Gig theatre has been used to disguise weak scripts, covering up poor characterisation or plot with a thumping beat and the energy of the live music experience. However, it has also been used to add a dimension to traditional theatre, revealing how the integration of sound and visual can enhance emotional engagement and audience enthusiasm. Equally, projections and video can be a great alternative to thoughtful dramaturgy or a dynamic expansion of the theatrical field. But the gig-theatre and multimedia genres have become staples of the Fringe, and here is a selection that has pushed performance beyond its formal boundaries.

The Patient Gloria
The Abbey Theatre
Traverse, 1–25 Aug (not 2, 5, 12, 19), various times
Based on a series of films made in the 1960s – in which a woman reflects on her sexual activity, The Patient Gloria comes from the Abbey Theatre, which has a reputation for strong yet script-orientated theatre. Gloria's films became a staple in sex education, destroying her privacy, and in an age where female sexuality is becoming occupied by political intrusions, this true-life story does offer a kind of warning from history.

Just Desserts
Michelle Pearson
Underbelly Cowgate, 1–11 Aug (not 5, 6), 10.40pm
Cabaret gets in on the gig theatre action as 'Australia's singing cook' whisks up a study of social pressure and body image with a live rock-pop soundtrack. Pearson will cook and serve dessert during the show and has already been heralded at the Adelaide Fringe for her unique combination of food and musical theatre. A rather more complex combination than the usual fusion styles, Just Desserts is a reminder than fighting expectations can be tasteful and playful.

Dispatches on the Red Dress
Rowan Rheingans
Scottish Storytelling Centre, 15–26 Aug (not 20), 6pm
Rheingans is an award-winning composer and songwriter, who has enlisted Liam Hurley, the director of the critically lauded Wind Resistance, to translate her latest album into a fully-fledged production. With her fiddle, banjo and guitar, Rheingans tells the story of her grandmother, who grew up in Germany during the 1940s, yet finds hope even in this dark moment of human history.

America Is Hard to See / credit: Em Watson
Pamela's Palace
Interactive Theatre International
Assembly, The Box, 31 Jul–25 Aug (not 13), 10.40pm
Perhaps closer to a traditional musical, Pamela's Palace comes from the company that have made Faulty Towers The Dining Experience, a Fringe favourite over the past decade. Set in a beauty salon, it is described as 'like a girl's night out, only in' and matches dramatic slices of life with spectacular song and dance numbers that celebrate positivity and banish insecurities.

Searchers
Insight Inc
Gilded Balloon, Rose Theatre, 31 Jul–25 Aug (not 12, 19), 10.15pm
Taige Lauren is in search of America, a nation that was forged through genocide and optimism, and is currently touring the world as a tragi-comedy starring an orange-skinned business-man whose tragic flaw is a complete lack of self-awareness. Lauren's journey takes her through the back roads of the States, through the minds of the men and women who have imagined America – and music is an essential element of that history. Lauren's background in film, music and performance art lends her the range of skills to fuse together the multiplicity of identities and forms that might make up a description of the USA.

America is Hard to See
Life Jacket Theatre Company
Underbelly Cowgate, 1–25 Aug (not 12), 7.45pm
Miracle Village is a real place that is inhabited by sex offenders. Through a verbatim script – which may not always be reliable – Methodist hymns and folk music, Life Jacket ask whether redemption is possible for people who have, through their actions, been compelled to live in a community which is bereft of schools and parks or anywhere that children might be able to play for their safety. Even director and writer Travis Russ admits that he feels 'torn and conflicted' when he considers the characters' crimes and hopes: this might be one of the most controversial and challenging plays of 2019.

The Patient Gloria / credit: Luca Truffarelli

Frankenstein
Manual Cinema
Underbelly Bristo Square, 31 Jul–26 Aug (not 12), 2.45pm
When gig theatre first made its presence felt, it would often cleave to the natural structure of the music event: a band on stage, with the theatricality squeezing in between the songs. Manual Cinema have developed a unique visual style, using puppetry and live music to generate the experience of a live silent movie. The familiar tale of Promethean ambition and pride is juxtaposed with the biography of the author, Mary Shelley in a production that places the company's unique dramaturgy at the service of an excavation of the artist's life and how it intrudes into her most famous creation.

A Rock'n'Roll Suicide!
Theatre of the Wild, Beautiful and Damned
Zoo Southside, 2–26 Aug, 9pm
Performed by a veteran of the punk scene (Lee Mark Jones AKA Gypsy Lee Pistolero), Ziggy Stardust is revealed as the ADHD of the rock-star who nearly was. A one-man show with a roll-call of virtual celebrity guest stars, this suicide is by turns glamorous, punky, anarchic and tragic.

Tokyo Rose
Burnt Lemon, Untapped and New Diorama
Underbelly Cowgate, 1–25 Aug (not 12), 6.55pm
Rap meets history as a woman stands trial accused of being Tokyo Rose, the propagandist DJ who broadcast during WWII to sap the morale of the British-speaking troops. Although Tokyo Rose was a collection of women, one is made to face the court, and questions of trust, deceit and fake news flit around this detail of the battle for hearts and minds in the 1940s.

Nearly Human
Perhaps Contraption
Pleasance Dome, 31 Jul–26 Aug (not 13), 11.50am
A nine piece progressive brass band investigate fundamental questions of existence through complex rhythms and choreography. Perhaps Contraption have made their name through their use of diverse influences, from classical to avant-garde music, and have decided to take it one step further into theatricality.