What to see at Edinburgh Fringe and EIF 2022: 15 of the best theatre shows

‘“King Lear” meets stand-up meets the metaverse’ in the latest show from the tirelessly inventive, continuously provocative Tim Crouch…

Starring Paul Higgins, ‘This Is Memorial Device’ is Graham Eatough’s adaptation of David Keenan’s hallucinatory imagined oral history of the fictitious Airdrie post-punk band Memorial Device…

Possibly the most famous person to ever bring a show to the Edinburgh Fringe for a full stint while actually famous, Sir Ian McKellen will indeed be bringing his ‘Hamlet’ to the 2022 festival. Or, at least, a version of it…

Visionary Belgium theatre company Ontroerend Goed no longer make the headlines they did with the overtly provocative work of their breakthrough era. But the graceful, eco-minded shows they’ve produced over the last few fringes have been some of the best work of their career…

The great Belgian director Ivo van Hove’s version of Hanya Yanagihara’s epic novel of trauma follows four university friends’ struggles in the decades after graduation. Brace yourself for a  brilliant but also doubtless gruelling evening: that running time alone is enough to make a grown man wince.

Playwright Chris Bush and songwriters Miranda Cooper (Girls Aloud; Kylie Minogue) and Jennifer Decilveo (Miley Cyrus) join forces for a cheerful romp through the lives of various inspirational women including Frida Kahlo and Marie Curie…

Rising star Dipo Baruwa-Etti’s new play concerns a young Black student who auditions for a prestigious music school, but becomes disenchanted by the lack of Black names on the curriculum…

A neurotic stand-up comic finally meets Mr Right and feels like everything is going to work out okay… but is it? Acclaimed actor Samuel Barnett stars in this new play from Marcelo Dos Santos, directed by Matthew Xia, and staged at the Paines Plough’s Roundabout under the auspices of Francesca Moody Production, ie they of ‘Fleabag’.

Victoria Melody follows her whimsical docu-theatre investigations into the likes of Northern Soul dancing, beauty pageants and dog competitions for new show ‘Head Set’, for which she embedded herself in the world of amateur stand-up comedy. 

As you can probably guess from the title, this show from Shepard Tone is an investigation into the prodigious success of The Killers’ breakthrough single, which has, astonishingly, been in the charts since it was first released in 2003…

This sounds like a hoot: acclaimed poet and seasoned Edinburgh Fringe pro Richard Marsh… offers up a one-man unauthorised adaptation of popular Christmas action movie ‘Die Hard’…

Three fractious grown-up sisters have lost their mum, and with her passing the bonds that held the siblings together seem to fray. But can they find common ground via music? This new plays about sisterhood features songs by IRL sibling trio The Staves.

Although it’s a relatively low-key production, ‘How I Learned What I Learned’ is a quietly significant show, being the European premiere of the late, great Black American playwright August Wilson’s autobiographical monologue. Originally performed by Wilson himself back in 2003, it’s US actor Lester Purry who’ll be stepping into those big shoes for the Edinburgh Fringe production from Saints & Poets Theater, a company located in Wilson’s beloved Pittsburgh.

Binaural theatre company Darkfield have become a staple on the international fringe festival circuit with its trippy, often disturbing headphones-based works that take place inside totally blacked-out shipping containers. It can be quite hard to say what Darkfield shows are about even after you’ve experienced one, but for what it’s worth, ‘Eulogy’ is described as being set in a 'dreamlike, labyrinthine hotel’.