The 20 best theatre shows to see at Edinburgh Fringe and EIF 2025

What is it? The Edinburgh International Festival is running a somewhat reduced programme this year, but by way of compensation there’s a very impressive homegrown centrepiece. Make It Happen is a world premiere from James Graham, probably Britain’s most successful living playwright and a brilliant chronicler of recent history. For EIF 2025 he’s trained his eye on the ‘rise, fall and fail’ of the Royal Bank of Scotland and its role in the global financial crash of 2008. It stars Brian Cox in his first show in Scotland post-Succession – he’ll play the ghost of legendary Scots economist Adam Smith, who haunts his acolyte Fred 'The Shred' Goodwin (Sandy Grierson), who presided over RBS during its collapse.

Where is it? Festival Theatre.

What is it? Seiriol Davies’s giddily preposterous musical is a true Edinburgh Fringe classic, having originated at the festival back in 2016. A larky collision of Gilbert & Sullivan and Monty Python, it tells the story of Henry Paget, the fifth Marquess of Anglesea, a flamboyant Victorian nobleman who frittered away a fortune converting the family chapel into a theatre and staging his own terrible plays there at enormous expense. Alex Swift’s original production did really quite well for itself, but in the hundred and fiftieth anniversary of Paget’s birth How To Win Against History is back in a new upgraded production from incoming Stratford East boss Lisa Spirling. 

Where is it? Underbelly George Square.

What is it? Mercurial Belgian experimentalists Ontroered Goed spent much of the early part of their career winding up audiences, something that came to a head in their 2011 show Audience, in which they aggressily prodded and provoked their own punters, and even sought to express cynicism at the very idea of romanticising crowds and other mass movements. They’ve mellowed in recent years, and new show Thanks for Being Here is supposed to be a thank you to their audiences for staying loyal. Whether it proves to be a sincere acknowledgement or something more sardonic is hard to say at this stage, but whatever happens it’s sure to be interesting. 

Where is it? Zoo Southside.

What is it? South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Theatre will forveer be associated with the skeletal wooden puppets from War Horse, but there’s a lot more to them than that. Faustus in Africa! is a spin on the classic Marlowe play that depicts the soul-selling Faustus as a man out on a reckless African safari. But what will the cost have been to the planet when his deal with the devil ends? Directed by William Kentridge, the story is refashioned into a critique of colonialism and the climate emergency.

Where is it? Royal Lyceum Theatre. 

What is it? Directed by the fiendlshly clever Omar Elerian, this solo show from British actor Khalid Abdalla playfully traces his involvement in the Egyptian revolution of 2011 – and subsequent crushing counter-revolution. Described as ‘an act of anti-biography that asks how we got here and how we find agency amidst the mazes of history’, it’s produced by the pioneering company Fuel and plays the Fringe as part of the biennial Here and Now showcase. 

Where is it? Traverse Theatre.

What is it? Anarchic performance trio In Bed With My Brother return with a new show that sees them explore their fasicnation with The Shaggs, the bizarre ’60s and ’70s rock band comprised of a trio of sisters with little interest in music, whose strict father nonetheless forced then to form a rock band as a result of a prediction made by a fortune teller. Mocked at the time, their one album Philosphy of the World has become an avant-garde cult classic. In Bed with My Brother’s show of the same name is billed as ‘part tribute act, part feminist reclamation, part fever dream’.

Where is it? Summerhall.

What is it? Pantomime? In the summer? Oh no it isn’t! Etc etc. She’s Behind You is written and performed by veteran Scottish pantomime dame Johnny McKnight, who has penned over 30 pantos and starred in 18. It promises a look into the art of daming and what it’s meant foir McKnight peronally after decades in the biz. So far, so Edinburgh Fringe solo show, but this is directed by serious heavyweight John Tiffany. 

Where is it? Traverse Theatre.

What is it? The Legends of Them takes us back to reggae pioneer Sutara Gayle’s childhood in Brixton, through her sexual awakening, early music career and on a transformative trip to India. You’re sure to leave the theatre slightly bewildered. But, once you accept it is a bit of a minefield, Gayle’s otherworldly presence is hard to look away from. Blending music with history, video with raw emotion onstage, she is a force to be reckoned with.

Where is it? Zoo Southside.

What is it? A cult hit in the US, this autobiographical musical two-hander is based around the real lives of married indie folk duo The Bengsons, specifically Shaun’s rejection of his religious faith and embrace of his hearing loss. It’s produced by Francesca Moody and has a transfer to the Young Vic already pencilled in, so expect big things. 

Where it it? Assembly Roxy.

What is it? Formerly seen in England under its original name The Land Ackowledgment or As You Like It and now debuting in Scotland as part of the EIF, this deliciously provocative show from Native American performer Cliff Cardinal is best left unspoilered but sees him co-opt Shakespeare’s pastoral comedy in a most surprising way to reimagine it as a colonialist critique. 

Where is it? Church Hill Theatre.

What is it? Comic Mark Thomas scored great notices a few years back for his rivetingly intense acting debut in Ed Edwards’s England and Son. Now actor and playwright are reunited for Ordinary Decent Criminal, a story about a recovering addict prisoner who becomes part or a liberal rehabilitaton experiment in the years after the Strangeways riots. 

Where is it? Summerhall.

What is it? Stalwart touring theatre company Paines Plough’s much loved Roundabout pop-up venue has been a sad victim of the uncertainty facing the future of Summerhall this year. But – yay! – there are still two shows from Paines Plough at the Fringe. Consumed is by Northern Irish writer Karis Kelly (pictured), who is best known for screen work, but this Edinburgh debut sounds promising, a dark comedy about four generations of Northern Irish women reuinited at a dysfunctional ninetieth birthday party. 

Where is it? Traverse Theatre.

What is it? Blackout theatre specialists Darkfield return with Darkfield Radio: if we’re reading it right it’s so called because it’s a ‘pure’ headphones show and lacks any real set beyond a blackout. Which is fine really: the format actually allowed for ticketholders to choose one of three different pieces of the same 25 minute length. The pieces are Double, about the rare phenonomenon that is Capgras syndrome; Visitors, about why the dead find no comfort in the land of the living; and Eternal, about the price of endless life. Cheery!

Where is it? Summerhall.

What is it? An immersive Peter Pan musical based around a tranche of early ’00s pop hits sounds like a great piece of Fringe fluff. Will Club NVRLND actually be good as well? Certainly there’s good reason to hope: it’s written by Jack Holden, whose Cruise was solid and KENREX even better. And the plot isn’t just Peter Pan plus millenial bangers because lol: Holden’s thesis is that millennials are a generation of lost boys (and girls), unable to grow up because of a capricious and unfair world that prices them out of property, kids etc. 

Where is it? Assembly Checkpoint.

What is it? Megan and Kevin are just pals; until a one night stand caught on camera makes them reconsider their relationship. This ‘anti romcom’ delves into the amateur industry – not uninteresting as an idea, but what makes it considerably more intriguing is that Paldem is the debut play from rising Brit star David Jonsson, known for Industry, Rye Lane, Alien: Romulus and more. 

Where is it? Summerhall. 

What is it? A doubtless haunting late night treat from Polish polyphonic theatre stalwarts Song of the Goat, who promise not Hamlet per se, but ‘an exploration into the origins of Hamlet’. Exactly this is going to involve is a bit vague – there is talk of a ‘ritual‘ –  but Song of the Goat’s eerie harmonies  are a thing of impressionistic wonder, and staging it to end just before midnight seems pretty much perfect.

Where is it? Summerhall. 

What is it? A musical about the relationship between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates is certainly something that could go either way, considering how weird people tend to get about tech bros TBC. Still, we’re hopefully in for a witty time: writers Jordan Allen-Dutton and Erik Weiner began their careers with cult Shakespeare-riffing Fringe hip hop smash The Bomb-itty of Errors and have gone on to rack up some pretty major film and TV writing credits. 

Where is it? Underbelly, Bristo Square. 

What is it? There’s good advance word on Ways of Knowing from Emergency Chorus, one of three winners of this year’s Untapped Award at the Edinburgh Fringe. The dance theatre piece is a response to the uncertain nature of the future and the impossibility of predicting it: it begins with an apocalpytic first half before moving on to something more hopeful. 

Where is it? Underbelly Cowgate.

What is it? Slightly bombastically billed as ‘the play Trump does not want you to see’ US-educated Indian performer Priyanka Shetty’s solo show nonetheless looks like a promising and topical docu-drama about the infamous Unite the Right white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virgina on August 11 and 12 2017. Having moved to Charlottesville to study acting at the University of Virginia shortly beforehand, Shetty was horrified at events and constructed the play verbatim from interviews, court documents and news reports.

Where is it? Pleasancw Courtyard.

What is it? Okay, you probably need to keep your expectations of high art in check: Footballers’ Wives: The Musical is unlikely to be noticeably more intellectual than the wilfully trashy ITV series it’s based upon. But it looks like a good laugh, with Ceili O'Connor and Matt Beveridge playing ruthlessly scheming power couple Tanya and Jason Turner. The legendary Arlene Phillips is a big name signing as the choreographer.

Where is it? Assembly Rooms.