There was a time when Scottish political plays could seem obscure to the foreign visitor. But during the past two Augusts, the country has been at the heart of the debate in the United Kingdom – first with the Scottish referendum, then the EU vote. Again this summer, it is democratically central, as Theresa May attempts to persuade Scotland to leave Europe but remain within the UK.

The oddness of recent politics may be reflected in three different contemporary versions in this year’s Edinburgh Fringe of Alice in Wonderland, and two updatings of Gogol’s Diary of a Madman. Turbulent times also seem ripe for an adaptation of George Eliot’s Felix Holt: The Radical (Greenside).