Shows at Festival Theatre

War Horse

Listing
Edinburgh
Festival Theatre
2nd - 11th Oct 2025

The acclaimed National Theatre production War Horse Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo | Adapted by Nick Stafford In association with the award-win…

Figures in Extinction

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
22nd - 24th Aug 2025

SCOTTISH PREMIEREDance and theatre legends Crystal Pite and Simon McBurney unite with Nederlands Dans Theater (NDT) to confront the climate crisis through spellbinding movement and…

Scottish Ballet Company Class

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
16th Aug 2025

An exclusive event for our members.

Mary, Queen of Scots

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
15th - 17th Aug 2025

WORLD PREMIERERenaissance meets punk in Scottish Ballet’s retelling of the story of one of Scotland’s most famous women.

Backstage Tour - Make It Happen

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
7th - 7th Aug 2025

An exclusive event for our members.

Make It Happen

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
30th Jul - 9th Aug 2025

WORLD PREMIEREBrian Cox stars in this biting satire on the Scottish banking ambition that shattered the global economy.

Pride & Prejudice* (*sort of)

Great fun, at times hilarious, Pride & Prejudice, sort of by Isobel McArthur is a high energy spoof which will appeal to both Jane Austenites and those who’ve never read a wo…

Death of a Salesman

Andy Arnold brings his production of Arthur Miller's modern classic Death of a Salesman to Scottish theatres, impressively with an all-Scottish cast.

Scottish Ballet: The Nutcracker

An exquisite production, bringing glitter and joy to lighten the wintry dark.

Don Pasquale

Review
★★★★
Mark Harding
Scotland
Multiple Venues
15th Oct, 2024

This revival of Scottish Opera’s 2014 production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale brings together the comic opera brilliance of David Stout playing the Don (last seen with the compa…

Keynote Talk: Gordon Brown

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
25th Aug 2024

‘The world as it is and the world as it can be’.

Assembly Hall

A curate’s egg, flashes of brilliance but with a first third of tedious mire, Kidd Pivot company’s Assembly Hall, about an amateur medieval re-enactment society, will divide au…

The Marriage of Figaro Backstage Tour

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
18th - 18th Aug 2024

An exclusive event for our members.

The Marriage of Figaro

This production makes me feel like Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells.

Keynote Talk: Akala

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
10th Aug 2024

Find solidarity in understanding the world we live in with the British Hip hop artist, author and social entrepreneur.

Backstage Tour - Carmen

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
6th - 6th Aug 2024

An exclusive event for our members.

Carmen

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
4th - 8th Aug 2024

UK PRODUCTION PREMIERE The most popular French opera in the world comes to the International Festival direct from Opéra-Comique – the Parisian opera house where it all began.

Hamilton

Listing
Edinburgh
Festival Theatre
28th Feb - 27th Apr 2024

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s multi-award-winning cultural phenomenon Hamilton is touring the UK for the very first time in 2023/2024 and is coming to the Festival Theatre for a 9-week se…

On Before Carlos Acosta

For charisma, no other male dancer can beat Carlos Acosta, one of the greatest classical dancers of our times, still spell-binding at fifty.

Cinders!

Is Cinders a male or a female? Audiences won’t know until the curtain rises on a particular night.

Cinders!

Listing
Glasgow
Festival Theatre / Theatre Royal Glasgow
9th Dec 2023 - 20th Jan 2024

Scottish Ballet’s festive favourite returns for the winter season with a new name, glittering new designs, and a charming twist to the tale.

Dracula: Mina's Reckoning

What would you do if you were offered god-like powers? That's the final dilemma faced by Mina in this adaptation of the Dracula story by Morna Pearson.

Mathew Bourne's Romeo + Juliet

Rape, homophobic bullying, knife crime and murder in a mental health/correctional institute, Mathew Bourne’s Romeo+Juliet is probably the most shocking and bold of his re-imaginin…

Anoushka Shankar

The Grammy Award®-nominated, genre-defying artist returns to the International Festival following her acclaimed performance in 2017.

John Cale

Avant-garde and provocative, John Cale inspires and amazes with his innovative and radical album, Mercy.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – Programme 2

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
24th - 25th Aug 2023

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater performs an evening of beloved classics choreographed by their game-changing founder.

Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater – Programme 1

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
23rd - 25th Aug 2023

The legendary American dance company dazzles with technical brilliance and passionate energy, bringing audiences to their feet at every performance.

Supporter Event: The Threepenny Opera Backstage Tour

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
19th Aug 2023

An exclusive event for members and supporters of Edinburgh International Festival.

The Threepenny Opera

There are many aspects to the brilliance of this show, but the greatest revelation is the singing.

Mariza

The queen of Portuguese fado mesmerises with her remarkable singing, charismatic stage presence and powerful blend of traditional and contemporary song forms.

Chapter 3: The Brutal Journey of the Heart

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
13th - 14th Aug 2023

Nine dancers move hypnotically in a work exploring the highs and lows of love and relationships.

Lady Blackbird

Lady Blackbird artfully combines soulful jazz and upbeat power ballads to create music to empower and inspire.

Trojan Women

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
9th - 11th Aug 2023

Euripides’ classic Greek tragedy is breathtakingly reimagined by 25 singers, actors and musicians in this epic production from the National Changgeuk Company of Korea.

Cécile McLorin Salvant: Ogresse

The UK premiere of Ogresse, a new musical journey of myth and song created by Grammy® Award-winner Cécile McLorin Salvant.

Ballet Black: Pioneers

Pioneers: Ballet Black is an inspired pairing of dance pieces, both in terms of subject matter and in their exploratory choreography.

Scottish Ballet: A Streetcar Named Desire

This stunning production is an ideal example of how to use the unique ability of dance to emphasise and refocus on different aspects of a classic drama.

Scottish Ballet - A Streetcar Named Desire

Listing
UK Regional & Tours
Multiple Venues
13th Apr - 30th Jun 2023

Scottish Ballet’s hugely popular, award-winning production of A Streetcar Named Desire returns to Scotland for the first time since 2015, touring to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen …

Matthew Bourne's Sleeping Beauty

The subtitle A Gothic Romance is added to Matthew Bourne’s Sleeping Beauty for a good reason.

Scottish Ballet - The Snow Queen

Review
★★★★
Stephanie Green
Edinburgh
Multiple Venues
26th Nov, 2022

Magic, glitter, snowflake fairies, Jack Frosts, snow wolves and innocent love winning out, what more could you want? Circus acts, Romani travellers? A revival of its 2019 productio…

Jungle Book reimagined

Breathtaking projections of animation by YeastCulture steal this show and a set which is largely conveyed by lighting.

A Little Life

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
20th - 22nd Aug 2022

Acclaimed director Ivo van Hove adapts Hanya Yanagihara’s novel for the theatre, crafting a deeply moving performance of epic proportions.

Coppélia

An electrifying production, Scottish Ballet’s Coppélia, reimagined with robots and a new story that only nods to the original, is not just for sci-fi fans but addresses the seri…

Rusalka

Listing
Edinburgh International Festival
Festival Theatre
9th Aug 2022

A new production of Dvořák’s opera featuring Natalya Romaniw comes to the International Festival, with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Douglas Boyd and Garsington Opera.

Members Event: Backstage Tour of Rusalka

An exclusive event for members of the Edinburgh International Festival.

The Scandal at Mayerling

Powerful psychodrama elevates Scottish Ballet’s The Scandal at Mayerling from what might have been mere melodrama, a skull and pistol its signature symbols, into an outstandingly…

NDT2: The Big Crying, Simple Things, Impasse

The convulsive pain of grief, a languorous classical quartet and an exuberant party piece undercut with darkness; these three pieces superbly contrast each other in mood and style,…

Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker

Snow falling, Christmas baubles, glitz and magic - Scottish Ballet’s The Nutcracker to Tchaikovsky performed by the company’s live orchestra is like a box of chocolate treats.

Starstruck: Scottish Ballet

Glitz and glamour, fun and frolics, Scottish Ballet’s Starstruck is a delight, just what we need after 18 months of closed theatres.

Scottish Ballet: The Snow Queen

A wintry tale of fire and ice where selfless love wins, The Snow Queen, choreographed by Christopher Hampson, is a dangerous journey encountering bandits and snow creatures.

The Stornoway Way

Review
★★★★
Paul Fisher Cockburn
Scotland
Multiple Venues
16th Oct, 2019

“We do not live in the back of beyond, we live in the very heart of beyond,” argues Roman Stornoway, a struggling musician and the central protagonist in Kevin MacNeil’s thea…