals living together in the safe house, seeking solace and trying to rebuild their lives: all performed by award-winning actor Kali Kopae... 

Looking for Lightning

Looking for Lightning

An inspirational story of courage, caution and perseverance and humor. Facing a diagnosis of multiple sclerosis head on, McLean takes us on a journey from the fast-paced life of Hollywood to Canada to India and the feet of yoga master BKS Iyengar... 

Taiwan Season: The Delusion of Home

Taiwan Season: The Delusion of Home

From the Chiayi area of southern Taiwan comes this strong and original documentary-style depiction of local contemporary life refracted through one of Shakespeare's greatest tragedies... 

Dancing on Ice Tour 2018: Glasgow

Dancing on Ice Tour 2018: Glasgow

The Dancing on Ice Live UK Tour will be skating back across the country next year, starring the legendary Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean. Following a four year break, this spectacular new show will perform all over the UK throughout March and April 2018... 

The Moderate Soprano

The Moderate Soprano

The two great passions in John Christie’s life were opera and a beautiful young soprano, Audrey Mildmay, with whom he was completely smitten. Together with his formidable drive, they fuelled what many first saw as a monumental folly in the South Downs... 

The Plough and The Stars

The Plough and The Stars

Set amid the tumult of the Easter Rising, The Plough and the Stars is the story of ordinary lives ripped apart by the idealism of the time. The residents of a Dublin tenement shelter from the violence that sweeps through the city’s streets... 

The Best Man

The Best Man

Two opposing presidential party candidates are neck and neck in an unscrupulous battle for the nomination. The only thing that separates the ex-Secretary of State and his populist opponent is an endorsement from a respected ex-President... 

Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude

Harold and Maude is an idiosyncratic fable told though the eyes of the most unlikely pairing:  a compulsive, self-destructive young man who attends funerals for entertainment and a devil-may-care, septuagenarian bohemian... 

The Divide Part 2

The Divide Part 2

The Divide, presented in two parts, is a tale that unflinchingly explores a dystopian society of repression, insurrection and forbidden love. The show is directed by Annabel Bolton, an Associate Director of The Old Vic... 

Mary Stuart

Mary Stuart

Two queens. One in power. One in prison. It’s all in the execution. Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out season at the Almeida Theatre in 2016-17, Robert Icke’s new adaptation of Mary Stuart transfers to the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End from 13 January for a limited run... 

The Seagull

The Seagull

Unrequited love. Creative jealousy. Guns. Vodka and Art. Chekhov’s celebrated masterpiece is given vibrant new life in this dynamic new adaptation by Olivier-award winning playwright Simon Stephens directed by Sean Holmes and starring Lesley Sharp as Irina Arkadina... 

Venus in Fur

Venus in Fur

'You don't have to tell me about sadomasochism. I'm in the theatre' Natalie Dormer and David Oakes star in the West End premiere of David Ives’ critically acclaimed Broadway smash hit, VENUS IN FUR... 

Apologia

Apologia

Tony and Emmy Award winner Stockard Channing, Freema Agyeman (Doctor Who), Olivier Award winner Desmond Barrit, Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey) and Joseph Millson (The Last Kingdom) star in a new production of Alexi Kaye Campbell’s darkly funny play about family and its secrets... 

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

Two tramps, Didi and Gogo wait on a country road by a tree for a man named Godot. They don’t know what he looks like or when they were supposed to meet. They don’t know what they asked him for or what he will do when he gets there... 

Venus and Adonis

Venus and Adonis

It is a rare treat to hear a dramatised performance of Shakespeare’s first published work, Venus and Adonis. Publishedin 1593, the poem became the bestseller of its day, helped to a certain extent by the closure of theatres during an outbreak of plague... 

The Fall

The Fall

In a month where white supremacists have marched through the streets over Charlottesville in protest against the removal of a Confederate statue, there could not be a more relevant time to tell the story of #Rhodesmustfall... 

Hide

Hide

As a big fan of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, I was very excited to see Boiling Point’s spin-off. It plays with some of the main themes of the original story: a concentration on the splitting of personalities and the dangers which ensue... 

Hell Has No Fury

Hell Has No Fury

In this show, you will empathise with a child killer. A bold promise from TwentySomething theatre company when they stage Hell Has No Fury with only a monologue and three outward facing mirrors (lit with spooky candles for good measure) for support... 

Wondr

Wondr

Simone James stars in Wondr, Poppy Burton-Morgan’s debut as a playwright with Metta Theatre. Social media phenomenon Faith Allgood explodes into the digital world inspiring her masses of online followers as a ‘digilante’, hooked on her phone and her need to self-gratify through making a difference... 

Dear Home Office :Still Pending

Dear Home Office :Still Pending

Amidst the large amount of political theatre at the Fringe, Dear Home Office: Still Pending sticks out. And not just because the cast members are all actual refugees. They’re non-professional actors who, in several cases... 

Beautiful Little Fool

Beautiful Little Fool

As one of the most famous American authors of all time, many people will know of F. Scott Fitzgerald and yet the woman behind the man, his wife Zelda, has been overlooked for the most part... 

Human Animals

Human Animals

We open on a reversed environmental crisis. Animals are seemingly threatening humans with ruin at the hands of a deadly disease. The result is a dystopian purge of all wildlife, domesticated animals, the torching of London’s parks, the blocking of its roads and the enforcing of curfews on its hysterical (human) civilians... 

1984

1984

George Orwell’s magnum opus novel 1984 is eerily relevant today despite being published in 1949 and shows us a world of constant war, omnipresent surveillance and propaganda conditioning... 

Wired

Wired

Wired is one of several productions with a military theme being performed at the Army Reserve Centre, Summerhall’s new venue, army@Fringe. What it portrays is a world away from the cosy atmosphere of the mess bar, the art exhibition and the casual social interaction; not that several of the soldiers on duty haven't had first hand experience of what it portrays... 

Speaking in Tongues: The Lies

Speaking in Tongues: The Lies

Andrew Bovell’s Speaking in Tongues: The Lies is one half of a Doughnut Productions double bill showing at the Pleasance Courtyard this August. Matched by its sister play The Truths, The Lies gives us a glimpse of the lives of four married individuals who initiate a quartet of love and infidelity... 

Fragile Man

Fragile Man

On a cliff edge somewhere, a man is about to jump to his death when he is stopped by a psychology professor. To a soundtrack of shrill digital sounds and heavy breathing, what follows is a conversation scouring the deepest and darkest caverns of masculinity, trauma, faith and loneliness... 

Twenty Something

Twenty Something

Morning People Productions’ self-written and self-directed Twenty Something is a wonderful, shrewd new play about the whirlwind of realities and disappointments in young adult life, set to an angsty soundtrack and showcasing some brilliant young talent... 

The Ballad of Paragon Station

The Ballad of Paragon Station

Theatre is always at its most powerful when you feel truly transported into someone else’s reality. This is exactly what The Ballad of Paragon Station achieves through its profound story and captivating performance... 

Nora and Jim

Nora and Jim

Though history favours certain people and ends up silencing others, theatre can be a means of trying to give a voice to those whose perspectives have been lost. Nora and Jim does just that, imagining how Nora Barnacle, James Jocye’s partner, would reply to Jim’s letters... 

Distortion

Distortion

Have you ever asked yourself 'did that actually happen? Or is it all in my head?'. A captivating look inside a teenager's mind and their quest to distinguish illusion from reality... 

The Man Who Couldn't Dance

The Man Who Couldn't Dance

Set in the heart of Scotland, The Man Who Couldn't Dance is a story of first love, broken promises and surviving suburbia in the aftermath of a broken heart. Starring Louise Burke (Scotland) and Aidan O'Callaghan (Ireland)... 

Freedom

Freedom

Based on the true story of a Ugandan orphan, Amelia, whose parents died in a house fire. Freedom powerfully depicts the themes of sex slavery, domestic violence and misogyny set against the backdrop of life in 1980’s Uganda... 

Lear

Lear

It is brave to reimagine Shakespeare, in particular arguably his greatest tragedy but Lear by John Scott Dance is a deeply moving, subtle and superbly performed interpretation of Shakespeare’s play through physical theatre, dance, speech and fragments of text focusing in modern terms onhow we treat old age and dementia... 

A Different Way Home

A Different Way Home

In A Different Way Home we hear from two estranged members of the same family as they share their sides of a complex family story with us – chiefly how they manage grief after loss of a family member... 

Cathy

Cathy

50 years ago, Ken Loach’s TV drama, Cathy Come Home, won plaudits for its gritty and honest treatment of homelessness. Cardboard Citizens’ latest production takes inspiration from the film, exploring contemporary homelessness in the context of a failing British housing system... 

Girls

Girls

Deeply political, magnificently performed and filled with tense action and witty dialogue, Girls manages to grip and amaze the audience with its characters and powerful message from start to finish... 

Good With Maps

Good With Maps

Siren Theatre Co’s Good With Maps is a multi-faceted story masterfully guided by Jane Phegan who takes us through this one woman show. We are gradually brought to understand the link of the Amazon, literature and Parkinson’s disease as the three topics of storytelling intertwine... 

Seanmhair

Seanmhair

The initial experience one is met with when the lights dim for Seanmhair (pronounced shen-a-var) is breathtaking. Flashes of light, dazzling expressive actors, intense dialogue delivered at breakneck speed as moments of levity are sprinkled amongst the drama effortlessly and sometimes so quickly the audience don’t catch them all... 

Creatives

Creatives

At a college songwriting class in Chicago, an end-of-year competition involves the students performing each other’s anonymous submissions for a celebrity guest judge. It’s like no contest I’ve ever heard of in real life, and there’s something gloriously petty about the characters’ investment in it – it’s all very musical theatre dahling... 

If Only: An Audience With Rudyard Kipling

If Only: An Audience With Rudyard Kipling

An exciting new play about Jungle Book author Rudyard Kipling, exploring his extraordinary life and the devastating personal consequences of WWI. Discover fresh insights into the man who was the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature and once Britain's most popular writer... 

Questioning Aslan: An Evening With CS Lewis

Questioning Aslan: An Evening With CS Lewis

CS Lewis and a troubled, questioning student in a scintillating and spellbinding 90 minutes in the study of the famous Oxford don and bestselling author. The production was a huge hit at the the 2013 Fringe with a four-star review from BroadwayBaby... 

iDENTiTY

iDENTiTY

While most sketch shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe play up to their comic roots, Anomaly Theatre Company are adding a touch of the macabre with their dystopian show iDENTiTY. From a salesman using search histories as blackmail to a laboratory for foetus production, these sketches present our world as we know it, but with grim exaggeration that feels as much like a warning as entertainment... 

And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie’s classic And Then There Were None is difficult as a play. The self-serious tone of the novel feels contrived on stage, and actually seeing people thrust into such a contrived scenario in person is patently camp compared to reading it on the page... 

We Need to Talk About Bobby (Off EastEnders)

We Need to Talk About Bobby (Off EastEnders)

EastEnders fans will remember experiencing shock and upheaval at the revelation that the culprit of a long-running murder whodunnit was 10 year old Bobby Beale. Prepare to relive those feelings again in Paperback Theatre’s We Need To Talk About Bobby (Off EastEnders), written by George Attwell Gerhards and directed by Lucy Bird... 

Julius Caesar

Julius Caesar

All-female Australian group Essential Theatre present their own gender-swapped take on Shakespeare’s classic. An intriguing concept, the production itself shows flashes of brilliance but also plenty of missed opportunities... 

Young and Fresh

Young and Fresh

Alice is an up-and-coming reporter and she is assigned the topic of sex trafficking to research. She is shocked by what she uncovers. The performance explores true stories experienced by many trafficked girls and Alice's feelings of discovery through her research... 

Tea and Nuisance

Tea and Nuisance

In 1950s Britain there is a rose garden. Among the wildflowers there sits a peculiar looking glass and many curious tea sets. Here we find Al, a girl made for living, however, she suffers from a terrible cough and a troubling reflection... 

The Dame

The Dame

A seasoned pantomime dame sits alone in his dressing room applying make-up, preparing for the performance of a lifetime. He’s returned to the northern seaside town where he grew up for the Christmas season, and is bitterly confronted with why he left all those years before... 

Next!

Next!

Next! is a gritty, thought-provoking and poignant comedy illustrating the trials and tribulations of three unequivocally unique and extraordinary individuals. Enjoy their hilarious and calamitous excursions into love, life, loss and the search for whatever might be next…  

Gazing at a Distant Star

Gazing at a Distant Star

Gazing at a Distant Star follows three lives individually dealing with their own losses. First we are introduced to the boisterous but relatable everyman, Arun, working in a call centre to raise enough money for university... 

The Tempest

The Tempest

A sibling betrayal. A terrible storm. A magical island, a sprite and a monster. New young female theatre company Ellipses fuse drama, sound and movement to create a snappy, atmospheric, gender-fluid Tempest for our time... 

A Level Playing Field

A Level Playing Field

A fast-paced dramatic/comedic representation of the stresses of 21st-century student life. Within a caged classroom where 11 students spend exam isolation, the play comically approaches the flaws of school relationships, education and society... 

Dark Satanic

Dark Satanic

England, 1823: the Industrial Revolution and a changing world. Helen works their farm alone while her husband toils in the factories of a newly industrialised Manchester. As the harsh winter bites, Helen realises it isn't only the world that's changing, it's her... 

Professional

Professional

Half past five on a Friday evening, and a school’s electronic door-locking system shuts down for the weekend… with four teachers still in the staff room. Claustrophobia sets in... 

Everest Calling

Everest Calling

Sunnyhill School wants pupils that push the limits. 'What's your Everest?' is the headmaster's rallying cry. The results are unexpected; pupil chaos is unleashed. The school hits full-on crisis mode as students Keldan and Lucy head to the dark side... 

Side Orders

Side Orders

'You can open your eyes now'. Tinder, tea, falafel, fear. Amina wants to be a stand-up comedian. Lily doesn’t know what she wants to be, but she’s trying to be PC. A chance meeting in a chip shop with glitter-ball artist Bobbi makes them the focus of his new artwork forcing all of them to question; what does it mean to be lonely today? Following the success of Twix: ‘A definite must see at Edinburgh fringe’ (AYoungerTheatre... 

Pronoun

Pronoun

The Actor's Centre Theatre Company, Jersey, make their Edinburgh Festival premiere with Evan Placey's critically acclaimed play. A love story about transition, testosterone, and James Dean... 

The Bothy

The Bothy

Scotland. Post Great War. Three men of different societal class coincidentally bunker down in a bothy for a night telling stories of war and philosophising about life thereafter. A weave of tales and theories are told only for them to discover that their own paths are interwoven resulting in this intersection... 

The Lucky Durhams: The First Day of the Somme

The Lucky Durhams: The First Day of the Somme

This play, set against the historically accurate backdrop of the first day of the Somme, features fictitious soldiers from the Durham Pals regiment, preparing for the big push. Extensive research of the Durham Light Infantry and local events have shaped the script, with reference to actual newspaper articles... 

Would You Adam and Eve It?

Would You Adam and Eve It?

Take two funny men and ask them to create a hilarious dash through Genesis and Exodus in just under 90 minutes. Lots of laughs and floods and snakes and plagues. Thou must turn up and have a good giggle... 

Cold Comfort Farm

Cold Comfort Farm

Cold Comfort Farm is the story of Flora Poste, a bright young thing who finds herself forced to live with her relatives in the countryside. On arrival, she finds the farm in rack and ruin, being destroyed by the doomed Starkadders: Amos, preaching hellfire and damnation, Cousin Judith, racked with remorse and desperately seeking redemption in the tea leaves, lustful Seth and despairing Reuben... 

Neighbourhood Watch

Neighbourhood Watch

Alan Ayckbourn's comedy for our times. When Martin and his sister Hilda move into respectable Bluebell Hill, they quickly decide to band together with their neighbours to keep out undesirable elements... 

Tartuffe

Tartuffe

Moliere’s classic comedy is one of the great originals that have been remade, adapted, musicalised and everything else-ised over the years. But, as with most classics, the original is still the best, and this is the original, brilliantly and wittily adapted by Roger McGough! The plot: a power hungry impostor uses fear and religion to gain power... 

Theresa di Maggio

Theresa di Maggio

Theresa is a woman of the Italian high society, married to a respectable husband and lost in a betrayal that initially seems to bring a breath of fresh air to the solitude she has always lived in... 

Interrobang

Interrobang

Connor and George have been long acquainted, but as Connor's reality is distorted, do they really know each other that well? Interrobang is a new piece of writing looking at mental health from a feminist viewpoint. 

Seven Devils

Seven Devils

Executed by student acting troupe The Hurtwood Corner from performing arts college Hurtwood House, Seven Devils is a play exploring the trials of down-on-their-luck Manhattan residents in the 1920s, centred around their local speakeasy... 

Walls and Bridges

Walls and Bridges

In their new drama, Walls and Bridges, Acting Coach Scotland delves into the themes of home and belonging through a dystopian Scotland in 2035. This damaged society suffers constant deportations, arrests and total alienation from the outside world... 

A Compendium of Lost Things

A Compendium of Lost Things

A man collects stories of lost keys and dreams gone astray, wayward wallets and absent loved ones, abandoned playthings and misplaced memories. A troupe of players pluck tales from his compendium and weave them together, moving from song to puppetry to physical theatre to naturalism, finally focusing in on fractured voices of those who have lost nearly everything... 

Under My Thumb

Under My Thumb

CultureClash Theatre consume the audience in Cassiah Joski-Jethi’s gripping political play Under My Thumb. Directed meticulously by James Haddrell, we are locked in a dark, dank and oppressive basement, ‘The Snug’ – Assembly Roxy’s new theatre space – along with six women who have been imprisoned for their crimes against society... 

Tshepang: The Third Testament

Tshepang: The Third Testament

Casting a blinding light on the atrocities of human nature, Tshepang: The Third Testament is a harrowing portrayal of the true story of Baby Tshepang – a nine-month-old South African baby who was brutally raped in 2001... 

Pixel Dust

Pixel Dust

Pixel Dust is a rare thing: a piece of theatre about the internet that isn’t utterly technophobic. That shouldn’t feel like something radical but, sadly, it is and it’s hugely refreshing to see a piece of theatre that isn’t hell bent on decrying the evils and dangers of social media that we’ve all heard before... 

Chamberlain: Peace in Our Time

Chamberlain: Peace in Our Time

Chamberlain has been relegated to history as one of life’s wishful thinkers. The famous photo of him proudly waving the Munich Agreement live on as a symbol of failed negotiation and blistering naivety towards Hitler’s evil... 

The Cause of Thunder

The Cause of Thunder

It’s two years after the referendum, and Bob Cunningham has stuff on his mind: whether or not to take early retirement, politics and what to do about the no vote, Brexit, Corbyn, refugees… that weird thing about rising into the heavens… and not forgetting the letter from Ethel, his ex... 

Mies Julie

Mies Julie

Yael Farber’s critically acclaimed Mies Julie has returned to the Edinburgh Fringe and it’s easy to see why, with its incisive portrayal of colonialism, gender politics, and white privilege it’s arguably more relevant now than when it first premiered in 2012... 

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk

The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk

A show about the evocative powers of art must be particularly effective in practicing what it preaches. Emma Rice’s final production with Kneehigh succeeds in being a delight for all the senses... 

Heroes

Heroes

Exploding Whale Theatre’s coming of age romp Heroes is set against the backdrop of Bowie’s rise to superstardom in 1972. A time when Bowie was inspiring misfits and outsiders to release their inner selves, and while the bright lights of the city seemed so much more adventurous and exciting than small town mundanity... 

Me, as a Penguin

Me, as a Penguin

Tom Wells’s Me, as a Penguin, performed this August by Exeter University Theatre Company, is both a fun and melancholy look at loneliness, love and family. Stitch is living with his heavily pregnant sister Liz and her unprepared husband Mark in Hull, trying to give his social and sexual identity the space it needs to bloom... 

Anyone's Guess How We Got Here

Anyone's Guess How We Got Here

Barrel Organ’s new show Anyone’s Guess How We Got Here feels like a natural development of the company’s practice and philosophy whilst also managing to delve into a very different tone and genre... 

Your Point of View

Your Point of View

The internet has altered many aspects of the world we live in. The Lala Land Production’s performance of Your Point of View reflects how the world of internet porn in particular has altered our view of reality in so far as how we approach relationships... 

Birdland by Simon Stephens

Birdland by Simon Stephens

yt2 return with Birdland by the Olivier and Tony award-winning Simon Stephens. The last week of a massive international tour and rock star Paul is at the height of his fame. Everybody knows his name... 

Women at War

Women at War

Women at War is an interesting piece which explores the gendered dimensions of warfare through a monologue by a female American soldier serving in Afghanistan.Constructed from interviews with female soldiers deployed during 2012-13, the show creates a fictional protagonist (Rebecca Johannsen) who signs up to the ‘Female Engagement Team’, a unit tasked with befriending Afghan women in order to gather intelligence... 

Bacchae

Bacchae

Both faithful and frantic, young company Flying Pig Theatre have produced a very satisfying version of Euripides’ Bacchae with a deft touch.It is worth noting that, despite being advertised as being transported to a crumbling Victorian mansion, this doesn’t really appear to be the case in any form or fashion... 

The Last Queen of Scotland

The Last Queen of Scotland

The Last Queen of Scotland is a bold and original new piece of writing by Jaimini Jethwa, commissioned by the National Theatre of Scotland and Dundee Rep, and produced by Stellar Quines... 

10 Rillington Place

10 Rillington Place

10 Rillington Place is successful in creating a chillingly uncanny aura; a domestic scene is twisted from the familiar into the unthinkable. Telling as true and horrifying a story as the serial murders by John Christie at 10 Rillington Place is no easy job to do well... 

Penetrator

Penetrator

Edinburgh flatmates Max and Alan are perfectly happy swapping banter and joints after a long day of doing nothing. Then their old friend Tadge arrives, AWOL from the army, and acting very strangely... 

Patience

Patience

The story of two women in need of a liver transplant: Sophie Undridge, a young woman with autoimmune hepatitis, whose life has been reduced to medication and hospitalisation, and Bethan Wilkins, a recovering alcoholic determined to turn her life around... 

Jelly Beans

Jelly Beans

Jelly Beans is a really, really horrible play. A new work by Dan Pick, the piece describes one day in the life of an unnamed man in Port Glasgow. Wasting time, money and relationships, the man is suffering from severe alienation... 

The Play

The Play

Unafraid to show the peaks and troughs of getting over an upsetting event, TheForgottenMoose Theatre Company put on an endearing performance of their original piece: The Play.The Play tells the story of two flatmates... 

Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters

Terry Pratchett's Wyrd Sisters

This play is an abridged version of the stage adaptation of late novelist Terry Pratchett’s sixth Discworld book which is in itself a parody of Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Confused? Don’t worry; all the tropes are there: three witches, a murdered king, an ambitious wife and a child with a destiny and possibly a crown... 

Someone Dies at the End

Someone Dies at the End

A small group of survivors huddle in a bunker, eating beans and reminiscing on their favourite foods. Before long their camaraderie is shattered by new arrivals, recriminations and mistrust... 

How to Act

How to Act

How to Act is set up as a masterclass in acting with a fantastic twist that brings questions of race and gender into a topical debate. Robert Goodale plays Anthony Nicholl, the teacher who welcomes the audience as though they are about to watch a masterclass, which we certainly are... 

My Real Life

My Real Life

Noel has multiple sclerosis. As he sees it his next few months will be an inevitable, excruciating descent into paralysis and eventually death. His body has already started to go. And so Noel records his final goodbye on a tape recorder for his friend Rich, a final memento for the living before he takes his own life... 

The Edelweiss Pirates

The Edelweiss Pirates

A touching piece of theatre, the young performers of Parker & Snell Youth Company have created an effective retelling of The Edelweiss Pirates and their struggle during the Second World War in Hitler’s Germany... 

Changelings

Changelings

Pucqui Collaborative’s Changelings is a thoughtful story about two very different existences colliding and attempting to translate one another. Totally immersed in the midst of a deep jungle and surrounded by birdsong and running water, we encounter the meeting of Mowgli (Nicole Palomba) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream’s Puck (Robin Ian HallSmith), a character displaced from his usual forest haunt to a less familiar but no less magical setting... 

Glasgow Central

Glasgow Central

Glasgow Central is a play based on true events, written and directed by Lauren Dowie. This gritty, hard-hitting piece of theatre promotes Scotland’s talent and conveys urban stories about Scotland which are rarely told... 

Stiff Dicky

Stiff Dicky

Theatre aiming to portray the lives of millennials is so often completely wrong and patronising (no, we don’t say the word ‘rad’ any more, or believe that wearing snapbacks is anything but a travesty)... 

Freedom

Freedom

Based on the true story of a Ugandan orphan, Amelia, whose parents died in a house fire. Freedom powerfully depicts the themes of sex slavery, domestic violence and misogyny set against the backdrop of life in 1980’s Uganda... 

The D-Day Dodgers. An Attempt to Right a Wrong.

The D-Day Dodgers. An Attempt to Right a Wrong.

One million people on all sides were killed in Italy in WW2. This didn't stop a British politician calling the allied troops 'D-Day Dodgers'. Their response? Don't get mad, get even! Well, it was to write and perform a satirical song about said politician... 

Ivona, Princess of Burgundia – Tibaldus

Ivona, Princess of Burgundia – Tibaldus

Timeau De Keyser, Hans Mortelmans and Simon De Winne – together known as Tibaldus – are one of Belgium’s most exciting and innovative young companies whose work is fierce, surprising and thrilling... 

A While With Seamus Heaney

A While With Seamus Heaney

A heartfelt tribute to Ireland's late Nobel Poet by award-winning Ulster actor-director Larry McCluskey. The poems are set within a frame of live music and critical and, at times, witty commentary by an actor who knows the Ulster landscape... 

Died Blondes

Died Blondes

Marilyn Monroe, movie star. Ruth Ellis, murderer. Infamous women. Famous last words re-imagined by award-winning writer Joan Ellis as she transports you from Hollywood to Holloway. What secrets did JFK’s mistress, Marilyn Monroe whisper down the phone to ex-husband Joe DiMaggio the night she died? How could Ruth Ellis, the last woman to be hanged in Britain, justify to lover, David Blakely her reason for shooting him? Piecing together the latest theories, Joan Ellis enables two so-called dumb blondes to find their voice... 

Not About Heroes

Not About Heroes

Too often, we see the First World War as a stretch of years where only war happened, followed by years where the art about the war exploded in its disruptive manner. However, this is not the case, and Not About Heroes seeks to challenge that by telling us the story of some of the war’s two most famous poets: Wilfred Owen and Siefried Sassoon... 

Glitter Punch

Glitter Punch

Some Riot theatre's new play is a rollercoaster of love, loss and the passion and pain of being young that hooks you from the first word, makes you fall in love with it then breaks your heart in the process... 

Heather

Heather

Fifty years ago, Roland Barthes told us to forget what we know about an author when reading a text. Today, writers tweet every hour, grace the broadsheets every weekend and even host their own media channels... 

Stand By

Stand By

There’s a real sense of excitement in the run-up to Stand By, not least thanks to the slightly-unusual venue—inside an Army Reserve Centre in the north of the New Town. Serving soldiers act as ushers, issuing us with the same single-earpiece headphones worn by police officers on duty... 

The Hong Kong Three Sisters

The Hong Kong Three Sisters

Premiered in 1901 in Moscow, The Three Sisters by Chekhov is a play perhaps surprisingly easy to adapt to many different circumstances, as it speaks about characters’ dreams for a better life and the continuance of human suffering... 

Lunch Girls

Lunch Girls

Bee, Dee, Jay and Vee – will they ever do lunch? Dee's a bitch, Jay's in love (but who with?), Dee's got Harry's mother's dodgy wheelchair to deal with, and Bee worries about everything... 

Dick in Space

Dick in Space

The biggest Dick in the universe is on a plural mission: murder investigation, self-destruction and solving the riddles of the universe – taking on God, Napoleon and unruly human organs on the way... 

Loud in Babel

Loud in Babel

It is 2057 and the world’s population has reached 10 billion. To prevent unsanctioned births, British law states that no male and female can be allowed to be alone together in a private place... 

Home Front – Front Line

Home Front – Front Line

Home Front – Front Line tells the story of WWII through the lives of a young couple: Lizzie, a young woman serving on the home front with the Women's Land Army, and Tom, serving on the front line as a soldier... 

Late to the Party

Late to the Party

Direct from The Brighton Fringe – an autobiographical romp through a midlife diagnosis of ADHD in the Times journalist Emma Mahony. The new knowledge makes her revisit her history and look at evidence of where impulsivity, restlessness and distractibility have made a mess of things... 

The Importance of Being Frank

The Importance of Being Frank

Wilde's much loved masterpiece gets a 1980s revamp. John Worthing and his egocentric friend Andrew Moncrieff fall in love with two naive girls. However, there's a problem – both girls are adamant they could only ever love a man called Frank... 

NSFW

NSFW

'The articles are shit. No offence, Charlotte. But no one buys our publication principally for the literature. I think it’s important to recognise that.' Lad’s mag Doghouse is in trouble: after a topless image of an underage girl is featured, her furious father threatens to bring down the magazine... 

An Actor's Tribute

An Actor's Tribute

An Actor's Tribute combines new writing with devised content and improv to create a piece of theatre that explores the highs and lows of life from an actor’s point of view. It’s become a tradition for students at Oxbridge to perform variations on the theme of an actor’s tribute, and because the content is guided by the students, each year’s production is unique... 

Woyzeck

Woyzeck

Woyzeck ekes out a living on a meagre wage, earning pennies by eating peas for a dodgy clinical trial, while his wife cheats on him and everyone finds him pathetic. It’s enough to drive a person mad! FramBag is fizzingly back on top form for the festival this year with another twist on a classic... 

A Feyre Tale

A Feyre Tale

New writer Priscilla Berringer collaborates with Joanna Faith Habershon (2016’s Soft, the Moon Rose), taking a fresh look at old time classic Jane Eyre through the eyes of a failing theatre company... 

I Am Your Love Story

I Am Your Love Story

Period production set in India in the 1940s, staging a spiritual journey two people take as they step foot into the theatre of life. Challenging, full of energy and humour with a strong educational direction. 

Waiting for Spring

Waiting for Spring

Jack and Annie had the perfect relationship, right up until the day they didn't anymore. Now she's dead, he's lost and nothing makes sense any more, but at least the zombie apocalypse is – probably – not nigh... 

Bassett

Bassett

At Wootton Bassett School, Leo’s class has been locked in. Dean needs the toilet, Aimee needs a coffee, Amid needs to pray and Leo really, really wants to escape. Outside, a repatriation of fallen British soldiers is about to begin – and this one is personal... 

Crimes of the Heart

Crimes of the Heart

In 1950s Hazlehurst, Mississippi, the Mcgrath sisters have returned home. Lenny, the oldest sister is unmarried and facing dwindling marriage prospects; Meg, the middle sister, has returned after a failed stint in Hollywood and the youngest sister, Babe is out on bail after shooting her husband... 

Private Peaceful

Private Peaceful

Powerful one-man show based on the much-loved WWI novel by Michael Morpurgo (War Horse). George Stagnell plays 17-year-old Tommo Peaceful and everyone else he remembers as he looks back on his short but wonderful life: from growing up in rural England with his brother Charlie, falling in love with the same girl, to the terrors the brothers face together in the trenches... 

The Pitchfork Disney

The Pitchfork Disney

Ridley’s modern classic sees Presley and Haley as orphaned and perpetually infantilised 28 year-olds, unable to leave their East London flat for ten years following their parents death... 

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor

It's 1956, when men slayed business on the golf course and women had the dinner waiting. Sir John Falstaff is past his prime and down on his luck; his need for quick cash and his gross underestimation of these (not so desperate) housewives has riotous results! Watch as Mistress Page and Mistress Ford exact their revenge through a rousing story of hilarious jealousies and mischievous misunderstandings... 

Empty Shoes

Empty Shoes

Imagine a lifetime of feeling invisible. A man held together by ritual and routine is drawn to the edge of a precipice, seeking escape. Trapped in a life he did not choose, oppressed by duty to others, past and present converge as he contemplates his existence... 

Vaccine

Vaccine

Vaccine is a searing new drama created by the newly formed Warwick University company, Juvenilia. It is an intense psychological drama, exploring the tensions and power shifts between the patients and staff of a psychiatric institution... 

Space Dogs

Space Dogs

Space Dogs is a historical comedy drama set in the early days of the Cold War. It tells the story of Strelka and Belka, two of the first living beings to ever reach outer space and return alive... 

Dirty Bitches

Dirty Bitches

This play tells the story of Sophia, a street prostitute, and Serephina, a high class escort. These two women, both in their mid sixties, are coerced by Royston into meeting each other for the first time, or so they think... 

I'm Always the Bridesmaid

I'm Always the Bridesmaid

Halfway through David Tsonos’ tedious and rambling show, a former boyfriend, one of the many trotted out as a manifested recollection from the trio of bridesmaids, appears before us with his all-time football score achieved during his childhood... 

Cockamamy

Cockamamy

Cockamamy is an adjective meaning ludicrous or nonsensical. For Alice, a woman suffering from dementia, it is more than a high scoring word on an episode of Countdown. Living with her granddaughter, Rosie, this word acts as a means of describing what is happening to her... 

City Love

City Love

City Love provides an honest and hard-hitting look at relationships, starting with a chance encounter between two young London professionals on a night bus. Utilising a delicate combination of monologues, narrative and physicality, the two-person cast lead us through the emotional journey of their subsequent relationship... 

Fox and Hound Presents 1 in 2 Chance

Fox and Hound Presents 1 in 2 Chance

As her lead character, Helen Fox explains that one out of every two people in the UK born after 1960 will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. 1 in 2 Chance is a new play by Fox exploring what that diagnosis means, not just to the sick person, but to those around her... 

Gypsy Queen

Gypsy Queen

Despite Hope Theatre Company’s name, this production did not leave me very hopeful about the issue it was raising – that of discrimination against LGBT people in sport. However, in dealing with this potentially delicate issue, Gypsy Queen achieves a good balance between funny and moving in this clever new two-hander... 

Avalon

Avalon

This is an insight into a piece of work in its infancy, and it does have a long way to go before it stands on its own two feet. This staged read though of Avalon is littered with clumsy tropes, a lack of consistency in its world building, and an ambiguity in what it is trying to achieve... 

Speaking in Tongues: The Truths

Speaking in Tongues: The Truths

Sometimes, just one good idea is enough to make a show a success. It seem that this is what Doughnut Productions were counting on with their production of Speaking In Tongues: The Truths... 

Raton Laveur

Raton Laveur

Raton Laveur – meaning raccoon – is an original, bold, black comedy brought to us by Australian theatre company Fairly Lucid Productions, who are making their debut at the Edinburgh Festival this year... 

The Amazing Clinic of Armour and Smith

The Amazing Clinic of Armour and Smith

The Amazing Clinic of Armour and Smith is an amusing farce about a doctor’s waiting room filled with patients in desperate need of solutions to their relationship problems.This is a production written by Caitlin Sherret in her teenage years that she has adapted in order to take a step into the exciting world of theatre... 

Sleepwalkers

Sleepwalkers

Opening with an audio recording of various real-life political statements – given by both normal citizens and political leaders – Sleepwalkers quickly registers its interest in populism... 

Birthday Cake

Birthday Cake

Based on the true story of the senseless, unsolved stabbing of a teenager, Dan Bishop’s dark comedy explores the impact random acts of violence have on young people, and their understanding of the world... 

Frozen

Frozen

One evening, 10-year-old Rhona goes missing. Nancy, her mother, withdraws into a state of frozen hope. Agnetha crosses the Atlantic to study Ralph in an attempt to thaw the frozen sea that is the criminal brain... 

Beauty

Beauty

'What is an artist without his muse?' Beauty constantly asks this question as it delves into what it really means to create a legacy as an artist, and investigates how morals are explored and brought into question in the world of art... 

About a Goth

About a Goth

Life as a Goth is not easy. All those clothes, the make-up and maintaining the image make for a very demanding existence. Nick, a 17-year-old gay boy is feeling the strain and is beginning to wonder whether he has chosen the right vocation in life... 

Stegosaurus

Stegosaurus

No crocodile tears are involved in this deeply moving one woman monologue; it is emotion in its purest, most innocent form. This story of a 30 year old woman living with her parents whilst battling her way through eating disorders deals with sensitive issues using a combination of complete humanism and unapologetic honesty... 

The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign

The Girl Who Jumped Off The Hollywood Sign

Hollywood: home to the fools who dream. Evie Edwards is not the first and certainly won’t be the last aspiring actress to fall for its charm and promise of stardom. This play critically examines the Hollywood dream and its power to simultaneously attract both the ambitious and the vulnerable... 

Taiwan Season: Ever Never

Taiwan Season: Ever Never

Poignant and humorous, this is a semi-autobiographical piece of writing which roots itself in Co-coism director Hung Chien-Han’s upbringing. Ever Never is made up of mutually exclusive scenes which look at the idea of an airplane cabin as a timeless space which invokes past events and memories... 

Five Kinds of Silence

Five Kinds of Silence

This jump-cutting adaptation of Shelagh Stephenson’s drama following two generations of domestic abuse is a decent attempt at a school-level production. Five Kinds of Silence deals with horrific issues with maturity, but it lacks anything to grab the imagination... 

Shame

Shame

Glasgow theatre company Tidy Carnage explore the modern phenomenon of internet shaming by fusing theatre and film through Shame, written and performed by Belle Jones. Supported by a digital cast of sixteen actors, we watch the warm and cheeky Vicky home alone waiting, riddled with anxiety over her 15 year-old daughter Kiera (Sarah Miele), who has gone missing after being exposed in a video of an ‘intimate’ nature has gone viral across the internet... 

Misterman

Misterman

For a one-man play, Enda Walsh’s Misterman feels almost mythically large in its intensity. This is reflected in its performance history: in 2012 Cillian Murphy took to the huge Lyttelton stage in the National Theatre as the text’s solo actor, yet reviews from the run claimed that he, and the play, dominated the space... 

Brothers

Brothers

Performing to a deservedly sold out crowd, this piece aims to start a conversation with its audience about a topic that is too often neglected. Brothers explores issues of mental health and masculinity in a contemporary, engaging style... 

The Whip Hand

The Whip Hand

The Traverse Theatre is onto a winner with its programming this year. Douglas Maxwell’s The Whip Hand a family comedy drama, about power, privilege and escaping the past, is a firecracker of a piece... 

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

This cleverly written piece by Sam Steiner may be back for a third year at the Fringe, but Walrus Theatre has still managed to create something fresh in this wonderful, captivating and original play about how and why we use language... 

Out Of Love

Out Of Love

Written by award winning playwright Elinor Cook, Out of Love is a stunning piece of new writing which conveys the absolute power of female friendship, something which is often overlooked in favour of romantic storylines... 

Whore: A Kid's Play

Whore: A Kid's Play

In our youth-obsessed society, women become sexualised at a very young age. Often before they can themselves understand the concept of sex, they are being seen as sexual beings. This strips power away from young girls who do not get the chance to grow up before they sexualised... 

Moonlight After Midnight

Moonlight After Midnight

If Moonlight After Midnight were easier to follow, I’m sure it would make for an incredible piece from Concrete Drops Theatre. However, as it stands, I felt very much like a ‘lay person’ in the audience, witnessing something that was way above my comprehension, even as a regular theatre-goer... 

Pornography by Simon Stephens

Pornography by Simon Stephens

It is ten years since Simon Stephens captured the chaos of London in 2005: within a few days London went from celebrating Live8 and the announcement that they would be hosting the 2012 Olympics, to the utter devastation of the 7/7 bombings... 

Boondocks

Boondocks

Set in a bush, this play gets quickly into its own stride, with a persistent odd humour which flips on its head anything you thought you knew about a conversation between three young men in a bush... 

Kafka and Son

Kafka and Son

At the age of 36, Franz Kafka sat down to write a letter to his father that would never be sent. Kafka and Son is the dramatic adaptation of this letter, which details the father’s tyrannical behaviour and the effect it had on Kafka’s mental state... 

Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy

Mr Laurel and Mr Hardy

Laurel and Hardy remain the most popular comedy double act of all time, on both sides of the Atlantic. Searchlight are back with their critically acclaimed production which played to full houses last year and gained four and five star reviews... 

Reduced Shakespeare Company – William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (Abridged)

Reduced Shakespeare Company – William Shakespeare's Long Lost First Play (Abridged)

The alternative RSC’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s works might more succinctly be titled Shakespeare: The Pantomime. I don’t mean that as an insult, but as a description of the high energy, irreverent tone of this show... 

Bottleneck

Bottleneck

There’s a lot going on in Luke Barnes’ Bottleneck. From poverty and classism to northern identity and, most importantly, football, the play tackles a lot of issues that characterised the experience of 1980s Liverpool... 

The Rape of Artemisia Gentileschi

The Rape of Artemisia Gentileschi

A true story, this dramatic two-hander is a fascinating exploration of 17th century life in the city of Rome filled with drama, conflict and art.Set 33 years after the tragic rape of Artemisia, her friend Tuzia returns to her to find some resolution to her own guilt... 

Kara Sevda

Kara Sevda

In the post apocalyptic world of nuclear winter, two strangers with the world on their shoulders, meet on a bench. As they get to know each other the state of the world is revealed to the audience... 

Screaming Body – Découpage Collective

Screaming Body – Découpage Collective

The Medea of Euripides is a story of love, of life, of murder and of how all three interlink. This classic Greek tale has been revived and modernised by Découpage Collective in their retelling of the tragedy... 

Brutal Cessation

Brutal Cessation

Described by its creator as a two-actor play of “a relationship rotting” and a manifestation of domestic “purgatory”, it quite quickly becomes apparent through this tense and engrossing performance that this is an understatement... 

Gratiano

Gratiano

In Gratiano, a forgettable side character from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice steps on stage for an hour for a solo show about heroes, villains, nobodies and the rise of fascism... 

Deadly Dialogues

Deadly Dialogues

Quilliam transported us into their world with this innovative, captivating, controversial performance which examined Islamic radicalisation in a series of complex twists and turns. Amongst the swirling narrative of magic carpets, ancient warrior queens and a Muslim Banksy, was a spotlight shone upon the dark underbelly of Western interpretations of jihadism as four young Muslims journeyed through radicalisation... 

Lord Dismiss Us

Lord Dismiss Us

Scottish award-winning playwright and novelist Glenn Chandler’s best-known work might be television detective series Taggart, but he also has a string of successful plays and productions to his credit... 

Goody

Goody

Nestled in what seems, somewhat appropriately, to be a shipping container in the Pleasance Courtyard, two creatures on a journey with no origin point or destination try to figure each other out... 

Fourth Monkey's Women of Greece: Medusa

Fourth Monkey's Women of Greece: Medusa

Energetic, disturbing and just a bit confusing, Fourth Monkey's latest offering of physical theatre crashes onto the festival stage in this entertaining if messy and uneven reworking of the Greek myth of Medusa... 

The Truman Capote Talk Show

The Truman Capote Talk Show

Truman Capote regards us with a look that cannot be readily deciphered. Perhaps it’s regret; maybe it’s curiosity. More likely it’s pity. “You have something I never had,” he informs us gently... 

Buried: A New Musical

Buried: A New Musical

“A musical about two serial killers,” is how Buried: A New Musical by Colla Voce Theatre describes itself. That’s enough of a draw-in for me, but it doesn’t do the show justice at all... 

The Interview

The Interview

An intense thriller challenging the villains of the business world, the bullies who take pleasure in their success over others, no matter what it takes.The play follows Ian’s job application from lying on his CV, to the painful telephone interview before eventually making it to the final interview in person... 

Tobacco

Tobacco

If you are looking for a show that demonstrates exceptional acting and physical theatre skills Tobacco is where you will find it. South African company Baxter Theatre presents this dark comedy as part of the Baxter Theatre Season at Assembly... 

Fox and Hound Presents Tennessee Williams' Ivan's Widow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen

Fox and Hound Presents Tennessee Williams' Ivan's Widow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen

For lovers of Tennessee Williams and anyone who appreciates good theatre the double bill of Ivan’s Widow and Talk to Me Like the Rain and Let Me Listen makes for a very rewarding investment of time... 

The F Word

The F Word

It’s a rainy day in Edinburgh and I’m not in the mood for a My Sister’s Keeper type of cancer play. But as soon as the house opens I am assured that this is not the case. The actors are onstage playing on videogame consoles while the audience slowly filters in... 

The Bearpit

The Bearpit

Glimpses of a toxic relationship. Snapshots of a dying planet. Dark vignettes of love as the end draws near. The Bearpit, from new theatre company Kopfkino, combines these ingredients into a relentless interrogation of generational cynicism and the human connection in a physical, deeply atmospheric piece of theatre... 

Descent

Descent

Good theatre should make you feel something and by that definition alone, this was great theatre. Descent is production which is not only beautifully and skilfully made, but endlessly moving to watch... 

Miss Julie, Clarissa and John

Miss Julie, Clarissa and John

Inspired by August Strindberg’s groundbreaking 1888 naturalistic drama, Miss Julie, the action is relocated to a Reconstruction Era Virginia plantation. The dangerous attraction between the landowner’s daughter and his top servant takes on new shades, as its taboo nature expands from crossing boundaries of social class and encompassing racial lines... 

Golf Course War Machine

Golf Course War Machine

NATO Summit, 2014, Newport, Wales: Pippa is dazed, hungover and staging her own personal protest on the Coldra roundabout. This is her opportunity to trample down the fence, as she fights to put Wales on the centre of the global map, proving that even the smallest of voices can be heard amongst the political noise... 

Translunar Paradise

Translunar Paradise

Theatre Ad Infinitum have been a Fringe favourite for years; creating thought provoking and beautiful shows to touch both your heart and your mind. Translunar Paradise premiered here in 2011 and the show presented here is near enough the same... 

Knock Knock

Knock Knock

It’s 54 years since the last conscripted British citizens returned to civilian life after completing their National Service. If a generation is 25 years, then that’s at more than two generations who have never faced the prospect of having to—between the ages of 17 and 21—serve in the British Armed Forces for two years... 

The Damned United

The Damned United

Powerful and demanding, Red Ladder Theatre Company’s production of The Damned United is every bit as belligerent and uncompromising as the protagonist of its story.An adaptation of David Peace’s novel of the same name, The Damned United tells the story of Brian Clough’s doomed 44 day tenure as manager of Leeds United... 

The Sound of Extras

The Sound of Extras

Ever thought what it was like to be in the most famous film musical of all time? Ponder no further. Don your lederhosen, grab a lonely goatherd and make your way to the Austrian alps... 

My Mind is Free

My Mind is Free

Nominated for best play by the Anti-Trafficking Foundation in 2016. A powerful interpretation of the degradation of human slavery in the UK today, this is a hard-hitting piece of theatre that moves, challenges and informs the audience... 

Scenes from Punk Rock

Scenes from Punk Rock

In the library of a grammar school in Stockport, a group of school pupils gather who appear to lead typical teenage lives. But, with A-level exams fast approaching and individual agendas emerging, relationships soon come under strain and friendships begin to unravel... 

Migrant Sisters

Migrant Sisters

Two Irish and eastern European women talk about immigration. Includes live music and comedy as well as the serious themes. Touch Tour available for sight impaired, please contact us on Facebook for info. 

The Farmers Lit the Fields on Fire

The Farmers Lit the Fields on Fire

A young bride returns to her family's rural estate for a weekend-long wedding celebration. But when bitter divisions between the bride and her estranged sister threaten to expose dangerous secrets, she learns that sometimes building a new life means setting the past on fire... 

Meat

Meat

1533: Henry VIII's London, the height of negotiations for Britain's separation from Europe – and Jean and Georges are having their portrait painted. Now: Charlie is the media personality everyone loves to hate... 

The Jungle Book

The Jungle Book

Rudyard Kipling's classic jungle tale is a blend of fear, wonderment, danger and discovery, brought to life by this talented youth group. Taking the action into the urban jungle, this is a show worth seeing; a tropical cocktail shaken and stirred with heart-stopping surprises... 

The Tale of the Tail

The Tale of the Tail

A child is born... with something special... A tail. The Tale of the Tail is a story of one child's life throughout history and history's reaction to the tail – from being worshipped as a religious symbol, to eroticised as a mysterious outsider and popularised as a contemporary trend/fashion accessory... 

Kes

Kes

Barry Hines' iconic novel was turned into one of the greatest British films of all time. Here, adapted for the stage, is the story retold. A talented young cast tell of Billy Casper, a boy with few future prospects, brought up in an uncaring way by family, with few friends and a school which is struggling to cope... 

Boy in a Bottle

Boy in a Bottle

A boy washed up on the tide. Still Alive. Inside a bottle. The locals argue what to do, and as they do their souls show through. But when he sinks into the sand and the sea rises, can they save him – or themselves? A satirical look at how society views strangers... 

Multitudes

Multitudes

Walt Whitman stops somewhere, waiting for you... at the Quaker Meeting House in Edinburgh, 7-11 August at 4:30pm each day. This original one-man show, written by the founders of the Zephyr Stage in Fruita, Colorado, USA... 

The Principle of Uncertainty

The Principle of Uncertainty

Making a show about science interesting to a general audience is an extremely difficult feat. You risk losing anyone without a scientific background in the details, and condescending to those who know what you’re talking about... 

Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here

Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here

Three male dancers perform Company Chordelia & Solar Bear’s Lady Macbeth: Unsex Me Here choreographed by Kally Lloyd-Jones and cast. Being three, this is a nod to the witches, and that these Lady Macbeths are possessed by evil: cue howling winds, cawing ravens and the wish to be ‘unsexed’... 

Lord of the Flies

Lord of the Flies

A group of boys crash-landed on a deserted Pacific Island begins this dark and disturbing tale of savagery, bullying and the breakdown of civilised society. With a cast of boys of exactly the right age, this play has a relevance today that is as powerful as when it was first written... 

Secrets

Secrets

Wealth and poverty, opportunity or not, Treasure and India. Jacqueline Wilson's hugely popular novel brings together two girls from opposite sides of the lottery and shows how much they have in common... 

Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story

Thrill Me: The Leopold and Loeb Story

Thrill Me: The Leopold & Loeb Story won the first Broadway Baby Bobby Award in 2014 as one of the most outstanding productions of that year's Festival Fringe. This current production has the same director, Guy Retallack, but is in a different venue with two new actors... 

A Glass of Nothing

A Glass of Nothing

Frumpy, single and jobless? What else can a twenty-something woman do but gulp a bittersweet glass of nothing? Fizzing with dark comedy, Beth transforms into the world’s most desirable woman, able to woo the perfect partner and brainstorm her way into a glamorous job in advertising... 

These Walls

These Walls

These Walls is about young women facing walls in their lives. Eden is trapped by expectation; she cannot escape from the image nor stray from the path others draw for her. Chrissy is trapped by a lack of expectation, defined only by her beauty... 

The Burial of the Rats

The Burial of the Rats

Fourth Monkey return to the Fringe with a fearless and bold new piece of work, inspired by Bram Stoker's short story of the same title and directed by associate director Simone Coxall... 

Sugar & Salt

Sugar & Salt

Moni’s got guts and a promiscuous disposition. Minu has heart and a very big mouth. Together they bumble and blunder through student life, hook-ups and hangovers, declaring their greatest hopes and fears amidst the perpetual mess of their kitchen... 

Fred and Rose

Fred and Rose

Three decades of killing - 24 hours to break the case. A horror that captured the world's attention. This piece draws upon words and intonations taken from the recordings and transcripts used in the investigation of Fred and Rose West, the serial killer couple... 

Volition

Volition

If you could change one decision from your past, would you do it? If your answer is yes, we at Volition Inc may be able to help. Volition, a new play, questions the place of regret in our lives. 

The Plum Tree

The Plum Tree

Jan Groenewald takes us on a harrowing journey through a childhood experience of sexual violation to victory and riches. He relives his memories in his own theatrical creation. From the distance that age brings, he recreates his world as a young boy who intertwines fantasy with reality... 

Prospect High: Brooklyn

Prospect High: Brooklyn

Listen closely with empathy to what high school students are saying. Based on verbatim words of teenagers. Themes: bullying, revenge, LGBTQ identity and safety, friendship, self-harm, apathy and social justice... 

Merrily We Roll Along

Merrily We Roll Along

Following last year's five-star reviews for Sondheim's Assassins at the Fringe, BB Theatre Productions present a poignant, uplifting musical which explores friendship, ambition and the pressures of showbusiness, capturing the life turning points of three friends... 

Rock and Hunt

Rock and Hunt

'You live your whole life and then it's just you.’ Cate’s never been to a party. Luke’s a prick. Josie can’t eat the cake alone. James needs a job. Laura wants to scream. And Fred can’t work Grindr... 

100

100

Imagine that you have only one hour to choose one single memory from your life – and everything else will be erased forever. What would you choose? 100 follows four individuals being guided through the void, as they struggle to decide: What is enough? What really matters? And what does it all mean…? Journeys of self-discovery, spiritual revelation and compassion are played out as the world of the afterlife is woven together from the threads of what used to be their lives. 

Mine

Mine

Take three different couples and get them all pregnant. Add in an unhealthy dose of Tinder, engagement rings, Nutella and turkey basters. It's a recipe for disaster. Babies change everything... 

Nerdf*cker: a solo play with bad boundaries

Nerdf*cker: a solo play with bad boundaries

Cameryn Moore has made a name for herself as one of the Fringe’s great taboo busters, especially on the subject of sex. Nerdf*cker, like her previous Fringe show Phone Whore, deals with unconventional desires in a refreshingly frank manner whilst also tackling the thornier issues of the commodification of desire and the exploitation of women in sexual environments... 

The Truth

The Truth

By Andrew St Clair James. Truth boxes are delivered around the world. What Truth is inside? Should they be opened? Would you want anyone to know your truth? 

The House of Bernarda Alba

The House of Bernarda Alba

Finished just two months before the author's murder on 18 August 1936 by a gang of Franco's supporters, The House of Bernarda Alba is now accepted as Lorca's great masterpiece of love and loathing... 

Schiz

Schiz

Benjamin Teel, a paranoid schizophrenic, believes he is responsible for the murder of millions. Millions who now want him to pay for his sins. Within his mental chaos he finds a lifeline in daily sessions with psychoanalyst Carolyn Wakefield... 

The House of Bernarda Alba

The House of Bernarda Alba

Finished just two months before the author's murder on 18 August 1936 by a gang of Franco's supporters, The House of Bernarda Alba is now accepted as Lorca's great masterpiece of love and loathing... 

Hope

Hope

Hope can be found, even in the darkest days of our lives. A woman and her husband face her cancer diagnosis, and come to terms with life and death through humour and love. A cancer awareness short film based on true life experiences... 

Fourth Monkey's Women of Greece: Persephone

Fourth Monkey's Women of Greece: Persephone

***** (FringeGuru.com). **** (BroadwayBaby.com). **** (Stage). Persephone desperately struggles with bullies who make her life a misery, a mother who seems to have forgotten she exists and a force that wants to pull her into the underworld... 

That Face

That Face

Originally produced at the Royal Court in 2007, it received outstanding reviews and was nominated for several awards. Polly Stenham received both the Charles Wintour Award 2007 and the Critics Circle Award 2008 for Most Promising Playwright... 

Elegy for an Echo

Elegy for an Echo

'Tell me Connor, what happens when you run out? What happens when you take that last pill?' With the clinical drug trial of Exspiravitacillin coming to an end, Connor faces losing his late fiance, Jen, without a final goodbye... 

Donors

Donors

Older egg seeking hot, young sperm. Desperate times call for desperate measures, when your biological clock is ticking. After all, our sole purpose is to reproduce... right? Roy and Linda meet in a fertility clinic... 

NSFW

NSFW

'The articles are shit. No offence, Charlotte. But no one buys our publication principally for the literature. I think it’s important to recognise that.' Lad’s mag Doghouse is in trouble: after a topless image of an underage girl is featured, her furious father threatens to bring down the magazine... 

Grimblewitch

Grimblewitch

Will little Sun defeat Grimblewitch and show her father how to forgive? A Hurly Burly, tale of our time, Grimblewitch fuses storytelling, music and movement to explore the impact of conflict and war and how communities can rebuild peace... 

Death by Shakespeare

Death by Shakespeare

A chorus of bawdy spirits lead you through this physically dynamic amalgamation of Shakespeare's finest death scenes, which fuse together familiar characters and scenes to create a fresh look at the Bard's beautiful words... 

Occam's Chainsaw

Occam's Chainsaw

Five of them carried out the robbery. Only four made it back. Someone knows something, one of them has betrayed the rest. No one is safe from accusation, as they await the dreaded arrival of The Boss. 

Lewis Schaffer: Unopened Letters from My Mother

Lewis Schaffer: Unopened Letters from My Mother

Each day the London-based New York comic will read an unopened letter from his mother, sent before she died alone in New York. 'Stands at the edge of metaphorical precipice' (R Stamp, FringeGuru... 

God Ltd

God Ltd

10th anniversary at the Festival Fringe, four-star reviews and sell-out shows! This year STAG is returning to the Fringe to present the completely original play: God Ltd. Sunday. God's day of rest, when he leaves his three trusty angels in charge of answering prayers... 

Theresa di Maggio

Theresa di Maggio

Theresa is a woman of the Italian high society, married to a respectable husband and lost in a betrayal that initially seems to bring a breath of fresh air to the solitude she has always lived in... 

The Amish Project (Ensemble Version)

The Amish Project (Ensemble Version)

The Amish Project (Ensemble Version), a story of grace and healing, is a fictionalized account of the shooting at an Amish school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 2006. In this ensemble production, performers tell the story through monologues of victims, witnesses, and the shooter... 

BlackCatfishMusketeer

BlackCatfishMusketeer

You meet someone online. All you know is their name and that they seem to like you as much as you like them. In fact, you think you love each other. But do you? Can you? What even is love, anyway? Maybe we not only don’t know, we can’t know; we can only know what love isn’t... 

Paper Doll

Paper Doll

Weird Sisters presents Paper Doll, a cautionary tale of married bliss that becomes unglued. On a dark night at a remote location in the not so distant future, Jen and Rog celebrate their tenth anniversary... 

Your Love Is Fire

Your Love Is Fire

In the latest text by Mudar Alhaggi, this play is about daily life in the midst of the Syrian war, the waiting and the disappointed illusion that the next day might bring about change... 

Girls Like That

Girls Like That

A tight-knit group of school friends are learning about the struggles of the Suffragette movement, but none of them are really listening. Instead, they focus on a provocative nude photo of Scarlett, going viral on their smartphones... 

The Delights of Dogs and the Problems of People

The Delights of Dogs and the Problems of People

Terror. Joy. Rage. Jealousy. What does it cost to love? When does partner become possession? What is the price to be free? Who is gonna let the dog out? A harrowing but darkly funny look at the descent of a loving relationship into misery and abuse... 

Fourth Monkey's Women of Greece: Pandora

Fourth Monkey's Women of Greece: Pandora

***** (FringeGuru.com). **** (BroadwayBaby.com). **** (ThreeWeeks). Pandora carries a jar everywhere she goes, believing she will not open it. Zeus looks down from above, knowing that she will... 

Edgartown

Edgartown

A killer haunts the shores of Edgartown. The community’s secrets exposed by the murderer in their midst. A band of small town characters team up to hunt the monster down in this dark, funny homage to Spielberg’s classic Jaws. 

Forty Weeks

Forty Weeks

Jane extravagantly showers her son with love and affection on his birthday, giving him cake and presents galore. But all is not as it seems. Midnight Theatre and the University of Warwick present an abstract exploration into a mother’s psyche, exposing the light and dark elements of the maternal mindset in an everyday, contemporary setting... 

Home

Home

A play about hope that centres around a homeless man as he tries to get his first home. The show highlights some of the hoops he is made to jump through and the people he meets as he tries to make his dream a reality... 

Cannonball

Cannonball

The Florence Theatre Company presents Cannonball, an irreverent new drama making its Edinburgh Fringe debut following the company’s sell-out production of America at the Chelsea Theatre... 

Open Heart Surgery

Open Heart Surgery

Business is bad for conservative relationship counsellor Sandra. With the bills mounting, she is forced to take on the only troubled partnership at her door: Will and Leo, her first same-sex couple... 

A Play, A Pie and A Pint

A Play, A Pie and A Pint

A play, a pie and a pint. All included in your ticket price. Our plays, Silence in Court and Conflict in Court are interactive court room fictions that draw on real life procedures from a number of different legal traditions to create a mock court in which the audience are the jury... 

Out of the Bad

Out of the Bad

A black comedy dealing with complicated lives, loves and buried secrets. Mary has the hangover from hell after last night’s reunion for the women of the Caterpillar Occupation's 30th anniversary... 

Wishing on a Stopgap

Wishing on a Stopgap

Stopgap: a temporary way of fixing a problem or satisfying a need. There are no romantic clichés here. While travelling the country and giving away books, a retired teacher begins to reflect on their life, sexuality, and feelings about love... 

Like Blood From a Cheap Cigar

Like Blood From a Cheap Cigar

Like Blood From a Cheap Cigar is a personal glimpse inside the intense, damaged relationship between George, a past-his-prime bad boy and Margo, his pretty, significantly younger girlfriend who's been driven to the brink of insanity by her irrational love for him... 

The Great Ridolphi

The Great Ridolphi

How do you hold on to the world's greatest escape artist? 10 years after the death of his father, illusionist extraordinaire The Great Ridolphi, Victor O'Meara is visited by detectives inquiring on the whereabouts of a missing Francesco Goya masterpiece... 

Dick in Space

Dick in Space

The biggest Dick in the universe is on a plural mission: murder investigation, self-destruction and solving the riddles of the universe – taking on God, Napoleon and unruly human organs on the way... 

Then There Were None – Free

Then There Were None – Free

A group of actors, desperate for their big break, attend an acting workshop hosted by Andrew – an enigmatic but ever so slightly unhinged former C-lister. He’s had a taste of fame and thinks he knows it all, but all he knows is how to push people too far… 

Bluebeard’s Ghost

Bluebeard’s Ghost

In the 70s and 80s, TV star Johnnie Fancy was everywhere: barking his catchphrases, handing out giant cheques and grinning next to the pop stars of the day. In the 90s, Rob actually got to work for him in the twilight of his career... 

Bright Colours Only

Bright Colours Only

Sadly missed after a decade pushing the daisies, Pauline Goldsmith resurrects her legendary Irish wake. This once in a lifetime theatrical send-off was a huge hit at the Fringe back when Pauline could squeeze into a size ten shroud... 

Day Dream

Day Dream

From two former students of Philippe Gaulier. An old woman, her husband and their memories. This play is about the re-examination of every casual, small and important moment... In the show, we use clowning, mask, drama and comedy... 

Wandering Bones

Wandering Bones

‘You will be taken hence to the prison you were last confined... where you will be hanged by the neck...’ It’s 1835, and newly-wed John Adam moves to the Highlands. It’s supposedly a fresh start, but a series of shocking events lead John to make some ill-judged decisions... 

Three Tales of Life and Death by Craig Lucas

Three Tales of Life and Death by Craig Lucas

In the world premiere of Pulitzer/Tony Award nominee Craig Lucas's (Prelude to a Kiss, An American in Paris, Amelie) zany and touching new play, three stories collide in a world of voyeuristic theatre critics, bartenders with too much spirit and mysterious strangers looking for love in the afternoon... 

What Would Cathy Do?

What Would Cathy Do?

Cathy's just been thrown out of the supermarket for stealing, but she’s not a junkie, and she’ll kill any c*nt who says she is. Because she’s an actress, OK? Rehearsing for a film role... 

Thief

Thief

Sailor thrives in the bars, dives and flophouses of the most squalid ports. Look, you will see him. Sailor lives for robbery, imprisonment and expulsion. Be his victim. Sailor's virtues are simple: rent, theft, and betrayal... 

Two

Two

In a bustling northern English pub, a witty, bickering landlord and landlady and their twelve regulars masterfully lead you through one of Jim Cartwright's most moving and exposing plays... 

Looking for John

Looking for John

Looking for John. Written and performed by Tony Timberlake. As I watched him, it was me gliding, spinning, twisting and turning, every gesture so precise and expressive. 1976. 19 million people watched Birmingham-born skater John Curry win Olympic gold... 

Frank Carson – A Rebel Without a Pause

Frank Carson – A Rebel Without a Pause

Funnyman Frank Carson blazed a comedy trail for 50 years. His quick-fire gags and infectious laugh delighted audiences in variety shows, clubs and on telly. His catchphrase: 'It's the way I tell 'em! His mantra: 'That's a cracker!' But, there’s more... 

The Inconvenience of Wings

The Inconvenience of Wings

For anyone who has suffered mental illness themselves, or has lived with someone who is afflicted, this piece will cut close to the bone. Triple Fringe First winner Andrew Buckland stars in Lara Foot's powerful and poignant drama about friendship, dysfunction, addiction and angels... 

The Sweet Science

The Sweet Science

Time-bending Ruby lives parallel lives: one an eighties boxer, one a computer coder for a modern-day startup; battling sexism and expectations in both decades. Million Dollar Baby and The Social Network collide in this punchy play... 

Karoo Moose – No Fathers

Karoo Moose – No Fathers

Winner of 15 top South African theatre awards, Lara Foot's story of pain, redemption and hope combines traditional African storytelling and magical realism. In an impoverished village in the Karoo, South Africa, a young girl, Thozama, struggles to survive... 

Penetrator

Penetrator

Edinburgh flatmates Max and Alan are perfectly happy swapping banter and joints after a long day of doing nothing. Then their old friend Tadge arrives, AWOL from the army, and acting very strangely... 

The Power Behind the Crone

The Power Behind the Crone

Alison Skilbeck's serio-comic celebration of Shakespeare's older women, directed by Tim Hardy. 'There are no good parts in Shakespeare for older women'. Professor Artemis Turret, played by Alison Skilbeck, sets out to refute these words in an illustrated lecture... 

Up the Hill Jackie

Up the Hill Jackie

Jackie is pregnant. Her sister Rita is forcing her to have an abortion. Is it too late to fix things? Dark, humorous, fast-paced Irish drama from the playwright of five-star Kitty in the Lane... 

All My Life Long

All My Life Long

Gloria and Padraic are best friends whose relationship changes forever. They meet once a year, every year, and have one fleeting night together. This is a story of a love that lasted a lifetime... 

Bin Laden: The One Man Show

Bin Laden: The One Man Show

‘Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I am going to show you how to change the world…’ The world's most notorious terrorist tells his remarkable, provocative and multi award-winning story... 

Big Bite-Size Lunch Hour: Izzy's Manifestos

Big Bite-Size Lunch Hour: Izzy's Manifestos

It's time to think outside the box, go crazy, go skydiving or just go to a different pub this Friday. Running at something is better than just running away, right? Or maybe it's both? Especially when you start referring to yourself in the third person... 

Open Road

Open Road

Three couples come together to celebrate some exciting news: Natasha is going to live to 82. However, all is not as it seems… As the evening unfolds, relationships are pushed to breaking point... 

Trainspotting Live

Trainspotting Live

Acclaimed immersive staging of Irvine Welsh’s classic, direct from world tour. In a tunnel opened exclusively for Trainspotting, the audience are literally part of the action, including the notorious 'worst toilet in Scotland' scene... 

Zsa Zsa and Me

Zsa Zsa and Me

Once upon a time, when folks did as they pleased and the world was good, there lived a girl called... If you are mad enough to take a pantomime to America, all you need is a Hollywood star to play the Fairy Godmother... 

Vines

Vines

The story of a young girl finding herself through an Ayahuasca Ceremony. Its a look at how to become the person you want to be. Sometimes in life you just need a little push in the right direction… sometimes that push can take you to another dimension you couldn’t in your wildest dreams imagine... 

F*cking Men

F*cking Men

Tony Award winner Joe DiPietro's play reimagines La Ronde in today's gay scene. A slick dramatic comedy of sexual manners, in which 10 characters circle through a series of erotic encounters... 

Parentcraft

Parentcraft

Parents-to-be await their first antenatal class. Sharon, mother of seven, takes charge, handing out poorly-spelt name labels. Awkward couple Susan and Derek boast about their moneymaking schemes, much to the horror of Lesley, an Inland Revenue employee… Siobhan misinterprets most of the conversation whilst continuously eating pickled foods... 

Jon Pointing: Act Natural

Jon Pointing: Act Natural

In this much anticipated debut show, Jon Pointing presents Cayden Hunter, an actor who will demonstrate the importance of selflessness and sharing through this (non-participatory) workshop... 

Assessment

Assessment

What's your life worth? In a horribly plausible near future, a government obsessed with capping the spiralling pensions deficit has come up with a price. They've even hired one of those arms-length organisations they get to do their dirty work to sell it... 

The Offering (Guru Dakshina)

The Offering (Guru Dakshina)

A curious boy, full of wonder, dreams of great warriors of the past and wants to be one of them. He meets up with an old man running from a difficult past. Fate has brought them together, and so emerges the complex and unique relationship between a guru (master) and his shishya (student)... 

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof

The truth hurts. On a steamy night in Mississippi, a Southern family gather at their cotton plantation to celebrate Big Daddy’s birthday. The scorching heat is almost as oppressive as the lies they tell... 

A Tale of Two Cities

A Tale of Two Cities

A new play by MATTHEW DUNSTER Adapted from the novel by CHARLES DICKENS “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times; it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness; it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair; we had everything before us, we had nothing before us” Sound familiar? How much more do those in power think Europe’s poor can take? When will the people take to the streets of the cities and roar enough is enough?    Tickets are non-refundable in the event of cancellation because of the weather but may be exchanged in accordance with the Weather Policy... 

Queen Anne RSC

Queen Anne RSC

Following a critically acclaimed, sold-out season at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-Avon, the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Queen Anne transfers to the Theatre Royal Haymarket from 30 June... 

Gloria

Gloria

New York. A city that runs on ambition – and coffee. In the offices of a notorious Manhattan magazine, a group of ruthless editorial assistants vie for their bosses’ jobs and a book deal before they’re thirty... 

Hir

Hir

“Stop behaving like a man!” “We are men!” Isaac gets home from serving in the marines to find war has broken out back home. In a nondescript town somewhere in Central Valley – America, Isaac’s mom Paige is blowing up entrenched routines... 

Hamlet

Hamlet

Following a sold-out run at the Almeida Theatre, Olivier Award winning director Robert Icke’s new production of Hamlet transfers to the West End for a strictly limited season this summer... 

Sand in the Sandwiches

Sand in the Sandwiches

Following a sell-out tour, Edward Fox returns to the stage with his acclaimed portrayal of John Betjeman, poet laureate and icon of British poetry. Sand in the Sandwiches celebrates a man famous not only for light verse and laughter, but for his passions, his sense of purpose and his unforgettable poetry... 

Jakop Ahlbom Company - Horror

Jakop Ahlbom Company - Horror

Conceived and directed by Jakop Ahlbom A deserted mansion... a young woman returns to the place of her bleak childhood. No longer able to suppress memories of her cruel parents and strange sister, she is forced to confront the past and some terrible truths! Jakop Ahlbom’s imaginative homage to the horror movie genre is ingenuously gruesome, genuinely scary and frequently very funny... 

Salome

Salome

"There is no language for what happened that night," states Salome in narration as her older self shortly after beginning this new, happily more feminist, retelling of the myth surrounding the woman who we think of as having lasciviously danced the dance of the seven veils before demanding the head of John the Baptist to be served to her on a silver plate... 

Occupational Hazards

Occupational Hazards

September 2003. Rory Stewart, a thirty year old former British diplomat, is posted to serve as governor in a province of the newly liberated Iraq. His job is to help build a new civil society at peace with itself and its neighbours - an ambitious mission, admittedly, but outperforming Saddam should surely not prove too difficult… Yet, freedom from repressive tyranny has allowed centuries of tribal conflict, sectarian tension and ethnic division to burst into the open once more... 

Paul Auster's City of Glass

Paul Auster's City of Glass

Based on the first novel of The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster and the graphic novel by Paul Karasik and David Mazzucchelli. Tony Award-winning 59 Productions (An American in Paris, War Horse, David Bowie Is) and Olivier Award-nominated playwright Duncan Macmillan bring this seminal American novel to life in a dazzlingly original stage adaptation... 

All Our Children

All Our Children

"I used to be scared of them.  They seemed so different.  They don’t scare me anymore.  They’re just children, aren’t they?  Just children... 

Posh

Posh

OLD MONEY. NEW PROBLEMS. DIFFERENT GENDER. Darkly comic, and disgracefully entertaining, Laura Wade’s universally acclaimed play Posh, premiered at the Royal Court in 2010 before transferring to the West End... 

The Wipers Times

The Wipers Times

By Ian Hislop and Nick Newman Ian Hislop and Nick Newman’s The Wipers Times tells the true and extraordinary story of the satirical newspaper created in the mud and mayhem of the Somme... 

My Brilliant Friend Part 1 & 2

My Brilliant Friend Part 1 & 2

World Premiere of a two-part dramatization of Elena Ferrante’s epic family saga. Adapted for the stage by April De Angelis and directed by Melly Still. Elena Ferrante’s intense portrait of an all-consuming female friendship in post-war Italy is brought to life for the first time on the Rose stage... 

The Godfather

The Godfather

Francis Ford Coppola’s Oscar-winning film brought to the big screen with Nino Rota’s haunting score performed simultaneously by live orchestra in matinee and evening shows... 

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Imelda Staunton (Martha) and Conleth Hill (George) star in a new production of multi Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Edward Albee’s landmark play: Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? directed by James Macdonald... 

The Glass Menagerie

The Glass Menagerie

Time is the longest distance between two places. Following a multi Tony Award-nominated run on Broadway, Oliver and Tony Award-winning director John Tiffany (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Parts One and Two, Let the Right One In, Black Watch) revives his visionary staging of Tennessee Williams’ heart-rending masterpiece about a family struggling to survive on hopes and dreams... 

The Kite Runner

The Kite Runner

This adaptation of Khaled Hosseini’s best-seller was written back in 2006, a year before the filmic representation. Protagonist Amir narrates his life as if from the present day, taking him through his childhood in Kabul to his current existence in sunny San Francisco... 

Hamlet

Hamlet

Flute Theatre Company’s critically-acclaimed adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet comes to the intimate space of Trafalgar Studios 2 this December in a co-production with English Touring Theatre... 

Buried Child

Buried Child

Estranged grandson Vince returns to his idealised family home in rural Illinois in the hopes of re-establishing a connection with the life he left behind six years previously. But when he arrives unannounced on the porch of a rotting, leak-ridden farmhouse, the men of his family claim not to remember him... 

It Is Easy To Be Dead

It Is Easy To Be Dead

When twenty year old Charles Sorley is killed in action during the First World War, his devastated parents are left with only his letters and poems to remember him by. Using his extraordinary writings, together with music and songs of the period, It Is Easy To Be Dead is a tender portrait of a brief life filled with promise, cut short by the futility of war... 

An Inspector Calls

An Inspector Calls

From the Oscar nominated Director of The Reader, The Hours and Billy Elliot comes the multi award-winning West End and Broadway production of J. B. Priestley's classic thriller An Inspector Calls... 

The Libertine

The Libertine

Dominic Cooper returns to the stage to play the notorious Earl of Rochester in this major revival of The Libertine, directed by Terry Johnson. Stephen Jeffreys’ play, later made into a film, tells the true story of John Wilmot, the second Earl of Rochester – a charismatic poet, playwright and rake with a legendary appetite for excess... 

The Sister

The Sister

A darkly absurd exploration of power dynamics, this latest production from Dutch Kills Theater is a thrillingly surreal family drama by playwright Eric John Meyer. The New York-based company’s play, The Sister, is a beautifully realised production that delights in its disconcerting portrayal of human relationships... 

Bloody Mary

Bloody Mary

Timelines blur as Queen Mary Tudor stands reading the Financial Times in this capable performance that draws parallels between the purging reign of Bloody Mary and the policies of the Conservative party... 

No Exit (Huis Clos)

No Exit (Huis Clos)

No Exit (Huis Clos) is an existentialist drama, adapted from Jean-Paul Sartre's classic by Charlie Rogers. It contains the famous line, “Hell is other people”, which could just as easily be the title of this work, given its particular interpretation of hell... 

God's Anointed

God's Anointed

Grace and Laurie are two friends who decide to become prophets, in order to disprove the dying words of their friend, Eve, who recently committed suicide. Reading Eve’s suicide note changes their world views entirely, in an attempt to dislodge the perceived haunting presence of Eve, they decide to attempt to disprove Eve’s belief that there is a God, and he makes people evil... 

The Handmaidens of Death – WWI Theatre of Its Time

The Handmaidens of Death – WWI Theatre of Its Time

Even plays were buried by the bombs of World War I. The Handmaidens of Death, though written in 1918, had not been performed until recently, likely because it failed to pass by the censors that read and approved every British play performed until 1968... 

Kursk

Kursk

In August 2000, a Russian nuclear-powered submarine, the K-141 Kursk, sank to the bottom of the Barents Sea following a technical malfunction, causing the deaths of all 118 people on board... 

The Wall

The Wall

The Wall is a wonderfully refreshing play from Corby Productions. It has two firsts: the play itself is D.C. Jackson’s first full-length work and the performance marks the company’s debut... 

One for the Road

One for the Road

Harold Pinter’s short play, One for the Road, concerns torture, and you can assume it’s talking about state-sanctioned torture, given Rising Phoenix Repertory’s decision to tack on a clip of the playwright saying “political theatre is important” at the play’s end... 

Bull

Bull

If you’ve ever cursed Human Resources for making you work with such unreasonable people, you should see what Thomas has to put up with! Mike Bartlett’s 2013 tale of Darwinian competition in the workplace is brought to life in this slick and enjoyably nasty production from yt2 Plus... 

The Fool

The Fool

The Fool follows the events leading to the incarceration of its 3 main characters thanks to a law known as ‘Kevin’s Bill’. Delivered in a mix of Chinese with English subtitles and English, this is a near-future satirical comedy which uses a large amount of physical theatre and clowning... 

Unseen

Unseen

Through raw emotion, compelling stories and snippets of reality, we learn the story of Holly, a woman living on the streets in Edinburgh. As homelessness is a major issue in our society, setting the action in Edinburgh itself brought the action closer to home, and helped us to relate the issues back to our own lives... 

Five Kinds of Silence

Five Kinds of Silence

It’s hard to imagine a more emotionally-gruelling hour of theatre: three women held prisoner by an abusive patriarch finally free themselves from his clutches by shooting him in his bed, before being forced to relive decades of trauma by lawyers and psychiatrists... 

About a Girl

About a Girl

There aren’t many plays with a cast of teenagers that are this slick. Some excellent tech and blocking make About a Girl a fast-paced and immersive horror, though the writing and acting sometimes fail to live up to the play’s impressive aesthetics... 

The Silence at the Song's End

The Silence at the Song's End

Beautiful, funny and completely moving, Really Good Stories’ production of The Silence at the Song’s End is one of the best pieces of theatre you’ll see this Fringe. After the death of her son Nicholas Heiney in 2006, Radio 4 Broadcaster Libby Purves came across poems, journals and diaries from his time at sea in his room... 

Deadline

Deadline

Charlotte goes back to Stuart who still lives in their once shared university flat to find him still taking care of the habitual mess made by their mutual friend David. The piece may seem at first a conventional evocation of this generation’s floundering twenty-somethings, but don’t let the pitch fool you – this play is a performance of staggering beauty, a tour-de-force of self-destructive urges in all its metaphoric intensity, and in all its endless desires... 

The Rose and Crown

The Rose and Crown

There’s always a good smattering of obscure, seldom-performed or minor plays at the Festival Fringe. Many prove to be hidden gems. Others provide the necessary evidence as to why they have been almost forgotten... 

Fabric

Fabric

“I so wanted to please him.” Thirty-something Leah is fun, lively and ambitious. She meets her future husband in the high-end tailor where she works and the rom-com spins off from there... 

Communicate

Communicate

Spot the cliché. James (Toby Vaughan) likes superheroes, video games, and not talking about his feelings; Heather (Olivia Elsden) likes berating her partner, talking about their future baby, and berating her partner some more... 

Eight

Eight

yt2 Plus’ staging of Ella Hickson’s Fringe First winning Eight hits some right notes, but fails to really engage with its difficult source material and comes off as both disconnected and rather toothless... 

Shakespeare Tonight

Shakespeare Tonight

In Shakespeare Tonight, the famous playwright gives his first ever television performance on a talk show with host Martina, only to be confronted by his so-called ‘enemy’, humanist writer Francis Bacon... 

Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead

In this play we’re granted a view into a future version of the world of Peanuts. In this world, Charlie Brown & Company are all teenagers, and they’re completely changed, yet totally recognizable, versions of their cartoon selves... 

Beyond Price

Beyond Price

This is a wonderfully complex piece; part intertwining story, part vocalised ruminations of Jack Klaff, a Fringe veteran who gives a stunning performance. The production claims to be a collection of highlights taken from shows that could not make it to Summerhall this year... 

Immortal

Immortal

A splendidly constructed World War Two piece, that struggles to be heard.A group of American and British airmen are shot down behind enemy lines, one member of their crew is badly injured, so they take refuge in an empty school... 

Hotel Europa

Hotel Europa

As audiences members we almost always experience performance in a passive and inert way. Sitting satisfied in a large group watching others perform for us, we are allowed to interpret the work as we are directed to, or however else we wish... 

I'm Missing You

I'm Missing You

I’m Missing You is a gloomy, original writing production about grief, family, loyalty and obsession. When his son, Ian, goes missing Sam turns his back on everything, his daughter, his wife and his entire life, to spend twenty years searching the train station where Ian was last seen... 

Richard III and Soundwall

Richard III and Soundwall

A condensed version of Shakespeare's infamous Richard III, one of the playwright's earliest yet most revered works, which charts its tyrannical protagonist's rise to the English throne... 

Posh

Posh

Theresa May went to Oxford, but unlike Messrs Cameron, Osborne and Johnson, she could never have been invited to become a member of the infamous Bullingdon Club, to which Laura Wade’s play POSH has always been linked... 

King John

King John

Performed by a company of young actors, this is a credible adaptation of Shakespeare’s rarely performed King John that revels in the high stakes of its historical narrative. Its live music (atmospherically played by Jemma Fendley and Tom Vallance) and energetic battle scenes provide some entertaining theatre... 

Collateral Damage

Collateral Damage

The programme for Collateral Damage states that, while the play was written in 1999 in response to contemporary issues, it “has many resonances for us today”. Yet this production fails to resonate... 

Abberline's Artefact

Abberline's Artefact

Chief Inspector Abberline is known as the man that failed to catch Jack the Ripper. In what was once his house, retired shopkeeper John Davis finds that the former policeman’s soul cannot rest with the guilt of failing to stop the serial killer... 

Ordinary Days

Ordinary Days

From the University of Southampton Gone Rogue theatre company bring Adam Gwon’s 2008 musical Ordinary Days to the Fringe.This is not production that comes screaming out of the gate, but grows on you as the cast warm into the show... 

Jekyll and Hyde

Jekyll and Hyde

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Jekyll and Hyde follows a heartbreaking journey through Victorian England, exploring the mysterious link between the respectful Dr Jekyll and the dark and sinister Mr Hyde... 

Special Delivery

Special Delivery

Charting a journey of frustration, emotion, negotiation, memory, love, loss and the passage of time, culminating in the arrival of a very important package. Special Delivery features an angry middle-aged woman, a sympathetic courier and an incontinent dog. 

Two

Two

Two presents working-class life in a northern local, a place of failed aspirations, unfulfilled lives and long-kept secrets. A bickering husband and wife and the dozen regulars who pass through all play a part in this heart-warming comedy. 

Playing Soldiers

Playing Soldiers

Young company LUND have created a collage of testimonies from current, former and aspiring young servicemen and women in their new show Playing Soldiers. The show delves into the motivations of young people joining the army, and seems to probe the moral implications of recruiting these young people... 

Happy Together

Happy Together

Wow! Happy Together is a ferociously intelligent new play by MA student Kate Newman, and perhaps the most meta thing at the Fringe. It’s by turns shocking, disorientating, funny and strange, and one of the most under-appreciated shows this year... 

Equus

Equus

I must admit I was sceptical walking into C +1 on Chambers street on this afternoon to see The Rep Theatre Company’s latest show. The late, great Peter Shaffer’s Equus is a difficult and exacting play to pull of normally, never mind performing a cut down 1 hour 30 minutes version at the Fringe with a group of young actors... 

Bull

Bull

Nobody likes a sore loser. Nobody really likes any kind of loser. Witness the depths of human nature in Mike Bartlett’s Bull, a dark comedy about self-interest and the pleasures of being horrible to each other... 

A New Case of Jekyll and Hyde

A New Case of Jekyll and Hyde

A New Case of Jekyll and Hyde follows Elizabeth Jekyll struggling to come to terms with her husband suffering with post-traumatic stress disorder. Despite the help from an intelligent yet withholding doctor and the support of an old friend, life cannot seem to return to how it was before... 

Evil

Evil

An adaptation of Jan Guillou’s semi-autobiographical novel, which went on to become an Oscar-nominated film in 2003, Evil tells the story of systematic bullying and brutality at an elite Swedish boarding school... 

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

The Italia Conti Ensemble returns to the Festival Fringe with their second-year students again split into two groups, each with its own choice of play. This production of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn takes Matthew Francis' adaptation of the classic tale and reformats it to suit their own highly distinctive style... 

Road

Road

It’s Road, but not as we know it. Italia Conti Ensemble give their own take on JIm Cartwright’s 1986 classic. Much has changed in the ensuing thirty years but the working-class struggle is still with us: poverty remains an issue as does housing and its quality... 

5 Years

5 Years

In a world where it’s possible to trade time off your life to change your body into society’s definition of perfection, how much time would you spare? 5 Years is a very eye opening portrayal of how much the media industry dictates the way we should feel about our appearance... 

Grey Matter

Grey Matter

Adrian Raine’s pioneering work in neurocriminology can be seen as a reaction to the supremacy of nurture over nature in the debate about the causes of criminal behaviour. His research findings caused a storm in the nineties and remain controversial not so much for their science as for the implications of it for social policy... 

Dear Home Office

Dear Home Office

An appeal to those in power, uniquely created and performed by a group of unaccompanied, young refugee men from Eritrea, Afghanistan, Somalia and Albania. Playing versions of themselves on stage, they show the challenges they are facing now – navigating immigration interviews, age assessments, the first day at college, buying winter coats and learning to live alongside each other in Local Authority Care... 

Hamlet

Hamlet

Madness? Love. A forgotten heroine / tragedy / suicide: oppression mining all within, infects unseen. That’s for remembrance. Pray. Remember Hamlet... and Ophelia. Cambridge University presents Shakespeare’s most popular tragedy in 80 minutes... 

1984

1984

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength. In a world of technological sovereignty, Orwell's harrowing dystopian vision seems more prescient than ever. Close Up Theatre presents a gripping, visceral abridgement of the classic novel... 

The Squire Sisters

The Squire Sisters

In the sleepy town of Pickford in 1949 three sisters are bored of their post-war existences and want to start living. Through music, dancing and romance, the Squire sisters are finally forging their way into womanhood... 

Pizza Delique

Pizza Delique

Pizza Delique is a Russian-run, Italian restaurant in London. Within this stationary bubble two strangers, Heath and Clarissa, meet for a blind date. Less than an hour into the meal, a second bottle of champagne is served to a table bursting with conversation, flirtatiousness and intensity... 

Another Fine Mess

Another Fine Mess

Laurel and Hardy’s slapstick comedy still makes people laugh nearly 100 years after they made their first film together. Their rib-tickling rendition of The Trail of the Lonesome Pine even got to number 2 in the UK Singles Chart in 1975... 

They Call Me Miss Commuter

They Call Me Miss Commuter

Inspired by the Alexander Litvinenko poisoning and the Hatton Garden safe deposit heist this is a dark, psychological thriller being delivered on stage to coincide with its production as an indie feature film... 

The Taming of the Shrew

The Taming of the Shrew

England. 1918. A generation of men obliterated by the futility of war. Shakespeare’s battle of wits set against the devastating backdrop of a country in mourning, as Katherina and Bianca are forced to consider their worth in terms of their marital eligibility... 

Kara Sevda

Kara Sevda

Nuclear winter has descended upon the globe. The last train out of Paris is boarding. But not everyone will be drawn in the lottery. When Celia and Rhys find themselves awaiting the lottery results on the same bench, they strike up a challenging acquaintance amidst falling bombs and a nameless war, asking the question ‘what kind of world do we live in now... 

The Gingerbread Lady

The Gingerbread Lady

Neil Simon's dark comedy about Evy Meara, a cabaret singer whose career, marriage and health have all been destroyed by alcohol. Having completed ten weeks in rehab to overcome her addiction, she returns home to the welcome of friends with their own problems – an overly vain woman who fears the loss of her looks, a homosexual actor in danger of losing a part in a play, her devoted but anxious teenage daughter, and a worthless ex-lover... 

Chapel Street

Chapel Street

If ever the strength of a story lay in its telling, Chapel Street would be a perfect example. Luke Barnes’ play is written in a punchy, in-yer-face style which could easily fall flat if not attacked with venom... 

Happy Yet?

Happy Yet?

If you’re expecting an uncomfortable exploration of mental health issues and the stigmas associated with them, the tone of Happy Yet? might catch you off-guard. Ostensibly a domestic comedy, even a farce at times, Katie Berglöf’s script refuses to wear its dark themes on its sleeve – though sometimes you wish it would... 

West Side Story

West Side Story

This tragic romance has always been about the individual consequences of divisions in society. It was not new when Shakespeare created the Montagues and Capulets as rival houses. Jerome Robbins originally proposed a musical that pitted Catholics against Jews, but as the years passed before the show the rivals changed into white Jets versus Puerto Rican Sharks... 

Coup de Grâce

Coup de Grâce

Coup De Grâce follows the supposed mental rehabilitation (through advanced experimental therapy) of Emma, a young woman haunted by her past. We see her memories and history unfold as the events leading up to her present state are played out, under the watchful eye of “the greeter”, a doctor who guides her through these emotional scenes... 

Jumping the Barriers

Jumping the Barriers

There are many symbols of class division and expressions of social stratification in this country. I had not considered pistachios to be among them until I saw the look on Nathan’s face when offered some... 

Enron

Enron

In a Fringe environment saturated with professional theatre, as well as aspirational students clawing at the throats of pre-professional placements, it is easy to forget that so many of us got involved in the arts, at least at first, for the sheer pleasure of it... 

Brain Matter(s)

Brain Matter(s)

For all of those who have ever questioned: what on earth are they thinking? Watch as the two halves of the brain find their way through the confusion of life and look to answer some big questions along the way... 

Two and One More

Two and One More

'You hungry?' A boy breaks into a London house during the Blitz and is discovered by the man living there. However, the real question is what lies in the room next door? Two and One More is an original play by Tom Hampson on his third consecutive visit to the Fringe... 

The Calm

The Calm

In the near future, the line between war and terror is blurred in a military hospital behind the front lines, ahead of the final push. 

Spoonface Steinberg

Spoonface Steinberg

Spoonface Steinberg, written by Lee Hall, premiered as a radio play which was broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in 1997. Though originally part of a series, its stand-alone popularity was such that the playwright adapted it for the stage in a version that premiered in 2000... 

Save + Quit

Save + Quit

A production without any set or props is a risky move. With Fringe shows moving towards more technical ‘whiz’ year on year, bringing a show to Edinburgh that's as stripped-back as Save + Quit is a gamble... 

Beryl

Beryl

Beryl takes place in a cluttered bedsit, where the vivacious titular character runs a service that allows curious potential crossdressers to experiment with different looks. The rather grumpy oddball, Frank (Alan Rogers) has engaged these services, but Beryl (Lesley-Ann Reilly) has trouble figuring out what it is he wants... 

Remember to Breathe

Remember to Breathe

Following the story of an Irish emigrant’s relationship with her father, Remember to Breathe is quietly affecting rather than arresting; assured and well-rounded rather than boundary-pushing... 

Mr Incredible

Mr Incredible

There are plenty of plays at this year’s Fringe which criticise gender norms and take on patriarchal systems, but Mr Incredible truly gets to the heart of the kind of beliefs that lead many men to do terrible things... 

Felix Holt: The Radical

Felix Holt: The Radical

‘Wholesome’ is how a lady I spoke to after the performance described Felix Holt: The Radical. It’s not a word I can remember using, but the subsequent conversation revealed her to be well versed in Eliot, the Midlands and the nineteenth century... 

Family Values

Family Values

Family Values by Michael Dalberg is pure theatre with a good splash of violence. Expertly directed by David Gasperetti, Ghost Light theatre tell the story of two brothers, Liam and Trent, caught in a spiral of Mafia family lies and destruction... 

Solo Shakespeare, Macbeth: Hecate's Poison

Solo Shakespeare, Macbeth: Hecate's Poison

Hecate’s Poison is a one-woman version of Macbeth, performed by Players Tokyo’s T. Sato. Through use of physicality and clever costume indications, Sato manages to create a mystical and atmospheric take on the Scottish play... 

Hang

Hang

Hang, the latest show from Yellow Jacket Productions, set in the near future where the death penalty has returned with an added feature, the victim is able to choose the method of execution... 

A Streetcar Named Desire

A Streetcar Named Desire

Having previously seen an outstanding Georgian language version of George Orwell’s Animal Farm by the Tumanisvili Film Actors Theatre at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2014, in which the revolutionary themes were imbued with new significance, the company’s take on Tennessee Williams’ masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire, promises much... 

A Number by Caryl Churchill

A Number by Caryl Churchill

Caryl Churchill’s 2002 play about the ethics of genetic cloning and an extension of the well-worn ‘nature versus nurture’ debate is a challenging text for actors. With only two performers inhabiting the stage throughout, and with radical character differences having to be portrayed with immediacy following scene transitions, the text contains within it a natural intensity which is well realised by actors Charlie Randall and Tom Smythe of Gone Rogue Productions... 

Of Wardrobes and Rings

Of Wardrobes and Rings

David Payne, having already portrayed C. S. Lewis well over 500 times, writes and stars in a new play about the final meeting between Lewis and his friend and sparring partner J. R... 

Vera Vera Vera

Vera Vera Vera

Vera Vera Vera is a black comedy that explores the impact of war on the people back at home. Bobby, a young soldier from Kent, has been killed in Afghanistan. This disaster pushes his mother into a despairing seclusion, while Bobby's other siblings, Emily and Danny, quarrel over how heroic, or not, he really was... 

Family Voices and Victoria Station

Family Voices and Victoria Station

Harold Pinter’s two short plays make only rare appearances nowadays and yet they are rewarding pieces. Family Voices, broadcast as a radio play in 1981, was followed a year later by the premiere of Victoria Station at the National Theatre... 

Catching Up

Catching Up

Friendships and relationships can be tricky to navigate, particularly when they become tangled together. Biting Block Theatre Company are an emerging young duo here to explore just that... 

Three Jumpers

Three Jumpers

The tweeting of the birds portends a beautiful day, but the view from the bridge is spoiled by an ominous thick mist. In the lives of three men contemplating suicide it is the gloom that has the upper hand... 

iDolls

iDolls

iDolls aims to explore the dynamics between social media and feminism by combining various forms of theatre, dance and spoken word. The result is an enjoyable piece with a few laughs, some haunting moments of truth, and a visually interesting display... 

Single Varietal

Single Varietal

Bob Stourton has an orchard. This orchard makes cider, specifically Hambledon Gold Single Varietal Cider, a famed brew from South West England. Bob dies and suddenly his children, Molly and Tim, are thrust into the care of the smallholding, and conflicts grow over its handling... 

Year Ten

Year Ten

Never judge a play by its title. Year Ten conjured up images of yet another dreadful classroom drama of teenage hang-ups, shallow love stories and endless texting. Nothing could be further from the truth in this hard-hitting, action-packed tale of aggression and tenderness... 

Camille

Camille

Most Fringe shows think they can squeeze two hours into fifty minutes. Not Camille: it’s focused and the pace of it is of a kind gallingly absent from Edinburgh.Musing, Camille takes the stage quietly, though don’t assume this means she’s content... 

A Matter of Life and Death

A Matter of Life and Death

We very rarely think about our own deaths. That's unsurprising, considering how frightening it is to entertain the idea that one day, everything will just stop. But within this fear there is a positive – death is one thing that all people share, an event we all know will one day arrive... 

Ears on a Beatle

Ears on a Beatle

Billed as “not simply a docu-drama”, Ears on a Beatle promises perspective on the post-Summer-of-Love, post-Fab-Four decade in which the two protagonist agents find themselves.Rookie Daniel and battle-hardened Howard do the grunt work in investigating John Lennon and his revolutionary comrades... 

Swivelhead

Swivelhead

It is my objective and dream, when at the Edinburgh Fringe, to discover great new writing – plays that are just beginning to make their way onto the world's stages, at the forefront of contemporary drama... 

Luna Park

Luna Park

When reading the marketing blurb for Luna Park, I must confess I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Billed as “a coming of age reverie presented in the style of magical realism through physical theatre”, I was intrigued (... 

The Maiden's Toy

The Maiden's Toy

With hints of Black Swan and Inland Empire, Olly Lawson’s new play is a surprisingly arresting example of student writing. The narrative was gripping, but both the performance and the writing could have gone further into the dark and obsessive territory the play hints at... 

Private Manning Goes to Washington

Private Manning Goes to Washington

Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning remains in a high security US Military Prison on a 35-year sentence for passing nearly a quarter of a million classified files to Wikileaks in 2010... 

Under Ice

Under Ice

Lithuanian director Arturas Areima mounts an adaptation of Falk Richter’s play of the same name, Under Ice. If these names ring obscure, fear not: know that Areima is a brilliant director with a spirited cast of performers and Richter’s words manage to make an impact... 

Bones

Bones

Bones is one of the most high-energy monologues you will see this Fringe. Unable to decide whether or not to kill his baby sister, that he has been left to care for, Mark (Dominic Thompson) regales the audience with stories from his past, transitioning fluently between events from his childhood and from that very night... 

Boys

Boys

The work of playwriting powerhouse Ella Hickson has always been connected to the Edinburgh Fringe, since her debut show Eight premiered there in 2008. Hickson's plays speak to a younger theatregoer, forming deeply personal analyses of a generation categorised by apathy... 

The Six-Sided Man

The Six-Sided Man

The Six-Sided Man is a tense and funny drama, based on Luke Rhinehart’s cult novel The Dice Man, which has toured the world for the last 30 years. It delves into the human psyche and the darker urges it suppresses in a performance that is convincing, if sometimes a little kitsch... 

Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: Sodom

Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: Sodom

Of all the forms of theatre regularly utilised in our part of the world, physical theatre remains the most beleaguered. At its best, it can be the emotive, striking way of delivering information beyond words, like its practitioners want it to be... 

The Elephant Man

The Elephant Man

Devised from the diaries of Fredrick Treves, Fringe Management and Canny Creatures Scotland present The Elephant Man. The show is based on the true story of John Merrick, a man who, despite his kind nature and incredible intelligence, was exhibited in a ‘Freak Show’ in the late 1800s, due to his physical deformities caused by a genetic condition... 

Foxtrot

Foxtrot

Playwright Anthony Maskell’s Fringe debut is as student as they come. I say that lightly, but for the first five minutes, the impression you get is of a hastily arranged, lazy first-year drama class’s take on life experience, through rose-tinted glasses and clichéd tropes regarding the human condition... 

Burying Your Brother in the Pavement

Burying Your Brother in the Pavement

The first thing you are met with when walking into Eagle House School’s Production of Burying Your Brother in the Pavement is approximately 20 young teenagers spaced out on the stage wearing white masks... 

International Shalom Festival Gala Concert

International Shalom Festival Gala Concert

The International Shalom Festival is a celebration of the diverse culture, music, art, dance and food of Israel aiming to build cultural bridges and develop international friendship... 

Mule

Mule

Drug-smuggling. Ibiza to Peru. One of the worst prisons in the world and two women trying their best to survive. Omnibus’ Mule is inspired by the Peru Two: two girls who entered the drug trade and paid for it with a prison sentence... 

Diary of a Madman

Diary of a Madman

The Edinburgh Fringe has recently seen a surge in theatrical adaptations of Nikolai Gogol’s short story Diary of a Madman. This very year, the Traverse Theatre is presenting a version currently playing to critical acclaim... 

This Evil Thing

This Evil Thing

Many appreciate conscientious objectors because they seem on the right side of history. Because war’s pointless, isn’t it? Many British appreciate Muhammad Ali for spurning Vietnam; but could an audience appreciate the conscious objectors (C... 

A Dream of Dying

A Dream of Dying

It seems almost almost impossible that a man could go through his life and when his naked body is washed up on a shore in Ireland no one knows who he is. In A Dream of Dying author Treasa Nealon breathes life back into him, giving him a family and a story... 

My Eyes Went Dark

My Eyes Went Dark

My Eyes Went Dark takes us down into the abyss of overwhelming grief and denies us any chink of light. There is a stifling sense of claustrophobia in the air from the outset of this powerful piece written and directed by Matthew Wilkinson with astonishing economy – two chairs form the entire set... 

Noiseless and Patient

Noiseless and Patient

Prince Edward Island, Canada, 1883 – home to the young Lucy Maud Montgomery, creator of Anne of Green Gables, and to four young spinsters of Scottish, Irish and English descent. They unravel their disparate stories of love, betrayal and hope as they spin and sew their young friend's wedding dress, looking towards uncertain futures in a pioneering land of mixed opportunities. 

Chatroom

Chatroom

Six teenagers come online. Young and powerless, they seek control over their lives and others’. A play which confronts issues of mental health, cyberbullying and recklessness, Chatroom is a fast-paced voyage into a moment in time long-buried by today’s adults... 

Private Manning Goes to Washington

Private Manning Goes to Washington

A new play imagining a secret meeting between US President Barack Obama and Chelsea Manning, the transgender US soldier currently imprisoned for leaking classified information to Wikileaks... 

Monkhouse

Monkhouse

Welcome to the world's worst school disco. Monkhouse School Annual Ball goes horribly wrong as an unknown shooter fires two shots into the dark 1960s London night. Six friends take refuge in the school gym and events descend even further. 

ADAM – The Modern Frankenstein

ADAM – The Modern Frankenstein

In this adaptation of Mary Shelley’s classic, troubled programmer Victor Stone attempts to restore his reputation after being responsible for crashing the stock market. Through ensemble theatre, we explore his journey in the creation of artificial life, as well as his struggle with personal demons. 

The Erpingham Camp

The Erpingham Camp

Start by mixing together a tyrannical manager, a sycophantic padre, a chief yellow coat of clownish incompetence, and dysfunctional punters. Add dodgy British humour, wonderfully comical fights, then fold in biting humour – very tasty... 

Anonymous

Anonymous

'I have a voice, capable of both a whisper and a scream.' How long can a person remain cloaked in the veil of anonymity? How long before the need for recognition takes over? Take a look into the lives of those who watch the lives of others. 

The Point

The Point

The Point is a daring and challenging project driven by female artists. Every city has a dark little secret, a shifty place in the shadows where sex, drugs, pervs, pimps and prossies can’t be missed... 

Canvas No.9

Canvas No.9

Three rival art critics attend a preview in a gallery of modern art by the controversial artist known as Nem0. What will they make of his latest work (the mysterious Canvas No.9), and why is Canvas No... 

The Collector

The Collector

Possession. Obsession. Delusion. Based on John Fowles’ infamous novel, Frederick Clegg abducts and imprisons a girl long worshipped from afar, hoping she’ll learn to love him. Will she? Or are Clegg’s dreams, like the butterflies he collects, doomed? 

Follow Me

Follow Me

Nansi has just become a big sister for the very first time. She’s worried that her life is going to change forever. To deal with the new arrival she escapes into her own imaginary world and becomes an elephant like her favourite soft toy... 

Numbers by Kieron Barry

Numbers by Kieron Barry

A dark comedy focusing on four teenage girls an hour before head girl is announced. The girls talk about their plans for the future after sixth form, and tensions turn nasty as they realise that things might not have worked out the way they planned... 

Killer Cells

Killer Cells

An autobiographical play about hope. The story of five recurrent miscarriage sufferers with a twist at the end. Looking at their #optimism and #resilience. Told by a recurrent miscarriage sufferer and performed by emerging and exciting Welsh theatre companies who are working in collaboration... 

The Lizards

The Lizards

What happens when a barely functioning boy band get the chance to perform at the Reading Festival? The Lizards is a darkly witty yet poignant look at fame (or lack thereof) in the modern world... 

Remember Me: Horatio's Hamlet

Remember Me: Horatio's Hamlet

A cast of two. A stage full of characters. A suitcase full of mysteries. All attempting to answer one of theatre's greatest questions: Who exactly was Hamlet? A grieving Horatio tries to unlock the mystery of his friend's death by hiring an actor to tell his story... 

A Waiting Room

A Waiting Room

Waiting is frustrating – more frustrating when you don’t know what you’re waiting for. Karen finds herself in this hopeless position, with nothing to pass the time but meetings with strange characters and peculiar happenings, most of which are caused by two eccentric receptionists... 

Tartuffe

Tartuffe

1967. The pious Tartuffe is lodging with the honest Orgon and his family. So infatuated with him, Orgon is blinded to Tartuffe’s true, rather less than virtuous ways. His family however sees him for the man he is, and have a tough time convincing Orgon otherwise... 

Brazil

Brazil

Set at some point in a dystopian, not so distant future, one Scottish man is trying to go about his day to day life, living each moment as it comes, not in search of anything that lasts... 

Verge of Strife

Verge of Strife

Emerging in a Grecian breastplate of gold, to a poetic backdrop of Wilfred Owen’s Dulce et Decorum Est the stage is seemingly set for the presentation of a man whose view of himself is certainly not lacking in confidence, bordering on adulation... 

Villain

Villain

In a darkly comic, brutally honest and extremely current piece of new writing, Martin Murphy depicts the life of one woman who is striving to make a difference in the world. This is a one-woman show which starts at the end and works its way back to the beginning, twisting and turning as it portrays the life of a woman who graduates with a degree in fashion and attempts to make a life for herself on the busy streets of London... 

This Earth

This Earth

One soldier’s patriotism, as he battles both for his country and with himself, is pushed to the breaking point in this clever and current piece of new writing. This Earth is about an unnamed war being fought for an unknown cause, and the actors in this piece succeed in portraying both the alienation of war and its direct effect on the individual as the play progresses... 

Missed Connections

Missed Connections

There’s an unspoken rule on the tube: never try to start a conversation. Missed Connections is about three pairs of people who break that rule. Though it occasionally amuses, surprises and impresses, it moves slowly and inefficiently, in unflattering contrast with the play’s set... 

27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams

27 Wagons Full of Cotton by Tennessee Williams

In 1930s, post-recession Mississippi, a young woman’s husband returns home following the outbreak of a fire at a nearby cotton gin; suddenly, a huge workload lands right in his lap... 

Zero Down

Zero Down

If you’ve been living a safe, healthy lifestyle under a rock, then you might not know that the NHS has been doing less than fantastic as of late. Underfunded and overcrowded, it’s a serious topic for political conversation and, apparently, plays... 

Oh Hello!

Oh Hello!

“Charles Hawtrey 1914 -1988 – Film, Theatre, Radio and Television Actor Lived Here.” So reads the plaque where Hawtry (of Carry On fame) resided in Deal, Kent from 1968 until his death... 

[Title of Show]

[Title of Show]

As cryptic as the title of this show may seem to be, its basic premise is established very early on. A sharply self-aware piece based upon the tribulations of writing a new musical, [title of show] wades through clichés, tableaus, references to a wide variety of other West End and Broadway productions which make it completely relatable to anybody already deeply immersed within the form – either as a fan or as someone with any experience of being involved with a musical... 

Cosplay's the Thing

Cosplay's the Thing

It’s two weeks before AniMazing Con and six high school theatre kids are gunning to win the anime convention’s group cosplay contest with a scene from Madsummer! – a modern-day anime Midsummer Night’s Dream starring Puck running amok and the fairy-verse turned upside down... 

Arcadia

Arcadia

In the schoolroom of a country estate in the 1800s, Thomasina is discovering the truth about sex. In the same room about 200 years later, a group of academics are still trying to work it out... 

Lucky 6

Lucky 6

Lucky 6 were massive in the nineties. A squeaky clean pop group put together on a TV show and adored by pre-teens. Ten years later they’re reuniting for one last gig at the O2 and it’s just like old times – as if the drugs, booze, affairs and photos with Jimmy Savile never happened! Oh and that thing with Josh... 

Begin Again

Begin Again

The only certainty in Oskar and Thea's lives is that nothing is guaranteed. Set against a gritty, urban landscape, Begin Again follows the struggles facing two seemingly different families as they navigate uncertain futures... 

Alana

Alana

Recording artist Alana is suddenly alone when her mentor father is seriously injured in a road traffic accident. She becomes dependent on A&E doctor Kate who is caring for her father, and when her father dies her world is turned upside down by the arrival of her estranged mother Terry at the funeral... 

Great Expectations

Great Expectations

From the Fringe First winning authors of Jekyll! comes this brand new adaptation of Dickens' masterpiece. Follow the adventures of Pip as he struggles to become a gentleman and win the love of his life, and, along the way, discover who he truly is... 

Partial Nudity

Partial Nudity

This might only be Partial Nudity, but it’s a full-on piece from writer/director Emily Layton and actors Kate Franz and Joe Layton. The plot is simple. A Bolton pub is hosting a stag do and a hen party in separate rooms... 

Wonderman

Wonderman

When he wasn’t writing the books that have captivated children for fifty years, Roald Dahl wrote a collection of gleefully macabre short stories for adults, published in various magazines throughout the fifties and often featuring a gruesome twist ending... 

E15

E15

“Finally, for the first time, we are being seen.” In this incredibly powerful and important piece of verbatim theatre, LUNG platforms the voices of the most under-represented members of society as it tells the true story of the Focus E15 Campaign... 

In Utero

In Utero

Over scrabble, Jenni and David discuss their excitement about meeting their ‘perfect’ baby; then receive the news that the pregnancy is high-risk. “Is the baby going to be okay?” … “Am I going to be okay?” … “Are we going to be okay?” We watch as their relationship is stretched to its limits, effectively interspersed with recordings of true accounts from people who have tested positive for fetal anomalies... 

Saturday Night Forever

Saturday Night Forever

I’ve left theatres in all sorts of states from elation to depression, anger to jubilation, in tears and totally numb. I left Saturday Night Forever marginally moved and totally frustrated... 

Mercury Fur

Mercury Fur

In a dystopian London, in which the unseen outside world is ravaged by violence, drugs and fear, Mercury Fur focuses upon the relationship between two brothers and depicts, in characteristically graphic and unsettling ways, the lengths to which they would go to protect those whom they love... 

The Life to Come

The Life to Come

Aberdeen Performing Arts Youth Theatre presents The Life to Come by Timothy Mason. Set in 1918, as the United States of America take their place alongside the rest of the allies in WWI... 

Hamlet, Ophelia – Part One

Hamlet, Ophelia – Part One

Hamlet is a woman, she is living the play from the lovers’ point of view, going into the depths of humanity. Hamlet, Ophelia is an original take on the entire story to honour the first modern drama... 

Get Fit With Bruce Willis

Get Fit With Bruce Willis

An ageing cabaret singer needs a new act when his Jimmy Somerville impersonation loses its appeal. He has a month to gain the physique of Bruce Willis. Comedy drama featuring the songs of Jimmy Somerville. 

Marilyn and Sinatra

Marilyn and Sinatra

You know their names but you didn't know their love story... until now. See Marilyn and Sinatra days before this very special play opens in London’s West End. Exhaustively researched, it tells the little-known story of the relationship between showbiz icons Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra... 

Dark North and Hungry Jane: Two Plays of Supernatural Horror

Dark North and Hungry Jane: Two Plays of Supernatural Horror

After comedy, horror is the next most difficult art form to tackle; although comedy reigns king at the fringe there is still an eager audience waiting to be scared. Unfortunately they certainly are not going to find it in this production... 

A Good Clean Heart

A Good Clean Heart

It may be difficult to believe that something as uncommon as bilingual theatre could work. However, A Good Clean Heart from Neontopia proves that you can mix two languages on one stage to great effect... 

Being Norwegian

Being Norwegian

Being Norwegian is a play that follows Sean and Lisa as they talk throughout the night, gradually getting to know each other and growing as confidants. It’s billed as being “a tender and funny one-act play, from acclaimed Scottish playwright David Greig” so it’s fair to be excited about it... 

The Rose of Jericho

The Rose of Jericho

Kevin Hely stares, bares his teeth and darts along the stage. His character’s an ex-soldier, hard-as-nails and sweary; you’ll see why he had to choose the army, a seemingly better home than the one he couldn’t stand as a child... 

Cut

Cut

As you enter the white clinical looking surroundings of a backroom in the medical quad of the Underbelly you are greeted by a Stepford smiling woman who calmly leads you to your seats and explains the rules you will have to abide while you watch the show... 

Jerry Finnegan’s Sister

Jerry Finnegan’s Sister

Written in the 90s, Jerry Finnegan’s Sister presents the iconic ‘girl next door’ story without being self-conscious and with a great deal of laughter. The love of Brian Dowd’s life, who happens to be his best friend and next door neighbour’s sister, is getting married and Brian needs to speak his mind or regret it forever... 

Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London

Mrs Roosevelt Flies to London

Five-star performance in a three-star play. In Mrs. Roosevelt Flies to London, Mrs. Roosevelt, well, flies to London. It’s Mid-WWII, post-Blitz England with a city blown to pieces, and Eleanor Roosevelt has come to cheer us all up... 

Going Underground

Going Underground

In this thought-provoking, inventive and touching piece of new writing, we hear about the lives of ten individuals, linked only by their mode of transportation. Going Underground, through a series of dramatic techniques, allows us to glance at life below the streets of London, where 4... 

Some Voices

Some Voices

Some Voices is a sharp, gritty and touching play that some may recognise from a 2000 film adaptation starring Daniel Craig. It centres around a young schizophrenic man named Ray (played by Michael Dallas) who has just been released from hospital... 

We Are Not Criminals

We Are Not Criminals

If you’re in the mood for chilling, hard-hitting drama, look no further than We Are Not Criminals. This short play from Forty Elephants Theatre Company details the difficult and tense reunion of five women... 

Irrelevant

Irrelevant

In a sitcom-esque black comedy, three bohemian students lazily speculate about the end of the world, until they begin to suspect that one of them might have taken drastic action against an unscrupulous corporation... 

The Female Question

The Female Question

Here is a play with an interesting premise: what would Shakespeare’s female characters say if they had the chance to address their playwright? Would they be unhappy with the treatment—dead, mad, married off—that they get through the bard’s work?This is potentially a hard premise to live up to, but by and large Juno Evans and the Z Theatre Company pull it off... 

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons

In any romantic relationship, one finds oneself developing an intimate, coded language of in-jokes and pet names, a dialect that reflects a couple’s time together. But imagine if this abbreviated form of communication became, not a choice, but a necessity... 

Shylock

Shylock

Guy Masterson and Gareth Armstrong deliver a tour-de-force of history, drama and comedy in this one-actor show. Starting with Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, we are taken on a journey that spans both centuries of Jewish persecution and centuries of the play and its various incarnations... 

Sins Borne

Sins Borne

Absolutely implausible and performed implausibly too: there are moments where Sins Borne’s premise works but they are too sparse.EJ’s a crusty old hermit: a widower shut off from the world and the tumult of societal change... 

Troika

Troika

Great composers sometimes create a theme that is so captivating or remarkable that other great composers write variations on it. This is done as a tribute to its merits, rather than because they are short on good ideas themselves... 

Making Monsters

Making Monsters

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is one of the most well known stories in the English canon. Even those who have never read the book or seen one of the several movies based on the story know of it... 

Love for Sale

Love for Sale

The title song, by Cole Porter, makes an appearance part way through the second half of this narrativised collection of numbers, and really speaks of the character’s ultimate state of mind as the consequence of a series of experiences following her move from America to Paris... 

The Auld Alliance

The Auld Alliance

To make The Auld Alliance, start with a nice big helping of Jane Austen. Make sure you don’t just get the middle-class setting and the multiple beautiful though somehow unmarried daughters; you need to get the witty dialogue and complicated love affairs as well... 

Blind Eye

Blind Eye

A powerful and compelling drama set in 1979. An unorthodox time. An unorthodox crime. A shocking, deeply unsettling event is disclosed during a suspect’s apparently racially motivated murder interview by West Yorkshire Police, the ramifications of which are still being felt today... 

1857: Turrebaz Khan

1857: Turrebaz Khan

A premiering play based on the life of the 19th-century Indian soldier Turrebaz Khan who rebelled for his country's freedom. It is a gripping drama of the last few hours spent with his dictatorial captor, who in fact, is a slave to the very system that Khan is fighting against. 

Catch My Soul

Catch My Soul

Shakespeare the enigma – finding clues to sketching out the man behind the prose and the poetry. A delightful, accessible and light-hearted look at the Folio to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare's death. 

Marilyn and Sinatra

Marilyn and Sinatra

You know their names but you didn't know their love story... until now. See Marilyn and Sinatra days before this very special play opens in London’s West End. Exhaustively researched, it tells the little-known story of the relationship between showbiz icons Marilyn Monroe and Frank Sinatra... 

Adler & Gibb

Adler & Gibb

Following its run at the Royal Court in London, Tim Crouch’s play reflects on our modern-day obsession with artists’ lives and how this interferes with and indeed obscures our engagement with their work... 

The Game's a Foot, Try the Fish

The Game's a Foot, Try the Fish

Tom Taylor has produced a show so funny at one point I thought my lungs were going to burst. The Game’s a Foot is an hour of very silly and very funny comedy.Charlie Montague an upperclass twit who wishes to be a detective... 

Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: The Ark

Fourth Monkey's Genesis and Revelation: The Ark

Drawing from Biblical allusions, Fourth Monkey’s The Ark, as part of their Genesis and Revelation programme, centres on people attempting to play God with the lives of modern-day refugees... 

Bend in the River

Bend in the River

Deep Water Theatre Collective mount Bend in the River: a tender, Thornton Wilder-esque look at the modest living of lepers. The place: Marine Hospital 66 in Carville, Louisiana. The time: 1941... 

Girl

Girl

International theatre has always been a key component of Edinburgh Fringe. Yet, for most visitors, the prospect of watching a play in a foreign language is more than a tad daunting... 

The Rooster Rebellion

The Rooster Rebellion

This is a drama about a young woman who discovers that a former history teacher of hers has become homeless on the streets of London. She decides she’s going to run away from home in order to help him survive... 

The Diary of Anne Frank

The Diary of Anne Frank

It is a story well-known to millions, made all the more poignant and absorbing for its absolute authenticity. Young Anne Frank (whose name is pleasingly pronounced here with regard for its German rather than British origin) wished “to go on living – even after my death” and thanks to the characterful vibrancy of this adaptation by many of the young Lambrook Theatre Company, the young writer is certainly imbued with a new lease of life... 

The Fair Weather Felon

The Fair Weather Felon

The Fair Weather Felon is a short crime drama about a young thief named Jim who one night breaks into a house before getting caught by a girl named Lisa. Jim falls in love with Lisa but Lisa betrays him... 

The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro

The View from Castle Rock by Alice Munro

World premiere: a theatrical adaptation of Canadian Nobel Prize winner Alice Munro’s moving and enigmatic short stories of her Scottish ancestors’ emigration. Adapted by award-winning playwright Linda McLean... 

Dropped

Dropped

There’s a lot of camouflage in Dropped. The physical sort is evident from the outset. Two female soldiers dressed in desert gear sit tented beneath netting waiting to be rescued. The scene is heavily military... 

Bad Shakespeare

Bad Shakespeare

Something of a misnomer, Bad Shakespeare does not reflect the quality of the acting or of the performance. Instead, it explores and illustrates different aspects of the playwright’s villains from a number of plays and a variety of angles, showcasing the critical and performative talent of the group from the BFA Acting company at Oklahoma City University, under the direction of D... 

Wilde Without the Boy

Wilde Without the Boy

It’s indefatigably Wilde. You don’t even need the show’s title to know it’s Wilde. Gerard Logan simply is Wilde, from the non-stop quips and allusions to the tender look at his own condemned urges... 

The Gin Chronicles: A Scottish Adventure

The Gin Chronicles: A Scottish Adventure

After their great success last year, Interrupt the Routine are back with a brand new episode of The Gin Chronicles.The show’s uniqueness is utterly charming. The cast play actors from 1940s group ‘The Misfits of London,’ who act in their radio show The Gin Chronicles, complete with corporate product placement, Foley artist sound effects, and half-time advertisements... 

Care Takers

Care Takers

Seeing Care Takers is like watching all the episodes of a fabulous five-part drama series in one sitting. You’re gripped in the first scene. Then you’re given time to breathe and collect your thoughts before the action resumes and the plot thickens... 

A Remarkable Person

A Remarkable Person

It’s a little bizarre to go and see something which calls itself ‘a touch of genius’ in its description. Not that someone hasn't indeed said that, but it does rather set itself up for a fall... 

Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening

Spring Awakening won an impressive list of Tony, Grammy and Olivier Awards. On those occasions the glamour of the production and the quality of the performances must have overcome the many distasteful aspects of the storyline... 

Holes by Louis Sachar

Holes by Louis Sachar

Originally taking the form of a classic children’s novel, it is only natural that this rendition of Holes by Louis Sachar is performed entirely by a young cast. With not a single adult on stage, the Cheam Drama Company managed to bring the childlike element of the book to life in their hour-long performance... 

An Evening with CS Lewis

An Evening with CS Lewis

The set-up is simple: an armchair, a side-table, and a teapot, cup, and saucer. As it should be, An Evening with C. S. Lewis is exactly that – no frills, no complications, just a complete reliance on the actor’s ability to hold an audience’s attention through his crafted delivery... 

Too Fast

Too Fast

The play centres around Sensation Nation, a vocal group founded and led by the unstoppable DD. Her grand plan is for the group to storm next year’s Britain’s Got Talent. But first they need a gig, and more importantly a heartbreaking back-story that will win them votes later on down the line... 

Liebe

Liebe

This is my last morning. What does a man do on his last morning? He does what any another man would do. Whether it be his first, his last or a day in-between. He washes. He takes a shower... 

Actors Wanted for Fringe Show: No Mobile

Actors Wanted for Fringe Show: No Mobile

Three-hour fast-moving, fun workshop for up to 20 children (11 to 14-year-olds) exploring how young people use their mobile phones and what happens when a teenager is left without their phone... 

The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby

Tackling an adaptation of The Great Gatsby, one of the most famous and beloved novels ever written, is not a task taken on lightly but it is one the Nottingham New theatre rises too, bringing the wit and bittersweet poignancy of F Scott Fitzgerald’s seminal American classic to the stage successfully... 

I, Who Have Hands More Innocent

I, Who Have Hands More Innocent

Vesna Tominac Matacic’s adaptation of the works of Croatian poet Vesna Parun is an impassioned and beautiful spectacle that somehow still manages to feel lacking in substance. At first the performance fills the audience with a sense of grand promise, but sends them away wondering slightly what happened to fill the hour... 

Screw Your Courage! (or The Bloody Crown!)

Screw Your Courage! (or The Bloody Crown!)

In this one-woman show, Klahr Thorsen takes her audience on a whirlwind journey that dips and glides – sometimes gracefully, sometimes not – between fiction and personal history...