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…
Intellectual playfulness in Milo Rau's recreation of a gay hate crime Who'd have thought a play about a homophobic hate crime could be so much fun? Well, maybe that's overstating things a li…
Confusion reigns in an overly ambitious take on technology, time and climate catastrophe You can't question Javaad Alipoor's ambition.
Two compelling examinations of femininity and masculinity at the Traverse Theatre Enough ★★★★   Immaculately turned out in winning smiles, navy and nylo…
New staging brings the iconic 1983 movie's themes and characters into sharper focus 'Cult' is probably an over-used adjective, especially when it comes to movies. But there's undoubtedly som…
Psychedelic Shakespeare feels rather too charming for its own good"Well, that was really sweet," one young audience member in front of me remarked on his way out of Edinburgh's Lyceum Theatr…
The British master-director settles for vaguely Beckett-inflected bafflementOf the Edinburgh International Festival's three productions by 2018's resident company, Paris's Théâtre des Bo…
Playful visual trickery and gnomic bafflement at the International Festival Home ★★★★  Â
Two striking explorations of sexual identity stop short of grabbing the emotions La maladie de la mort ★★★  Toxic masculinity in all its appalling variety is a …