In this wonderfully endearing show, one performer and his TV set work together to update a medieval poem in which a man loses his beloved pearl, once thought to be an elegy for the anonymous author’s lost daughter. Currently living with his bereavement, the protagonist in this mostly silent mixed-media production must eventually come to terms. Having been told he should spend more time with friends, he’s invited some people – the audience – round to his home.

Run or lie down? Jane (Shauna Macdonald) has a difficult decision to make and a 110 mile desert ‘death race’ during which to make it. This inspiring one woman show, from writer-director Gary McNair, engages with the physical and psychological limits people may reach when searching for solutions.

An Arachnophobic’s worst nightmare, Alan Bissett performs five distinct monologues that capture the individuality of each spidery specimen trapped in a lab in St Andrews. Bissett slides between accents (Scottish, neurotic New York, Southern USA Drawl and a dubious Venezuelan) with surprising ease, contorting his body language to fit each persona and creating impressive variety and distinction. 

Jeff Achtem’s brand of shadow puppetry and storytelling is wonderfully impressive, insanely inventive, madly lovable, and has the power to transform an audience of mostly adults into maniacally giggling children. For just under an hour, you enter a magical realm where a cluttered stage full of household items and puppets comes to life to tell the story of ‘two brothers on a trip across the stars’ as they flee their war-torn planet in search of a new home, accompanied by special effects and epic soundtrack.

In the ninth Fringe show by the City of London Freemen’s School, Phil Tong brings to the stage his adaptation of Agnes Owens’s novel. Looking back on her tragic life from a mental hospital, Peggy begins writing a book, and both her past and present are acted out onstage. Growing up during WWII, young Peggy secures a job as a paper girl and has an affair with her employer. Thinking he will marry her when she falls pregnant, she is instead abandoned, forced by her disapproving mother to have the baby adopted. 

Standing outside after the show, a girl is bawling uncontrollably. She is approached by a total stranger and asked, ‘Have you just seen Translunar Paradise?’ Almost the entire audience is puffy-eyed, slightly vacant, still in tears or lost in thought; this is a piece of theatre that stays with you long after it ends. It’s so affecting that it elicits real joy and sorrow from most, if not all, audience members. Involving and thought-provoking, it’s one of the most powerful things I’ve seen onstage.

(and a half) 

Revealing the personalities behind the bodies of medal-winners and aspiring Olympians, ‘The Prize’, by Steve Gilroy and Richard Stockwell, presents the narratives of a cross-section of real athletes, drawing its material from interviews. With variously hopeful, dark and inspirational stories, the strength of the script is its incisive exploration of how setbacks and disadvantages are dealt with. 

The ‘Waiting for Godot’ of Fringe puppet shows, this is existential meta-puppetry-improv-theatre as you’ve never seen it (and we’ve all seen that before, right?). Pioneering puppeteer group Blind Summit return to the Fringe with a new form of last year’s hit show, granting their Bunraku-style puppet, Moses, centre stage based on audience enthusiasm for the lewd little guy.

(and a half) 

A new comic play by Lee Griffiths, featuring Matt Ralph and Paul Biggins, ‘Rod is God’ tells the story of Rod, who is stuck in a dead-end job, and his slacker flatmate Jack, who concocts the harebrained scheme of starting a cult to get rich quickly, recruiting a ruthless PR professional to the cause. As the venture grows beyond their control, the script explores how they deal with unexpected outcomes and some personal changes undergone along the way.  

Literally transported (by coach and boat) to the world of Macbeth realised on Inchcolm island, audience members are absorbed into this incredible production from the outset of the journey. Fine touches such as live bag-piping, blankets to guard against ‘Shakespearean weather’, and cackling witches roaming the boat pre-performance offer a taste of what is to come. 

The multiple award winning South African Director Yael Farber has taken on the classic Miss Julie. She’s given her a darker twist, setting it in the Cape Karoo on South African Freedom Day. It is 18 years since the first non-racial elections of South Africa but a nasty storm is brewing between the white-african land owner’s daughter and her fathers favourite farm worker.

A coffin stands starkly on stage as the audience files in and settles down to watch Six and a Tanner. This central image will inform the rest of this searing one-man play, as Glaswegian David Hayman performs a monologue that he himself encouraged playwright Rony Bridges to write.