Madonna and child
As mentioned previously, nothing boosts a Fringe show like a celebrity endorsement.
But something tells me Madonna isn't going to give her blessing to .
The show is about the singer's attempts to adopt a little girl from the country, a sister for her first adopted child David Banda.
It's all a bit mad - African song and dance interspersed with reworkings of the singer's own songs (Like a Prayer is the big opening number).
Madonna is portrayed by a tall, Malawian man in a blonde wig who makes Madge look like a pussycat.
Performers wearing giant nappies and T-shirts proclaiming "adopt Me" simply add to the surreal experience.
But according to the cast, it's no more surreal than the experience of Madonna arriving in the first place.
"Half the people didn't know who she was," says Mishek Mzumara.
"She went to see one chief and he had to be shown her picture on a T-shirt to work out who she was."
One of the cast even lost his job because of the Madonna roadshow.
Shombi Bandi was appearing with a dance show at Kumbali Lodge Cultural Troupe when he met Madonna and worked with her.
When he was approached about the Edinburgh show, he couldn't resist giving a few snippets of gossip about her entourage, and was promptly sacked by the Lodge.
"I hope they'll give him his job back," says director Toby Gough,"especially if this show is a success. Madonna clearly instils a lot of fear in people in Malawi."
Behind the comedy, the show also considers the serious issue of whether Madonna, or indeed any wealthy Western person, ought to be able to adopt Malawian children so easily.
It's an issue which has divided the country and the cast of the show.
Since both Madonna's adopted children have family still in the country, many feel the singer should have stayed in Malawi and that the whole process was too hasty.
But others say the country must consider the wider picture of a country which has more than 1.5 million children in its orphanages.
During the show's Malawi run, audiences were encouraged to take part in an aftershow debate.
The plan is to poll audiences in Edinburgh as they leave.
Not London’s South Bank, but the south bank of the River Clyde in Glasgow - every bit as lively in cultural terms as its namesake. I’m Pauline McLean, Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Scotland’s arts correspondent, and I’ll be blogging here about arts events and issues happening across the country.
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