Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins last night injected glamour into the anarchic Edinburgh fringe festival, with the UK premiere of their play about the collapse of the twin towers.
The Oscar-winning actor and her Oscar-nominated actor and director husband hoped to provide catharsis for an audience digesting dozens of plays about New York's nightmare. British actor Steven Berkoff also chose last night to premiere a rival show, Requiem to September 11. He had hoped to premiere his epic poem in New York next month, but ran into difficulties with US immigration officials after overstaying a visa by one day in 1997.
Ms Sarandon and Mr Robbins are the first Hollywood stars to join the fringe. But instead of the usual church hall or other makeshift stage, they chose the Royal Lyceum theatre, the festival's grandest venue, for three sell-out readings of The Guys - the story of a journalist helping a New York firefighter write eulogies to his friends. Bill Murray and Sigourney Weaver first performed the play near ground zero in New York, and a film adaptation starring Ms Weaver will be released on the first anniversary.
In a festival where it has become normal to see Gyles Brandreth in suspenders or Nicholas Parsons hurrying between comedy venues, Ms Sarandon and Mr Robbins have been elusive.
Refusing photocalls, they arrived this week with their three teenage children, Eva, Jack, and Miles, and were spotted wandering between fringe shows in large baseball caps. They were in the audience of the innuendo laden musical, Saucy Jack and the Space Vixens, described as a cross between the Carry On films and the Rocky Horror Picture Show, in which a young Ms Sarandon starred.
She said: "I'm having a good time", but left with her children when the space vixens began waving a two-foot plastic phallus - which was later reported stolen. Mr Robbins stayed on to watch the surreal antics of the acclaimed Russian physical theatre troupe Derevo, then bought a T-shirt.
Cornered earlier by the Scottish press at the Tribeca film festival in New York, Ms Sarandon said that theatre about September 11 was a way of "examining and finding a way to mourn as a group".
"Sitting in a dark place where there is a film or a play can become some kind of communal potential for healing or exploration," she continued. "People who had serious post-traumatic stress ramifications could remember that they weren't alone."
Paul Gudgin, director of the fringe, last night said he was waiting to see whether the couple had attracted a new type of audience to the fringe, people who previously were only interested in cinema.
The only other celebrities to compete for a place in fringe history have been Danni Minogue, bizarrely cast in a recent Macbeth, the voices of the Simpsons, and a one-off show by Joan Rivers.
Meanwhile, Scotland's cinema talent trooped up the red carpet at the opening gala of the 56th Edinburgh international film festival. It began with last night's UK premiere of Morvern Callar, by the award winning Scottish director Lynne Ramsay. Two weeks of premieres include appearances bydirectors Ken Loach, Mike Leigh, Alex Cox, and Shane Meadows.
