So much to watch, so little time. Here’s 5 shows to get your Fringe adventure off to good start.

Every Brilliant Thing

The worldwide smash-hit is back. You’re six years old. Mum’s in hospital. Dad says she’s done something stupid. She finds it hard to be happy. You make a list of everything that’s brilliant about the world. Everything worth living for. 1. Ice Cream 2. Kung Fu Movies 3. Burning Things 4. Laughing so hard you shoot milk out your nose 5. Construction cranes 6. Me A play about depression and the lengths we go to for those we love.

Adler and Gibb 

In preparation for the film role of a lifetime, an actor goes to extreme lengths to dig up the truth. Her subject is celebrated artist Janet Adler, who rejected the art world in favour of a private life. A re-staging of Tim Crouch’s notorious Royal Court play, it’s the story of a raid – on a house, a life and a legacy. From the real to unreal, fake to true and theatre to film, the play marries a fascination with form to a compelling story of misappropriation and death.

Caretakers 

‘Those who care, aren’t the ones who stay.’ Ms Lawson, a new teacher at Newall South High School, believes Jamie Harrow is being bullied because he’s gay. She wants to help but a bigger bully in the form of Deputy Head, Mrs Rutter, stands in her way. A gripping and powerful drama from award-winning playwright Billy Cowan.

The Marked

As a boy, Jack lived in a world of monsters and invisible guardians, as he fought to protect the people he loved. Now grown, his life on the streets of London is less fantastical. But when a ghost from his past turns up, Jack must harness the power of forgotten myths to defeat her. After the sell-out success of The Fantasist, Témoin return; spinning together mask, puppetry and physical theatre to navigate a haunting, mystical wonderland inspired by real-life stories of homelessness.

The Vaudevillains by Les Enfants Terribles

To celebrate their 15th year, Olivier-nominated Les Enfants Terribles invite you to The Empire music hall for a night you’ll never forget, but tonight’s show will be different. The club’s owner, Charlie, has fallen victim to a murder most foul… but whodunnit? Could it be nervy knife thrower Ray the Blade, sexy Siamese Striplets, the Cerberus Sisters, deranged ventriloquist Albert Frog, macabre mime Gaston Gasteau or perhaps the mystifying magician, The Great Mephisto? Everyone’s a suspect, as we discover the secrets of the weird and wonderful acts who have found themselves upon The Empire’s bill.

Measure for Measure

Satirical, shocking and radically stripped back, Measure for Measure from Britain’s Cheek by Jowl and Moscow’s Pushkin Theatre is a gripping, compelling production of one of Shakespeare’s most controversial plays.

Indulgent Duke Vincentio leaves Vienna in the hands of his puritanical deputy Angelo, to secretly observe the virtues and vices of his unruly state. When the saintly Isabella pleads with Angelo to release her brother Claudio, sentenced to death for fornication, he agrees on one condition: that Isabella sacrifice her virginity to him.

Praised for its powerful critique of contemporary Russia as well as the visceral impact of its staging, this is Measure for Measure as compelling political and moral thriller, provocative and subversive.