What's On Scotland 11-18 Aug: Edinburgh Fringe

Fun-seekers and fringe-bingers – do we have a treat for you this week? Check out our guide to the top five plays, comedy shows, gigs, art shows and literary events of the festivals, plus Joakim, EIBF, The Glad Cafe Weekender and EAF's Platform 2016.

Article by Kate Pasola | 11 Aug 2016

Each week The Skinny team hand pick a selection of events from the Scottish cultural calendar to provide you with this guide to the most exciting goings on in the week ahead. From gigs, plays and exhibitions to spoken word and pop up cake shops, we give you the insider's guide to things to do in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Dundee every Thursday morning.

Stuck for things to do this week? GET OUT OF TOWN, you big joker. It’s Fringe time, goddammit. Although it's only been a week, we're already extremely opinionated on what you seriously must not miss. After almost losing our marbles in anticipation of Foxdog studios' return, we've only gone and given them five stars for their new show.

For glittering, rapturous sketch comedy, check out Birthday Girls (pictured). Dancebas e's The Rooster and Partial Memory, Red and Linger captured the hearts of our reviewers, and Hannah Nicklin's Equations For A Moving Body proved that sporty theatre isn't as tiring as it sounds. Find the latest from our review team here.

Glorious Traces: The Glad Weekender
Various venues in Glasgow’s Southside, 12-14 Aug, 4pm
The Glad's turning four, and the buzzing wee venue they are it's no surprise they're celebrating with a mini-festival. Their weekender, Glorious Traces is set to be stuffed full of dreamy musical talent, including Ela Orleans, Kid Canaveral, Babe (pictured) and Jonnie Common. Forrrrrr who's a jolly good fellow? Image: Alexander Bell

EAF Platform 2016: Paloma Proudfoot & Aniela Piasecka
EAF Kiosk, Edinburgh. 13 Aug, 12pm

Let the pros skim the cream of EAF’s new talent for you at Platform: 2016. We’re intrigued by Made to be Broken, in which Proudfoot and Piasecka (in collaboration with Jamie Roberts) investigate the eroticism of rituals through melodramatic, farcical demonstrations of tasks like cooking, dressing and shaving. Image: Rosie Harriet

ADVERTISEMENT | Northern soul, rock'n'roll and spoken word at the Book Festival

From 13-29 August, hundreds of authors from across the globe appear at this year’s Edinburgh International Book Festival, including some prodigious writer-musicians, spoken word artists and music journalists.

Highlights include: Channel 4 broadcaster Stuart Cosgrove sharing his obsession with Northern Soul; musician Daniel Rachel in praise of protest songs; Scotland’s favourite noisemakers Neu! Reekie!; spoken word artist Luke Wright delivering a hurricane of a performance; former The Fall guitarist Brix Smith Start with her extraordinary life story; Swedish spoken word performer Agnes Török; singer-songwriter James Yorkston turning his storytelling skills to new use; and music author Zoë Howe on one of rock and roll’s greatest frontmen.

Healthy: Joakim
The Berkeley Suite, Glasgow. 12 Aug, 11pm

This Friday, French multi-instrumental DJ / producer Joakim returns to Scotland for the first time in five years, and his headline show at The Berkeley Suite (with support from Ewan Chambers) will be an exciting, unpredictable foray through house, disco, funk, pop and everything in between.

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Poets Against Humanity
The Banshee Labyrinth, Edinburgh. 15 Aug, 7.30pm
Terrible human beings – it’s your time. Poets Against Humanity rallies literary champs and forces them to fill in the blanks of one another’s poems with absolute filth from a deck of Cards Against Humanity. Tonight’s edition features Sara Hirsch, Doug Garry of Loud Poets and Tina Sederholm.

W einer-Dog
GFT, Glasgow, 12-21 Aug, times and prices vary

Head to GFT for Todd Solondz’s Weiner-Dog, a bleakly gorgeous series of vignettes about four individuals at different stages in life, connected by the film’s eponymous dachshund. As if dug-based plot’s not enough, the blazingly talented ensemble includes Danny DeVito, Ellen Burstyn and Zosia Marmet.

The Skinny's Fringe Top 5s

If youre fringe-diary's still not quite full, check out our section editors' top five picks of the fringe across Books, Comedy, Theatre, Art and Music. What's more, you can match your glutton for culture with tasty treats using our guide to Edinburgh's best pop-ups. Image courtesy of Sally Hackett.