• Hysteria
• Low Life
• It Is Like It Ought To Be: A Pastoral
• The End of Everything Ever

The Best of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival brings together some of the UK's finest new productions in Beijing, Shanghai and Chongqing. Over the course of five weeks, you will have a rare opportunity to sample a range of the unique styles and traditions that make up contemporary UK theatre.

Vibrantly staged, emotionally engaging, experimental yet universally entertaining and accessible – these dramas explore the multi-dimensions of modern society and human sentiment.

Alongside the performance programme, the Festival will include a series of post-show talks open to the general public. There will also be forums and late night networking opportunities in Beijing and Shanghai to enable Chinese artists and producers to talk with the companies about their work, creative process and the UK arts scene.

Find out more info about Beijing post-show talks

Find out more info about Shanghai post-show talks

1. Hysteria
Presented by Inspector Sands and Stamping Ground Theatre
Beijing: 4-9 Nov 19:30 (Mini Theatre of Beijing People’s Art Theatre); 21-22 Nov 19:30 (Dongcheng District Library)
Shanghai: 12-16 Nov 19:30; one more show on 15 Nov 14:00 (Theatre Salon)
Chongqing: 18-19 Nov 19:30 (Art Centre of Chongqing Opera House)
Ticket price: 200/150/60 RMB (Beijing); 150RMB (Chongqing)
Beijing Ticket: 010-65516930, 65516906|
Shanghai Ticket: 021-64730123
Chongqing Ticket: 023- 86330111

Winner of the Total Theatre Award 2006
Short-listed for the Carol Tambor Award 2006
Adapted from T.S. Eliot’s cognominal poem

In Hysteria we witness a painstaking attempt at social interaction. A man and a woman are on the most awkward dinner date of their lives. He is an academic whose research into modern day neuroses is threatening his sanity; she is an events manager who's terrified of missing the party. Caught in the middle is their mortified waiter, haunted by visions of global catastrophe. With irreverent humour, vivid physicality and visceral sound and lighting, Hysteria draws its audience into a world where the main course is a fight for survival.

‘Beautifully observed… I laughed until I cried.’ The Guardian

‘This is a remarkable show...the dialogue is witty, intelligent and the comedic timing perfect. The perversity of the situation is perfectly exploited. A superb production, a Fringe must.’ Edinburgh Guide

2. Low Life
Inspired by the novel Pulp by Charles Bukowski
Presented by Blind Summit Theatre
Beijing: 11-16 Nov 19:30 (Mini Theatre of Beijing People’s Art Theatre); 29 Nov 10:30 & 14:30 (Oriental Pioneer Theater)
Shanghai: 19-23, Nov 19:30; one more show on 22 Nov 14:00 (D6 Space)
Chongqing: 25-26 Nov 19:30 (Art Centre of Chongqing Opera House)
Ticket price: 200/150/60 RMB (Beijing); 150RMB (Chongqing)
Beijing Ticket: 010-65516930, 65516906
Shanghai Ticket: 021-64730123
Chongqing Ticket: 023- 86330111

Nominated for a Total Theatre Award in Edinburgh 2005
Time Out Critics’ Choice
Sold-out three-week run at the London International Mime Festival 2006

This is puppetry for adults and possibly children too. Skilful interplay of puppets and live characters which redefines the relationship between manipulator and manipulated. The puppeteers don't attempt to hide from sight. Their charges openly acknowledge their presence and purpose. The puppets are exquisite, and so elegantly, vibrantly choreographed is their animation that they radiate character.

If puppetry is ever going to be the next rock ’n roll these animators may well be its frontmen.' Time Out

'Mad, bad and beautiful in equal measure.' The Guardian

3. It Is Like It Ought To Be: A Pastoral
Presented by Uninvited Guests
Beijing: 18-23 Nov 19:30 (Mini Theatre of Beijing People’s Art Theatre)
Shanghai: 26-29 Nov 19:30; one more show on 29 Nov 14:00 (Theatre Salon)
Ticket price: 200/150/60 RMB (Beijing)
BeijingTicket: 010-65516930, 65516906
Shanghai Ticket: 021-64730123

Winner of a Herald Angel Award 2007
A nostalgic retreat from chaotic urban life

Uninvited Guests takes us on a journey to a perhaps more nostalgic, safer and simpler idealistic world to a green and pleasant land called Arcadia. They reinvent folklore for an imagined village through a combination of image, sound effects and live music. It encourages a meditation on our post-industrial heritage and relationship with the rural world.

‘The latest show from Uninvited Guests is absolutely brilliant… this is a clever, engaging and tightly controlled show.’ The Guardian

‘A rich collage of music, rituals, inspired daftness and inventive staging, coupled with strong performances from a cast of five.’ The Herald

4. The End of Everything Ever
Presented by New International Encounter (NIE)
Beijing: 25-30 Nov 19:30 (Mini Theatre of Beijing People’s Art Theatre)
Shanghai: 3-7 Dec 19:30; one more show on 6 Dec 14:00 (D6 Space)
Ticket price: 200/150/60 RMB (Beijing)
Beijing Ticket: 010-65516930, 65516906
Shanghai Ticket: 021-64730123

A truly international production featuring actors from the UK, Germany, the Czech Republic, Poland, Belgium and Norway

The End of Everything Ever tells the story of Kinderstransport – the mass evacuation during the Nazi Holocaust to Britain of approximately 10,000 German Jewish children in the early years of WWII. The show follows the journey of six-year-old Agata. NIE shines a light onto one of the darkest moments in European history and emerges with a story of survival, love and hope. It features a five-piece band, multiple languages and an array of theatrical styles.

This is theatre at its best: progressive, experimental, entertaining and accessible, all in one show.’ Metro

‘The exceptional ensemble combines exquisite, highly physical acting and wonderfully integrated live music… deeply moving and genuinely memorable.’ The Daily Telegraph

‘A lifetime of laughter and tears packed into 70 minutes - utterly wonderful’ Onstage Scotland

The British Council’s Edinburgh Showcase

The British Council’s 10th Anniversary Edinburgh Showcase took place in Edinburgh during the Fringe and International festivals in August 2007. 250 leading international promoters from 50 countries saw 30 productions selected from the UK’s most outstanding established and emerging companies working on the small- to middle-scale touring circuit. The programme showcased artists who are exploring contemporary issues in innovative ways and working across the disciplines of new writing, physical and visual theatre, and live art.

Since the inaugural Edinburgh Showcase in 1997, the British Council has presented more than 150 productions to an invited audience of international theatre programmers with 90 per cent going on to tour globally as a result. The Showcase has provided an important marketplace for British theatre makers looking to build an international profile for their work, and an exciting gathering point for international theatre presenters from over fifty nations. They all come to Edinburgh to watch, buy, discuss, and argue over theatre and its unique capacity to illuminate shared emotions and preoccupations.