Move over Royal Highland Show – we are ready for the Festival now

We seem to have had so many things to see and do over the last couple of weeks. Most recently the Royal Highland Show finished today at Ingliston, and now we are looking forward to August when the Festival willfield vast shows at Royal Highland Centre

Three shows impossible to stage in conventional theatres are waiting in the wings as the2012 Royal Highland Show draws to a close at the Royal Highland Centre, Ingliston.

An expert 80 strong team will transform the 4,500 square metres of Lowland Hall into a theatre space for Edinburgh International Festival 2012. Over 50 tonnes of set will also be put in place for three productions by a roll call of world-leading directors.

In an epic undertaking, all three sets will be built alongside each other, beginning on July 26 ready in just 16 days for the first performance on August 11 – 2008: Macbeth.

An enormous three-storey construction with multimedia screens is the set for  a stunning multi-media take on the Scottish play.2008:Macbeth relocates Shakespeare’s work to a contemporary and brutal Middle East in a production from Warsaw-based director Grzegorz Jarzyna and TR Warszawa.

In the year The Artist has taken cinemas by storm, a spectacular fantasy about the early days of silent movies and an amateur’s attempts to shoot a film is just the beginning of Les Naufragés du Fol Espoir (Aurores). This complex, beautifully designed show is brought to the Scottish capital by Théâtre du Soleil and Ariane Mnouchkine, the legendary French director whose work has not been seen in the UK for more than 20 years.

Audrey Hepburn and Rex Harrison it’s not. With a soundtrack that includes Bryan Adams, George Michael and Wagner, a hilarious and surreal version of My Fair Lady, Meine faire Dame – ein Sprachlabor opens at Lowland Hall on 14 August and is the UK debut for director Christoph Marthaler.  Fife-born actor Graham Valentine – a star of musical theatre in mainland Europe – plays both Eliza Doolittle and Professor Higgins in a rare UK appearance.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rz1afc6cuDg&w=560&h=315]

Over 3000 artists from 47 nations will gather in the Scottish capital this year for Edinburgh International Festival 2012 (Thursday 9 August to Sunday 2 September) to share the live experience of theatre, dance, opera and music with audiences from approximately a third of the world’s nations.

This very special project for 2012 has been supported by The City of Edinburgh Council, Creative Scotland and EventScotland.

The three plays are also part of the London 2012 Festival, a UK wide festival from 21 June – 9 September 2012 featuring leading artists from around the world.