As markets around the world melt down, an award-winning comedy created by a group of independent Toronto theatre companies is spoofing the financial crisis in Edinburgh.

Spent is one of several Canadian productions at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world's largest such event and a testing ground for theatre.

White Rabbit, Red Rabbit and Canadian comedians DeAnne Smith, Sharron Matthews and Glenn Wool are also among the hundreds of acts getting ready to take a turn on Edinburgh stages.

Spent — written by Michele Smith, Dean Gilmour, Ravi Jain and Adam Paolozza — debuts Friday in Edinburgh. A co-production between Theatre Smith-Gilmour, Why Not Theatre and TheatreRUN Canada, it had a successful engagement in Toronto in 2009.

A Dora Award-winner for best performance, the production features two actors portraying a variety of international characters reacting to the 2008 market crash. The satire blends physical comedy and absurdist humour in order to poke fun at the greed and political dysfunction that led to that crisis.

Toronto theatre companies Volcano and Necessary Angel are producing White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, which debuts Friday at SummerWorks in Toronto before opening in Edinburgh.

The play, by Iran's Nassim Soleimanpour, dissects the experience of a generation of Iranians born and raised during the Iran/Iraq war.

For each performance of the experimental work, a new actor or actress is handed the script in a sealed envelope while standing in front of the audience. The performer is thus forced to experience the same sense of not knowing what will happen next that characterizes life for young Iranians — including Soleimanpour, who cannot travel outside his own country.

Buzz about Canadian

Sharron Matthews blends cabaret with parody in her show Jesus Thinks I'm Funny. Flip PublicityVancouver comedian Wool is already drawing buzz for his stand-up: a surreal, stoner riff on religion, life and Hollywood. Based in London since 1998, Wool is a regular on the international comedy circuit.

Matthews brings her show Sharron Matthews Superstar: Jesus Thinks I'm Funny to Edinburgh and will follow up with a gig in London's West End.

Smith, an offbeat comedian who began in Montreal in 2005, will be performing nearly all of August in Edinburgh. A Canadian Comedy Award-nominee, she was showcased by Just for Laughs in Montreal earlier this summer.

The Edinburgh Fringe Festival draws acts from around the world. It opened Friday and runs until Aug. 29.