WHEN I see a show it’s my critical intuition to try and pigeonhole it into a genre, to compare it to something else, but Stampin’ In The Graveyard (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) defied any such attempt at classification. It’s an immersive solo stage play with video, dance, poetry, computer art and drama, all performed by Elisabeth Gunawan, who plays Rose, an AI chatbot tasked with sifting through the memories of a collapsed civilisation.

Despite this sci-fi framing, the story is mostly concerned with the intimacies of a relationship carved out between two refugees, their love, their longing and their unfulfilled dreams of children that leads to the creation of Rose.

Gunawan plays Rose with an accomplished fluidity that perfectly alternates between detachment and connection to a humanity she knows only through the memories of others. This is also a technically impressive stage show, with excellent video art and stage props that at times create beautiful harmonies of colour, light and sound.

At times it’s a challenging show: told in non-linear fashion, the audience must weave the threads of the story themselves. In doing so, there is room for interpretation; for my own part, I wondered about the reliability of our AI narrator, one who we were warned was prone to hallucinations. The story also asked what we mean by “the end of the world,” a concept that is sci-fi for some, but for others in less privileged regions, a real and ever-present danger. This was a visionary journey into the soul of humanity through an utterly unique vehicle of expression.

Poetry is the most hit or miss genre of show at the Fringe. But when I decided to see The Poem Called Kavita (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆) I definitely picked a winner. London-based poet Kavita’s chosen profession is an example of nominal determinism, as her name means Poetry in Hindi and she reflects that her parents probably wished they had called her Doctor instead.

Kavita’s natural charm and wit was the perfect framing for her poems. Note to poets: if you want people to listen to your poems, be charming! The subject of the poems were mostly about her childhood (aptly named because “the lessons are so well hidden”), although I would like to have seen a bit more variety.

Geoff Winde has been performing as a spoken-word artist/poet for over a decade under the name of Money Is As Innocent As The Gun (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) and his talented wordsmithery shows a craftsman at work. Winde’s poem are very firmly anti-capitalist, anti-zionist, and decolonial, and while the subjects are deadly serious, there’s enough interesting and inventive wordplay in his set to stop things from getting too heavy. If the idea of a poetry session that rhymes “Keir Starmer” with “colonial karma” is up your street, then you’ll love this.

Aud The Deep Minded (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) is an original chamber opera composed by Joanna Nicholson who also plays the clarinet in the quartet also composed of horn, soprano and electronic music. Telling the story of Aud, a 9th century Viking leader, across towns, forests and seas, we are taken on a journey across a soundscape that is unashamedly loud and yet dreamily serene. I’d love to see this on a bigger stage next year.

The most well-attended show I’ve seen this year was Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits (⭑⭑⭑⭑⭑) and apparently I haven’t been paying attention because I always thought her name rhymed with Gargoyles not Ponies. Margolyes was on top form, effortlessly gliding between smut and sincerity in her banter and treating us to acting masterclasses with brilliantly read excerpts from Dickens.

Finally, Someone Has Got To Be John (⭑⭑⭑⭑☆) begins with a Beatles tribute act and modern day fanfiction/theories about John’s gender identity and then unravels into a show about the persistence of transmedicalism in the Western Establishment, from the 1960s till now. Reminiscent of last year’s Lessons in Revolution, this is an essay in theatrical format, one that blends poetry, dramatic licence, humour and the odd Beatles song to great effect. If there’s a downside, there’s a side plot about a meeting with a 2010s Youtuber that seemed underdeveloped. But overall, this is a worthy and watchable meditation on how trans people have been failed by the Establishment from the 1960s until the present day.

Stampin’ In the Graveyard 12:15 Summerhall. Until August 25. Tickets: festival.summerhallarts.co.uk.
The Poem Called Kavita. Free Fringe. Run ended. 
Aud the Deep Minded. The Space. Run ended.    
Money Is As Innocent As The Gun runs until August 24. Free Fringe.
Margolyes and Dickens: More Best Bits runs until August 24. Tickets: edfringe.com.
Someone Has Got To Be John runs until August 23. Tickets: edfringe.com.