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A review of two of the big shows at this year\u2019s Edinburgh Festival: Olivier award-winning writer Isobel McArthur has had great success with her genre-busting works Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of) and Kidnapped. Her latest play The Grand Old Opera House Hotel is a rom-com set in a haunted house filled with opera arias \u2013 it\u2019s worlds apart from Funeral, a calm, interactive meditation on the nature of life and death by the Belgian theatre company Ontroerend Goed.

Our reviewers give their verdicts on the comedy shows they\u2019ve sampled this year. Kieran Hodgson is a Yorkshireman outsider in TV\u2019s Two Doors Down: his new show Big in Scotland reflects on identity and belonging; magician and clown Geoff Sobelle explores the comedy of consumption in his show Food; and Sonja Doubleday\u2019s comedy of the absurd \u2013 Cheekykita: An Octopus, The Universe, \u2018n\u2019 Stuff \u2013 features a nonsense trip through space.

The impact of artificial intelligence has been cited as one of the reasons for the current writers\u2019 and actors\u2019 strikes in Hollywood. AI is also the topic at the heart of Courtney Pauroso\u2019s Vanessa 5000, which features a sex robot and in Edinburgh University\u2019s Inspace gallery exhibition, The Sounds of Deep Fake, where the human voice is put through its paces by AI.

Presenter: Kate Molleson\nProducer: Ekene Akalawu