The High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, in partnership with the Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation, is highlighting a treasure trove of acts performing in venues across Edinburgh this Festival season, with shows at the Edinburgh International Book Festival (EIBF), Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Give them a gander and book your tickets before they sell out. 

Edinburgh Festival Fringe 

Cirque Kalabanté: WOW (World of Words)

Combining African and western culture, this hour of dynamic acrobatics and vivid colours is a feast for the eyes from the award-winning Cirque Kalabanté troupe. Expect human pyramids, aerial acts and a sprinkling of comedy in this tribute to unity and respect. 

Assembly Hall, Thursday 31 July – Monday 25 August, 4.10pm.

Imago

Contemporary aerial dance is given some pizzazz from a group of onetime Cirque du Soleil artists. This duet will perform to cinematic original music, bringing its flurry of floor-to-air choreography and phantasmagorical visuals to life. Imago has already won a clutch of awards across the globe, so it’s more than worth your time. 

Assembly Roxy, Wednesday 30 July – Sunday 24 August, 1pm. 

Tree Of Dreams

Drawing inspiration from The Little Prince, The Alchemist and Where The Wild Things Are, this bracing slice of immersive theatre follows a small boy navigating a life in government housing, meeting a ragtag group of powerful creatures along the way. Deftly balancing magic and social realism, this vivid piece comes from the minds who made other Fringe hits Book Of Dew and Bob Marley: How Reggae Changed The World. 

Gilded Balloon, Sunday 17 – Saturday 23 Aug. 11:30am. 

Because You Never Asked

Charting life under the Nazi regime, this cautionary tale on anti-immigrant narratives features real discussions between creator Roger White and his grandmother, Marianna Clark. The slow creep towards authoritarianism is one of the most pertinent and pernicious issues of our time; this reminder from history is incredibly pertinent.

Summerhall, Thursday 31 July – Monday 25 August, 7.35pm.

SLUGS

Following up cult hit Creepy Boys, the talented clown duo Sam Kruger and SE Grummett are hitting the Fringe with a show they claim is about ‘nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing’ (their words, not ours). Expect more of their miraculously weird silliness and puppetry antics. 

Summerhall, Thursday 31 July – Monday 25 August, 9.15pm.

Swan?

Sprinkling a bit of filth over the Black Swan story, this physical theatre piece follows a chain-smoking half-swan, half-ballerina as she turns Swan Lake into a twisted romcom. Trapped in a living hell, the audience might be the key to helping her escape. 

Underbelly, Thursday 31 July – Sunday 24 August, 2.10pm.

FLIP Fabrique: Six°

Acrobatic comedy gets a limber narrative as five strangers receive a mysterious invitation that leads them to an abandoned old building on a dark stormy night. A house with a mind of its own awaits them in this cartoon caper with awe-inspiring stunts at its heart. 

Underbelly’s Circus Hub, Saturday 2 – Saturday 23 August, 2.05pm.

Climate Change Theatre Action 2025

Marking a decade of climate theatre, this two-hour selection of short plays (including 40 of the audience’s favourites from the past festivals, alongside ten new works in a final set of commissions) explores the climate crisis from every angle. You might even leave with a few solutions. 

Venue 13, Friday 1 – Saturday 23 August, 4pm.

Red Like Fruit

Written by internationally recognized award-winning Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch (Interview With A Vampire), this searing drama examines complex themes like complicity, consent, patriarchy and traumatic memory in the post #MeToo era. Gritty and engaging, this is pertinent theatre. 

Traverse Theatre, Thursday 31 July – Sunday 24 August, various times. 

Edinburgh International Book Festival 

Alice Mah & Madeleine Watts: Tragedies And Miracles

Travel and ecology are put under the microscope as Alice Mah (Red Rockets) and Madeleine Watts (Elegy, Southwest) use their books as launchpads to discuss global ties, commitments, and inheritance in the wake of environmental catastrophe. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Wednesday 13 August 1.15pm. 

David Szalay: What Makes a Life?

The feted author David Szalay is stopping by to discuss topics as wide-ranging as masculinity, sex, desire, attainment, money, success, and prosperity equating to success – and the fallacy of it all. He’ll be chatting with Michael Magee.

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Monday 18 August, 6.30pm.

Gurnaik Johal & Madeleine Thien: Places In Flux

The marvellous is celebrated with these two international authors. Gurnaik Johal is presenting his debut novel Saraswati, which here a mythical holy river flowing again causes personal and political turmoil. Then there’s Madeleine Thien’s philosophical The Book of Records, concerning a fantastical place containing intellectual migrants and refugees from throughout history. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Saturday 16 August, 3pm.

Madeleine Thien & Omar El-Akadd: The Sanctity Of Language

How can the impact of words disappear or alter a situation? Madeleine Thien argues that the way we use language can affect the path of justice, reason, democracy, freedom, goodness and truth. She’s joined by Omar El Akkad (One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This) to discuss how words can illuminate the unspeakable. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Friday 15 August, 4pm.

Madeleine Thien & Priya Basil: Objects Talk Back

Devised by The Humboldt Forum, this series asks writers to devise a creative project based on an object they’ve selected from the Humboldt collection. Madaleine Thien chose the painting ‘Three Uyghur Princes’ and wrote about themes of reparations and buried colonial histories. She’ll discuss her reasoning behind the piece and her creative process more broadly with project curator Priya Basil. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Sunday 17 August, 4pm.

Melissa Lucashenko & Tanya Talaga: Illuminating The Nations

New angles are found in themes of myth, history and resilience from this pairing of authors, who live on separate continents but share apt interests in colonialism and the reclamation of narratives for a more positive future. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Friday 15 August, 5pm. 

Miriam Toews: Remaking the World

This author of the literary phenomenon Women Talking is returning with A Truce That Is Not Peace, which probes her grief after her sister’s death by suicide. She’ll discuss trauma, memory and how to fill silences. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Saturday 23 August, 6.45pm. 

Miriam Toews: Can Words Repair?

Appropriately for Scotland’s most prominent book festival, Toews is asking, how far can words reach? With a group of other writers, she’ll explore the potential for the written word to allow moments of comfort and to create seismic change. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Sunday 24 August, 5.45pm. 

Omar El Akkad & Fady Joudah: Not Looking Away

This duo, one an Egyptian-Canadian (Akkad) and the other a Palestinian-American (Joudah) will discuss the genocide in Gaza, aiming to highlight the extent of the western world’s culpability and the human cost of this never-ending slaughter. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Saturday 16 August, 7.30pm. 

Surekha Davies, Omar El Akkad & Nicola Kelly: Who Counts As Human?

Three writers will explore the toxic rhetoric we apply to each other to exclude certain communities. In a time of increasing polarisation, this is a vital discussion for anyone looking to repair their local community. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Friday 15 August, 1.30pm. 

Tanya Talaga: Open Secrets

Tanya Talaga’s new book, The Knowing, is a retelling of Canada’s origin story, exploring the impact of historical actions on present-day communities. Here, she’ll discuss the details of that book, and her exemplary work in journalism. 

Edinburgh Futures Institute, Thursday 14 August, 1.15pm. 

Edinburgh International Festival 

As You Like It A Radical Retelling

The Celebrated Canadian Indigenous playwright Cliff Cardinal takes Shakespeare’s As You Like It and gives it a modern twist, transforming a classic comedy into a confrontational work of dark humour and provocation. 

Church Hill Theatre, Wednesday 20 – Saturday 23 August, 8pm. 

Bruce Liu Plays Ravel

Bruce Liu, Myung-Whun Chung, Beijing’s NCPA Orchestra Saint-Saëns’s, and the spectacular Organ Symphony will join to play selected works of the French composer Maurice Ravel and others. Expect a mixture of playful experimentation and nods towards 1950s jazz. 

Usher Hall, Wednesday 6 August, 7.30pm. 

Canvas Of Sound With Tazeen Qayyum

Uniting the pen with music, this unique experience combines visual artist Tazeen Qayyum’s real-time calligraphic drawing with musical accompaniment from Aga Khan Master Musicians Feras Charestan and Basel Rajoub. 

The Hub, Thursday 21 August, 8pm. 

Emily D’Angelo & Sophia Muñoz

Canadian mezzo-soprano Emily D’Angelo is joining with pianist Sophia Muñoz in a recital that draws inspiration from Béla Bartók, Jeanine Tesori, Rebecca Clarke and Alma Mahler. Expect rich meditations on nature and being. 

The Queen’s Hall, Friday 22 August, 11am. 

Ryan Wang

This BBC Young Musician of the Year winner is wrestling with the works of Chopin, taking in his 24 Preludes, The Mazurkas and ‘Là ci darem la mano’. 

The Queen’s Hall, Monday 18 August, 11am. 

Edinburgh International Film Festival         

Best Boy

Enjoying its world premiere at EIFF, a family engage in a strange and cruel competition that shaped their childhood, revealing hidden truths and uncovering bitter rivalries. 

Various venues, Saturday 16 – Monday 18 August, various times. 

Dead Lover

One for fans of indie horror, Dead Lover takes inspiration from Evil Dead and Cemetery Man in its tale of a gravedigger’s attempts to resurrect his lost love. With dashes of comedy and romance, this future cult classic is bolstered by a score from prolific Canadian indie group US Girls. 

Various venues, Monday 18 – Tuesday 19 August, various times. 

Mortician

Iranian director Abdolreza Kahani returns with a gripping character study about a reclusive mortician who receives an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding. Lo-fi and witty, there’s also an elegance at the heart of this new feature. 

Various venues, Saturday 16 August – Monday 18 August, various times. 

Witness: An Organima Film

This intriguing short follows a piece of organic matter as it’s invited to craft its own story, and begins questioning the purpose of human nature in the process. 

Various venues, Saturday 16 – Wednesday 20 August, various times. 

Want to see every Canadian act playing in Edinburgh this August? Have a look at our What’s on page, or keep an eye out for Canada@Edinburgh brochures available across the city (or read it on Issuu here). Main picture: Mihaela Bodlovic.

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