The Fringe Benefits

Start of the Festival in Edinburgh today.  I caught two shows; Out of the Blue and the Marvellous Adventures of Mary Seacole with F, M and Blueberry.

I enjoyed both shows enormously. It was a hot, sticky day in Edinburgh, the performers were all melting under their costumes. We stopped off inbetween for refreshment at Beirut restaurant in Nicholson Square, whch kept us from wilting too much.

I was on Princes Street, waiting for my bus home, when the Red Arrows did their fly past for the first Saturday  of the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo - nice timing!

Out of the Blue - "Embarking on their 13th run at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Out of the Blue will captivate you with their unbeatable mixture of vibrant vocals, outrageously unprofessional choreography and often unintentional comedy. With their recent online hits, these floppy haired Oxford undergraduates conjure up a relentless level of energy and enthusiasm that has left audiences beaming around the world. 'If you don't enjoy yourself you're officially the curmudgeon of the Millennium' (Scotsman). Out of the Blue is proud that their show is supporting Helen & Douglas House, the world's first children's hospice, based near their Oxford home."

The Marvellous Adventures of Mary Seacole - "Cleo Sylvestre tells the fascinating story of the Jamaican/Scottish woman who braved the Crimean War to tend to wounded soldiers, described as ‘a warm and successful physician, who doctors and cures all manner of men with extraordinary success’. We watch her progression from a child identifying medicinal herbs, to the horrors of war and epidemic when she entered Sevastopol. She was posthumously awarded the Jamaican Order of Merit in 1991, and in 2004 was voted the greatest Black Briton. Told in her own words this is the story of a truly exceptional woman."