Summerhall – Open Minds Open Doors

Since closing its doors as a vet school in 2011, Summerhall has become a thriving arts hub full of exhibitions, installations and shows. Even so, some of the old operating rooms remain unused - or so we thought.

Pierre-Anthon realizes one day that nothing matters and therefore nothing is worth doing. To prove him wrong, his classmates begin piling things of meaning. And the more painful the sacrifice is, the more meaning it has... right?

What drives young people to join violent organizations? A show exploring the effects that constant propaganda has on young lives, focusing on war propaganda in particular. We follow eight youths through 10 difficult years, seeing how they change.

While the police question the staff of the distillery, it is up to you to figure out the location of the next attack, discover the identity of an insidious mole within the company and – most importantly – save the gin.

An ensemble performance that travels back through seventy years of Sri Lankan history; through the recollections of those born in the 1930s, who lived through independence, insurrection, modernization and war.

Jihan is an ordinary child who woke up one day to discover she lost her smile. The sun set, the moon disappeared, everything lost its colour, cold spread throughout the town. Jihan needs to find her smile again.

Set as a fictional documentary in 2045, the character of Youness Atbane observes the dynamics of contemporary art in Morocco. In view of this, Atbane creates an archive about Moroccan art production from 2000 to now.

Old boyfriend photos, texts, poetry: struggling with her love life, Julie Cafmeyer experiences orgasms, despair, rejection and heaven. It's a coming of age story showing what theatre can be, and you're invited.

Drawing inspiration from Under The Vaulted Sky, created for IF: Milton Keynes International Festival 2014, Rosemary has joined forces with film-maker Roswitha Chesher to create Liquid Gold is the Air.

The life changing adventure of space-obsessed Amira that mirrors her real life journey as a refugee. A non-verbal, physical show for all ages with puppetry and music from the maker of The Tap Dancing Mermaid.

Can you help Molly learn how to be a kid again? A larger-than-life story of family, friends and fitting in from Sarah McDonald-Hughes. Warning: contains dancing, chocolate cake and an epic car chase.

An ensemble work, striving to recreate the original story of Medea. With intimacy and immediacy, visually translating the tale through physical illustrations and a playful, profound relationship between two performers who remain present throughout.

Daily life in the Syrian war. The disappointed illusion that change is around the corner. It's about those who remain silent, who don’t take a stance but are then eaten up by inner conflicts.

Let your imagination run as clothes on a washing line are brought to life by a magic balloon in a fusion of object theatre, contemporary and traditional puppet arts.

I saw him looking at me when I danced. I saw the look in his eyes. I knew what he wanted to call me.. Sexuality, sexual grooming, stereotyping and cross-cultural perceptions are explored in this provocative new dance piece.

Taha Muhammad Ali is the beautiful picture of the Palestinian people – of all of us. In his verses, Taha documents survival after 50 years of loss – of his home, his lover, his friends and his shop.

The alternative future for Guantanamo Bay: deckchairs, cocktails, and your feet in the sand. Performed in a secret enclave in the Summerhall basement, Last Resort takes you through the tropical haze on a unique multi-sensory package holiday.

In 1896, Rosa Vaile's husband lost his job on the docks and then they lost everything else. Now their great-great-great-granddaughter would like to talk to you about class, work, mental illness, and how far we’ve come since.

The average person says 123,205,750 words in a lifetime. But what if there were a limit? Oliver and Bernadette are about to find out. A play about what we say and how we say it.

2 performers, a mini trampoline and a 1000 piece puzzle. The award-winning Antler return to the fringe with a playful, intimate dissection of a relationship teetering on the edge of collapse.

What if your food started talking back? Meet Lionel the lion. He’s just eaten a human called Mamoru for lunch. Eaten invites children and grown-ups to the fascinating world of the food web. Eaten asks, what should we eat? And who should eat us?!

Cockamamy comes to Edinburgh after a sell-out run at last year's London Camden Fringe. A heartbreaking, hilarious story about the companionship between Alice and her granddaughter Rosie. This compelling new play explores the reality of living with dementia.

Thirty participants are invited into an intriguing theatrical game exploring security, profiling, freedom of expression and privacy in the age of cybersurveillance. Mobile throughout the performance, the participants collaborate, debate and spy on each other. Farsi, Arabic, English.

Internationally renowned theatre director Anthony Nicholl has travelled the globe on a life-long quest to discover the true essence of theatre. Today he is giving a masterclass, working with a hand-picked actor to demonstrate his unique methods.

Following the success of EUROHOUSE, Bert & Nasi return with Palmyra, an exploration of revenge, the politics of destruction and what we consider to be barbarian. Palmyra steps back from the news to look at what lies beneath—and beyond—civilization.

Lorna and Grace are best friends forever. But when Lorna gets into university and Grace gets pregnant, they find themselves in starkly different worlds. A tale of friendship, love and rivalry spanning 30 years from Elinor Cook.

Funny, poignant, powerful political theatre from award-winning playwright Hassan Abdulrazzak, using comedy to bravely tackle problems facing the Arab and Muslim communities across the world.

These two new contemporary dance pieces from Palestine and Egypt question what it means to be Arab in today’s world. 'Mayhkomsh' tackles social judgement. 'Running Away' challenges cultural norms and burdens put on young Arabs' shoulders.

This is a show composed entirely of crowd-sourced lists, from all kinds of people in all kinds of places – including from you the audience as you queue up to take your seats. In Lists…, the ordinary and the extraordinary, the profound and the ridiculous sit playfully side by side.

Join us for a tour of Summerhall Distillery as we raise the curtain on how award-winning Pickering’s Gin is made.

In 2013, Suzanne won a Belgian theatre prize, spending the entire prize money on buying an actual ice skating rink. Why she did that will be revealed in her funny, absurd, moving show.

Frank’s having trouble looking after himself. He’s not getting out much, not since his wife passed away, so he’s gone into a retirement home. Deeply intimate portrait of love, loss and the joys of amateur gardening.

A satirical look at multicultural Britain, blending dance, dialogue and live music, this is a witty and poignant commentary on stereotypical thinking in post-Brexit Britain seen through the eyes of an international cast. ‘Superbly staged and performed’ (Telegraph).

A Young Vic Taking Part Production. It’s small versus big. It’s pressures of the future. It’s everything being stacked against you and all options feeling equally terrible. One step away from disaster, there’s only one instruction: start swimming.

Fast moving, raw and eye-opening, Mia explores the truths and myths about learning disabilities and parenthood in today’s society. Think pop culture with popcorn, science with silliness, stories with statistics and challenges often taken for granted.

Magic and reality collide as one British Arab navigates the voyages of Sindbad and tries to make sense of his own family's relationship to their migration from Iraq to the UK.

Award-winning Nilaja Sun (No Child...) breathes life into a vibrant mix of Lower East Side neighbours as they prepare for a hurricane racing towards NYC.

Join performance alchemists Binge Culture on an immersive audio experience to discover the city's hidden gems and meet authentic locals. 'One of the country’s most exciting, direct and original theatre companies' (NZ Herald).

Heart of Darkness fuses traditional elements with contemporary theatre in an exploration of the feelings and emotions of a woman gnawed by time and her hidden aspirations, expectations, fears, secrets and ambitions.

Two performers express the inner conflict within a modern woman’s head: push and pull, past and present, progress and regression. Interweaving acappella harmony, text and physicality, Mouthpiece is a harrowing, humorous and heart-wrenching journey into the female psyche.

Can art save the world? Belgian theatre-maker Enkidu Khaled's award-winning show analyses and simplifies the complex process of making theatre. Using the experience of war, he empowers the audience, utilising their imagination and artistic expression.

New contemporary all-female circus from award-winning company. No Show joyously and heartbreakingly reveals what lies hidden beneath the showmanship. There will be desperate attempts and heroic failures. For anyone who has tried, failed and failed better.

Gentle, poetic, cruel or comical; Mireille & Mathieu unpack their paraphernalia at a flea-market. Objects turn out to be bursting with stories where in this happy delirium of exploration and absurd experiments, nothing’s taken seriously.

Humour and pathos collide in a mix of drama, music and physical theatre as five strangers on a plane find their flight rekindles fragments of forgotten memories.

A storytelling show about words and love and the word love. Set in the same universe as Team Viking.

The danced adventures of a Shakespearean heroine. 400 years later, Rosalind ventures through the modern metropolis: by day, ordered and traditional, by night, a neon wonderland.

Moving, truthful and darkly comic, Box Clever by nabokov’s associate-playwright Monsay Whitney, with music performed by Avi Simmons, is a new play about one woman’s experience of a refuge and a mother’s commitment to do the best for her daughter.

An actress on stage with her iPhone’s personal assistant, Siri, as her only partner. In a precise game of question and answer, their exchanges expose the bizarre metaphysical dimension of the machine and blur the limitations between them.

Join Amy on a videogame adventure like no other in a quest for sparks of joy in the darkness. A powerful, moving and humorous show for anyone that has ever battled their own demons.

Is the world out of joint? Who is torturing whom? How does it feel to be poor? Why is the water calling out? Where are you now, Woyzeck? Brand new from award-winning Finnish playwright/director Jari Juutinen.

A dark new myth about England, the bad things that happen to us, and the stories we make up in response. Highly physical storytelling and animation from the writer of sell-out hit 64 Squares.

A reclusive children's writer becomes wildly successful. Her books are treasured across the country. But when a troubling narrative starts to unfold, we find ourselves asking: what matters more, the storyteller or the story?

‘All you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun’ (Jean-Luc Godard). Witty, fun and unflinchingly provocative look at women and violence in the media, starring Orwin and an unprepared male performer.

Few could have anticipated the events of 2016 and where they'd lead. Mark and his audience gamble on their predictions for a hilarious, fantastical and sometimes accurate vision of the world.

Being a small-time drug dealer is tough. Especially when your old man owes £6,000 to a loan shark who’s got a tattoo of Beyoncé on his neck. Comedy from acclaimed writer Alan Harris (Paines Plough, National Theatre Wales).

Get under the skin of the well-to-do, the 1%, super rich, the ones who pull the strings, the faces we never get to see. For one night, you can take their chairs. You call the shots.

Made in Adelaide brings the southern hemisphere’s biggest festival city to Edinburgh with a selection of South Australian theatre, music, cabaret, comedy, visual arts, literature, film and fun.

What happens to romance when there's a machine who cooks and cleans for you, never forgets your birthday or how you like your tea, tells you you're beautiful, holds you when you're crying, and still makes you come?

Following Doubting Thomas, Jeremy Weller (winner of six Fringe First awards) and Grassmarket Projects return with part two of the real-life trilogy with Thomas McCrudden: a former gangland enforcer struggling to change.

A funny, frank, and occasionally explicit insight into heterosexual female desire, read out loud by a male comedian. MANWATCHING is a show about what one woman thinks about when she thinks about sex with men.

Part performance lecture, part karaoke party, deconstructing gendered linguistic histories and ripping apart contemporary language to find a new articulation of pleasure, anger and femaleness. From Julia Croft (If There’s Not Dancing at the Revolution, I’m Not Coming).

One woman attempts to articulate her experience of pain. Physical pain with no apparent cause. Also, she’s met someone and they want to make this work. A new show from this Fringe First Award-winning team.

Thus Spoke… is an electrifying piece of existential pop from two of Montreal’s most celebrated artists. Playfully challenging the status quo, writer, Étienne Lepage and choreographer, Frédérick Gravel defy convention in this irresistible antidote to apathy.

Inside the mind of a pianist, looking out. Solos and stories from Will Pickvance, creator of sell-out Anatomy of the Piano and Pianomorphosis.

A sparkling comedy about first dates, followed by supersonic speed-dating to find that soulmate/casual partner/festival pal or bunch of unforeseen encounters (delete where applicable). All genders and ages (18+) welcome!

They meet in Istanbul: she a Syrian refugee, he a privileged westerner. Identity and power, choice and its absence, beauty and brutality collide in this poetic response to the Syrian tragedy by Matthew Zajac.

Live report with the Egyptian protest singer Ramy Essam. He was an iconic figure of the revolution during the Arab Spring and now tells the story of his life and his fight for a better world.

Leah and Chris were raised on Harry Potter, New Labour and a belief they would be special. Gig theatre about when dreams don’t become reality, from the team behind the award-winning Weekend Rockstars.

A show with lipstick on its teeth and Wotsits on its face. A rousing ode to friendship, kindness and belonging, set against the backdrop of a massive night out. Coming soon to BBC television!

Oh look, 2016 Fringe First winners Sh!t Theatre again. What is it this time? Is it unemployment? Is there a crisis? Did the government do something wrong again? No, it’s a show about Dolly Parton. We f*cking love her.