Boxed In Theatre Company at the Greenhouse at Edinburgh Fringe

The Greenhouse venue tucked away in a corner of the grounds of Dynamic Earth for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival is built entirely from found and recycled materials as are the set and props. After the festival is finished, these materials will be recycled or donated to other artists who will use them for their work.

It is the Edinburgh Fringe home to Boxed In, a young theatre company who are staging nine shows every day plus talks and workshops, all focussed on the human relationship with the environment. They won't be producing tonnes of paper marketing materials either, taking a more digital approach to getting the word out. You can read their environmental mission statement here. They are commited to access for all too as you can read here and tickets for all shows are £5.00 while workshops are free.

Today I went there to see Shellshock, a musical about a young woman, Shelly (Alex Duckworth) who lands what she thinks is her dream job as a environmental intern at a big oil company only to find that what the company wants from her isn't quite what she thought. Can she maintain her own values or will she be sucked into basically greenwashing the company's actions or will she be drawn into sabotage? Very well acted and sung, very entertaining and thought provoking, occasionally silly and featuring an ancient turtle (or is it?).

Well worth seeing, though you may want to take a cushion as the seating isn't entirely comfortable, being wooden benches against a wooden wall. Shellshock is showing every day (except Tuesdays) until 26 August - you can buy tickets here.

After the show I wandered along the wildflower meadows round the Scottish Parliament, which were full of bees and hoverflies

and then I attempted to get home through the centre of town, which is quite another story.