A look behind the scenes of the 50th Jubilee of the historic Helsinki Peace and Security Conference where plots to fight wars and import nukes threaten to steal the message despite the best efforts of the organisers. This is our Canadian-Finnish troupe´s third visit to the Camden Fringe and hopefully will be as well received as in 2014 and 2024! We have also performed drama based on current issues in Toronto, Winnipeg, Brighton and Helsinki. The play is by A.I. Tolvanen, author and journalist who has worked many years in Finland and Canada including Tomson-Reuters, Time and The Finnish News Bureau. Director Carita Drew has worked on stage and screen shows in Australia, England and Finland

Syd Barrett of Pink Floyd left an indelible imprint on British music. And for washed-up musician Tony Riley, he was a vision and an inspiration. But as an event long-buried in his own life comes back to haunt him, Tony searches for answers in Syd’s words and music.

The multi award-winning comedy blockbuster returns! With 20+ five-star reviews, globally acclaimed Police Cops bring back the show that started it all! Reloaded and supercharged for 2026, expect adrenaline-fuelled physical comedy, 80s bangers and uncompromising facial hair. Winner: Stage Award for Acting Excellence. Winner: Best Show, Toronto Fringe. Winner: Best International Show, Cape Town Fringe. Winner: Brighton Fringe Award For Excellence. ***** (WhatsOnStage.com). ***** (EdFestMag.com). ***** (Stage). ***** (TheatreWeekly.com). 'It's hip, radical, funny as f*ck and a work of towering genius' (Bill Nighy). 'It takes brains to be this dumb!' (Stewart Lee).

PART OF THE ANDERSON OPERA SERIESZurich Opera presents Giuseppe Verdi’s stunning opera, A Masked Ball, filled with desire, treachery and political peril.Love and deception swirl at the center of Giuseppe Verdi’s stunning opera A Masked Ball (Un ballo in maschera) from Zurich Opera House. Riccardo, the Governor of Boston, is in love with his best friend’s wife. Caught between love and loyalty, Riccardo risks everything – his political standing and even his life. Verdi’s exquisite music comes to life with Gianandrea Noseda conducting Orchestra of the Zurich Opera House. Noseda’s passionate conducting style is perfectly suited for the high-stakes drama central to A Masked Ball. Two stellar casts alternate between performances, with ill-fated lovers Riccardo and Amelia played by Stephen Costello and Elena Stikhina (26 and 30 August), and Piero Pretti and Erika Grimaldi (27 and 29 August).Originally inspired by the assassination of King Gustav III of Sweden, Verdi’s subject matter proved too controversial, forcing him to relocate the opera's setting from Sweden to Boston. Now, ‘razor-sharp’ (The Guardian) Welsh director Adele Thomas adds a fresh twist, transporting it to the opulent American Gilded Age, where sinister rumours threaten to spin this ordered world into chaos.Supported byThe Anderson Opera Series, made possible by James and Morag Anderson, allows the Festival to bring internationally acclaimed opera to Edinburgh and ensures these unmissable performances remain accessible to the widest possible audience.With additional support from the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK, the Swiss Cultural Fund UK and the Consulate General of Italy in Edinburgh.Performed in Italian with English surtitles

UK PREMIEREVisionary Brazilian director Christiane Jatahy returns to the Festival with a radical sequel to Henrik Ibsen’s An Enemy of the People, featuring Golden Globe-winning actor Wagner Moura.Christiane Jatahy picks up where Ibsen left off.  In Ibsen's groundbreaking 1882 play, An Enemy of the People, protagonist Thomas Stockmann faces shame and exile after attempting to expose a water pollution scandal in his hometown. More than a century later, Ibsen’s work remains urgent, grappling with the conflict between personal integrity and social conformity.Jatahy’s sequel throws Stockmann, played by Golden Globe-winning actor Wagner Moura (Narcos, The Secret Agent), into a modern-day public courtroom to determine his fate. Lawyers and judges are noticeably absent, and it’s up to a jury of audience members to decide if he is innocent or whether he is indeed an ‘enemy of the people’. Transplanting Ibsen’s themes to contemporary Brazil, A Trial – after An Enemy of the People offers a sharp look at authoritarianism, fake news and public judgement. Ever inventive and deeply political, Jatahy combines audience participation and filmed footage, creating a one-of-a-kind performance each night where the line between reality and fiction is constantly blurred.A special collaboration between Edinburgh International Festival, Festival d'Avignon and Holland Festival, the three European festivals established in 1947.Audience ParticipationEach night, 11 people who register before the performance are randomly selected to serve as the jury. They have the power to decide on Stockmann's guilt, playing a pivotal role in shaping the ending of the play.Supported by Edinburgh International Festival Endowment Fundwith additional support from the Consulate General of Brazil in Edinburgh and Instituto Guimarães RosaPerformed in Portuguese and English with English surtitles.

Experience a relaxed atmosphere and lively music with our Scottish Rising Stars of Jazz.Join our Scottish Rising Stars of Jazz and presenter Lucy Drever for two Dementia-Friendly concerts. Revisit well-known jazz standards and explore new sounds, coupled with conversation, tea and cake.  These relaxed performances are designed especially for people living with dementia and their caregivers, family and friends to enjoy familiar music in a comfortable environment.  You are welcome to move around the auditorium, arrive early and take breaks. Don't feel the need to rush off, as you will be welcome to use the cafe area for 30 mins after the performance, so you can collect yourself before heading outside. Supported by Elizabeth Lornie's Charitable Trust The Rising Stars of Jazz are supported by

Enjoy a programme of 20th-century French chamber music.Wind soloists from the Scottish Chamber Orchestra explore music from Poulenc, Ravel and Françaix, with their conductor Maxim Emelyanychev on piano. Francis Poulenc’s chamber music is a beguiling mix of lyrical and frenetic, sombre and playful. Written the year before he died, the sonatas for oboe and clarinet take an occasionally melancholic look back at his musical life, quoting from both early and more recent works. The famous Flute Sonata retains its power to charm, yet is infused with memories of a lost loved one. In contrast, the much earlier Sextet bursts out of the blocks with astonishing, effervescent energy. Dazzling piano music from Maurice Ravel and Jean Françaix’s bustling ‘Musique de Brasserie’ – a vivid portrait of a busy Parisian restaurant – add to this enthralling, colourful, and thoroughly French concert.  

A rare opportunity to experience Duke Ellington’s monumental jazz symphony, Black, Brown and Beige. Duke Ellington’s Black, Brown and Beige weaves the sounds of blues, spirituals and work songs into a suite for jazz orchestra. Ellington, troubled by clichéd representations of Black culture, felt it was ‘time a big piece was written from the inside’. His ambitious suite gives a powerful account of Black life in America, from slavery, through emancipation, segregation and military service, to a new era of prosperity and cultural assertiveness. In the years since its 1943 premiere, Black, Brown and Beige has been hailed as a remarkable musical and political statement. Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra recently released a definitive recording of the work.  JLCO trombonist Chris Crenshaw conducts and Ekep Nkwelle joins to sing the haunting, melancholy ‘Blues theme mauve’. The orchestra is also joined by emerging stars of the American jazz scene, who will curate a surprise programme to complement Ellington’s masterpiece.    Sung in English with surtitles Running order to be announced on the night. The day after the performance, you’ll find the full repertoire and order listed on this webpage.

WORLD PREMIEREA world exclusive collaboration between classical superstar pianist Yuja Wang and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.Jazz inspired an explosion of piano virtuosity throughout the 20th century. Original masters such as Fats Waller, Bud Powell, and Bill Evans expanded the tradition of public acclaim for astonishing pianism established by 19th-century giants like Franz Liszt, Clara Schumann, and Anton Rubinstein.In a historic first, Yuja Wang—today's most electrifying and fearless virtuoso—joins the peerless Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) to perform newly commissioned orchestral arrangements of some of the most virtuosic jazz piano solos of all time.In the words of Wynton Marsalis, Artistic Director and founder of JLCO, "Wang brings her extraordinary artistry to a dazzling program that includes Erroll Garner's deeply grooving Autumn Leaves, Dave Brubeck's angular Blue Rondo à la Turk, Oscar Peterson's aptly titled L'Impossible, Thelonious Monk's lyrical Monk’s Mood, Bill Evans' graceful Waltz for Debby, and Art Tatum's breathtaking Tiger Rag—a work never performed because of its extraordinary technical demands."With ten arrangers, the JLCO has invented a new approach to orchestrating jazz classics into the modern language. Selected by Wang and Marsalis, this collaboration promises to be an explosive, singular, and unforgettable concert.An Edinburgh International Festival commission, this is a unique opportunity to experience star pianist Yuja Wang performing with these titans of jazz. For the full running order on the night, keep an eye on the surtitle screens above the stage. The day after the performance, you’ll find the full repertoire and order listed on this webpage.Selection of works including: 

INALA – meaning abundance of goodwill – is a joyous celebration of South African and Western cultures.Choreographer Mark Baldwin unites contemporary, and Zulu traditional song and dance in one breathtaking performance, performed by an exceptional all-South African company from Soweto.With narration by Ndaba Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, INALA celebrates South Africa’s rich cultural heritage through powerful Zulu harmonies, exhilarating choreography and moving storytelling.Since its world premiere at the Edinburgh International Festival in 2014, INALA has toured internationally, earned a Grammy nomination, and most recently appeared twice in London’s Trafalgar Square at the official Nelson Mandela Day celebrations.Please note this production has replaced Ingoma! A Revolution in Rhythm which was previously scheduled for The Lyceum on these dates.

The year is 2034. A city-demolishing asteroid is heading for Brooklyn. The government refuses to alert the public of the impending catastrophe until a boutique advertising agency can come up with a positive rebrand for the calamitous asteroid.

The year is 1963, the Beetles are about to go on tour in America, BUT they need an opening act... BeetleMania tells the story of the first five contestants in line to audition to be the Beetles opening act! Auditions open at 9am, the time is 8:15am, our two unfiltered reporters are counting down the 45 minutes to the contestants’ big shot as they wait in line to be seen. This comedy musical tells a story of competition, love, friendship and self-discovery featuring, of course, the iconic grooves of the 1960s!