The British Council’s biennial Edinburgh Showcase springs to life again this August as the preeminent stage for innovative, contemporary UK performance during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Over 200 invited international performing arts professionals (including more than 20 American presenters) from more than 50 countries will attend this year’s event, hosted alongside the largest arts festival in the world.

The Showcase features an array of new productions by both emerging and established British performers. From razor-sharp new writing to site-responsive performance art to explorations of Britain’s multi-cultural heritage, the British Council’s Showcase is a fresh and eclectic window on contemporary UK creativity. Read on for a sneak peek of the Showcase program.

Although companies are specifically invited to appear in the Showcase, many of the shows are also open to the general public. If you're travelling to Edinburgh and want to buy tickets, please check with the Festival Fringe.

Interactive Media | Live Performance | Digital Broadcasting

Blast Theory, Rider Spoke

Blast Theory's Rider Spoke combines theater with interactive game play and cutting edge technology to explore personal communication and surveillance in the digital age. As individuals cycle through the city with handheld, Wi-Fi-enabled computers, they search for hiding places to record short messages or reflections prompted by their virtual guide, or eavesdrop on the reflections of other audience members/players from the nooks and crannies of Edinburgh’s streets.

Humor | New Writing | Street Theater

Bill Aitchison, 2012

Bill Aitchison brings new meaning to "apocalyptic wit" in 2012, a one-man outdoor show which blurs the lines between conspiracy theory, propaganda, science, art and politics. Aitchison challenges audiences on the nature of truth and belief by presenting a lecture on topics including the war on terror, dog cloning, and the end of the world.

Devised Theater | Text-based | Video/film | Storytelling | Comedy | Autobiographical Theater

Lemn Sissay, Why I Don’t Hate White People

In Why I Don’t Hate White People, the poet/performer/playwright/broadcaster Lemn Sissay explores what it means to be black in a white world. Sissay explores growing up as the only black man in an all-white Northern English town, lost in a world of social workers, foster parents and orphanages in a “wild anthropological experiment.”

Site-responsive | Story-telling | Mixed Media

Fire Exit/David Leddy, Susurrus

Glasgow-based playwright and director David Leddy is a rising Scottish star and theatrical maverick known for staging experimental performances in unusual locations. His new site-responsive production Susurrus locks audience members into private plays as they walk around Edinburgh’s Botanical Gardens wearing headphones. Loosely based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream, opera, botany and relationships blend with moonlit plantscapes and a moving story of love and loss.