Theatre
Remember the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010? Many are still living with the aftermath. Fringe First winners Look Left Look Right's verbatim play explores the disaster and its consequences. Underbelly (0844 545 8252), 2-26 August.
Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (Aurores)
The International festival provides an all-too-rare opportunity to see the work of the legendary Ariane Mnouchkine and Theatre du Soleil. Inspired by Jules Verne, this four-hour epic, which translates as The Castaways of the Fol Espoir (Sunrises), follows a group of people in 1914, escaping war in Europe on a boat. With them float their dreams of making a new world. Lowland Hall, Ingliston (0131-473 2000), 23-28 August.
Friendship, bullying and the desire to fit in with your peers are all explored in the latest family show from Catherine Wheels, the Scottish company with an international reputation for its work for children (9+). Scottish Book Trust (0131-228 1404), 3-26 August.
Polish director Grzegorz Jarzyna wowed the 2008 festival with his devastating take on Sarah Kane's 4.48 Psychosis. He returns with Shakespeare's drama of bloody ambition played out as a violent, modern Middle East conflict featuring video, a deceptive soundscape and fire. Lowland Hall, Ingliston (0131-473 2000), 11-18 August.
What does the adult world look like from the perspective of an eight-year-old? All the big questions – including growing up, getting lost and being brave – are tackled in this new piece from Chris Goode, based on recorded conversations with eight-to-10-year-olds that are transposed on to the grown-up world. Traverse (0131-228 1404), 14-26 August.
Return of last year's breakthrough company Curious Directive, who had a massive hit with Your Last Breath. Spanning 70 years and looking at the legacies of colonialism, as well as the study of ants, it builds on the company's distinctive mixed-media, multi-narrative style. Pleasance Dome (0131-556 6550), 1-27 August.
Oh, The Humanity and Other Good Intentions
New Yorker Will Eno's quirky, heartbreaking and surprisingly optimistic playlets expose our foibles and failings. A compassionate celebration of our inability to stop the truth about what we really feel about ourselves and others slipping out. (0131-558 3047), 9-25 August.
Comedy
This improviser, actor and comic brought her ramshackle multi-character solo show to the Free Fringe last year and secured a best newcomer nomination. "It's changed my life," she says – but not, we suspect, her flair for bumbling, charming, infectiously fun comedy. Pleasance Courtyard, (0131-556 6550), 1–27 August.
New York's independent comedy scene has exported a few gems to the Fringe over the years. This year's offering is Kumail Nanjiani, a Pakistani-American regular on Comedy Central's The Colbert Report, hotly tipped by the New York Times and famed for his free-form absurdism. Assembly Roxy (0131-623 3030), 2–27 August.
Watching Josie Long evolve from purveyor of childlike whimsy to political agitator has been one of the pleasures of the last few festivals. This year she's in a double act on the Free Fringe, and in a new solo show about "mountain climbing, turning 30, and how to keep going when things are tricky". Pleasance Courtyard (0131-556 6550), 1–27 August; and with Sam Schäfer at Mood Nightclub (0131-2226 0000), 13–17 August.
"Bold, imaginative, original and dead funny," said the Guardian of Seb Cardinal and Dustin Demri-Burns's Channel 4 sketch show when it premiered this spring. With their live act, the pair (formerly of sketch troupe Fat Tongue) have been on the verge of greatness for years. Might this year seal the deal? Pleasance Dome, (0131-556 6550), 20–25 August.
In 2011, the American Phil Burgers (AKA bearded silent comic Doctor Brown) performed the funniest comedy show on the fringe: a sexy, stoner clown show that delighted, intrigued and molested its audience. His follow-up, entitled Befrdfgth, bagged the top award at this year's Melbourne comedy festival, and should not be missed. Underbelly (0844 545 8252), 2–26 August.
Visual art
The idea of "sound art" caught imaginations when Glasgow artist Philipsz won the 2010 Turner prize – but in fact, her art is more about memory, place and the resurrection of history than sound. For Edinburgh, her voice will be heard at atmospheric spots across the city responding to the daily One O'Clock Gun, fired from the castle. The Nelson Monument and other sites (0131-226 6558), 2 August–2 September.
German-Swiss artist Dieter Roth was a visceral conceptualist, a provocateur on the margins of art and life. His poetic, exploratory approach had something in common with Robert Rauschenberg and Joseph Beuys, but he was tougher than both. His diaries offer an intimate encounter with a life that ended in 1998, though his influence burns on. (0131-225 2383), 2 August–14 October.
Dance
TV talent shows have given household-name status to a whole new group of dancers including Tommy Franzén, finalist of So You Think You Can Dance. This splashy, gregarious mash-up of a show sees Franzén and fellow dancers in routines that embrace jazz, jump jive and street, as well as ballroom and contemporary dance. Assembly Hall (0131-623 3030), 2-27 August.
French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj brings two very different programmes to the festival. And Then, One Thousand Years of Peace is a full-length work created for the Bolshoi Ballet: a fusion of classical and contemporary dance that explores the endurance of faith in the face of impending doom. By contrast, the double bill of Stockhausen-inspired works is a ferocious synergy of dance and music, especially Helikopter, Stockhausen's notorious chamber work for string quartet and helicopter blades. Edinburgh Playhouse (0131-473 2000), 17–19, 22 August.
The Mariinsky make a rare Edinburgh appearance with the UK premiere of their 2002 production of Cinderella. Alexei Ratmansky choreographed this just before he became the golden boy of world ballet, so it's a fascinating chance to see his narrative techniques and movement style at an early-ish stage of development. And it's always good to see the dancers – led, we're promised, by Diana Vishneva, with Valery Gergiev conducting. Festival theatre (0131-473 2000), 30 August to 1 September.
Classical and opera
Stagings of French baroque opera are still rare in these islands, so Andreas Homoki's production of Marc-Antoine Charpentier's 1688 biblical tragédie en musique is not to be missed – especially as it is conducted by the great William Christie and performed by members of his group Les Arts Florissants. Festival theatre (0131-473 2000), 17–20 August.
One of the world's greatest orchestras arrives with its music director Franz Welser-Möst, for a pair of concerts that includes the whole of Smetana's Má Vlast. The first four of the symphonic poems that make up the cycle are paired with Lutosławski's Concerto for Orchestra; the remaining two are followed by more Lutosławski (his Piano Concerto) and Shostakovich's enigmatic Sixth Symphony. Usher Hall (0131-473 2000), 21–22 August.
Llyr Williams
The exceptional Welsh pianist has regularly featured in the morning series of Queen's Hall recitals at recent festivals, and his appearance is devoted to one of his specialities, Franz Liszt. The first half is a selection of pieces from the Années de Pèlerinage, while the second is devoted to the monumental B Minor Sonata. Queen's Hall (0131-473 2000), 30 August.
