Murdo MacLeod's best Edinburgh festival photographs - in pictures

A ballet master magically transforms plastic bags into ballerinas, to the music of Debussy, in Company Non Nova's L'après-midi d'un Foehn at Summerhall Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

A close encounter at the Traverse between Neve McIntosh and Rudi Dharmalingam in The Events – a new play from David Greig about a mass shooting, directed by Ramin Gray with the Actors Touring Company Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

The cast of Hiraeth Artistic Productions' adaption of Shakespeare's bloodiest play, Titus Andronicus, stage a preview on the Royal Mile Photograph: Murdo Macleod/Murdo Macleod

With their 'travelling parlour of enlightenment', Hendrick’s Carnival of Knowledge offers a 'fiesta of learning' at 1 Royal Circus Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

An unfeasibly long frock features in Nofit State Circus's show Bianco at the Big Top in Fountainbridge Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

A classic 'behind you' moment as Sarah Hoare stars in the dark fairytale Hag, by The Wrong Crowd at Underbelly, Cowgate Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Wu Hsing-kuo's very personal spin – the Taiwanese maverick directs, writes and acts the show – on Kafka's Metamorphosis at Kings Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Inventive puppetry, masks, animation and live performance feature in a 'grand epic western', It's Dark Outside, by Tim Watts, Arielle Grey and Chris Isaacs at the Underbelly Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Grid Iron theatre company fuses live interactive performance with digital technologies to take audiences on an interstellar ride in Leaving Planet Earth, at the International Climbing Arena in Ratho Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

International company Babakas offer a 'moving and playful portrait of fatherhood' at Summerhall, mixing comedy, contemporary dance and cinema to tell a story that crosses borders and decades Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Jasmin Riggins in Our Glass House, a site-specific performance about domestic abuse by Common Wealth and Summerhall, staged at Whale Arts Centre Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Japjit Kaur in Nirbhaya, Yael Farber's play at the Assembly Hall based on the gang-rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey in India Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Theatre Ad Infinitum offers 'music, killer heels and a lethal troop of divas' in Ballad of the Burning Star at the Pleasance Dome Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

A new adaptation of Stephen King’s classic tale set in a men’s prison, The Shawshank Redemption stars Omid Djalili at the Assembly Rooms Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

Ghostly characters perform wordless rituals in Tourniquet by Belgian company Abattoir Fermé at Summerhall Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian

The internationally acclaimed Circa returns to Edinburgh for the first time in four years with its show Wunderkammer, offering a cocktail circus, cabaret and vaudeville at Underbelly Photograph: Murdo Macleod for the Guardian