Hollywood's golden couple, Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins, last night ended their sell-out Edinburgh fringe run with a call to the US and Britain not to go to war with Iraq.
Sarandon, an Oscar winner who returned to the stage after an 18 year absence to perform in The Guys, a play about September 11, said: "As an individual, I don't think we would want to go to war against Iraq. I don't think a military expression of violence is the solution.
"First we have to ask the right questions, then we can come up with a solution. I don't think we have found one right now."
Her husband, the Oscar nominated actor and director, added a caution to Britain: "But we don't do anything without you guys. So it's up to you as well."
The couple, who lost a close friend in the first twin tower, performed three staged readings at the Edinburgh fringe festival - the first celluloid stars to grace the event. Yesterday they revealed they will next week transfer to the Abbey Theatre in Dublin.
Long-time liberals bringing up three children in New York, both said they had done voluntary work at Ground Zero and Robbins had played with a firefighter baseball team and become close to many families.
Their choice of play - The Guys - was written by Anne Nelson, a journalism professor at Columbia University in New York. It tells the true story of a writer helping a New York fire-fighter write eulogies to his dead colleagues.
It has become a way for A-list actors to help in the national mourning.
Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver starred in the first production in a small theatre near Ground Zero. Helen Hunt later joined Robbins, who took the play to Los Angeles. Weaver stars in the film adaptation which will be released on the first anniversary of September 11.
Asked about the wealth of September 11 plays on the Edinburgh fringe, Robbins denied that the entertainment industry was cashing in on catastrophe.
"What about all the other industries that have cashed in? Lay off the entertainment industry. They are just trying in some way to reflect. That is a natural thing for a writer, artist or actor to do."
Sarandon added: "But if the industry did step in with the next disaster film, then it would be up to the public not to go. If they felt it was exploitative, they should send that message by not going.
"There is always someone waiting to exploit everything. That is human nature."
The couple described the play as less of a metaphor than "a document of our times" and a "salve to firefighters"
They said it had helped them come to terms with September 11 and could help audiences.
Robins said: "The play speaks about a crisis of marginality. All New Yorkers, once it happened, wanted to do something, viscerally and physically. We wanted to go out and dig but couldn't.
"It was helpful for us in some way to use our talents to help. When I took the play to Los Angeles, audience members said thank you because in some sense the country had shut off. Our country went right from this tragedy into a brief period of reflection and then into a period of moving beyond and an artificial [mode] of selling products."
However, he said that the great September 11 work of art would be more years in the making.
"It is too early for the perspective that is needed for a metaphorical piece. It is too early to conceptualise it."
The couple admitted they had chosen the Edinburgh fringe because they fancied a European holiday with their children, and decided at the last moment to test the play on a British audience. Sarandon said: "We were terrified. We had no idea how it would go down."
