Bright Colours Only
Pauline Goldsmith resurrects her alternative wake, a show I remember with huge affection from its first fringe outing in 2002. She invites us into her living room where the coffin stands, then she hands around the tea and proceeds to offer a lesson about living, as seen through the prism of death. Funny and moving.
• Assembly Rooms, 3-26 August (not 14). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
The Duke
Shôn Dale-Jones has an eagerly awaited new show at the fringe, Me and Robin Hood. But also look out for this one he premiered last year, a free performance that questions the role of art and what we really value in the world. It’s a piece of gripping storytelling theatre in which fact and fiction collide. All donations go to charity.
• Pleasance Courtyard, 5-27 August (not 15 or 22). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Eurohouse
A smart little sleeper hit from 2016 that turned up late in the festival but proved there was more to discuss about the European Union than Brexit. Offering a portrait of the way big EU countries bully smaller more vulnerable countries, this cleverly constructed piece turns politics into an absurd playground scrap in which the audience is made complicit. Often charming and then unexpectedly tragic.
• Summerhall, 23-26 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Every Brilliant Thing
Still selling out every year – and no wonder because this is the most uplifting show about depression that you will ever see. Duncan Macmillan’s play is a heart-breaker that will make you grin broadly even as you perform a checklist on your own mental health. It’s just lovely.
• Summerhall, 21, then 23-27 August (not 22). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Fleabag
Phoebe Waller-Bridge isn’t performing it, but her no-holds-barred 2013 monologue that spawned a TV sitcom should still do the business with Maddie Rice as the sex-obsessed, wine-guzzling, porn-watching young woman whose mouthy antagonism belies the fact she’s falling apart inside. Hilarious and troubling.
• Underbelly, 21-27 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
The Flying Lovers of Vitebsk
What does creativity do to a marriage? Writer Daniel Jamieson and director Emma Rice explore in a delicate, sometimes joyous two-hander which suggests that while the artist Marc Chagall might have painted those soaring flying lovers, it was his unsung wife, Bella, who kept them airborne.
• Traverse, 15-20, then 22-27 August (not 21). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Heads Up
Return of Kieran Hurley’s storytelling show, an explosive little number that cleverly points to the fact that while we have our heads buried in screens, the world could be going to hell in a handcart. Hurley sits hunched over a desk, operating his own sound and lights, and looking like a latterday seer delivering very unwelcome news.
• Summerhall, 22-27 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Hot Brown Honey
White male privilege and domestic violence are covered cabaret-style in a show that was one of the big raucous hits of the 2016 festival. Smashing the patriarchy turns out to be a helluva a lot of fun in a show that has plenty of sting but is full of humour and music. Make a beeline.
• Assembly Roxy, previews 2-4 August, then 5-8, 10-13, 15-20 and 22-27 August (not 9, 14, 21). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
I Could Go on Singing (Over the Rainbow)
FK Alexander re-creates Judy Garland’s final recording of Over the Rainbow with help from Glasgow noise band Oskishima Island Tourist Association. Individual audience members get a chance to have the song performed directly to them in a stupendous show that is sometimes as distressing as it is beguiling. Definitely not for those with sensitive ears.
• Summerhall, 11, 12; 16, 17; 19, 20; 23, 24 and 26, 27 August. Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Joan
There are lots of shows exploring transformations, gender confusions and transitions at this year’s fringe, but Lucy Skilbeck’s revaluation of Joan of Arc, first seen in 2015, was ahead of the curve. It comes in a hugely enjoyable Drag King cabaret-style staging. Joan of Arc has never been so radical.
• Underbelly, 21-25, then 27 August (not 26). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Kin
Circus troupe Barely Methodical follow up Bromance with a sophisticated piece in which a group of men compete for the attentions of a woman. Everyone wants to be top dog in a show that boasts plenty of trickery as it explores issues of power, isolation and empowerment.
• Underbelly Circus Hub, previews 5,6, then 7-13, 15-20, 22-26 August (not 14, 21). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Nina – A Story About Me and Nina Simone
Terrific and justifiably angry show from Josette Bushell-Mingo that takes its inspiration from the songs and activism of Nina Simone. Bushell-Mingo goes back to her own childhood and to the 1950s to ask questions around finding your voice and using it as a catalyst for change.
• Traverse, 5,6 and 8-13 August (not 7). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
Oresteia: This Restless House
The Oresteia has been good to theatre-makers in recent years, most notably for Robert Icke. But it pays rewards in Zinnie Harris’s murderously good version, first seen at the Citizens in Glasgow in 2016, which gives a 21st-century spin to an age-old story of revenge and retribution.
• Lyceum, 22-27 August. Box office: 0131-473 2000.
Real Magic
Forced Entertainment are on top form with this painfully funny piece in which three contestants in a gameshow try and consistently fail to guess the right answer in a telepathy task. It is beautifully constructed and quite exquisite torture to watch as it becomes apparent that this is a rigged game they can never win.
• The Studio, 22-27 August. Box office: 0131-473 2000.
Scorch
Stacey Gregg explores the topical issue of gender fraud with sensitivity and tenderness in the story of Kes, a teenager who starts a physical relationship with a girl she meets on line who believes that Kes is a boy. A bittersweet play that suggests that the law may not have caught up with a world where gender is no longer fixed.
• Summerhall, 21, then 23-27 August (not 22). Box office: 0131-226 0000.
