Children of the Sea, a theatre company comprising victims of the Boxing Day tsunami and civil war, has travelled across the world from Sri Lanka, to bring its latest production "Finding Marina'' to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
"Finding Marina'' is loosely based on Shakespeare's great tragedy "Romeo and Juliet'' and iis a tale of land and sea and of childhood lost in a war-torn land. It is a story about protecting innocence, of discovering paradise and of setting children free. After the success of Children of the Sea at last year's Festival Fringe - winning the Scotsman Fringe First Award and the Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award - the company has returned with a spectacular production of dance, music and song devised and directed by Toby Gough.
Just two days after the show opened, pop princess Kylie Minogue, who sponsors cast member Amali Range, made a surprise visit to the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh to meet the cast and watch their performance.
Since August 2005, Children of the Sea has toured to displaced people's camps in Sri Lanka and Thailand performing more than 75 shows to over 150,000 people. In Sri Lanka the cast evolved to include war affected children and orphans from the civil war and organisers witnessed for themselves how many youngsters were involved in the conflict against their will, abducted and used as child soldiers or recruited to carry out suicide missions. It brings together Sinhalese and Tamil children for the first time. As the theatre company toured southern Thailand the plight of the Sea Gypsies, a nomadic community in the Andaman Sea, came to the fore. In Finding Marina the story of children of war and the Sea Gypsies become one.
With choreography by Bollywood guru Terence Lewis and starring Rawiri Paratene who played Koro in the award-winning film "Whalerider'', Finding Marina is proving popular with audiences of all ages.
Finding Marina will be performed at the Garden each evening between 8.30pm and 10pm until August 28.