Newly Appointed Edinburgh International Festival Artistic Director Nicola Benedetti announces the programme’s 76th year!

Bringing in the Edinburgh International Festival’s 76th year is the overriding question ‘where do we go from here?’ A provocation introduced quite rightly so by newly appointed artistic director Nicola Benedetti – the world renowned and award winning violinist who came to prominence when she won the coveted BBC Young Musicisn accolade in 2004. Aware of what she’d like to explore and examine in this year’s festival, Benedetti would like for the month long event, from the 4th to 27th August, to provide the deepest possible experience amongst the years. As someone who didn’t go to many arts events when she was younger, there’s an understanding as to why people may find theatre inaccessible – so this needs to change.

There’ll be a concerted effort to connect the personal and the personable, foster connections and commonalities – with participation events increased. Inspired by the current climate of addressing societal divides, the mission to unite all will be intertwined throughout the festival’s programming  – a need to combine audience with artist a staple of life performance anyway, but focused on more so.

Punctuating the festival will be a triptych of questions/statements that help to start answering the ultimate  ‘where do we go from here?’ question, these are: ‘Community over Chaos’, ‘Hope in the face of Adversity’ and ‘A Perspective That’s Not of One’s Own’. 295 separate events will showcase over 2000 local and international artists from across 48 nations, with the festival returning with its trademark mixed programme of theatre, opera & music, contemporary music as well as special events.

This year’s theatre programme will include National Changgeuk Company of Korea and Ong Keng Sen’s Trojan Women at the Festival Theatre from 9th to 11th Aug, Geoff Sobelle’s Food at The Studio from 3rd to 4th Aug/12th, 19th, 26th and 27th Aug, Comédie de Genève and Christiane Jatahy’s Dusk at The Lyceum from 5th to 8th Aug, National Theatre of Scotland/Nat McCleary/Johnny McKnight’s Thrown from 5th/11th/17th/23rd Aug (6:30pm)/6th/12th/18th/24th Aug (9pm)/8th/13th/19th/25th Aug (11am)/9th/15th/20th/26th Aug (1:30pm)/10th/16th/22nd/27th Aug (4pm) at the Traverse Theatre, Punch Drunk Enrichment’s The Lost Lending Library from 5th to 27th Aug at Church Hill Theatre Studio, Comédie de Genève and Tiago Rodrigues’ As Far As Impossible from 11th to 14th Aug at The Lyceum, Focus Company & Chaliwaté Company’s Dimanche from 15th to 19th Aug at Church Hill Theatre, Pedro Calderón de la Barca/Cheek by Jowl/Compañia Niacional de Teatro Clásico (CNTC Madrid)/LAZONA’s Life is a Dream from 23rd to 26th Aug at The Lyceum.

Written by Lucy Basaba.

To find out more about this year’s programme, visit here…