20 best things to see at the Fringe and Edinburgh International Festival 2021 – from comedy to opera

The world’s largest arts festival has, understandably, returned on a much smaller scale after a year of lockdown. But there’s still plenty to see in Edinburgh this August.

Here are our top 20 recommendations, from a new staging of Strauss’s Ariadne Auf Naxos to a horror-themed Elvis singalong, via a new play where Domhnall Gleeson faces up against a giant lobster.

Comedy

Jordan Brookes

Brookes won the 2019 Edinburgh Comedy Award for I’ve Got Nothing, a madcap blend of stand-up, physical comedy and audience interaction, and a radical departure from the high-tech approach of his previous show, Bleed. Lord knows what he has up his sleeve as he tests out new material this year, but one thing’s for certain: it’ll be a hot ticket.

Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 6-11

Josie Long

Long’s last show, Tender, featured one of the funniest accounts of childbirth I’ve ever heard. The much-loved Fringe veteran is now pregnant again – which should provide plenty of material for this work-in-progress show, which promises her usual mix of personal warmth, political nous and irrepressible optimism.

Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 6 & 23-29

Terrible Wonderful Adaptations

High-concept theatre meets lowbrow clowning, as a group of comedians team up to adapt an unadaptable text for the stage. Previous efforts have included the iTunes Terms and Conditions, the 1997 Liberal Democrat Manifesto and Allen Ginsberg’s beat poem Howl. It’s hosted by John-Luke Roberts, whose new stand-up show It Is Better is also worth a punt.

Assembly Roxy Central (assemblyfestival.com), Aug 6 & 13

Julia Masli

Winner of the coveted Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality, Masli is best known as part of the sketch troupe Legs. But this year the Estonia-born clown is going solo with a work-in-progress show of her own. Judging from her delightfully weird recent appearances at comedy clubs, it might turn out to be something quite special.

Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 18-22

Fern Brady

Brady’s previous shows have drawn on deeply personal subject matter – time spent in a mental health unit, years working as a stripper, being diagnosed with OCD – but always with iron-clad confidence, and an engagingly arch style. Co-host of the BBC’s Wheel of Misfortune comedy podcast, this Scottish stand-up’s stock is on the rise.

Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 6-17

Daniel Sloss

A West End hit in the brief window between last year’s lockdowns, Sloss’s stand-up show Hubris mines shockingly bad-taste topics – Hiroshima, school shootings – for unlikely comic gold. The Scottish Netflix star is reviving it for this year’s Fringe.

Corn Exchange / Festival Theatre (edfringe.com), Aug 6-8, 11-15 &21

The Elvis Dead

The underground hit of the 2017 Fringe returns. Black Country comic Rob Kemp re-enacts the plot of horror classic Evil Dead II – complete with chainsaw! – via the music of the King, changing the odd lyric here and there. (Elvis Presley’s “hunk of burning love” becomes a “hunk of burning skull”.) It’s a bonkers idea, but one carried out with utter conviction.

Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 23-29

Ahir Shah

Shah’s last show Dots – soon to be released as an HBO special – was a philosophical, deeply personal hour of stand-up that touched on big questions of life, death, family and religion. This new work-in-progress hour from the fiercely intelligent comic is likely to offer just as much food for thought.

Monkey Barrel (monkeybarrelcomedy.com), Aug 10-15

Theatre and Spoken Word

Medicine

Domhnall Gleeson (Ex Machina, Harry Potter) plays a man in hospital whose surprising visitors include a giant lobster and a jazz percussionist, in this new absurdist drama about mental health from Irish playwright Enda Walsh. Tickets disappeared quickly, but keep an eye out for returns.

Traverse Theatre (eif.co.uk), until Aug 29

Under Milk Wood: Semi-Skimmed

Veteran Fringe performer and director Guy Masterson returns to the role famously inhabited by his uncle Richard Burton, as the narrator of Dylan Thomas’s poetic fantasia about the eccentric inhabitants of a small Welsh village. While the current National Theatre production is a radical departure from Thomas’s vision, Masterson’s abridged solo version offers a more traditional take.

Assembly George Square Gardens (assemblyfestival.com), until Aug 11

Alan Cumming is Not Acting his Age

An evening of song and storytelling from the Tony-winning Cabaret star, whose 2016 Edinburgh show Alan Cumming Sings Happy Songs was praised by the Telegraph as “life-affirming”. His show will delve into the subject of aging, as he looks back over a varied career.

Old College Quad (eif.co.uk), Aug 28-29

A Toast to the People

Five nights of spoken word performances from a rotating line-up of acclaimed poets including Jay Bernard, Inua Ellams, Safiya Sinclair and Hollie McNish. Each show features a new brand-poem inspired by Gil Scott-Heron’s line “a toast to the people”.

Old College Quad (eif.co.uk), Aug 23-27

My Car Plays Tapes

Poet and Radio 4 favourite Jon Osborne had a gentle, heartwarming Fringe hit with his storytelling show, John Peel’s Shed. He returns to its theme of musical nostalgia for this new hour, which is also being made available to stream on demand.

Summerhall (summerhall.co.uk), Aug 11-12

Black is the Colour of My Voice

Apphia Campbell has toured the world with this Fringe First Award-winning one-woman show about the life of Nina Simone. Campbell tells her often troubling story – how the jazz singer was condemned by her parents for playing “the devil’s music”, and later trapped in an abusive marriage – through some of the greatest songs.

Pleasance at EIFF (pleasance.co.uk), Aug 6, 8, 10, 12, 14

Music and Opera

Lonely House

Maverick opera director Barrie Kosky joins German actress and singer-songwriter Katharine Mehrling for a cabaret evening exploring the life and bitingly satirical work of Kurt Weill. Expect tales of how the composer fled the Nazis and, with Bertolt Brecht, helped to reinvent theatre, as well as timeless tunes such as Mack the Knife.

Old College Quad (eif.co.uk), Aug 20-21

Nadine Shah

The Tyneside-born singer-songwriter is a marvellous live performer; her recent Barbican show earned a five-star rave from The Telegraph’s critic. Expect to hear highlights from her deliciously slinky new album Kitchen Sink, and the Mercury Prize-nominated Holiday Destination.

Edinburgh Park (eif.co.uk), Aug 18

Benedetti Baroque Orchestra

Violinist Nicola Benedetti has received five-star reviews for her first album with this newly founded baroque ensemble. For their Edinburgh appearance, they will be shining a light on Vivaldi’s lesser known works, including his concerto La Folia.

Edinburgh Academy Junior School (eif.co.uk), Aug 14

Damon Albarn

The Gorillaz mastermind performs music from his latest project, The Nearer the Fountain, More Pure the Stream Flows – inspired by the landscapes of Iceland – as well as a few hits from his extensive back catalogue. (Britpop fans will be keeping their fingers crossed for a bit of Blur.)

Edinburgh Park (eif.co.uk), Aug 24

London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO for a concert which intriguingly promises “musical jokes”. Highlights of the programme include Jaques Ibert’s Divertissement, and Strauss’s score for Molière’s comedy Le bourgeois gentilhomme.

Edinburgh Academy Junior School (eif.co.uk), Aug 19

Ariadna Auf Naxos

A serious opera and a slapstick comedy have been accidentally booked for the same venue, in Strauss’s meta-theatrical comic opera. Louisa Miller’s promising-looking new concert staging features a cast including German soprano Dorothea Röschmann and Scottish singer Catriona Morison.

Festival Theatre (eif.co.uk), Aug 8-14