A huge range of theatrical offerings are available, from classical ballet to stand-up comedy and a mass of plays (from one-man shows to large-cast musicals).

Edinburgh has changed in recent years in that there is less "product" being discovered from scratch in Edinburgh, snapped up by London producers and then transferred in the autumn. Increasingly, these days, shows that end up in London have always been planned to go there, and Edinburgh is, in effect, a try-out, the equivalent of opening at a regional theatre or one of the classic out-of-London ones like Richmond or Brighton.

This was certainly the case with Gregory Burke's Gagarin Way, which was developed with the National Studio and which transferred from Edinburgh (2001) to the Cottesloe, where it was a major hit transferring north of the river to the Arts Theatre.

Some of the more interesting plays, musicals and performance events over the course of the Festival include The Typographer's Dream by Adam Bock, Throat by John Paul Zaccarini and Flick Ferdinando, English Journeys by Steve Waters and Napoleon in Exile by Camden People's Theatre.