Beyond The Fringe

With the eyes of the world turning to Edinburgh, there are still a few outposts of performance across Scotland. Glasgow's Tramway – which has been concentrating on visual art for the past few months – has a week long run of a children's show about the crusades, while the Tron has offered space to the Scottish Youth Theatre's remix of the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

The Theatre Royal has two popular dramas visiting in August: a touring version of Alan Ayckbourn's Bedroom Farce and an adaptation of Calendar Girls. While both of these appeal to traditional theatre-goers, the Royal has a reputation for quality, and Bedroom Farce has retained its sardonic wit, and provides an insight into the domestic squabbles of couples, both young and old.

Moving north to Dundee, the Rep is hosting Return to the Forbidden Planet. This is another perennial favourite: despite its popularity, it is an intriguing mixture of cinema adaptation, Shakespeare and science fiction. An ambitious project for Dundee School's musical theatre, it will take full advantage of the Rep's versatile space.

A venue that doesn't often get mentioned in The Skinny is the Pitlochry Festival Theatre. Rather isolated, in the middle of beautiful countryside, the PFT runs an annual season of plays, from musicals to classic farces, that entertain tourists and locals throughout the summer. This year's programme includes Kiss Me Kate- another Shakespeare-based musical, with choreography by Chris Wilson, better known to the central belt as Tom of the Kitsch Kats, and the co-creator of The Mating Ritual.

Pitlochry has been running for many years, and the work is often represented in the annual Critics Awards. Despite the location, PFT has become an increasingly imaginative and powerful force in Scottish theatre. An adventurous retelling of Zola's Nana will be one of this year's highlights, exploring the tale of a woman who stars in a burlesque show: another example of the past reflecting our present society, perhaps.

For those who really love a musical, the Aberdeen Arts Centre is hosting a challenge: the Twenty Four Hour Musical. A charity event on 7 August, it follows hard on the opening of an envelope, and tells the Just Cause company which production they will be staging – a day later. A real "let's do the show right here" approach, and all in aid of a good cause.

Beyond the Fringe, it is relatively quiet – Pitlochry is more dynamic than either Dundee or Glasgow. Nevertheless, it is possible to catch a few shows that won't be obscured by flyers, tourists and the mad rush of a thousand shows – the show, as always, must go on!