The Edinburgh Festival Fringe was the first festival of its kind and has been since copied across the world. The first is still the largest, launching entertainment industry careers for decades since.  We paged through the programme looking for something to amuse STARBURST readers who may happen to be in Edinburgh this August.


War With the Newts
 Summerhall August. Check programme for dates and times
Inspired by the Karel Čapek novel of the same name,  this classic sci-fi tale about exploitation and greed moves the action from the 1930s to post-Brexit Britain. Čapek’s insight is still relevant to this day, so we can only imagine turning the story into an immersive theatre experience will make it even easier to absorb.

The Vampire of Barcelona
theSpace on the Mile Aug 6-11
US-based Prog-pop band The Centaurs of Attention bring us a story about either a cold-hearted monster, or the terrors of the patriarchal media. You decide which is which as the band takes on a musical horror tale.

Lights over Tesco
Pleasance Dome Jack Dome August. Check programme for dates and times
Alien Abduction as a metaphor for something else is a pretty common sci-fi trope. Expect some history of alien abduction stories, some latex masks and some flying saucers in this award winning drama about the strange and mundane.

Doctor Whosical
Greenside @Infirmary Street Aug 4,6,8,10
Drag Queens and Doctor Who, what’s not to love?  Sure to sell-out (again), this show somehow makes Doctor Who even more camp. A fringe must-see.

Lord of the Game of the Ring of Thrones~
Just the Tonic @ La Belle Angele Aug 14-26
With fantasy novels (and their spin-off media) now being mainstream, an improv show that riffs on the various tropes that make those stories work is inevitable. Hivemind  wear the crown of fantasy improv, go see if you can.

This article has been edited to remove dead links.
You may want to check out our previous guides from 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.