A long day...

"Shakespeare for Breakfast" : For some this show is almost an institution, I went for the first time last year and decided to go again this year. It's a comedy show based on Shakespeare that is on at 10am and provide free tea/coffee and a little croissant :-) The show this year is Hamlet, the clever thing about the show is that they mix traditional Shakespeare with modern jokes and references. This year they also had a large projector screen as the backdrop and the introduction was in the style of Star Wars with text scrolling up, welcome to Hamlet in 3D (The Directors Cut). It was great fun and worth the effort of getting into town for the 10am start, I'll no doubt be back for their show next year (even if the coffee is pretty poor!).

"Around the World in 80 days" : This show was rated "U" ("Universal" - suitable for all ages), I don't often go to these shows as they can be a little "childish", but sometimes they work well for all ages, this was one of those. It followed the standard plot of Phileas Fogg's journey but managed to have a lot of comedy in it. It was very well written and the cast presented it extremely well a great show and it was 100 minutes long, which made it great value for money (most Fringe shows are about an hour long).

"Mr Poe's Legendarium" : This shows consisted of three short horror stories in the style of Edgar Allan Poe, in fact they are presented by the man himself, with additional views provided by "Sigmund Freud". Although the stories are rather dark they are presented with a large pinch of salt and I found myself giggling through-out. A great fun show involving plenty of horror and death well balanced with humour.

"Balletronic" : I've never really been a fan of ballet, mostly because the only ballets I've actually seen are the traditional ones like "The Nutcracker", "Swan Lake" & "Cinderella" and I've always found it rather difficult to follow the story, there's no dialogue it might as well be mime on tip toes! So I'm not entirely sure why I decided to go to this show, except I do like to throw in a couple Fringe shows that I would not normally see. This is the world premiere of the show and is a dance and live music show and was fabulous. No story just some great live (modern) music and fabulous dancing by a great troupe from Cuba. If all ballet was like this I could well become a fan, it really was fabulous.