EDINBURGH — Dressed in thick hats and heavy raincoats on the stage of a makeshift theater, three actors stumbled humorously through an imaginary storm. They buckled helplessly against the roaring sonic tempest coming from the room’s speakers, before it abruptly ended. The sun came out. But then the storm returned, louder and more ferocious.

The actors were from the London theater company Silent Faces, one of thousands of acts at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The piece, “A Clown Show About Rain,” is a deceptively playful work of physical theater: As it wears on, it becomes apparent that the tempest at the play’s center is a metaphor for depression.

“We’ve all suffered quite a lot, at varying levels,” Josie Underwood, a member of the company, said of the group’s mental health. “I think it’s been therapeutic to make a show about it.”