The latest play by Yael Farber, the South African director and playwright whose show, Mies Julie was a massive hit at Edinburgh last year, is based around the bus gang rape of Jyoti Singh Pandey, which occurred in Delhi on 16 December 2012.

A trio of big hitters defy a co-operative festival theme with exhibitions that are individual and rewarding

Edinburgh guffaws from end to end as four fine acts return with some sparkling new material

Sketch realignment is a feature of this year's Fringe with various groups combining or downsizing, splintering off into solo ventures and so forth. The scene has never been so varied and there is something for even the most sceptical observer of the genre.

Given that David Baddiel's first stand up show for 16 years apparently arose out of an educational talk, the George Square Theatre (a lecture hall for the rest of the year), is a venue match made in heaven. It's also a far cry from the comedian's Wembley Arena days of rock n' roll comedy.

The last time Phoebe Waller-Bridge appeared on stage, in Jack Thorne’s Mydidae, she was naked in a bathroom and going through her ablutions. In her hot new solo show for Edinburgh, she’s no less startling or revealing but she does keep her clothes on.

"Who wishes they were dead?" As stand up's leading exponent of misanthropy and misery, Andrew Lawrence tends to go beyond the stock 'What's your name and where are you from?' audience interrogation. But fear not, if you cannot muster the requisite amount of depression and disappointment, the ginger ninja nihilist will supply it for you.

“One year mair, one year less,” rumbles Gordon Brown, thinking back to the homespun sayings of his hometown of Kirkcaldy - this one a somewhat cynical birthday greeting.

The last words of the actor Edmund Kean are alleged to have been “dying is easy, comedy is hard.” He passed away (with relative ease) in 1833, more than a century before the outbreak of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. One can only envy his good fortune and wonder what he’d make of the mayhem that unfolds every August in Scotland’s capital.

The Events is set to cause a stir at the Traverse (traverse.co.uk, Wed to 25 Aug): David Greig's new play contemplates a politically motivated attack and the limits of forgiveness.

Dance Odyssey is a new scheme whereby you can see a clutch of performances, films or talks on one ticket. Worth a look is Christopher Hampson's Rite of Spring (Festival Theatre, eif.co.uk, 18 Aug), and Scottish Ballet's world premiere of a work by king of speed, Édouard Lock (16 Aug).

"It doesn't matter what art looks like," said the Austrian Franz West (Platonic Moon, 2003). His work with other artists is the subject of Mostly West at Inverleith House (rbge.org .uk, to 22 Sept).

Ludus Baroque performs Bach's B Minor Mass in Canongate Kirk (canongatekirk.org.uk, 8 Aug), while Marc Minkowski and Les Musiciens du Louvre Grenoble survey Schubert's symphonies at the Usher Hall (usherhall.co.uk, 14 and 15 Aug).

Unlikely magician Piff the Magic Dragon is set to fire up this year's Edinburgh Festival. Brian Logan meets him and his lovely chihuahua assistant

Last year, this critic was bowled over by the Australian comic Felicity Ward and her confessional tour-de-force The Hedgehog Dilemma. This time around, in Irregardless (Underbelly Bristo Square, underbelly.co.uk, Wed to 26 Aug, she's applying her spiky wit to topics including autotune and junkies.