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Pity poor actors Keith Fleming and Gail Watson.

Not only do they have to fake some bumping and grinding on the bar of Edinburgh's Barony Bar as part of their performance Barflies.

But there's also the daunting prospect of Alan Rickman sitting right in the front row.

They seemed to take it in their stride though.

Another vintage performance from Scots theatre company Gridiron whose past work has been performed everywhere from a playground (Decky Does a Bronco) to the airport (Roam).

This time, they've acquired one of the capital's most impressively atmospheric bars, and returned its pre-smoking ban fug, for a riveting adaptation of three stories by American writer Charles Bukowski.

Fleming plays Bukowski's alter-ego Henry, a hard-bitten drunken writer, who rails at the world from the end of his bar stool.

Gail Wilson plays the string of women in his life, swapping roles as easily as she swings in and out of the doors of the pub.

It's funny, and dark and surreal - a fan tears out her heart and sends it spinning down the bar at one stage, Henry is reduced to a six inch figure by his domineering ex-wife - no ordinary night in the pub.

It doesn't glorify drink or drunkenness in any way.

If anything, those of us who ordered an alcoholic drink with our ticket (part of the admission price) find ourselves guiltily sipping as the central characters binge and belch and splash drinks over each other.

It's not an advert for a night in the pub - although the Barony is a lovely old example - but it is a great advert for the health of Scottish theatre on the Fringe this year.