Shows at Summerhall

Dan's got a rucksack full of stolen weed and a plan that'll definitely work. Ollie's got his A-level reading list and serious reservations. They've been mates their whole lives. They're also becoming strangers. Set against the 00s music festival that swallows their town every summer, this gig theatre show tears into class, nostalgia and masculinity, backed by a live band playing original songs that hit like a headline set. Messy, honest and completely on your side, from multi award-winning theatre company Chronic Insanity.

Roll up your sleeves, and go under the knife as we enter into an anaesthetic world turned upside down. Like a live theatre version of the game of Operation – but make it trans. A work-in-progress by Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, S.E. Grummett, combining live-feed video, interactive surgery and trash puppets. From the creators of SLUGS 'Brilliantly smart and beautifully stupid' **** (Guardian), Creepy Boys ***** (ToDoList.org.uk) and Something in the Water (Winner of Best Theatre award at Adelaide Fringe), comes a glittery and gory dissection of bodies, queerness and identity.

How do you justify bringing a child into this world? When she was a teenager, she vowed she never would. Yet, when babies start appearing in her dreams, her resolve is challenged by a monstrous desire for a baby of her own. Channelling a wide array of personas and worlds, The Dreaming sees us lost between landscapes of fantasy and nightmare. Here we seek answers to the questions: What drives us to create life? How do we grieve the futures the economic and climate crises have taken from us? What makes our lives meaningful?

From the critically acclaimed, award-winning company behind Mass Effect and Champions comes a brand-new performance celebrating imperfection, queer joy and the courage to find your tribe. Good Enough? is a queer, quirky and boisterous physical theatre performance about reclaiming your story and having the courage to be loud, awkward and unapologetically yourself. This is not a show about perfect bodies or polished dancers. It's about the instinct to move, to express and to be seen – especially when language isn't enough.

Comedian and viral creator of @letsdoubledutch Derek Mitchell tests new material and characters for an hour – expect accents, sketches and cross-cultural weirdness. With nearly a million followers and over half a billion views online, Derek has built a global fanbase through his whip-smart characters and satirical takes on Dutch, British and North American cultures. 'Hysterically funny' ***** (BroadwayBaby.com). 'Seriously impressive' **** (Stage). 'Masterful' **** (List).

Freedom Party leader and founder of the Scots Mission, Big Jimmy, is here to tell you how to keep yur grannies safe and Make Scotland Cis Again! Hilarious, curious and deeply human, Transmission is a darkly comedic, tender-hearted performance by playwright and drag artist Nelly Kelly, exploring Scotland's shift from world-leading on LGBT+ rights, to fertile ground for the anti-trans movement. Blending DIY-cabaret with political theatre, male impersonation and a heap of mischief, Transmission examines how public perception of trans people is shaped – not by trans voices – but by 'single issue' campaigners, political-footballing and media distortion. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com

Jack, an aging actor, walks into a pub. Ava, a bartender auditioning, once again, for drama school, pours him a drink. Jack offers to help Ava with her monologues, and the two wend their way through the Shakespeare canon, clashing and connecting as they do. Based on the ineffable Tina Packer's Women of Will, this production charts the way Shakespeare's writing for women changed across his career. Intimate, epic; what emerges is an homage to some of the Bard's heroines, a love song to connection, as they learn to listen to both the text and each other.

With brutality and humour, Boaz Barkan digs into a living body to uncover a new organ – the place where our racism resides. Our Other Organ dissects antisemitism and its impact on Jewish identity, culminating in the creation of a new Zionist body and structures of violence and domination. The performance explores the anatomy of victims and oppressors as simultaneous conditions within the same body. Moving through bodies and time, it connects personal histories to collective trauma, tracing how oppression is embodied, reproduced and transformed into systems of power, fear and ultimately, genocide.

Laughing Out Lonely (LOL) is a portrait of contemporary loneliness. With a universal relevance, and a tour de tour performance from acclaimed countertenor Morten Grove Frandsen, this thrilling new opera is a thought-provoking performance that pushes the boundaries of what opera can be. Created using English lyrics that are based on posts from young people on social media, and staged by Louise Beck as a theatrical echo chamber where the audience is part of the setting, Laughing Out Lonely is a compelling work that is relevant for audiences of all ages.

From the writer of Jimmy, the totally sold-out, smash-hit, one-man show of Summerhall 2024 – 'solo shows are ten a penny at the Edinburgh Fringe, but this feels like one in a million' ***** (Telegraph) – comes the true story of Captain Matthew Webb, the first man to ever swim the English Channel. The bravery! The fortitude! The sheer outright insanity! It's time to remember this most humble of men, this Shopshire lad, whose extraordinary feat ought to be far more celebrated than it is. A man who died as he lived, chasing the impossible.

OnlyFans slut makes a clown show about falling in love <3 'Hysterically funny' ****½ (One4Review.co.uk). 'Brilliantly relentless' **** (Fest). 'This is not simply under-grad humour. This is, in my view, a skilled clown presenting and counter-balancing the arguments which wax and wane through the generations about whether to sexualise or not to sexualise the female body.' ***** (UKCabaret.com). 'Her tits might have put bums on seats. But it's her silly, provocative humour and commitment that kept them there.' (Chortle.co.uk).

Joel has Daddy issues. In a party of pick'n'mix participation, acclaimed Aboriginal choreographer, Joel Bray, hankers for his father and their lost mother tongue. Creating a candy-coloured world he folds and sifts his way amongst the audience, playfully seducing the room with a dollop of queer desire while prodding the deep cavities of colonisation. Heartbreaking and hilarious, Daddy is a provocative confection of conversation, choreography and (actual) cream. Joel soft-serves a sugar rush of spontaneous community where everyone is safe and licking is optional. 'Does performance art get more powerful and intimate?' ***** (Sydney Morning Herald).

It's about nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing. We promise. For tonight, we are free. From the award-winning performance/comedy duo Creepy Boys, S.E. Grummett and Sam Kruger, this anarchic fever dream is a techno-punk concert, a play, a clown show and a basement puppet nightmare all rolled into one. Best Show nominee, Edinburgh Comedy Awards 2025. 'The underground hit of the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe' (Telegraph). **** (Guardian). **** (Scotsman). **** (Chortle.co.uk). ***** (ToDoList.org.uk). ***** (BroadwayBaby.com). **** (List). **** (Financial Times). **** (Fest).

It's 3am. The phone glows. The feed is insatiable. Sleep doesn't come. From the producer of Mother Has Arrived (The Stage's Top 50 shows of 2025). Daydreams locks you into a sleepless loop where headlines and half-dreams collide. A solo performer carries the night through spoken thoughts and a body that can't rest. 3D projection fractures the space into flickers, scrolls and sudden images. An ominous soundscape swells and distorts, turning notifications and breath into a tightening pulse. Dark humour cuts at the edge of collapse. By morning, you're still awake. Three coffees should do it, right?

Meet Bunny, an aspiring theatre starlet looking for her big break. She's also a serial killer, streamlining the talent pool through cold-blooded murder to increase her chances of landing a role. After getting rid of the country's actors, emerging theatre companies and even some big hitters, she's still no closer to achieving her dreams. But a revolution is starting to unfold, and Bunny is at the heart of it. Her murderous ways inspire a radical movement hell-bent on destroying billionaires, celebrity culture and artistic fascism. But Bunny just wants to be on Broadway...

Neutral Milk Hotel's indie-rock triumph In the Aeroplane Over the Sea and Anne Frank's stunning and candid The Diary of a Young Girl fuse with confessions from Salty's adolescent longings in this genre-defying cabaret with wit, spectacle and heart. Sparks fly, time bends, and the ghosts of our past return to us in this hilarious and devastating work from Salty's acclaimed and expansive Living Record Collection. 'Astounding' ***** (Stage). ***** (List). 'A storyteller in total command of voice, a cocked eyebrow and his audience' **** (Guardian).

It's 2001. A naive young Australian actor arrives in New York. One man plays twenty-eight characters in this heartbreakingly funny award-winning play about 9/11 and chasing your dreams. Twenty-five years after September 11 changed the world, performer James Smith transforms from a hopeful Aussie to a weary New York lawyer to a British compulsive liar (to name a few), in a fragmented story inspired by playwright Emily Steel's real-life experiences. 'Beautifully told, deeply resonant' ***** (List). 'Go see it and take all of your friends' ***** (GlamAdelaide.com.au).

Puttana is a work that questions the boundary between body and commodity, between desire and power. In a society that normalises consumption, the buying and selling of bodies follows the same rules as any other market: I pay, therefore I can. A single actress gives voice to five characters, through music and words, to tell an uncomfortable and cruel story. Will you be the one who casts the first stone?

Two teenagers perform fake Bigfoot sightings in their Appalachian town, until a neighbour's dog turns up torn to pieces. Aside from sparking a panic that spirals out of their control, it forces them to question what might actually be terrorizing their under-resourced and already superstitious community. From 2022, 2023 and 2024 Fringe First award-winners and 'the Fringe's most dynamic theatrical duo' (Telegraph), Xhloe and Natasha, comes a Brechtian puppet show ripped in two about conspiracy, misdirection and seeing something with your own eyes.

Grief. Stars. Mums. Lasagne. 'Among the more than a thousand works on offer in the Fringe, Meteors is likely a standout – both entertaining and emotional, offering a chance for real connection' ***** (InDaily.com.au). Grief isn't part of the conversation. Especially not as a young person. No one knows what to say, so it's simply left unsaid. An acclaimed breakout at the 2026 Adelaide Fringe, Melissa traverses the messy, non-linear aftermath of losing a mother at age 20, the vastness of the universe, too many lasagnes and the search for light in the dark.

You, your mates, hot sauna, cold plunge, our resident DJs on the decks, plus a host of special guests. Surprising, delighting theatrics, comedy, music, Aufguss and much more in the UK's largest sauna with state-of-the-art lighting and surround sound for a fully immersive experience. Watch a performance in the sauna, plunge in an ice bath, have a dance with your mates, grab a chilled 0% beer and step back into the heat of the moment. This is the coolest/hottest arts party around.

Attention: multiple new occurrences are now confirmed and verified. Healthy citizens must report to their safehouses by sunset and shelter in place. Three ill-equipped wardens keep watch over a makeshift community who must learn to work together. But as the threat outside takes shape, the atmosphere inside begins to turn. A gripping blend of thriller and comedy that pulls you into an immersive world of suspicion, survival and uneasy laughter. With heart-pounding sound design, razor-sharp performances and a daring, darkly funny style, this international cult hit asks: when night falls – who do you trust? ***** (BritishTheatreGuide.info).

This foreigner hopes his genius performance gets him naturalised or deported. A dizzying solo that refuses to explain Sohrab's experience as an Iranian asylum seeker. A paradoxical autobiographical anti-identity, anti-comedy clown show inspired by Rumi's call to kill yourself. 'Unconventional. Undismissable. Unforgettable' (Plays Unpleasant). FORIEGNER is co-created by Koan Brothers (Sohrab Haghverdi, Benjamin Rosenthal, Mason Rosenthal). The show received the Al-Bustan Award for SWANA Artists and the Tyler Touring Fund. Mason Rosenthal is a founding member of Lightning Rod Special, the company behind Underground Railroad Game (Edinburgh Fringe First and Edinburgh Stage Awards) and a 2026 Creative Capital Awardee.

Minyoung Kim is a composer and soloist from Seoul, who combines geomungo - a traditional Korean string instrument – with jeongga – traditional Korean singing based on poetry and electronic music. PLASTIC is her solo project first presented in 2025, in which she explores the contradictions of human beings: their fragility and, at the same time, their immense potential, offering a modern and updated version of traditional Korean music with accompanying psychedelic projection.

One man. One song. One hour. Award-winning comedian Conk takes to the stage and sings the same song over and over again on repeat for an entire hour. That's it. That's the show. Which song? You'll have to come and find out. Equal parts comedy and live art experiment, what begins as a simple musical premise of singing the same hit song over and over again spirals into a hilarious feat of absurdity.

Let the Magic Lantern Anthology guide you through future folklore and forgotten myths. Through the power of puppetry, science and light, puppeteer Jacob Graham lures you into distant worlds, aided by Michael Vandergard's light puppets, the art of magic, and strange physics. Explore how the world around us manipulates our identity and how the confines of our physical world can never stop us from taking a joyride or flying toward the stars.

A meditative, moving Aufguss show choreographed to the transcendental music of German minimalist composer Nils Frahm. Aufguss is a sauna ritual which circulates steam and scent though beautiful towel waving dance. Here in our magical sauna theatre our state-of-the-art lighting and surround sound fuse with the mastery our Aufguss artists to dazzle your every sense. Aching piano, ecstatic electronica and blissed out house beats envelop you as the heat rises and towels twirl. The most sensuous immersive show you'll ever live inside.

5th November. 1605. London. A plot foiled. A trial imminent. A story rewritten. Two brothers stand accused of high treason for a plot they bet their lives to pull off, and on the other side of the Thames, a playwright weaves their story into a new masterpiece to save his own skin. The Plot is a show about the power of great stories, those who wield them, and the imagination. It is the fourth show by Emma Howlett with her company theatregoose, makers of consecutive Fringe hits Aether, Sisters Three and Her Green Hell.

A grief-stricken vegan seeks revenge for the death of a pig. First, he thinks for a long time. Second, he blames his mother. Finally, he wreaks the ultimate vengeance... by putting on a play. HAM is a kinky eco-hijacking of Shakespeare’s Hamlet about meat, madness and the power of shame. The 'vividly, viscerally alive' ***** (Guardian) Hotter Project twists this high-brow tragedy into a sordid wrestle between a vegan and a sausage-lover. As we hurtle towards the end of humankind, every one of us must decide: to eat, or not to eat? That is the question.

Fringe First winners return with a sweaty mustache of a comedy about the business of letting our dads die. With a dose of Kafka and 'A Christmas Carol,' Lions disassembles the myths our fathers told themselves about becoming great men. Part clown show and part deconstructed eulogy, Lions honors our fathers by not denying them the humanity they could not offer themselves. 'Lions made me laugh, cry and consider my doomed legacy' (8 Best Shows at Philadelphia Fringe, Philadelphia Inquirer). From the creators of UNDERGROUND RAILROAD GAME (Fringe First Award, The Stage Award, Obie Award, **** Guardian, ***** Stage).

Work in progress of a new play, written and performed by Shaparak Khorsandi, based on true life experiences of her Iranian family, scattered around the globe after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. Featuring original live music by Jean Delkhaste, aka Smiling Beth. Can two sisters from different generations hold the same inheritance without collapsing into resentment, fantasy or ideology?

Boys are shaped by the men around them. So what makes a man? It's Y2K and a teenage boy has been caught between two very different influences: a volatile father and a gentle Windrush-era grandfather. But when he's uprooted to a working-class Northern town, he quickly learns the rules: who the hard lads are, what to say on MSN Messenger and how to be a "proper" lad. Blending vivid storytelling with sharp humour, this nostalgia-drenched autobiographical show explores boyhood, masculinity and the moments young boys must decide what kind of men they will become.

Two timelines collide in this bold fusion of dance and circus, offering a fresh perspective on HIV. When Grace receives a diagnosis, she is transported back to the 80s alongside Michael, a gay man navigating a very different reality. Their journeys unfold through striking choreography, Chinese pole and aerial artistry. Sadiq Ali Company, makers of five-star, award-winning The Chosen Haram, return to the Fringe with their new show Tell Me, part of the Made in Scotland showcase. 'Stunning, soulful, a total triumph' ***** (PinkPrinceTheatre.com). 'Poignant tale of sex, revelry and glistening abs' **** (Guardian). MadeInScotlandShowcase.com

Boys, are you shirkin for a gherkin? Attempting openness while navigating the pressures of his troubled masculinity, Johnny finds himself off-piste in the world of spoken-word poetry. I AM JOHNNY is an unsettlingly funny, absurd and politically sharp solo performance that dives head-first into fragile power dynamics, performative masculinity and ownership of the female body. Blending surreal humour with piercing insight, this is a hilarious, raw and unforgettable interrogation of gender, class and vulnerability.

Experience the world's greatest Aufguss artists right here in Edinburgh. Stunning choreography and extraordinary storytelling using steam and scent in a beautiful sauna theatre with state-of-the-art lighting and surround sound. Aufguss is a sauna ritual that circulates steam and scent through mesmeric towel waving as part of a story told through words, music, dance, scent and heat. Two different artists perform every day with line-ups announced in advance on @saunatheatre socials, featuring world class Aufguss artists from across Europe and around the world. This is theatre to captivate all of your senses.

He's been running his whole life. Time to catch up. When the football pitch freezes, Chris is forced into cross-country. Everyone hates it, but something in Chris ignites. A coming-of-age story set in the world of elite sport where everything is measured, every meal, every metre, every moment, asking why we push ourselves as far as we can... Then further. From former GB athlete Ben Norris, The Distance is part play, part extreme workout – a sweat-drenched exploration of ambition, identity and letting go. Directed by Julia Locascio. From the producers of SIX, Choir of Man and Playfight.

Where did it all go wrong? Well, it depends who you ask. Close friends Oscar and Ela navigate the fallout of a drunken sexual encounter as their conflicting versions of events are replayed, rewound and re-written against the sensory medley of a wild night out. Olivier and Tony nominated Carrie-Anne Ingrouille (SIX the Musical) directs the world premiere of this distinctly un-romantic dark comedy and 'fascinating exploration' (Daniel Finkelstein, The Times) of the greyest areas of consent and sexual politics.

Hey slut! A broke feminist podcaster reinvents herself as a provocative slutfluencer in pursuit of fame, only to lose herself in the performance. Darkly hilarious, gripping and surreal, ROLEPLAY is a ferocious interrogation of modern sex, the commodification of feminism and the era of the personal brand. Writer, actress and comic Hannah Reilly brings her 'fresh, female-first approach' (Elle) to the Fringe in this NSFW one-woman show directed by Paige Rattray (Fangirls). From award-winning producers Francesca Moody Productions (Fleabag, Baby Reindeer) and Global Creatures (Moulin Rouge! The Musical, Muriel's Wedding The Musical).

A political musical play set in Soviet-era Moscow, where a youth subculture resists conformity through jazz, dance and underground culture. Music is carved onto X-ray discs and passed in secret as young people search for their voice and dream of a freer world beyond the USSR. As pressure from the state intensifies, friendships shift, choices become dangerous and those dreams begin to fracture. What starts as rebellion through music turns into a struggle to hold on to identity, love and freedom under constant threat.

Hidden within the Old Dick Vet School lies a clandestine tavern where Edinburgh's rogue doctors and veterinarians gather. Surrounded by animal skulls and illicit research, you are invited into the medical underground's inner circle. Sign the ledger and swear a binding oath of secrecy before being administered two potent, gin-based trials. From an eerie tonic designed to stir the senses to a controversial elixir inspired by bizarre early-century surgical grafts, this immersive experience blends local history with forbidden anatomy.

Aspiring national treasure and quintessential luvvie Gerald Lloyd-Davies amuses the audience and himself in a comprehensive career retrospective, from his humble beginnings in the Rhondda to playing an ageing Peter Parker in Spiderman: Never Too Late. But when confronted with an inconvenient opinion about his past, Gerald must adapt in order to secure his future. Can he do so before the curtain falls? Laurie Stevens's theatre debut follows her hit character show David's One-Man Band: 'Gleefully funny' **** (Everything-Theatre.co.uk). 'Evocative... well-written... nails something universal' **** (List). 'So relatable' **** (LothianLife.co.uk). 'Touching' **** (ThreeWeeks).

Say hello to Scott – the finest "Edutainment Officer" in the business, a leading expert in overhead animation and lo-fi storytelling, a renowned descendent of the Turnbull Family Edutainment programme and a grieving son. The only problem is, he’s gone a little bit freaky-deaky. With the Wilkes Booth Corporation breathing down his neck, our charming yet unreliable narrator is struggling with the pressure of real life. The award-winning show (Best Performance, Newcastle Fringe) is back at Edinburgh Fringe for a second year! 'Nothing else like it at the festival' (Scotsman). 'Weird and wonderfully warm' (Guardian).

JULIUS CAESAR VARIETY SHOW is the worst audition you've ever had. A Black actor, a woman actor, and a straight white male actor walk into a Shakespeare audition in a condemned theatre space. Amidst a riot outside the theatre, three auditionees attempt to impress an intensely respected director set on reinventing the play in "unorthodox" styles. As the audition unfolds, the actors' identities are called into the audition room and exploited for better performances.

A father dreams of dying. A daughter dreams of living. A seagull dreams of being human. Francis is caged in his home by devotion, duty and a devastating diagnosis. A seagull offers an escape: it will nest inside his body, take control and free his pregnant daughter from the burden of his care. But what begins as selfless sacrifice risks becoming violent surrender. An absurd, darkly comic new play with an electrifying score, Nesting is a visceral exploration of love, death and duty from Trolley Problem, following their sold-out production of Mistero Buffo at the Citizens Theatre.

Stunned by the revelation of her husband's infidelity, Bea feels heartbroken and alone. If only she knew that her neighbours, Sonia, Van and Ian, were each also trying to get over the pain in their hearts, unable to articulate how they feel. Maybe the mysterious Lou can help them? A poignant and uplifting celebration of the power of sad music: 'a subtle and intelligent combination of words, movement and music' (Stage). Performed by five actor-musicians, including the music of Hank Williams, Orange Juice, Etta James, JS Bach and more.

Part ceilidh, part play, and a good night out, Tether is a bold new collaboration between Scotland's Wonder Fools and South Korea's Theatre SAN. Spanning 60 years and three generations, the piece weaves folk songs, love letters and war stories into a shared experience of music and memory. Beginning as a joyous communal gathering, it gradually reveals an intimate love story shaped by migration, oppression and time. Playful, powerful and deeply human, Tether invites audiences to collectively dance, laugh, listen and remember – tracing the invisible threads that bind two nations together.

Winner Solas Nua New Voices Award 2025. Garrick has tidied her living room and put out the good biscuits. But social worker Hegarty is there to interrogate. Why has her son got a mysterious bruise? Is she fit to care for him? What is she hiding? As power shifts and facades drop it becomes clear Garrick and Hegarty desperately need each other. A taut thriller, a struggle for power between a worried mother and concerned social worker. But who is telling the truth? A complex interrogation of parenting, power and what it means to care.

Our heroine can't come anymore... While orgasms are the inciting incident (and an entertaining one), they're really an invitation into a much larger conversation about mental health, depression, shame and self-worth. This isn't a story about sex (maybe a little), it's a story about healing. Inspired by real life, Homecumming explores the taboos surrounding female sexuality with honesty, humour and tenderness. Her journey is messy, funny, sexy, vulnerable and painfully relatable. Through therapy, self-reflection and a growing desire to reconnect with herself, she begins a transformation – from caterpillar to butterfly – rediscovering her taste for life.

Hi. Thanks for making time for whatever this is. I suppose it's a theatre show. Perhaps it's an interdisciplinary, interactive, mixed-media piece of performance art. An ambitious, impactful and timely exploration of human connection in the information age. A town hall meeting at the end of the world. A karaoke booth in a nuclear bunker. A clear-the-air chat between you, me and the rest of our plane of existence mates. A thrilling and vital new work from the multi award-winning theatre maker. As voted for audiences at BABYFLEAREINDEERBAG. 'Unmissable' ***** (ToDoList.org.uk).

The world moved on from the OceanGate Titan sub implosion. Captain* Sophie Smyth hasn't (rip). Armed with laptop, Logitech F710 controller and autism, she's spent three years (and counting!) diving deeper and deeper, descending the depths of the internet and herself. A dark multimedia comedy about neurodivergence, mortality and the risk/reward of going too far. *self-declared

A real-life ghost story from an award-winning comedian. Kirsty bought a house. Sure, it was derelict. And in a dodgy area. And OK someone just died in it. But she didn't mind because she didn't believe in ghosts. She does now. 'The Woman in Black meets Catherine Tate' ***** (The Fourth Wall, Perth). ***** (Fringefeed, FRINGE WORLD). ***** (TheScoop.au). ***** (Fringe Benefits Podcast). ***** (Scenestr). Winner: Best Theatre, Adelaide Fringe 2026. Winner: Best Comedy, FRINGE WORLD 2024.

A bewitching reimagining of Virginia Woolf's masterpiece in a sauna. Woolf's exquisite story refracted through dance, heat, scent, sound and light for a truly immersive experience that feels like falling in love on a summer afternoon. Here in our magical sauna theatre actors meet Aufguss – a sauna ritual which circulates steam and scent though beautiful towel waving choreography. Experience Woolf's dazzling words infused in a warm breeze of gently caressing heat, waves conjured by water on hot rocks hissing steam, and the transcendent scents of essential oils. Theatre like you've never felt it before.

Mr Chevalier, the flamboyant new director of the Ballet National Folklorique du Luxembourg, presents an exceptional moment of dance. Hailed as the Bad Boy of Folklore and renowned for his expertise, bold artistic vision, and magnetic stage presence, Mr Chevalier pays tribute to Summerhall as part of the 50th anniversary of the company's iconic Pigeon Dance. The unpredictable director and choreographer, whose stage performances are as rare as they are emotionally intense, will perform emblematic classics from the company’s exceptional repertoire. This unforgettable experience will be followed by an autograph session.

Recipient of the 2026 Mary Dick Award. Keron Day is disabled. Dani is his Personal Assistant (not as fancy as it sounds). A touching and funny exploration of how care goes both ways, inspired by a true story, with a live folk-infused score. From the multi award-winning Patch of Blue (Cassie and the Lights – Lyn Gardner's Best Theatre of Edinburgh Fringe (Stage), **** (Guardian), **** (New York Stage Review)) and 3 hearts canvas (SPIN – Best Solo Show of The Fringe (Theatre Weekly)).

When the last plane left Kabul, Afghanistan vanished from Ariana’s reach. In LANDSFRAU, the return of the Taliban and the withdrawal of the western troops in 2021 triggers an auto fictional reckoning with war, memory and responsibility. Onstage, Ariana dismantles images of Afghanistan and builds her own counter-archive: fragments of family history, imagined pasts, longing and rage. Afghan folk music collides with electronic beats; Attan meets contemporary dance. Through a feminist lens, she confronts the quiet guilt of living safely abroad. Refusing explanation or absolution, this performance becomes a personal act of political resistance.

The meditation retreat is supposed to help them find inner peace. Dad (Patrick O'Donnell, Vikings:Valhalla) is out of place from get-go. He's loud, rebellious and charming in a way that has everyone rolling their eyes, including his daughter (Kitty Falcon). Inspired by true events, this haunting tragi-comedy will leave you reflecting on the silence that divides us and what healing really means. Could those brief moments of laughter and connection ultimately be what saves us? Winner of Farnham Maltings Emerging Artist Award and Community Award 2025. In partnership with Dad La Soul, Papyrus and Start The Conversation.

Twelve rounds. Five women. No holding back. Set inside the charged atmosphere of a boxing gym, this high-impact theatrical dance follows a rising superstar, a fading referee and the figures who orbit them. Sweat meets spectacle as pounding beats collide with sweeping classical strings. Characters clash, alliances form and ambition burns through every round. Raw, physical and fiercely human, this 47-minute contemporary dance asks what it really costs to go the distance.

Man or Bear is a fast-moving, darkly comic new play about fear, friendship and survival inspired by the viral question: Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear? Blending kitchen sink realism, music and bold physical sequences, it follows three generations of women in the lead up to an act of violence. Rather than centreing the perpetrator, the play turns its focus to women's resilience, humour and solidarity, offering a poetic and unsettling reflection on modern day misogyny.

Who is the king of all birds? This tongue-in-cheek gig for voice and vocoder by award-winning sound artist Martha Knight is a love letter to the history of flight. Based on the phenomenon of aerial photos being displayed in Irish homes from the 1960s, the one-woman play expands this story to include explorations of ancient mythological birds, bringing us to the present, where airplanes and satellites rule the sky. Conjuring tales through traditional Irish music, using live electronics and effects to bring the ancient Irish tradition of song into the present day. **** (Irish Times).

A literary salon in a sauna. Mellifluous phrases, magical worlds and radical ideas float in the heat as stories unspool in steam. Poems, extracts of novels, fragments of plays, sonnets, myths, manifestos and more while you relax, revive and re-energise in our saunas and cold plunges. Our purpose-built sauna theatre with state-of-the-art lighting and surround sound transforms into a luxurious portal to escapism. Let words wash over you; lie back, listen in and leave inspired. Literature has never been this hot.

Set against the dramatic backdrop of Devon’s coastline, SAND follows Dylan and Heather as they navigate the complexities of living with dementia. Together, they uncover profound truths about love, memory and resilience, while coastal erosion symbolises life’s inevitable changes. Created by the acclaimed Kook Ensemble, Sand is a non-verbal circus theatre show that blends acrobatic skill with meticulously crafted storytelling. Through visually striking, emotionally resonant performances, the company brings the experiences of people living with dementia to life, offering audiences a deeply moving experience. A must watch!

When a hyperactive mother (ADHD) and a gaming-obsessed son (Autism Spectrum Condition) meet head on, there's a collision worthy of any blockbuster movie. An intimate dive into intergenerational neurodiversity, Fringe First Award winners (Everything I See I Swallow, 2019) bring you Forgive Me – an innovative, highly personal solo show that fuses skilled pole performance, video projection and song (plus a bit of gameplay!). 'A gorgeous evocation of intergenerational schism and mutual understanding' **** (Independent). 'Fierce, unapologetic, thought-provoking and radical as f*ck' ***** (TheCircusDiaries.com). 'Hypnotic and exquisitely choreographed' **** (Stage).

It's 2013. Euan's got a camcorder, a bowl cut and a dream. Combining live performance with Euan Munro's real childhood YouTube videos, this cringe-filled comedy nostalgia trip spirals into a story of dark ambition, online predators and digital ghosts.

Come Back Home explores ongoing grief and how the past continues to inhabit the present. It moves through self-criticism, fear and the unknown, through absurdity and the logic of the subconscious. Through text, video and sound, Palestinian artist Fadi Murad questions how loss shapes ambition, identity and the idea of return through personal experience and memory. The performance shifts between humour and catharsis, exposing doubt, ego, tenderness and contradiction, while asking what it means to carry home within you.

What if anyone could play in the concert hall? Concerts of the Future is a cutting-edge VR experience that invites you onto the stage to perform alongside the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – no musical experience required. Join us and play Beethoven's Symphony No 7 using new musical instruments from the future and step out of the audience and onto the stage.

2024 Bobby Award-winning company Seed Dance returns to the Fringe with the UK premiere of another 'stunning' (BroadwayBaby.com) production by gifted artistic director Huang Wen-Jen. For her, dance is a form of socially acute visual thinking. Here her subjects range from contemporary division and connection to human vulnerability, adaptability and perception. Using a pair of simple yet strikingly symbolic framed platforms, Huang plays blazingly smart games with vertical, horizontal, internal and external space. The result is an explosively dynamic, emotionally provocative quintet packed with restless, urgent precision.

We've all said things we wish we could un-say. Done things we wish we could undo. Broken things we wish we could un-break. But is one word enough to fix all our regrets? Acclaimed theatre-maker Adam Lenson returns to Summerhall with a new collision of gig, storytelling and autobiographical investigation. Moving from synagogue to school playground, from online feuds to family drama, Is It Too Late Now To Say Sorry? examines the way we apologise, the pain we carry and the opportunities for healing amidst the damage.

A dark and unrelenting comedy about starving for your art. As negotiations with employers, agents and Universal Credit crumble, one actor drags you into a brutal and absurd takedown of the UK benefit system, the Cost of Living Crisis, and whether we value the art more than the people who make it. They'll go down swinging, but they will go down – maybe making a play about food poverty is the only way out of it? After all, closed mouths don't get fed. Winner of the Shedload-of-Future Fund 2026. 'Impeccably written... a completely captivating performer' (Liv Ello, Body Show).

Smoke, scent and steam conjure the sweathouses of ancient Scotland and the mysterious painted Picts who gathered there. Traditional sauna rituals invoke our legendary ancestors who congregated in the dark of underground shelters to summon spirits and tattoo each other with magical symbols. In the warmth of our modern-day sauna theatre, stories emerge like hazy memories in Highlands mist and the mysterious symbols and vanished kingdoms of the Pictish slowly reveal themselves. A show about how sauna rituals can connect us with traditions that history forgot, forged in heat and steam.

'I've dreamed of this day. My whole life.' There's one hour to go before the wedding, but now the wedding may not be going ahead. From Lyn Gardner-recommended double act Britney – aka Ellen Robertson (Vladimir, Mickey17, The Pale Horse) and Charly Clive (Rooster, Pure, The Lazarus Project) – comes a brand new two-hander about ownership, tradition and the all-important 'L' word of any relationship: leverage. Praise for previous shows: 'Charly Clive and Ellen Robertson's wonderfully infectious relationship radiates warmth and mischief from the stage' **** (Scotsman). 'A surreal, sensitive triumph' **** (Independent). 'Funny, heart-wrenching and honest' (i Paper).

You are reading about QFWFQ, winner of Best Solo Show at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe. A surrealist labyrinth that stretches time and space. Inspired by Italo Calvino's If On a Winter's Night a Traveller, this razor-sharp, absurdly funny and deeply personal show breaks all genres and has no fourth wall. Join trans artist Gregory Nussen as they rummage through the power and peril of storytelling, growing up Jewish and queer, grappling with geopolitics, and art that saves your life. QFWFQ neither begins, nor ends. How does it come together? I can't explain, but it does. Directed by Hannah Pilkes.

'Storytelling at its best!' (Playbill.com). Sold-out runs in 2023, 2024 and 2025. This highly awarded, internationally touring, inspirational true story is about overcoming obstacles, pursuing passions and the healing power of the arts, and is told with warmth, humour and banjo music! Through donations, including 100% of all artist fees, the show has raised over $1.2 million dollars (CAD) as of December 2025 for various charities, including cancer organisations, music programmes, community groups and artist funding and development. All proceeds from this Edinburgh Fringe run will benefit Summerhall Arts.

Andalucia, 1936. The poet Lorca is shot. A shallow grave. Unmarked. Through the eyes of a travelling theatre company Bull / Fight searches for the lost poet's beauty among the dusty roads and white-washed villages of Spain, as the country spirals into civil war and political violence sweeps the stage... A breathless and intimate journey to the dark roots of tragedy from Edinburgh's newest ensemble. Previous work: 'Unequivocally magnetic... entrances and enthrals' ***** (EdFringeReview.com for Antigone, sell-out show 2024/5). 'Perfect... made me sing in my heart' ***** (FringeReview.com for Lipsync, Fringe First, Lustrum Award).

YESYESNONO (we were promised honey, Nation) return to Summerhall with another prophetic act of storytelling. Written and performed by Sam Ward, it's a hallucinogenic road trip through a world of anomalies. It's about holes appearing in the ground and prices that just go up. It's about cartographers, bubbles, crashes and psychics. It's about trying to understand what's going wrong... and a world that refuses to be understood. Praise for previous work: 'Something really special' ***** (BritishTheatre.com). 'An aerial feat of storytelling' ***** (Scotsman). 'An apocalyptic, strange hour of theatre' ***** (Financial Times).

Welcome to the hottest dancefloor in town. Our DJs serve blissed-out, body-moving beats as you flow between the ecstatic heat of our sauna theatre and a bracing plunge in our ice baths. The UK's largest sauna with state-of-the-art lighting and full immersion surround sound becomes the most chilled club you've ever raved in. No booze. No hangover. Just bass, endorphins and a natural high that leaves you energised and elated. There's no better way to turbocharge your day.

A broken fairy tale for broken people. In a whimsical land of broken toys, Magnus Coffinkey must fix a bell atop an impossibly high spire. Success will make his wish come true. The price of failure is a permanently broken heart. Funny, honest and deeply devastating, The Trials of Magnus Coffinkey is a dark fairy tale where the power of storytelling is used to make sense of great personal trauma. Outstanding Theatre Award at Brighton Fringe, 2024. 'Sublime. Heart-wrenching. Perfect' ***** (TheReviewsHub.com).

Two siblings dive a shipwreck and decide the fate of their family's seaside nightclub. A live-cinema show about diving, dancing and descendants. Combining live camera work, practical filmmaking, puppetry, and a live score. Following the sell-out run of Bark Bark – **** (Scotsman), **** (Skinny), **** (Fest) – Buzzcut return to Summerhall with a new live animation. Wes Anderson meets Katie Mitchell underwater in this delicate, funny, high-tech spectacle about returning home and diving into your family history.

A surprising hybrid of theatre and film that is at once highly theatrical and wonderfully cinematic. Paris, 1925. In a tiny toy shop inside the Montparnasse train station, film and special effects pioneer Georges Méliès, now forgotten, faces eviction. A toy comes to life. Using hidden cameras, a movie screen, miniatures and magic, Georges creates an epic cinematic universe and voyage that leads to his rediscovery. Theatrical wizard Thaddeus Phillips 'could have been a great silent-movie comedian' (New York Times) and 80 eclectic vintage toys star in this visually stunning tour de force.

The best way to start your day: relax and recharge with chilled tunes and good vibes in our beautiful sauna theatre. Take time to recline on the benches of the UK's largest sauna with state-of-the-art lighting and surround sound for the most immersive and indulgent experience in Edinburgh. Sink into the moment in quiet solitude or easy conversation as the music washes over you, fragrant steam caresses you and our Aufguss Masters circulate waves of delicious heat. A social space to supercharge your day with a natural high... you're looking HOT.

“A heid full ae snakes is bound tae make yae do mad hings.”Medusa works behind the bar in Athena’s nightclub, slinging waters to the pilled-up masses. She’s popping off on social media, talking about being ‘clinically radge’, revelling in the lights and dancing in the debris – until Poseidon takes something that wasn’t his to take.Written by Heather Marshall (Creative Electric) and directed by Jen McGregor, Medusa is a new show for theatre lovers, ravers, and people searching for queer, disabled community. Designed with access in mind, it can be experienced whatever way works for you – in the afternoon, evening or late at night, while sitting, dancing, or lying down – and tickets will be sold on a ‘pay what you can’ sliding scale. Full access information is listed below.Evolving from Heather’s own personal experience, Medusa invites us under the prescription pad of Pre-Menstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD), and the way it ravages both the physical and mental health of those it affects. Bringing an electronic soundtrack, contemporary choreography and Scottish underground rave culture to an age-old story of misogyny, Medusa challenges our view of the ‘hormonal woman’ and complex mental health conditions. The show will feature choreography by Sula Castle and costume design by Chanel O’Conor (Drag Race UK Season 6).BookACCESS INFORMATIONEach performance of Medusa will feature BSL interpretation. Each performance can be experienced in the way that best suits you. You can choose between sitting, moving around the space, or lying down. There will be access to a designated quiet area for audiences who may need or want time to decompress. Audience will have access to ear defenders and sunglasses.Low sensory relaxed performance: The 2pm performance on Saturday 7 March will be a low sensory relaxed performance, with a lower level of music and no flashing lights. This performance will be best suited to people who experience acute sensory overwhelm and would find bright lights or loud music challenging even with sunglasses or ear defenders. A lower number of tickets will be sold for this performance so that audience members have more space to move around or watch from a distance.Visual StoryBefore the performances audiences can access a visual story that shows what will happen throughout the production including any trigger warnings that may be needed. This will be available in print from front of house and can also be posted to audiences where needed (to request one please email Medusa producer Andrew Eaton-Lewis on [email protected]). On the day of the performance staff will be on hand to talk audiences through the visual story where appropriate.Companion TicketsSupport workers and personal assistants will receive free companion tickets. A limited number of free tickets will also be made available via iThrive Edinburgh and the GP social prescribing team.If you have questions about any of the access information above, please contact Medusa producer Andrew Eaton-Lewis on [email protected]

Jazz trumpet player, Jay Phelps (MILES.), will be hosting the final night of Summerhall Art's inaugural programme with some of Edinburgh's hottest jazz musicians on the scene. Think cool cats in a jam session ending in a DJ set by Phelps himself as we dance the Fringe experience away.

Auntie is a sweet old dear and a jolly good raconteur. All she wants to do is regale us with tales of dear old Blighty – but her body is falling to bits. Oh dear. Best not mention it. Someone ought to clean that up. By turns an absurd and rambunctious bouffon comedy and a bloody, messy, sing-along satire on Britain and nationhood, Auntie Empire is an unmissable collaboration between award-winning Scottish companies Disaster Plan and Jordan & Skinner.

Join Undone Theatre for a sharing of their 'engaging and humorous' (BroadwayBaby.com) show, The Butterfly Project. A Japanese stewardess and a British pilot walk onto a plane. 25 years later, their son Joey is thinking of ending things with his Italian boyfriend. Turning to his parents' interracial relationship for guidance, he embarks on a journey to connect with his roots. But as Joey learns more about his family, a pattern begins to emerge: the notes of Puccini's Madama Butterfly underscore a century of Asian misrepresentation, orientalism and exoticisation.

Queer performance legend Katy Baird has spent the last decade chasing pleasure, trying to make sense of the chaos. Fusing pounding techno, personal footage and razor-sharp humour, Get Off rips into what we crave, what we hide and the lengths we'll go to feel something in a world that won't slow down. This isn't theatre for the faint-hearted. It's a confession booth with a bassline. A party at the edge of collapse. A raw, funny, painfully honest trip through desire, distraction and survival. If you've ever felt you're raving through the apocalypse, this late-night show is for you!

Katy Baird gets loud, messy and honest in this late-night blast of queer pleasure, pain and pounding bass. Get Off is part party, part breakdown — nothing off limits, everything on the table.

The pianist is dead. Stuck in a cosmic waiting room, he contemplates the show he never quite managed to make. Will Pickvance returns for two nights only with his signature blend of improvised piano and theatrical storytelling. An immersive hour of virtuosity, humour, and poignancy… A singular blend of virtuosity and humour, this is what a pianist in the 21st century looks like' (List). 'Charming, inventive and diverting, guaranteed to cheer up even the most jaded Fringe-goer. The overriding emotion is simple joy in watching Pickvance as a raconteur and a pianist' (AllEdinburghTheatre.com).

Waxen Figures is an immersive audiovisual experience – a supernatural fever dream, where live contemporary dance, Gaelic singing, and cutting-edge technology collide. This Cryptic Commission by audio-visual duo Muto Major plunges into Scotland's folklore, exploring the chasm between ancient rituals and modern lives. Clay, wax, and the human form intertwine, summoning the mythic and the mystical. Projection mapping and augmented reality bring Pictish carvings to life, blurring the line between past and present. Waxen Figures invites you into a multisensory world, where innovation and tradition dance together, reawakening forgotten truths through a bold, poetic lens. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com

A love letter to the queers, the weirdoes, the trailblazers, the fringes and the night-walkers. An exploration of personal identity through a reflection of memories from queer and club spaces. Remembering the energy that can be drawn from these spaces and trying to sustain the sensation while understanding the longevity of a moment in time that is so communally charged. This show is a storytelling of any night, told through the use of dance, runaway show, spoken word and lip-syncing. It is an exploration of gender, queerness and camaraderie of different spaces.

One of Europe's most exciting female choreographic voices comes into its own, in this uncompromising and surrealistic piece. Plunged into an absurd world, In the Bushes celebrates the incomprehensible and magnificent contradictions of life. Quirky and witty, it mocks the idea that we are exceptional and questions our humanity with ferocious joy. 'Masterfully choreographed’ (BroadwayWorld.com) 'Powerful' (WritingAboutDance.com).

This performance lecture examines the UK's colonial legacy in Palestine, focusing on Arthur James Balfour, Prime Minister (1902-1905) and Foreign Secretary (1916-1919), and his role in denying Palestinian political rights. Utilising speculative choreography and Afrofuturism, Saleh intertwines history, fiction, and fantasy, drawing inspiration from archival materials. Set in 2045, the lecture reflects on a fictive apology letter issued by the UK in 2025, promising reparations to the Palestinian people. The audience become members of the reparations' evaluation committee created on the 20th anniversary of the apology and are invited to participate in the performance. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com

Pussy Riot need little introduction – the Russian protest art collective have one of the most important voices of the last 10 years, whose lyrical themes include feminism, LGBT rights and opposition to Vladimir Putin. They gained global notoriety in 2012 when three members, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were imprisoned for 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred' for their performance inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. The accompanying piece to Alyokhina's memoir of the same name (Penguin Books), the touring play Riot Days (Revolution) merges punk, electronica, theatre, documentary footage and protest.

King tells the story of Geok Yen, a public relations executive who seemingly has it all – a stable job and a boyfriend who is about to propose. This safe stable life gets upturned when on impulse, she attends the party in the guise of a man, Stirling da Silva. Emboldened by the alter ego, Yen discovers a newfound confidence to speak her truth and be whatever she could be without self-judgement. In this two-hander, Jo Tan delivers a tour de force performance playing multiple characters, navigating expertly through a host of social stereotypes.

An oasis of peace and calm in a sea of festival chaos. Burst is a sensory escape from the intensity of the Fringe. Designed with, and for, neurodivergent families and their friends, Burst aims to explore and soothe anxiety. Creative Electric's bubble doctors prescribe a short stay in one of their infamous bubble beds where you will listen to a track over wireless headphones... slowly throughout your experience bubbles will appear and you'll feel your anxiety float away. In collaboration with Refuweegee, Burst is available in Arabic, Farsi, Ukrainian and English. MadeInScotlandShowcase.com

A focus group. A pitch meeting. A multiverse imaginarium. Having received critical acclaim for a show about grief, addiction and mental breakdown, Maxwell is stuck on how to up the ante with her next confessional solo show. She needs you for some intensive audience research: which of her personal traumas is most fundable, marketable and ripe for TV adaptation? In an era hungry for the next smash-hit overshare, BABYFLEAREINDEERBAG kicks over the bucket of ideas Maxwell can't yet bring herself to make a show about, interrogating the risk and cynicism in telling one's own story onstage.

The UK's foremost trumpet player, Jay Phelps, has performed with some of the world's top artists such as Wynton Marsalis, Shabaka Hutchings, Amy Winehouse and Wizkid. Phelps is a household name on the international Jazz scene and is making his acting debut at the Festival this year. This evening is an opportunity for jazz fans to come and ask questions, listen to anecdotes and enjoy some acoustic offerings of some old favourites, as well as get an exclusive opportunity to buy Jay's new album ahead of general sale in October.

We're Wright&Grainger, multi award-winning, internationally acclaimed storytellers. We went to school together and grew up on some seminal albums. A Grand Don't Come For Free by The Streets is top of that list. It's inspired us to make everything we've done since. So we're gonna play it live, in full. It's full of bangers (Dry Your Eyes, Fit But You Know It, Blinded By the Lights) and it's full of love, mates, heartache and hope. We're playing it for three nights only. The dance floor will be rammed – see you at the bar.

Ivory Cutlery is a 50-minute visual, musical storytelling performance, inspired by iconic Scottish artist Ivor Cutler. Ivor was a unique man from Govan, born in 1923, famed for songs/lyrics such as Women of the World Take Over and Why Don’t a Woman Love a Woman? Other songs are about quirky animals, everyday food or elements of Scotland’s natural environment such as I Believe in Bugs. The show will tempt adults to reconnect with their wilder imaginations and include traditional Scottish music, movement and BSL.

A wandering theatre show, inspired by T.S. Eliot's poetry, follows a contemporary everyman through a single day. Using striking visuals, dynamic choreography and grotesque humour, it reveals the traps of modern life, where many lose their individuality without reflection. The performance, blending satire and spectacle, questions our fate: does the collective possession of the Peregrinuses ever end? Are we victims of the dybbuks, or do we become them? This journey forces us to confront whether we still control our identities or if we surrender to the forces shaping us. A thought-provoking, visually captivating experience.

An earthy, delicate and devastating concept album about things that vanish; a strange, rich and lyrical exploration of ritual and the underland. Fringe First-winning writer Casey Jay Andrews and musician Jack Brett fuse spoken word and urban legend with music and experiments in sound. It's a descent into the darkness of a cave in South Wales, an attempt to piece together broken fragments of porcelain, and a rite of closure. 'Into the underland we have long placed that which we fear and wish to lose, and that which we love and wish to save' (Robert Macfarlane).

A series of political interviews and debates at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. With the Holyrood election looming, we speak to First Minister John Swinney, Labour leader Anas Sarwar, Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes and leading pollster Professor Sir John Curtice, among others. Herald journalists and columnists will lead the discussions, asking big questions about the future of Scotland, the shape of UK politics and the international forces reshaping our world. Expect sharp analysis, lively conversation and a chance for the audience to have their say. Please see venue website for daily line-up.