Beginning Aug. 1 and continuing through Aug. 24, the Festival will present 49,497 performances of 3,193 shows in 299 venues across Scotland's capital city. There are 825 free shows, 1,789 premieres and 47 different countries represented.

"This programme is the culmination of the creativity and hard work of thousands of people. The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is many things to many people and part of the success of the Fringe is that whatever you are looking for, and in whatever capacity you are looking, you can almost certainly be satisfied by what you find," Kath M. Mainland, chief executive of The Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said in a statement. "This year is an incredibly important year for Scotland with major international cultural, sporting and political events taking place. With our eclectic range of shows and uniquely diverse range of voices the Fringe will, as always, be at the centre of things and promises to keep residents and visitors unbored."

National identity will be explored through All Back to Bowie's, a mix of politics, poetry, polemic and pop.

A dystopian view on Scottish identity and independence, MacBraveheart: The Other Scottish Play will contrast the views of three of Scotland's greatest heroes, Wallace, Bruce and Burns.

Bare: A Pop Opera will follow a group of teens wrestling with issues of identity at a co-ed Catholic school, while The Hemline Index will explore the lives of two twentysomething women who struggle to live with fourth-wave feminism, underemployment and the length of their skirts. World War I will be addressed in Forever Young, a celebration, protest and tribute to those who lived, loved, died and wrote through 1914-18.

Character Limit will explore internet and social media as it follows the changing fortunes of four "citizens of the internet," as well as bloggers, vloggers, trolls and attention-seekers online.

Pam Ayres will return to Edinburgh after nearly 10 years with a new work, and Ruby Wax will present Ruby Wax: Sane New World, where she attempts to teach the audience how to find calm in a hectic world. 

Macbeatha is a new adaptation of the Bard's tragic work, which has been translated into Gaelic, and A Midsummer Night's Dream: The Rock Musical will present a modern retelling of the Shakespearean comedy with a rock 'n' roll twist.

Visit edfringe.com for a complete listing and more information.