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If it’s big theatrical beasts you’re looking for at the Fringe, then look no further than Edinburgh Festival Ballet’s take on Hamlet: director Peter Schaufuss was the man behind seminal BBC documentary Dancer; the venue is named after famed British choreographer Frederick Ashton; and last but not least, it stars none other than Ian McKellen in a role he’s revisiting at the age of 81.

‘I have had a lot of Hamlet recently,’ McKellen reflects. ‘I was part of a film made by Ken McMullen, Hamlet Revenant [scheduled for 2023 release]. I filmed the ghost of Hamlet’s father for it . . . and then Sean Mathias asked me to play Hamlet in his age-blind production. I wasn’t much looking forward to returning to it, but it seems such a challenge to be playing a young man at my age that I fell for it.’

After those most recent encounters with the Prince Of Denmark, McKellen thought he would have been finished with the Dane. ‘And then, Peter Schaufuss, out of the blue, contacted me. I had always admired him as a dancer and he has this school in Edinburgh, and the church had adapted as a theatre.’ The school McKellen talks of is Edinburgh Festival Ballet and the church is the former St Stephen’s in Stockbridge, now the company’s base and venue for this much-anticipated production.

‘My motive for saying yes was not to get back to Hamlet but to see how a ballet was rehearsed and planned. I have no idea how it is done: and I still don’t quite know, because we haven’t started our rehearsals yet!’ While McKellen is now a star of film and stage, he retains a warm sense of humour and openness. Sharing the title role in this production with dancer Johan Christensen, he ponders whether he will be allowed a ballet step or two while performing Shakespeare’s speeches and admits that returning to the Festival is another reason he accepted the part.

‘It will be nice to be back,’ he says. ‘It was way back in 1969 when I was first there, part of the official festival with Richard II and Edward II, having the time of my life. I have been to about a dozen and I was actually in Edinburgh during August only a couple of years ago with my one-man show for my 80th birthday. I wanted to go back to the Festival because it has always been central to my career.’

McKellen’s career, especially from the 1980s onwards, has been notable for his roles in blockbusting franchises, including X-Men and Lord Of The Rings, as well as continuing respect for his stage work and activism. An important figure in the foundation of Stonewall, he admits that he’s still politically active, but observes delightedly that ‘the younger generation are so much wiser than mine: our job now is to support their initiatives.’

But Shakespeare remains, as he puts it, ‘a big part of what I like to do on stage. Whatever your age, there are wonderful parts to play throughout your lifetime.’ And while name recognition will no doubt make this one of August’s most popular runs, there is something that McKellen recognises in the production that speaks to the Fringe’s experimental spirit.

‘It is unique as far as dance is concerned,’ he continues, ‘because in the middle of the story, when the actors arrive in Elsinore, and Hamlet decides to put on a play to trap his uncle into confessing the murder of his brother, they do a mime; a dance, no words, and tell the story of the play that they are going to do. And Shakespeare has written down the choreography. There is a dance choreographed by Shakespeare! I think Shakespeare might have approved and that makes the whole project . . . appropriate.’

An imaginative and bold response to a script that can be over-familiar in production, Hamlet is a rare chance to see a powerful ballet company and one of the most famous actors of his generation in an intimate setting. And that seems equally ‘appropriate’ for the Fringe.

Hamlet With Ian McKellen, Ashton Hall, St Stephen’s Stockbridge, 2–28 August, 7pm (also 4pm Fridays & Saturdays).