With just over a month to go now until the start of this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, we’ve taken a look at the best theatre shows to check out in August.
The world’s largest arts festival has, as always, got hundreds of great theatrical treats to choose from, performing across the city in our theatres, function rooms, gym halls and even pubs.
Among the 42 theatre shows at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe we’ve highlighted are a great mix of returning shows, debuts and even some world premiere runs in Edinburgh.
Check out our galley below to help you choose which theatre shows you will be watching in Edinburgh this August.
9. Bog Witch
Following a critically acclaimed London run and a 2026 OffWestEnd Award nomination for Innovation, playwright, performer, documentary-maker and screenwriter Bryony Kimmings (I’m a Phoenix, Bitch, Fake It Till You Make It, BBC One’s The Rapture) returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe for the first time in seven years with the Scottish premiere of Bog Witch. As with all the legendary performance artist’s previous autobiographical shows, Bog Witch follows a part of Kimmings’ real-life story. Using her trademark mix of humour and heart, expect excellent storytelling, mystical projections, epic songs and banging sound, as Bryony charts her journey uprooting her and her son’s life in the city to live in a tumbledown cottage in the wilderness as a last-ditch attempt to be happy and sane. This is the vital story not of dropping out… but of plugging back in, and one that changed absolutely everything for Kimmings. Bog Witch, at Traverse 1, August 2-30, 11am. | Avalon
10. Deluge
Following its successful 2024 run, Deluge by Gabi Flares returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, inviting audiences back into its surreal, tender and darkly humorous exploration of grief. In the wake of a relationship, a woman circles the drain, sifting through other people’s stories in an attempt to contain her overflowing thoughts. But something is blocked, and to make matters worse, there are leaks to fix in her house. It was meant to be a quick job, but the holes just keep getting bigger… the water is rising. Inspired by a break-up and over 40 interviews from a social media call out, Deluge delves into the different stages of mourning, and puts a magic realist spin on dealing with grief. A ‘dramedy’ that fuses theatre and comedy with physicality, text, clowning, original music and projection, this one-woman show reflects on grief, loss and letting go to fully embrace the future. Deluge, at Underbelly Cowgate, Big Belly, August 5-30, not 18th, 3.30pm. | Julia Testa
11. QFWFQ
QFWFQ by Gregory Nussen, directed by rising star Hannah Pilkes opens at Summerhall on August 6, following wins for Best Solo Theatre and the Sydney Fringe Exchange at the 2025 Hollywood Fringe, with an additional three nominations including Top of the Fringe and a nomination for BroadwayWorld LA's award for Best Solo Show. Loosely based on Italo Calvino’s If On a Winter’s Night a Traveller, Hannah’s Edinburgh Festival Directorial debut, QFWFQ is a labyrinthian, surrealist plunge into the politics of gender, music, international relations and storytelling by trans multidisciplinary artist Gregory Nussen. QFWFQ, at Summerhall, August 6-31, (Not 17, 24), 11:40am. | Storytelling PR
12. House of Life
After becoming one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s most beloved late-night sensations, House of Life returns this summer in a spectacular new (re) incarnation, bigger, bolder and more euphoric than ever before, taking over Underbelly’s famous purple cow for the very first time. Since its breakout Fringe success, the cult hit has spread its glitter-soaked gospel of joy across the world, bringing audiences together in London, Oslo and New York. Now, the show comes home to Edinburgh transformed: a reimagined, expanded version of the theatrical phenomenon that audiences have fallen in love with. At the centre of it all is the glitter-clad RaveRend- part preacher, part DJ, part master of ceremonies -leading audiences through an unforgettable night of collective celebration, emotional release and ecstatic dancefloor communion. House of Life, 5–30 August, 9.45pm (70 mins), Udderbelly, Underbelly George Square. | Michelle Mangan Communications and PR