The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world. It was cancelled in 2020 due to COVID and there was a tentative, part-live, part-online return in 2021 but it has been building up since then and it is now back to full strength. Every year, there is a new breakout hit show or star performer, and the joy of the Fringe is discovering who this year’s will be. Here are a few recommendations of shows to watch out for.
Edinburgh International Festival
The EIF is what the Fringe is on the fringe of. It has been bringing major international artists to Scotland for decades, but often just for one or two performances, so you need to check if the dates correspond with when you are planning to be there. Stef Smith’s stage adaptation of Amy Liptrot’s The Outrun, directed by Vicky Featherstone, looks promising and it’s on for three weeks, so you’ve got a good chance of catching it.
The Traverse Theatre
The Trav is Edinburgh’s main theatre where you can see ‘proper’ plays with a big set and professional actors. It becomes part of the Fringe for August, so you can buy tickets through the Fringe box office, but it’s in its own world really.
At least one Traverse show will turn into a kill-for-a-ticket hit; I wish I could tell you which one, but A History Of Paper looks promising. It is one of the Made In Scotland showcase shows and it is already selling well, so it looks like a good bet. Natalie Palamides had a Fringe hit in 2018 with Nate—A One Man Show, which was subsequently filmed for Netflix. She is back this year with WEER, so that’s one to watch, too.
Summerhall
Summerhall is my favourite venue. It is proper Fringe but it is curated, so if you only have a day or two in Edinburgh and you want a bit of quality control, then you can pretty much turn up at any time, book a ticket for whatever is about to start and you’ll see something interesting.
For extra quality assurance, go to the bright yellow Roundabout pop-up theatre tent in the Summerhall courtyard. It is run by the new writing company Paines Plough, so there is a better ratio of good to meh in the Roundabout tent than anywhere else. My recommendation is Sam Ward’s Nation; I know nothing about it, but I have seen most of Sam’s previous shows, we were promised honey!, The Accident Did Not Take Place, [insert slogan here] and Five Encounters On A Site Called Craigslist, all of which were terrific, so I’m not missing this one.
Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing is back at Roundabout for its tenth anniversary. It is directed by the author, and they’ve brought back the original performer, Jonny Donahoe, so if you haven’t seen it yet then please do—it is heart-breaking and beautiful. This year, Paines Plough has previewed several shows at The Belgrade Theatre in Coventry and there is a buzz around Kelly Jones’s My Mother’s Funeral: The Show, so keep an eye out for that one too.
Underbelly
Underbelly is a halfway house between the relative respectability of the Traverse and Summerhall and the demi-monde of comedy venues. There is some really good stuff there, but it’s a bit more hit and miss. Rob Madge’s delightful My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?) is on for two weeks and it’s super. Every year, Underbelly and the New Diorama Theatre in London co-produce three new works, which they promote under the ‘Untapped’ label. This year’s Untapped shows are DRUM, Ugly Sisters and The Mosinee Project, at least one of which will be amazing.
ZOO
ZOO specialises in dance and physical theatre, so if you want to see something properly Fringe-y and experimental, then head to ZOO. Thisegg is back this year with A Little Inquest Into What We Are All Doing Here. Their 2018 show, dressed., was one of the best pieces of theatre I have ever seen, so I will definitely be there for this one.
Pleasance
The Pleasance Courtyard is a great place to hang out, and it has a lot of very good shows, but it is enormous. The Pleasance is a complete festival in its own right really, so quality control is rather more variable, but Ugly Bucket was an Untapped award winner in 2022 and this year’s show, Stuffed, looks promising.
Those are the main curated venues. Of the rest, Gilded Balloon is the main comedy venue, Assembly has decent, professional shows, theSpace and C host a lot of student shows and Greenside is getting some good stuff these days, so it's a matter of scouring the reviews or just taking a punt and discovering something new.