The Edinburgh Fringe Festival, now in its 61st year, was instigated by a handful of performers who couldn't get a booking on the Festival itself: with over 2,000 shows (for the first time ever), and 31,000 performances, it now dwarfs the parent which spawned it. Here Gordon Rutter presents the first part of his pick of Fringe shows with fortean themes.

Mephistopheles Smith @ St Augustine's
Written by Rocky Horror creator Richard O’Brien, Mephistopheles Smith stars Paul Roberts (former lead singer with The Stranglers) as an Evangelist for Hell, tempting us to visit Club Inferno – an altogether more hip and happening place than anything Heaven can offer. Smith, backed by two singing Devilettes, spends his time comparing life 'down there' with life on Earth and life 'up there' – basically he reckons Heaven is alright if you like lying around on fluffy clouds, but that’s about it.

Decent performances all round lead to an enjoyable event, but the whole show does not have the instant appeal of Rocky Horror and there are no songs that immediately leap out and grab you by the throat. In fact, the most memorable song, 'Anyhow, Anyhow', was previously used in the much-underrated sequel to Rocky Horror, Shock Treatment. On the night I attended there were some unfortunate instances of other shows' material coming through the sound system: although the cast coped well with this distraction, it wasn't the first night and such problems should already have been sorted.

Xenu is Loose! Cower puny Humans as the Dark Prince of the Galactic Federation rains Atomic Death once more upon your Pitiful Planet - The Musical! @ C venue
Surely winning the award for longest title, downstairs in the C venue on Chambers Street is a show which garnered quite a bit of publicity even before it opened. The newspaper Scotland on Sunday reported that the Church of Scientology was urging people to stay away, and that they had not yet decided what action to take but that picketing the production seemed a strong possibility. In the end, as far as I could see, the Church of Scientology decided to take no action whatsoever, other than calling the entire company a bunch of kooks - praise indeed!

The show is a rock and roll musical about Scientology’s methods and past history. We get zombies, Xenu reigning down death and destruction, flirty fishing, and people being drawn into - oops, I was going to say a cult! - alternative beliefs. It all sounds fantastic, but I’m afraid it isn’t: it’s watchable, I didn’t feel as if I wanted to pull my eyes out (unlike Battlefield Earth, John Travolta’s adaptation of the L. Ron Hubbard novel), but it should be so much better. Perhaps irate Scientologists leaping up to denounce it halfway through the performance would be of benefit! And if you’re wondering what the 75,000,000-year-old Xenu looks like, think of Jean-Luc Picard’s clone in Star Trek Nemesis. With blue make-up.

Miracles @ Scottish Storytelling Centre
This joint production between Go4It Youth Theatre and Theatre Objektive was well worth taking a chance on. Despite the fact that it was a youth theatre production, all involved were a lot more professional than members of some of the other companies that have offerings in the Fringe. The show, not unsurprisingly, has as its main theme miracles - from the truly miraculous, like the beginning of life, to the more prosaicly unlikely, like certain football clubs winning the cup this season. With its reliance on co-ordinated movement and imagery, this was more performance art than theatre, with oft-repeated quotes from David Hume and St Augustine and a good, solid pace. It provided no answer as to what miracles are, but asked plenty of questions about what they are to individuals and to the universe as a whole. An enjoyable diversion.

Merrick (Tales of the Elephant Man) @ St Augustine’s
An old fortean favourite, enacted by pupils of Beacon Preparatory School, who all performed well, particularly the actors who played Treves and Merrick. A simple stage set and no attempt at disfiguring make-up enhanced the performances, and the show provided a good overview of Merrick’s life. One small complaint: sticking to one or other version of Merrick’s first name would have been preferable (initially the alternatives were used interchangeably, a confusion ultimately explained as, “he was christened Joseph but prefers John”). But this is a minor quibble, and it didn’t spoil a good show.

Curse of the Werewolf by Venue2Venue, @ Rocket, Demarco Roxy Art House
The front room of a mansion house on a remote island was the setting for this performance by an enthusiastic group of young actors of a tale of family curses, Machiavellian machinations and outrageous accents. At times, it was laugh-out-loud funny, but overall Curse of the Werewolf was just a little too long as it worked its way towards an obvious ending. The show was very much in the style of Ripping Yarns, and probably would have benefited from choosing the 30-minute format employed successfully by Palin and Jones. With the right material this company could have an excellent play on their hands.


Almost Haunted @ St Augustine’s
It’s a familiar premise: a TV crew descend on a location to make a live broadcast about the ghosts that the resident psychic picks up. From the indecision about the colour of the ghost - is she a grey lady, or beige, or Jamaican ginger? - to the trails of Jaffa cakes laid out in an attempt to entice her to put in an appearance, Almost Haunted provided an hour of hilarity. There wasn’t much of a story - pushy people, friendly rivalry, and different takes on what the truth is, and on its often uneasy relationship with the requirements of entertainment - but some truly outrageous accents, coupled with great performances and a behind-the-scenes view which many of us suspect is closer to the truth than anyone will admit, made for an excellent show.