Edinburgh Festivals Diary: Famous faces and the Fringe's quirkiest venue?

Edinburgh born actress Ella Loudon whose show Women of Will - about two strangers who bond in a pub over Shakespeare, which opens at Summerhall tonight - has two famous parents: Scottish actress Fiona Loudon and James Bond star Daniel Craig.

Ms Loudon says the show gives her a chance to perform for her Scottish grandparents, who have not seen her act since she moved to the US 18 years ago.

She says: “This show has been a long time in the making but I always wanted to bring it home to the Fringe for its first performances in front of an audience outside of family and friends. My grandparents haven't seen me in anything theatre-based since I moved to the States at 17, and that mattered to me.”

Meanwhile, another play, Sanctuary, a debut production by Jacob Sparrow and winner of the inaugural Leodis Prize, also boasts not one, but two actors who have quite important relations. Matthew Tennyson is a direct descendant of 19th century poet Lord Alfred Tennyson and Richard Cant is related to Brian Cant, the 1970s kids’ TV presenter.

Separately, Scottish actor Brian Cox’s son, Alan, makes a guest appearance in the multimedia post-human drama Drone, while Suri Noelle, the 20-year-old daughter of famous Hollywood actors Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes, is making her acting debut at the Fringe - in an adaptation of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, titled Midsummer!

And finally, Hollywood star Anna Kendrick has been spotted around Edinburgh over the past couple of days, here to support her partner, Emmy-winning comedian Alex Edelman, who is performing at The Pleasance for the next two weeks.

Phew!

Irvine and the menopause

Trainspotting author Irvine Welsh proved himself to be an enlightened man when he took a front row seat at Mariella Frostrup’s show, Cracking The Menopause, at Gilded Balloon’s Teviot.

Taking to Mariella’s social media afterwards, Irvine admitted he was “mainly there to accompany [his] wife”, but told the broadcaster that he was impressed with the show “pushing back on our ignorance of this”.

“It’s pretty crazy and obscene how the life of 50 per cent of the population has been demonised,” he said. “Our culture shouldn’t be trivialising and marginalising what’s going on with people’s health.”

Mariella replied: “You are a GOOD husband. Thank you.”

The most quirky venue at the Fringe?

One festival show has been taking place this week in what should possibly win an award for being the Fringe’s most quirky venue.

The world premiere of Tiny Apocalypses has been shown in Barnton Bunker, a once-abandoned Cold War-era nuclear bunker in the capital, which has been under restoration.

The production is also a fundraiser for the ongoing restoration and charitable work carried out by the Barnton Bunker Preservation Society. Volunteers from the community have helped craft the set and the hand-painted art pieces that appear throughout the show.

The show is billed as an experimental meditation on living despite grief, facing one’s inner demons, and learning to say goodbye. Very apt.