The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the biggest arts festival in the world, with nearly 3,500 shows. This year, Playbill is in Edinburgh for the entire month in August for the festival and we’re taking you with us. Follow along as we cover every single aspect of the Fringe, aka our real-life Brigadoon!

Edinburgh Festival Fringe has thousands of shows to offer its patrons. And those adventurous theatre goers looking for something a bit more risqué, Playbill is here to help.

We at Playbill have gone far and wide in Edinburgh to see shows and we have compiled a select list of entertainment, for those looking for some NSFW fun! From circus shows, burlesque entertainment, clothing optional musicals, and serious plays—check out some of these productions that are not made for children.

La Clique

This sell-out Fringe favorite at Underbelly’s Circus Hub Speigeltent is everything you want in a late-night cirque entertainment (although showtime is 7:20). Why is it on this list? Nudity, nudity, nudity! Circus meets burlesque on the tent’s runway stage, featuring everything from a hair hang aerialist to a sword swallower. But back to that nudity…things go awry during the comedy hosts’ quick-change magic act and the audience gets some up-close, full-frontal male nudity. And I mean “up-close”—he runs a full circle of the audience in his panic, stopping at a few tables to try and hide. The cackles coming from a group of six women he visited were almost as entertaining as the bit itself! Another burlesque striptease, performed by a woman dressed as a popcorn vendor, ended with her smearing butter all over her bare chest and pulling a salt shaker from…it’s so NSFW that we can’t even type it! One of the show’s highlights was a gorgeous aerial number performed on a spinning coatrack by handsome, suited gentleman. Much to our disappointment, he barely stripped at all!

La Clique plays Underbelly’s Circus Hub on the Meadows until August 26.

Gerard Noir

With so many late night options, perhaps you are looking for something a bit more sophisticated? Something a bit more high brow? Well you won’t find that at Gerard Noir. However what you will find is a campy, light-hearted, and sexy late-night opera. The story, written and composed by queer American composer Jared Schwartz, tells the tale of super spy Gerard Noir on a new mission to save the world from evil. Described as "not your grandparents’ opera," the show is filled to the brim with sexual sight gags, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and…fully frontal male nudity! The satiric piece pokes fun at well known operas and the depictions of classic hyper masculine protagonists. 

Grab a drink and go along for the (adults only) ride with Gerard Noir, play through August 26 at theSpaceUK’s TheSpaceTriplex.

Courtney Pauroso: Vanessa 5000

Vanessa 5000 is technology’s newest innovation, the most advanced sex robot ever created. She’s here to fulfill your every desire, or at least she is for the cis straight men in the room. Vanessa is also the brainchild of truly demented comedian Courtney Pauroso, who has put together and stars in this unhinged solo comedy show. In a live tech demonstration, Vanessa 5000 shows you she can high-five, trust fall, hold a mini disc between her butt cheeks, and…well, you can guess what else she can do. 

Be warned: if she malfunctions and gets stuck in a twerk loop, you might get called up to the stage to give her a hard reset. We’ll let you imagine what might be involved there. Pauroso is fiercely committed to this insane bit, and it’s something to behold. Absurdist, naughty, and inspired by new wave clowning, Vanessa 5000 stands alone as one of the festival’s most unique offerings. Don’t bring the kids to this one, and if you’re with mom and dad you might want to sit in different sections of the theatre so you can avoid eye contact. But do come ready to laugh. That’s secretly the best talent of Pauroso’s wild creation.

Courtney Pauroso: Vanessa 5000 runs at Pleasance Courtyard, Beneath space until August 27.

Lucy and Friends

In Lucy and Friends, Lucy McCormick is scrambling to put on her show, an “alt-drag cabaret,” for which she could neither get funding nor co-stars. Undeterred, Lucy powers through. How is this show NSFW you may ask? Well there’s around six minutes of full-frontal nudity and some on-stage masturbation. But as suddenly as it began, the flurry and madness comes to a halt as Lucy spirals into a fit of frustration and despair. Is what she is performing “art?” If so, is it marketable? If not, does anyone care? And if someone, even one person, cares, might they care enough to also want to be her friend?

Lucy and Friends is being performed at Pleasance Courtyard until August 23. 

Boys in the Buff

Boys in the Buff was not what I thought it would be. Writers Chris Burgess and Cathy Shostak knew exactly what I expected from this title: an all-singing, all-swinging display, and maybe some awkward nod-and-wink humor chucked in for good measure. What unfolded, however, was a surprisingly poignant and empowering show with catchy music, good laughs and glitzy choreography. The opening number eases us into the premise with a swanky vaudeville routine, introducing the four hunks: Max, Dan, Phil and Richard. Just as the audience braces for an eyeful, however, the play-within-a-play structure is revealed. The music stops, and Phil confesses that he’s not quite ready to bare all. What happens next, and how the show manages to live up to its title, you’ll just have to find out for yourself.

Boys in the Buff runs at C ARTS' C cubed venue until August 27. Read our full Playbill Pick review of the show here.

Stark Bollock Naked

This show tells you what to expect right in the title: there will be nudity. And in fact, that's the first thing you see: a naked woman (played by Larisa Faber) walking onstage. But what you don't expect are all the gynecological instruments next to her: clamps, stirrups, pliers, all the things that make those with uteruses cringe when we see them. Those instruments are used to create the soundscape of this surreal show, which follows a woman not sure if she should have children, who becomes accidentally pregnant and then has to question whether to have an abortion. All the while, Faber stands naked on the stage. It's uncomfortably real topics done in an off-kilter way (at a certain point, there are talking fallopian tubes), which enhances the show's overall question: can women today have it all?

Stark Bollock Naked runs until August 28 at Assembly Roxy.

Illicit Thrill – Licensed to Strip

With a festival as open and as experimental like the Fringe, how illicit can these thrills be? Well the title of this show can refer to the nudity you can expect to see at this late-night burlesque act. But alongside glowing vulvas, pole-dancing, and the stuffing of bills into g-strings, Illicit Thrill also refers to legislation. Earlier this year, an Edinburgh bill to limit the number of strip clubs in the city was declared unlawful, and these performers are celebrating. At the same time, they will also remind you that the efforts to legislate their industry, and negatively affect the livelihood of exotic dangers continues apace. Yes it's a late night burlesque show, but it has a timely message about the importance of female autonomy. 

Illicit Thrill – Licensed to Strip runs until August 27 at the Voodoo Rooms.