Edinburgh Festival 2022: best shows and events to book now

Ian McKellen is playing Hamlet for a third time, in what is being billed as a “new performance concept”. The actor, 83, will deliver a number of the Dane’s speeches, accompanied by dancers from the Edinburgh Festival Ballet. 

Sophie Duker is back with her new show, Hag. Sit tight for this sophomore show, “cause the sexy baby from Taskmaster is all grown up”, said the British Comedy Guide. 

A look at ADHD via wearable tech. Documentary theatre-maker Victoria Melody scans her brain as she delivers jokes to investigate her late-age diagnosis of ADHD and autism.

A look at the 75,000-year history of humanity’s impact on the environment from the lens of the 2019 Australian bushfires, the worst fires in the country’s recorded history. Son of a climate scientist, Australian theatre maker David Finnigan spoke with 30 climate scientists to write this show.

Shame on You! follows a journey through Switzerland, Russia and Pakistan with an archive of shame that explores seemingly banal everyday situations and painful cross-cultural experiences of violence and discrimination.

Based on the true story of repatriated US Army Private Steven Dale Green, who was accused of war crimes. It’s a psychological thriller asking how a soldier with a clinically diagnosed personality disorder can be trained as a cold-blooded killing machine while clinging on to the threads of his humanity.

Among the free events is a concert by the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra. Pieces include Chopin’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Anna Fedorova, and an aria from Verdi’s Aida with Ukrainian soprano Liudmyla Monastyrska. 

The comedy highlights include Sam Nicoresti’s show Cancel Anti Wokeflake Snow Culture, which takes on contemporary politics, and is free. 

There will be plenty of circus acts to see, but The Pulse by Gravity & Other Myths is a sure-fire winner. The group of 60 acrobats and choral singers have dazzled audiences at home in Australia with their extraordinary feats. 

Jacqueline Novak’s Get on Your Knees is a “wickedly intelligent cod-lecture” on oral sex, said The Telegraph. Described as “remarkable comedy” by The Guardian, this is a show that “never stops being audaciously funny”.

A quartet of intellectually disabled performers from Finland craft a heart-warming dance show about the power of dance to showcase to society the emotional mosaic of desires and longings of people with intellectual disabilities.

Director Ivo van Hove adapts Hanya Yanagihara’s novel A Little Life, a powerful study of trauma and friendship. Performed in Dutch with English subtitles.