Highlights: Ruby Wax, iPads and rabbits - it's showtime

As the Fringe unveils its 2011 programme today, after years of steady growth, pundits will be watching closely to see if it matches last year's 2,453 shows.

American comedienne Ruby Wax returns in her first full Fringe run since 1987. Ruby Wax: Losing It is her personal take on mental illness, with the songs of Judith Owen.

With The Lounge Room Confabulators, also in the Underbelly venue, buying ten tickets will see the award-winning Australian comedians deliver a site-specific show in an office or home.

At the Remarkable Arts Venue, the Alma Mater show uses i-Pads to take punters into the world of a little girl, while in White Rabbit, Red Rabbit, a different actor will be cast every night for performances of a play set during the Iranian revolution in 1981.

In Benet Brandeth: The Brandeth Papers, at the Gilded Balloon, the son of author Gyles Brandreth - in his own right a lawyer, public speaker and a rhetoric coach - appears in his first Fringe show.