Who's pulling the strings?

Once again some rather poor quality pictures taken on my phone in poor lighting, all taken at today's first show :- 

"The Biggest Marionette Circus in the World" : I knew this show was really aimed at children but when I heard they had life size marionettes of an Elephant, a giraffe and a lion I decided I had to see it. When the audience entered the theatre there were three puppeteers with mini marionettes (each about a foot+ high) and they ran about the theatre greeting the kids and generally frolicking. There were a number of acts but the stars of the show were of course the giant marionettes. The show was very much directed at kids and the "ringmaster" did a great job of getting the kids to join in by shouting and cheering. The stars of the show were of course the three "life size" marionettes (actually the lion was much bigger than any real lion). It was a fun show and the marionettes were very impressive.

"Impossible" : This is a play was about the friendship between Arthur Conan Doyle and Harry Houdini and how they argued about spiritualism (Doyle believed it was real, Houdini basically believed it was not). It was a a very good show starring Phill Jupitus and Conan Doyle and Alan Cox as Houdini. I never knew these two people even knew each other, never mind were close friends and had such a fundamental disagreement. 

"Bruce" : This was a "puppet" show from the same team that did "The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik" and "It's Dark Outside", which I had seen in previous years at The Fringe. This show was an action packed adventure, the amazing thing about it was all done using a single "puppet" and just different voices for each character, the "puppet" was actually just a head made from a large square sponge with two eyes stuck to it and a mouth cut in it and a pair of white gloves for hands. It was brilliantly done and very funny.

I had a long gap between shows and stopped by the Doctors Bar for a couple drinks and a bite to eat, where I had a very tasty Chicken pie with mash and vegetables (carrots, peas and leeks), I was really struggling to stay awake by the point I left and decided a double espresso with a couple sugars, probably not a great idea at 21:00! So by the time I went to my final show of the day I may have been a little hyper. :-)   

"Le Haggis" : This is a cabaret show in one of the Spiegeltents in George Square (they have two) and is a mixture of live music, dance and acrobats, the twist is that it's Scottish themed and done to a modern rock music. The show was excellent and the music got everybody stomping their feet and clapping along while the artists were all fantastic. A great way to end the day and the show ended with a rendition of "The Bonnie Banks o' Loch Lomond" and then they got everybody on their feet and join hands for "Auld Lang Syne".