Zinnie Harris reimagines Shakespeare to compelling effect, making the audience complicit You'd hardly call a director particularly perceptive for highlighting Lady Macbeth as the true power…
Kingship, tolerance and the trappings of power are among the many themes of Rona Munro's passionate, timely new play "The poem is real," intones entertainer-turned-courtier Ellen solemnly as…
An energetic, lithe gig-theatre adaptation of Édouard Louis's 2014 trauma memoir can't escape the book's limitations Those working-class people really are appalling, aren't they? Racist,…
A slow-burn gothic horror plays with our sense of reality to intelligently creepy effect In many ways, The Stones is what the Fringe is all about: a new theatre company (London-based Signal …
Two plays by Scottish writer James Ley set out to shock, provoke " and provide belly laughs too Ode to Joy (How Gordon Got to Go to the Nasty Pig Party), Summerhall ★★★★
James Thierrée joyfully collides together dance, mime, acrobatics, music and more - but what does it all mean? "I feel I owe you an explanation." That much James Thierrée concedes partway …
A multi-layered, multi-generational theatrical epic is one of this year's stand-out offerings First, a bit of housekeeping. Maybe it was the three-and-a-half-hour duration, or maybe the unfa…
Two performer-less shows on the theme of work set the audience to - well, work Temping, Assembly George Square Studios ★★★★ Sarah Jane is away in Hawaii. But don't w…
Theatre about theatre? There's plenty of it about at the Fringe: here are two fine examples Every Word was Once an Animal, Zoo Southside ★★★★
Three shows at the Traverse take in gritty realism and no-holds-barred farce The Last Return, Traverse Theatre ★★★★★
Two shows at Summerhall explore issues of identity - though with contrasting outcomes Boy, Summerhall ★★★★ Nature or nurture? It's the perennial question behind so m…
Strong constituent parts in Alan Cumming's Burns dance show - but do they add up? In retrospect, all the clues were there. A star actor embarking on a new performance genre; a fresh reapprai…
Deeply moving verbatim show from a bright new London company The popcorn on offer as you enter the Pleasance's performing space at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre quickly fills…
Frances Poet offers a luminous meditation on suffering and death at the Traverse Ageing Mick wakes up on Portobello beach with two gold rings in his pocket, and embarks on the bender to end …
A head-spinning thriller and a heart-wrenching monologue at Assembly Fear of Roses Assembly Roxy ★★★
An elusive eco fable from Grid Iron makes glowing sense in its forest setting There's always a tricky balance to be struck with site-specific theatre. What's more important: the show itself,…
Two shows shine in a converted army reserve centre amid a depleted festival Tunnels Army @ The Fringe ★★★
Autobiographical refugee story feels like a boy's own adventure Urgent, fast-paced, seemingly never pausing for breath, How Not to Drown is a real-life boy's own adventure, an appeal for com…
Messianic devotion and audience complicity in a slippery new work from Tim Crouch It's the end of the world as we know it. At least according to Miles, scientist turned messiah, who lost hi…
Two vicious dissections of class and identity might just leave you reeling Darren McGarvey AKA Loki: Scotland Today The Stand's New Town Theatre ★★★★★ …
Captivating and macabre, 1927's new show marks a partial return to their own origins A fat cat who gobbles up everything in sight. A king who tests his wife's fidelity with increasingly horr…
Three contrasting shows tackling climate change and mass extinction Sea Sick CanadaHub ★★★★   She's not a performer, Alanna Mitchell tells us. She's …
Ravishing physical theatre on the beginnings of life from Theatre Re Physical theatre company Theatre Re are virtually Fringe royalty these days, with a several-year history of fine shows un…
Three contrasting shows at CanadaHub tackle racism, climate change and clowning Deer Woman CanadaHub ★★★  Â
Pantomime excess in Meghan Tyler's wild but unconvincing new comedy Chekhov famously pronounced that if you're going to bring a gun on stage, you've got to use it. Is the same true for a cha…