The Jolly Fisherman

The Jolly Fisherman centres on Alan and Amir, two boys growing up together in London’s East End whose friendship feels unshakeable — until the pressures of the world around them begin to pull them onto different paths. What starts as an easy childhood bond becomes a story shaped by shifting neighbourhoods, family expectations and the changing idea of what it means to belong in modern England. As the pair move from boyhood into adulthood, the play traces how identity is formed and tested in a city where home can be both anchor and battleground.

Inspired by real events, the piece explores the distance that can grow between people who once felt inseparable, and the resilience required to hold on to the ties that matter. With Alex Hill (Why I Stuck A Flare Up My Arse For England) and Jonny Khan leading the cast, the production examines friendship, loyalty and the search for place in a country still negotiating its own sense of self. It becomes a portrait of two lives shaped by the same streets but pulled in different directions, asking what remains when the world insists on drawing lines between them.

Venue 300 – Buttercup at Underbelly, George Square
August 5th – 31st (12:45)

Sanctuary

Sanctuary is the debut play from Jacob Sparrow, winner of the inaugural Leodis Prize, and unfolds in 1990s Suffolk at the height of the AIDS epidemic. At its centre is a portrait of queer life shaped by isolation, inherited shame and the quiet ache of wanting a place to belong. The play traces the emotional landscape of a community navigating fear and misinformation, while following characters who are trying to understand what safety means when the world around them feels precarious. Sparrow’s writing explores the private spaces people retreat to, the silences they carry and the longing for connection that persists even in the shadow of crisis.

Set against the rural stillness of Suffolk, the play considers the right to live fully and without apology, and the courage it takes to claim that right. It becomes a meditation on where — and with whom — we allow ourselves to feel safe, inviting reflection on the spaces we create to survive and the ones we dare to imagine.

Venue 23 – Ace Dome at Pleasance Dome
August 5th -31st (16:00)

Hamlet (an experience)

Hamlet becomes an immersive encounter in this reimagining from multi‑award‑winning Brite Theater, inviting audiences to step directly into the world of the Danish prince. Rather than watching from a distance, participants take on roles within the story, moving through key moments as Hamlet wrestles with grief, loyalty and the burden of impossible choices. The production reframes Shakespeare’s tragedy as a shared investigation into the “great questions of life,” blurring the line between performer and spectator as the prince turns to the audience for answers he can no longer find alone.

Starring Emily Carding and directed by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir, the piece builds on Brite Theater’s signature approach to classic texts, transforming the play into a live, collaborative experience. Characters, scenes and dilemmas unfold around and through the audience, creating a version of Hamlet that is intimate, immediate and shaped by the people in the room. It becomes a journey through identity, doubt and destiny — not simply observed, but actively inhabited.

Venue 30 – George Mackay Brown Library at Scottish Storytelling Centre
August 7th – 17th (16:30)

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It

Bigfoot Ripped My Dog In Half I Saw It follows two Appalachian teenagers who stage fake cryptid sightings for fun — until a neighbour’s dog is found gruesomely torn apart. What began as a game suddenly collides with real fear, forcing them to confront the stories their community tells itself and the shadows that thrive in places where resources are scarce and superstition runs deep. As panic spreads, the pair must reckon with the difference between the monsters they invented and the possibility that something far more unsettling is stalking the woods around them.

Created by Fringe First‑winning duo Xhloe and Natasha and presented with Soho Theatre and SoHo Playhouse, the show uses Brechtian techniques and puppetry to unravel how conspiracy, misdirection and fear take root. Boxes, bodies and creatures appear and disappear as the teens try to piece together what they’ve unleashed — and what their neighbours are desperate to believe. The result is a theatrical investigation into the power of seeing, the danger of being seen and the stories that communities cling to when the truth feels too frightening to face.

Venue 26 – Main Hall at Summerhall
August 6th – 30th (21:10)

Blackbox

Henry “Box” Brown steps onto the stage as both magician and storyteller, using illusion to retrace the extraordinary journey that carried him from enslavement in 19th‑century America to freedom. The show frames his life as a series of conjurings: each trick becomes a doorway into a chapter of his past — the love he fought to protect, the losses that reshaped him, the confinement he endured and the faith that sustained his daring 1849 escape inside a wooden shipping crate.

Gospel‑infused soundscapes, shifting stagecraft and the physical presence of crates that appear, vanish and break apart transform the theatre into a space of reckoning. Brown’s story unfolds not as a distant legend but as an embodied account of resistance, survival and self‑definition. Through illusion, testimony and the charged symbolism of the box itself, the piece explores how one man reclaimed his life in a world built to contain him — and how his act of escape continues to echo through conversations about freedom narratives and Black history onstage.

Venue 61 – Belly Button at Underbelly, Cowgate
August 5th – 30th (12:40)

The Bob Ross Effect

Bob Ross — artist, animal‑lover, and the soft‑spoken host who turned television into a sanctuary of calm and got us through COVID — becomes the centre of a warm, interactive exploration of creativity and connection in this new show from the amazing Sarah‑Louise Young. Drawing on Ross’s legacy from The Joy of Painting, the piece revisits the gentle philosophy that made him a cultural touchstone: the belief that mistakes are simply “happy accidents” and that art belongs to everyone. Set against a backdrop of colour, memory and the occasional friendly squirrel, the show invites audiences to step into Ross’s world, where encouragement is abundant and the act of making something becomes an expression of care.

Directed by Ali James, with original songs created alongside Jordan Paul Clarke, the performance blends storytelling, music and audience participation to explore the big emotions that Ross’s quiet presence helped people navigate — love, grief, resilience and the search for joy in small things. Rather than impersonation, it offers a celebration of his enduring impact, tracing how a man with a paintbrush and a perm became an unlikely guide through life’s messier moments. It’s a gentle reminder of the spaces we create for ourselves and others, and the comfort found in embracing creativity without fear.

Venue 3 – Piccolo Tent at Assembly George Square Gardens
August 5th – 31stth (16.05)

11½ Angry Men

12 Angry Men is reborn as a riotous courtroom free‑for‑all in this spoof revival, where 11½ furious comedians cram into a jury room to decide the fate of a boy accused of murder in 1950s New York. The setup mirrors the classic drama, but the evidence is far from dignified — including a suspiciously lethal German sausage that may either exonerate the defendant or doom him to the electric chair. As tempers flare and logic collapses, the jurors wrestle with the absurdity of the case, the pressure for unanimity and the sheer impossibility of reaching a sensible verdict when the room itself is a powder keg of clashing personalities.

Directed by Guy Masterson, the production assembles a powerhouse comic ensemble: Stephen K Amos, Joe Pasquale, Tom Stade, Spencer Jones, Mark Maier, Glenn Wool, JJ Whitehead, Ian Coppinger, Terry Alderton, Phil Nichol, David Calvitto and Owen O’Neill. Together they transform the jury room into a battleground of egos, improvisation and escalating chaos, sending the familiar story careening into unpredictable territory. What unfolds is a high‑energy collision of parody and performance, where the only certainty is that justice — and the audience — won’t emerge unscathed.

Venue 150b – Pentland Theatre at Pleasance at EICC
August 5th – 22nd (14:30)

Bog Witch

Bog Witch, the first solo show from Bryony Kimmings in five years, charts her move with her young son to a crumbling cottage in the wilderness — a last‑ditch attempt to reconnect with nature and claw back a sense of happiness and sanity. Known for blending autobiography with theatrical invention, Kimmings turns this period of upheaval into a journey through isolation, resilience and the strange comfort found in landscapes that feel both hostile and healing. The piece traces her attempt to rebuild a life from the ground up, using the wild as both mirror and catalyst for change.

Bog Witch explores what happens when the structures that once held a person together fall away, and the only option is to root oneself in the earth — mud, moss, midges and all. It becomes a meditation on motherhood, mental health and the messy, necessary act of starting again, told by an artist whose storytelling remains unmistakably her own.

Venue 15 – Traverse 1 at Traverse Theatre
August 8th – 30th (Various times)

Jitters

This new two‑hander from the comedy partnership of Ellen Robertson and Charly Clive unfolds in the tense, chaotic hour before a wedding that suddenly might not happen. As the clock ticks down, the pair pick apart the rituals, expectations and unspoken negotiations that sit beneath the idea of marriage. What begins as pre‑ceremony jitters spirals into a sharp, playful examination of ownership, tradition and the subtle power dynamics that shape modern relationships. With the bride‑to‑be questioning everything she thought she wanted, the stage becomes a pressure cooker of confession, confrontation and unexpected clarity.

Robertson and Clive, known for their quick‑witted chemistry and off‑kilter storytelling, use the stripped‑back format to explore the “L‑word” at the heart of every partnership: leverage. As the characters wrestle with what they owe each other — and what they owe themselves — the piece digs into the messy, funny and often uncomfortable truths that surface when love meets expectation.

Venue 26 – Old Lab at Summerhall
August 6th – 30th (12:00)

Pink Rabbit

Pink Rabbit, created by Farah Ashraf and NAZAR ARTS, follows Amna — a young woman trying to reconcile the version of herself her family sees with the one she performs online. At home she is quiet, dutiful and careful; on the internet she becomes PersianBaby, bold, flirtatious and watched by strangers who offer the validation she can’t seek openly. As she hides her OnlyFans account from her strict mother, the split between these identities begins to strain, revealing the pressures placed on her by faith, desire and the cultural expectations that shape her world.

As the lies deepen, Amna is forced to confront who she is really performing for, and what it costs to be seen. The play traces the tension between shame and thrill, modesty and autonomy, exploring the intergenerational conflicts that arise when tradition meets the digital age. Raw, intimate and darkly funny, Pink Rabbit examines the moment when visibility becomes intoxicating — and when the need for it threatens to eclipse the truth.

Venue 302 – Daisy at Underbelly, Bristo Square
August 5th – 30th (16:15)

Badgers

Badgers, a world premiere from A Theatre Royal Plymouth Production in association with Bristol Old Vic, is a shape‑shifting folk tale about stories, ownership and the ethics of turning real lives into content. Something has taken root in this town: a recluse, a disappearance, a strange old song that won’t leave people alone. And then there’s you — Meles, a podcaster with a dying mother, a faltering career and a creeping sense that you’re about to stumble into something far bigger, and far darker, than you ever intended. The question is no longer what you’ll uncover, but whether it’s your story to tell at all.

Written by Malaika Kegode with music by Jakabol, and directed by Jenny Davies, the show blends folklore, true‑crime tropes and moral unease into a mercurial, unsettling narrative. Developed on Complicité’s Mudlarks International Residency, it follows the team behind Outlier as they return with a work that probes the line between curiosity and exploitation, and the cost of holding onto a story that doesn’t want to be held.

Venue 15 – Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre
 August 6th – 30th (Variosu times)

The Second Best School Shooting

This dark comedy from Jessica Green Harrison and Matthew Lillard follows two best friends trying to make sense of surviving a school shooting — only to find their trauma eclipsed by an even deadlier shooting that happens the very same day. What should have been the defining event of their lives is suddenly treated as a footnote, leaving them adrift in a country where violence is constant, grief is comparative and young people are expected to simply carry on. Developed with hundreds of students, teachers and survivors, the piece channels the gallows humour that so many use to cope with the United States’ gun‑violence epidemic, capturing a generation that is traumatised, despondent and, somehow, still bitingly funny.

Written by former public‑school teacher Alice Stanley Jr and directed by Riley Rose Critchlow, the show blends sharp wit with lived experience, refusing to look away from the absurdity and horror of a culture numbed to tragedy. It’s a story about survival, friendship and the impossible task of processing the unprocessable.

Venue 33 – Baby Grand at Pleasance Courtyard
August 5th – 30th (12:45)

Supposing:

Supposing, the world‑premiere from Zinnie Harris for Traverse Theatre Company, centres on Sally, whose home has been struck by a curse she can’t explain and no one around her will acknowledge. What begins as an unsettling disturbance grows into a crisis of belief, as the familiar spaces of her life shift under her feet and certainty gives way to doubt. With reality blurring at the edges, Sally must decide whether to trust what she sees — and what the consequences might be if her instincts are right.

Venue 15 – Traverse 2 at Traverse Theatre
August 8th – 30th (Various times)