The Fifth Step

The Fifth Step

WORLD PREMIERE David Ireland’s latest collaboration with the National Theatre of Scotland tells a complex story about men, intimacy and our belief systems. 

Hamlet

Hamlet

UK PREMIERETeatro La Plaza’s enigmatic interpretation of a Shakespearean classic, full of personal anecdotes from a cast made up of eight actors who have Down’s Syndrome. 

Songs of the Bulbul

Songs of the Bulbul

WORLD PREMIERE The world premiere of Aakash Odedra’s latest work creates a mediative exchange between the Indian classical dance Sufi Kathak and Islamic poetry. 

Penthesilea

Penthesilea

UK PREMIERE Internationaal Theater Amsterdam presents a visceral, sexy and grungy reinterpretation of an ancient love story with the medium of music. 

Life is a Dream

Life is a Dream

There’s a great, restless energy in Director Declan Donnellan’s production of Pedro Calderón de la Barca’s seventeenth century Spanish classic Life is a Dream. 

Phaedra / Minotaur

Phaedra / Minotaur

With Phaedra/Minotaur, director Deborah Warner and Choreographer Kim Brandstrup present a couple of easily digestible slices of re-interpreted Greek mythology. 

As Far As Impossible

As Far As Impossible

The show is derived from interviews with humanitarian aid workers about the Impossible. 

Dusk

Dusk

A community of actors are staging a theatre version of Lars Von Trier’s film Dogville. 

You Know We Belong Together

You Know We Belong Together

A cast of actors use music, dance and video to tell their stories in this uplifting exploration of living with Down syndrome. 

Samsara

Samsara

Early in Samsara two hooded figures from different cultures meet in a desolate landscape, only sparsely populated by stricken metallic figurines being slowly consumed by gathering … 

Members Event: Backstage Tour of Counting and Cracking

Members Event: Backstage Tour of Counting and Cracking

An exclusive event for members of the Edinburgh International Festival. 

Counting and Cracking

Counting and Cracking

Discover the story of one family’s journey through love, heartbreak, civil war and migration to Australia in this epic multigenerational tale. 

Lament for Sheku Bayoh

Lament for Sheku Bayoh

Writer and Director Hannah Lavery leads an artistic yet grief-filled response to the 2015 death in Scottish police custody of Sheku Bayoh. 

Hindu Times

Hindu Times

Writer Jaimini Jethwa and Director Caitlin Skinner bring to life a story of love and restoration, as two Hindu deities suddenly find themselves in the city of Dundee. 

You Bury Me

You Bury Me

Writer Ahlam and director Katie Posner present the award-winning You Bury Me as a poignant snapshot of post-Arab-Spring Cairo. 

Niqabi Ninja

Niqabi Ninja

Writer Sara Shaarawi and director Catrin Evans present an experiential performance in reaction to recent mob assaults in Cairo’s Tahrir Square. 

The Duchess (of Malfi)

The Duchess (of Malfi)

There's little doubt that The Duchess of Malfi has become the most popular and successful work written by the English Jacobean playwright John Webster. 

Local Hero

Local Hero

When Edinburgh's Royal Lyceum Theatre announced that they were producing a stage musical based on the iconic 1983 Scottish film Local Hero, I must admit to wondering if it was … 

Avenue Q

Avenue Q

Guess Q’s back! The naughtiest puppets in town will be heading to a theatre near you as comedy musical Avenue Q returns next year to tour the UK with all of your favour… 

Wendy and Peter Pan

Wendy and Peter Pan

Rumbustious, fast, furious and funny, yet full of magic and fairy dust, Wendy and Peter Pan will delight all ages: an awfully big adventure and the perfect Christmas show. 

Cyrano de Bergerac

Cyrano de Bergerac

The works by French poet and playwright Edmond Rostand, just one of the victims of the influenza pandemic which swept the world in 1918, are today largely forgotten; the one except… 

Twelfth Night

Twelfth Night

“If music be the food of love, play on…” In Shakespeare’s bittersweet comedy genders blur, boundaries are crossed and the world is turned upside down, all with music as the engin… 

The Prisoner

The Prisoner

As resident company at the 2018 International Festival, the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord brings three contrasting yet equally daring works to Edinburgh. 

La Maladie de la mort

La Maladie de la mort

Katie Mitchell, one of the world’s most influential and iconoclastic theatre makers, presents her own uncompromising stage adaptation of the provocative novella by Marguerite Dur… 

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

Considered to be one of the greatest plays ever written, Samuel Beckett’s Waiting For Godot is famously a play about nothing. 

Creditors

Creditors

August Strindberg apparently subtitled his play Creditors (in Swedish: Fordringsäxgare) a “tragicomedy” but, while David Greig’s 2008 adaptation does indeed contain a few de… 

The Belle's Stratagem

The Belle's Stratagem

Writer and director Tony Cownie has established a particular niche at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, taking potentially overlooked 18th century comedies (like Carlo Goldoni’… 

The Lover

The Lover

When watching the stage adaptation of any book, especially one I’ve not read, there’s often a question lingering at the back of my mind; would I appreciate this more, would I… 

The Arabian Nights

The Arabian Nights

Stories illuminate the truth, lies hide it; that’s just one of the lessons audiences of all ages can take from Suhayla El-Bushra’s energetic new adaptation of The Arabian N… 

Love Song to Lavender Menace

Love Song to Lavender Menace

“Lavender Menace”, according to Wikipedia, were “an informal group of lesbian radical feminists formed to protest the exclusion of lesbians and lesbian issues from the fem… 

Cockpit

Cockpit

Site specific theatre is nothing new in Scotland; from the numerous innovative creations by the likes of Grid Iron Theatre Company to much of the work by the “without walls” … 

Oresteia: This Restless House

Oresteia: This Restless House

A father’s horrifying sacrifice of his daughter sets in motion a cycle of bloody revenge. 

Blak Whyte Gray

Blak Whyte Gray

Blak Whyte Gray is a galvanising dance theatre work from award-winning East London hip-hop company Boy Blue Entertainment. 

Come & Sing International

Come & Sing International

Do you love singing? Would you like the chance to sing some of classical music’s most iconic choral pieces, led by a wonderfully expressive conductor? If so, come along and sing … 

Rhinoceros

Rhinoceros

Time and again during Zinnie Harris’s new adaptation of Eugène Ionesco’s famous farce, people tell each other not to be absurd. 

Glory on Earth

Glory on Earth

At one point during Glory on Earth, its two main characters—stage right, the young, romantic Mary, Queen of Scots; stage left, the firebrand Protestant preacher John Knox—ar… 

Charlie Sonata

Charlie Sonata

There’s much to admire, to even love, in Douglas Maxwell’s new play at Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum; a script full of humour and subtle characterisation, if not always … 

A Number

A Number

In one sense, this Lyceum revival of Caryl Churchill’s 2002 play is exactly the “dynamic two-hander” described in the programme: the only actors on stage are Peter Forbes,… 

Hay Fever

Hay Fever

Dominic Hill, artistic director of Glasgow’s Citizens Theatre, apparently doesn’t like to constrain any theatrical experience with the blunt instrument of a rising or falling c… 

The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale

Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale has all the characteristics of a Tragedy, as we speedily witness the horrendous consequences of King Leontes’ groundless jealousy for pregnant … 

Picnic at Hanging Rock

Picnic at Hanging Rock

As titles go, Picnic at Hanging Rock is a fine conflation of the innocent and disturbing, although the cultural impact of Joan Lindsay’s novel is arguably more down to Peter W… 

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland

As a rule, the best children’s stories—be they novels, comics or TV shows—all inspire the same question: “What on Earth were they taking when they came up with that?” … 

Jumpy

Jumpy

You get a strong sense of what Jumpy is going to be like from Jean Chan’s impressive set—two jumbled piles of household goods, surrounded by an off-kilter frame of plain wall… 

The Suppliant Woman

The Suppliant Woman

In ancient Greece, it was the practice before any theatrical performance to name those citizens who had financed it, and for a respected citizen to give “the libation” to th… 

Thon Man Molière

Thon Man Molière

Never, ever underestimate the stupidity of the rich and powerful; that’s certainly one of the obvious lessons you can get from Liz Lochhead’s brilliantly funny take on the sc… 

The Iliad

The Iliad

It says something about us as a species that one of our oldest myths, crystallised in the form of Homer’s epic poem Iliad, is about war – specifically the bloody climax of th… 

I Am Thomas

I Am Thomas

I am Thomas is an economic show bound together with a fantastic cast. 

The Crucible

The Crucible

In the face of something terrible, we can either laugh or cry. 

The Weir

The Weir

If there’s one moment in this new production of Conor McPherson’s The Weir that encapsulates the quality of its cast and director, it’s towards the close when a moment of … 

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Enthused with enchantment and wonder, Theresa Heskins’ adaptation of C S Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe lovingly translates the classic book from page to stage. 

Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn

Daniel Kitson and Gavin Osborn

About halfway through the second story of three, in the middle of a series of thoughts on the benefits for men of sitting down on the toilet, Daniel Kitson breaks off, looking u… 

Waiting for Godot

Waiting for Godot

There are many good reasons for launching the celebratory 50th anniversary season of Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre Company with a new production of Samuel Beckett’s Waiti… 

The Driver's Seat

The Driver's Seat

Described as “a metaphysical shocker” on its release in 1970, The Driver’s Seat was apparently author Muriel Sparks’ favourite amongst her own stories, in part thanks to th… 

The Venetian Twins

The Venetian Twins

For some, he was “Italy’s Shakespeare”, “the Moliere of Venice”; yet it’s only relatively recently that British theatre audiences have warmed to work by 18th centur… 

Hedda Gabler

Hedda Gabler

Many of the world’s greatest Tragedies – Shakespeare’s in particular – are grounded on the character flaws of their titular characters: Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, and so … 

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

The Caucasian Chalk Circle

There’s rumbustious joy aplenty in this new adaptation of Bertolt Brecht’s infamous examination of legality and justice. 

Faith Healer

Faith Healer

Reality and performance lie at the heart of this solid production of Irish playwright Brian Friel’s Faith Healer. 

BFG

BFG

Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre always has a Christmassy feel to it, with its gilded pillars and Arabian Nights ceiling, and this enchanting adaptation feels like an early Ch… 

Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer

Hard to Be Soft: A Belfast Prayer

Hard to be Soft: A Belfast Prayer choreographed and directed by Oona Doherty is at times an explosive, visceral and overwhelming experience. 

Red Dust Road

Red Dust Road

Jackie Kay’s memoir Red Dust Road, adapted for the stage by Tanika Gupta, is a huge disappointment. 

Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True

Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True

"Hear Word!" is how Nigerians start a story, a sort of town crier’s call and Hear Word! Naija Woman Talk True co-written and directed by Ifeoma Fafunwa is definitely at… 

La Reprise Histoire(s) du theatre (I)

La Reprise Histoire(s) du theatre (I)

Theatre-making manifestos always make me wary, in part because I'm inherently suspicious of portentous artists in any field: "The aim is not to depict the real, but to mak… 

Shooglenifty: East West

Shooglenifty: East West

Formed in Edinburgh in 1990, Shooglenifty has always embraced a wide church of influences. 

Forget Me Not

Forget Me Not

In the company of Barrie Kosky, Artistic Director of Komische Oper Berlin, and singers Alma Sadé and Helene Schneiderman, step back into the tragedy and tongue-in-cheek wit of a f… 

Kalakuta Republik

Kalakuta Republik

Kalakuta Republik will stay with you, for good or bad.