August brings many things: scorching heatwaves, a respite from the Word Cup (for those who abstained from football fever) and, of course, the famous and much-beloved Edinburgh festival.
A treasure trove of artistic delight await: from bold new stand ups and quirky comedies to hard-hitting international theatre in the multitude of festivals that converge upon the city. New stars are made and established talent make exciting new productions or tackle classic tales in irreverent ways.
Here’s our selection of the five shows not to miss if you are making that cultural pilgrimage this year.
Gracie Steindl
Roleplay
Produced by the same team that brought us Fleabag and Baby Reindeer; Roleplay comes with some impressive credentials indeed. A darkly comic look at the twisted reality of feminism, capitalism and the commodification of the self in an online world, Roleplay is brought to life by the writer and performer Hannah Reilly, who plays a broke feminist podcaster who turns to sexual provocation to make more money.
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Mayflies
A paean to male friendship, this is a beautiful stage adaptation of Andrew O’Hagan’s bestselling 2021 novel of the same name. The global premiere of this production will take place at the festival. It tells the story of two friends in their younger years in Manchester and in midlife, looking back at how our youth shapes us and stays with us and how the bonds we make will change the course of our life forever.
May Azzi
116 Grams, a Play to Lose Weight
A superbly knowing skewering of the beauty industry and beauty standards, 116 grams: A Play to Lose Weight is a tour-de-force from Brazilian performer Letícia Rodrigues. Each performance features a part training workout part theatre performance that dissects our cultural preoccupation with the reduction of womens’ bodies. A production for the Ozempic era that is itself a meditation performance itself.
Tommy Ga-Ken Wan
The Singer
With music and lyrics by KT Tunstall, this is a heartwarming and brilliantly entertaining part gig, part play that foregrounds the unlikely musical partnership of a deaf artist, Joe, who ‘sings’ with his hands, and a faded music star, Andy, who needs to break back in to the industry. A wonderful look at the human need to be seen and acknowledged.
Caio Lírio
A Trial – after An Enemy of the People
One of the hottest tickets at the festival this year, A Trial: after An Enemy of the People has its UK premiere here this summer. It stars the Golden Globe winning star Wagner Moura as Thomas Stockman in this radical reimagining of Ibsen’s classic play, setting it in modern day Brazil, making its message of fake news and authoritarianism more urgent and startlingly prescient than ever.