Fest top theatre pick
Elaine C. Smith returns to the Fringe after 26 years — a sharp-tongued widow confronting family secrets. The Traverse is the home of Punch-style new writing.
Drama & New Writing
Gameplay
Booked
Critics' pick (Natasha Tripney)
Doc-drama about Vasili Arkhipov, the Soviet officer who refused to fire nuclear weapons during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
2026 ART Award winner
Psychological thriller: a Scottish researcher meets a religious cult controlling a remote British Overseas Territory. Wicker Man atmosphere.
Produced by Matthew Lillard & Adam McKay
Darkly comic play about a real school shooting — hard-hitting in the Punch vein.
Bristol Old Vic / Theatre Royal Plymouth co-production
A modern folk tale about a podcaster who digs up something sinister, with live music by Jakabol.
"Really strong, resonant new writing"
Three women navigating persistent male violence, inspired by the viral debate; directed by Ursula Martinez.
Fest & Skinny pick
Grid Iron's site-specific adaptation of Andrew O'Hagan's novel, performed in a former Leith metalworks.
Mohan: A Partition Story
From 18 Aug
By Fringe First winner Niall Moorjani
The writer's grandfather's Partition experience, blended with live music.
A Trial – after An Enemy of the People
7–10 Aug only
EIF headliner
Wagner Moura in a courtroom reimagining of Ibsen — the audience sits as the jury.
Woodhill
New
Multi-award-winning (Charity Awards; Sheila McKechnie Change Makers Award)
LUNG's verbatim dance-theatre about suicides at HMP Woodhill, made with bereaved families — the closest thing at this Fringe to Punch's territory.
Visual & Inventive Theatre
From the makers of Fringe hit Space Hippo
Occult mystery told entirely through shadow puppetry — for fans of The Ice Hole's lo-fi invention.
Plexus Polaire, UK premiere
Wordless, life-sized-puppetry Dracula told from Lucy's perspective. Extraordinary stagecraft.
Comedy & Storytelling
5★ Telegraph · 4★ Guardian · 4★ Sunday Times
Your past favourite — theatrical show about love, riffing on Vertigo, Apollo 13 and Pagliacci.
Adelaide Fringe award winner
Comedian and working doctor tells a real-life ghost story — the Adam Kay slot.
Insider must-see pick
The former Blue's Clues host on parasocial fame and internet mythology.
2023 Edinburgh Comedy Award winner
Cerebral, moving stand-up — storytelling with real substance.
Much buzzed-about debut
Yes, that Amanda Knox — stand-up about her wrongful imprisonment.
Fest comedy pick
Glasgow favourite on the health crisis that hit her at 44.
Fest pick
Four decades of political storytelling — as close to spoken word as stand-up gets.
Simon Amstell: I Love It Here
8–9 Aug only
Rare Fringe appearance
In town for two nights only.
Mr Chonkers: Work in Chonkers
10 Aug only
Your past favourite
John Norris work-in-progress — one late-night one-off.
Fringe First winner · 5★ Guardian · Rolling Stone Top 10
Alaa Shehada blends storytelling, mask work and stand-up: a Palestinian boy's resilience, told through a five-metre horse built from debris in Jenin.
5★ Lisa in the Theatre · returning for its 10th anniversary
A true story about giving his best mate a Viking funeral — a comic ode to death, friendship and the absurdity of life. Pure Adam Kay territory: storytelling with real substance.
Music, Musicals & Cabaret
4★ Time Out
"Hilarious, shambolic" song-driven show about Isabel Perón — smart, musical, very Fringe.
Fest cabaret pick
Acclaimed cabaret storyteller splicing Neutral Milk Hotel's In the Aeroplane Over the Sea with Anne Frank's diary.
Skinny theatre highlight
Scottish-Korean co-production spanning three generations through folk songs, love letters and war stories.
Fest & Skinny pick
Hip-hop theatre about Henry "Box" Brown, who mailed himself out of slavery. Great lunchtime slot.
Scotsman pick
A fully improvised musical from an audience-shouted title. Reliably joyous.
Insider must-see pick
Comedy play with an original score — Schaal with her Bob's Burgers co-star John Roberts.
The Galloping Cure
9–12 Aug only
Scottish Opera co-production, world premiere
New opera about the opioid crisis — the Punch end of the spectrum, set to music.
Fest cabaret pick
Weimar punk cabaret with sword-swallowing and fire-breathing. Raucous, not clowny — front rows get teased.
One Man Musical
New
Guardian's No.1 comedy show of 2024 · Chortle Best Show 2024
Flo & Joan's gleeful spoof musical about a certain musical-theatre impresario, starring Edward Easton with the sisters playing live — "better than Cats".
Magic, Circus & Spectacle
"Edinburgh's superstar magician"
Mind-reading and reality-bending with heavy audience involvement — for fans of the pickpocket show.
Trained by Penn & Teller
Big-gasp, science-flavoured magic — a strong alternative if Ben Hart's timing doesn't fit.
Global hit
Urban circus: BMX, basketball, breakdancing, beatboxing, drumming. Scratches the Mythos spectacle itch.
Tell Me
New
5★ Pink Prince Theatre · 4★ Guardian
Sadiq Ali Company (The Chosen Haram): Chinese pole and aerial circus-theatre tracing HIV across two eras. "Stunning, soulful, a total triumph."
"Breathtaking" — The Scotsman
Gravity & Other Myths' acrobatic meditation on mastery and the 10,000-hours rule — big-hearted, family-friendly spectacle.
Spoken Word
Loud Poets
13, 20, 27 Aug only
Fringe institution
"Fist-thumping, heart-wrenching" spoken word backed by a live band.
Theatre Weekly pick
Monique DeBose blending live music, storytelling and sharp social insight.
Already seen (loved, but done)
Mythos: Ragnarök
Seen it
30+ five-star reviews
Norse gods, professional wrestling, hard-rock Viking soundtrack.