Northern Stage announces Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2017 line-up

Northern Stage has announced their line-up for this year's Edinburgh Fringe Festival at Summerhall in August.

Theatre company Graeae and the Royal Exchange in Manchester have teamed up to produce Cosmic Scallies, a two-hander about class, friendship and welfare. Amit Sharma, who directed Graeae's 2015 production of The Solid Life of Sugar Water, will direct comedian Jackie Hagan's debut play set in a run-down northern town.

Selina Thompson’s new show salt. will tell the story of her trip on a cargo ship retracing the path of the transatlantic slave triangle. Thompson's work looks at Black British identity, and the salt. project was backed by 200 crowdfunders who raised money for the trip from the UK to Ghana to Jamacia and back. Thompson said she wants to take the show to Edinburgh because it's "politically urgent" and "contains a piece of my soul, which I want to share".

The Believers Are But Brothers is an interactive story about extremism and the digital age by writer, director and performer Javaad Alipoor. Alipoor said: "As someone who grew up Muslim, I wanted to refract and retell stories [about extremism] in the context that I think is crucial: that of a generation of young men undergoing a crisis of masculinity and meaning, and seeking a two-dimensional fantasy version of themselves to give their lives meaning."

Award-winning transgender artist Kate O’Donnell follows up her show Big Girl's Blouse with You’ve Changed, which is about the ups and down of transitioning. She said: "This is the first time I have brought a show to Edinburgh as a trans woman… As the largest arts festival in the world, the Fringe seems like the perfect platform for some trans visibility."

West Yorkshire Playhouse and The Mayers Ensemble will present What If I Told You. Directed by Chris Goode, Pauline Mayers' piece is about the assumptions people make based on her gender, background and skin colour through dance and theatre.

The Letter Room have developed their show No Miracles Here with mental health charity Mind supported by the RSC. It's a musical about depression with '30s-inspired dance.

The line-up also includes RashDash's return to the Fringe with Two Man Show, Daniel Bye's political thriller Instructions for Border Crossing, Powder Keg's musical show Morale Is High (Since We Gave Up Hope) and a rehearsed reading of Chris Thorpe's new piece Status which will premiere in 2018.

Edinburgh Festival Fringe will run form 4 to 28 August 2017.