Adaptations play it safe at risk-averse Edinburgh

In August, Edinburgh can feel like a series of different cities layered over one another. There’s the city itself, and the many festivals that colonise its streets. This year the Edinburgh International Festival – founded in 1947 in the spirit of postwar cultural exchange – will run from 5th-28th August and showcase a global selection of theatre, opera, dance and classical music.

The Edinburgh Festival Fringe – usually just referred to as the Fringe – which was launched in the same year and has grown to become the largest arts festival in the world, will also take place between 5th-28th August, while the Edinburgh International Book Festival, one of the biggest literary festivals of its kind, will run from 12th-28th August at its current home of Edinburgh College of Art with a jam-packed programme. The Edinburgh Film Festival also makes a welcome return this year, as for a time there was uncertainty over its future. It runs from 18th-23rd August.

It’s entirely possible to fill your diary to the brim with events from one festival without dipping into the other festival line-ups, but for Book Festival attendees keen to wade into the daunting waters of the fringe – there are an awful lot of shows to choose from – it’ll be worth checking out "Hello Kitty Must Die!", a new musical adaptation of Angela S Choi’s debut satirical novel about Asian feminism and western stereotypes with music by Cecilia Lin and lyrics by Jessica Wu. Choi’s work has been compared to Chuck Palahniuk and the musical, which is having its world premiere in Edinburgh, has the backing of the producers of global smash "Six", an irreverent retelling of the lives of the wives of Henry VIII framed as a gig. "Six" had an early airing at the Fringe before embarking on world domination and presumably they’re hoping they’ll have another popular crossover hit on their hands. You can catch it at the Pleasance Courtyard from 2nd to 27th August.

It is telling, in an arts festival of the size of the Edinburgh Fringe, how few page-to-stage adaptions of contemporary titles there are this year

Almost as far away as you can get in tone, there’s "Who Killed My Father" by Edinburgh-based touring company Surrogate Productions. Based on Qui a tué mon père, the third autobiographical book by French publishing phenomenon Édouard Louis, it has been adapted for the stage by director Nora Wardell with actor Michael Marcus playing the role of Édouard, a young gay man growing up in small-town France with a violent and homophobic father. First seen at Glasgow’s Tron Theatre last year, the show will play Summerhall between 22nd-27th August. (Louis’ work has proved a magnet for theatre makers. This was one of two productions of "Who Killed My Father" to appear on UK stages last year).

But these titles apart, adaptations of contemporary novels are noticeably thin on the ground this year. There is no shortage of literary parodies, a format to which the Fringe is well suited. The popular Jane Austen improv "Austentatious" is back for its tenth year, playing Underbelly from 5th-13th.

There’s also the "Improvised Adventures of Sherlock Holmes", which offers similar script-less shenanigans at Just the Tonic at the Caves from 3rd-27th, while "Little Wimmin" by Figs in Wigs is far more adventurous and absurdist take on Louisa May Alcott’s beloved classic, featuring neon-orange wigs and outsize crinolines. It’s at Zoo Southside from 21st-27th August.

There are also a lot of shows which draw inspiration from familiar literary characters. There’s "Watson: The Final Problem" in which an ageing Dr Watson, played by Tim Marriott, looks back on his life. This year’s programme also includes not one, but two shows inspired by Dickens’ jilted bride Miss Havisham, one an opera called "Miss Havisham’s Wedding Night", one a piece of new writing called, simply, "Havisham".

One of the more intriguing shows on this year’s programme is "The Ballad of Truman Capote", a play by three-time Booker-nominee Andrew O’Hagan – author of the devastating Mayflies – based on the life of the American writer. Set in 1966, it sees Capote reflecting on literary life, celebrity, his Alabama childhood and his creation of a new genre via the writing of In Cold Blood. Though as you’ll have spotted this is a novelist turning his hand to playwriting and directing, rather than an adaptation. It is telling, in an arts festival of the size of the Edinburgh Fringe, how few page-to-stage adaptions of contemporary titles there are this year.

This is probably down to a combination of economic and practical factors. The fringe model favours shows that are around an hour in length – it’s rare to see a fringe show topping 90 minutes – which precludes more densely plotted or narratively knotty work (though surely there are lots of books that would suit this format).

With accommodation costs skyrocketing it’s easy to see why theatre-makers are drawn to more familiar properties (though Sherlock Holmes adaptations have long been part of the fabric of the fringe), coupled with a lingering risk aversion after the devastation of Covid-19.