ALTHOUGH I've been reviewing productions for some 20 years, until now I have never been brave enough to venture to the world famous Edinburgh Fringe Festival, something I managed to rectify last month.

In short, if you love theatre, comedy, music or simply having a good time, the Fringe is one not to miss. It's hectic, exhausting, exhilarating, vibrant and - if you do it without the benefit of a press pass - expensive, but for anyone with an artistic bent it's certainly one of those things you have to do before you die - or get too old to tackle the hills.

And boy, are there hills in Edinburgh...hills and very long streets with venues which always seem so much further away in reality that they do on the map. It may well be easy to imagine the short walk between the Traverse Theatre and the Assembly at George Street, taking little more than moments, but when you add into the mix the crowds, the rain, the hills and let's be honest the alcohol, it's a considerable haul.

And, yet, even for someone like me who would be happy to drive the car up to bed if I could only get it through the front door, there is something addictive about the whole thing which drives you into booking shows with increasingly unfeasible distances between them, safe in the knowledge that if all else fails you can always catch one of Edinburgh's ubiquitous taxis.

Perhaps the greatest part of the Fringe's charm is that for all its kudos it hasn't lost that slightly stumbling student ethos which is strangely infectious. I'd only been in the city a day before I abandoned my traditional heels in favour of the jeans and trainers of my student days..and much to everyone's shock I even began to sling a bag over my shoulder, something I wouldn't be seen dead doing these days.

Add to the mix the fact that our accommodation for the week was a student flat just off Nicholson Square where the group of theatre managers and marketing managers I had joined for the trip would meet to discuss shows into the wee hours of the morning and I could in all honestly have been 19 again...apart that is for the grey hairs and aching limbs.

There is also a slightly student-ish attitude to the organisation, which while for the shows themselves is second to none, ensuring that audiences are ushered in and out of performances with barely a hitch, for those in need of press passes can be a little more hit and miss.

I'd been pre-warned that there could be problems with some ticket requests and that very few visits went without mishap so I was more than surprised when on my first visit to the press office I was presented with an envelope containing all the tickets I had requested. All that is that the press office could provide - others it was explained had to be allocated by the venues or production companies themselves. As a general rule, I was told, if you haven't been told you can't have a ticket, there will be one put aside for you...where you will find this however is another issue.

Safe in the knowledge that the missing tickets would be 'in the theatre press office, in the theatre information office or in the theatre box office' I would set off each day with all the enthusiasm of a Kit Williams fan in search of the golden hare, although generally it has to be said, with more success.

Thankfully, despite some puzzled looks, all my tickets were exactly where they should be and I managed to get in to every show on time - despite on one memorable occasion having a Russian clown attached to my left leg after he accosted me front of a crowd of several hundred on the Royal Mile in an incident which makes Abergavenny Pantomime Company's repeated attempts to get me on stage, pale into insignificance. If only I hadn't abandoned those heels...

With more than 2,000 shows on offer, the Edinburgh Fringe is believed to be the biggest performing arts festival in the world and it's pretty much a given that some of those performances at its 265 venues are, lets face it, not going to go much further, but there are some absolute peaches which theatre lovers should certainly look out for at local theatres in the future.

Lola: The Life of Lola Montez by Trestle Touring in collaboration with Increpacion Danza.  Georgina Roberts (Lola), Fiona Putnam (Eliza), Ricardo Garcia (Lola's Muse), Frederic Gomez (Lolita)

Now I normally enjoy this company's work and I have to say this was no exception with a brilliant performance by Georgina Roberts in the title role and some stirring dancing and guitar playing by Frederic Gomez and Ricardo Garcia which covered the 'Lola' bit pretty well.

However, and it is a fairly big however, when it came to the 'life of' bit things got a bit hazy. I think the world famous Spanish dancer, who was neither Spanish nor a dancer, caused havoc somewhere in Europe thanks to an affair with a crowned head, had an affair with Lizst, lost the love of her life in a duel or maybe over the side of a ship and had a complex relationship with her mother who may or may not have been in the cast of Riverdance. In short the performances outshone the material and it's up to you to decide whether or not that matters.

If you're a fan of lively guitar playing, noisy flamenco and tour de force performances, don't miss this, if you want to learn a lot more about Lola 'whatever Lola wants, Lola gets' Montez, then hasta la vista baby!

Maria Tecce in Viva. I admit I may have got the wrong idea about this show because I learned to drive in a Viva and was expecting something mechanical which in a strange way was what we got.

Promising to 'seduce us with song' acclaimed international chanteuse Maria sashayed her way through a eclectic collection of songs, some dramatically Spanish and some simply Spanish-ish while casting her eyes maniacally over the audience in an attempt at seduction which would set any right minded red blooded male running for cover. It felt somewhat like being promised a masterclass with Picasso to find him putting the finishing touches to a painting by numbers of a horse in a field. Imagine the Eurovision Song Contest in your gran's living room with a touch of Abigail's Party thrown in and you'll get the idea.

My Life with the Dogs: New International Encounter. Some pieces of theatre are just hard to place and this is one of them. For the first twenty minutes or so it appeared that we were set to enjoy a fairly standard comedy with some nice original touches about a young boy growing up in a not too salubrious apartment in a not too salubrious part of Moscow.

Suddenly the tone changed as four year old Ivan wandered away from his home and onto the bleak streets of his home town where, after an encounter with a paedophile he finds himself taken into the care of a pack of dogs with whom he lives for the next two years.

This, perhaps more than anything else I saw in Edinburgh, is a play which gives rise to discussion away from the theatre. Does the comedic feel of the brutal beatings Ivan's mother dishes out to him make it more powerful as the realisation suddenly hits with the force of a sharp slap, that the audience is chuckling at the sight of a four year old being brutalised by a drunken parent or does it trivialise something horrendous. To me it brings it into sharp focus in a way which quite abruptly changed the whole tone of this powerful piece, which is let down only by a weak ending.

Becoming Marilyn: Ronnie Dorsey Productions, Scamp Theatre. Former Fascinating Aida soprano Issy Van Randwyke proves once and for all that she can act as well as she can sing in this tour de force performance in which a sultry, sexy and just slightly dead, Marilyn Monroe takes to the stage for one last time to set the record straight once and for all on her previous incarnation as Norma Jeane Baker, her casting couch exploits and her rise and fall.

Punctuated by some classic musical numbers, the action reveals the insecurities and mental illness that plagued the life and career of the screen goddess, as it moves towards it inevitable climax softened by a thought provoking sting in the tale.

Izzy Van Randwyke captures the voice, pout and posture of the star, without ever tipping over into cheap imitation and the well written script provides some interesting insights into the internal battle between Marilyn and her alter-ego Norma Jeane. This is certainly one to look out for when it hopefully arrives in local venues in the future.

The Man Who Planted Trees. Puppet State Theatre Company. Now and again a show comes along which is truly memorable and The Man Who Planted Trees is without a shadow of a doubt one of those shows.

Jean Giono's tale of a French shepherd whose lifelong obsession with planting trees is skillfully told by Richard Medrington and Rick Conte - ably assisted by the most loveable puppet dog I've ever seen.

With Medrington's mellifluous voice providing the perfect vehicle for the story, the multi sensory performance uses miniature puppets and the smells of lavender and minty forest glades to create an unforgettable atmosphere which lingers far longer than the performance.

It's not often that a puppet show will leave an audience with tears in its eyes, but as the play drew to its close there was barely a dry eye among the adults - who it must be said outnumbered the children. If you see a poster for this show do not miss it, no matter what your age, It is an absolute delight.

Hugh Hughes in 360: Hoi Polloi. I have to say I was a little confused by this performance. With Hugh Hughes officially announcing himself as an 'emerging artist from Wales' and the entire performance having the feel of a stand-up show I was somewhat shocked - having failed to do my research - to discover that Hugh Hughes was in fact the theatrical creation of actor Shon Dale-Jones.

As it happens this made little difference to the performance which was engaging in its rambling nature, but I have to say failed to do much for me. The lengthy tale of the lead character's journey home to Wales after a depressing stay in London and his need to climb Snowdon in an effort to find some new perspective on life, was at times amusing but perhaps rambled on a bit too much.

Hughes - or Dale-Jones - may be likeable and certainly knows how to work an audience but by the end I just wanted to lend him the train fare so he could get to the summit and let us all go home!

Giraffes Can't Dance: Blunderbus Theatre. The sacrifices I make...sitting in an audience of four year olds at 10am watching a show about a giraffe who can't dance seems an odd way to make a living but c'est la vie.

What can I say about this show except that it's great fun and the kids loved it, especially the naughty chimps and the dignified Gerald, who yearned only to trip the light fantastic.

With lively music, colourful performances and lots of fun this is a sure fire half term treat for the whole family - there's even a Lion King-like procession to delight the audience and the off opportunity for humiliating adult audience participation, which I - obviously - avoided like the plague but certainly appealed to the hoards of children in the theatre.

Lost World: The Paper Cinema. What can I say about this except that it is beautiful, artistic and the best cure for insomnia that I've found year. Conan Doyle's classic tale of a team of explorers who find themselves in a close encounter with dinosaurs and disaster is lovingly told in a sort of live action animation. If you're old enough to remember the sort of ten minute films which used to be fillers on BBC2 at around 6pm on weekdays, you'll have some idea of what was going on...unless that is like me you'd switch them off after five minutes.

While the technique alone was enough to impress, it was sadly not enough to carry an hour long performance, which would have been more at home in an art gallery. There are few pieces of theatre which it's hard to say anything good about, but this just about fits the bill

Midsummer: Traverse Theatre Company: In complete contrast this is one of those rare pieces of theatre that it's hard to say anything bad about. Billed as a play with music, Midsummer provides one of those evenings where times flies. Helena, played by Cora Bissett, is a hard hitting, spoiled Edinburgh solicitor who under normal circumstances would have nothing whatsoever to do with petty criminal Bob (Matthew Pidgeon).

However, she does...in fact in a drunken one night stand, she has quite a lot to do with him, which after a series of complications and confusions ends with the ill-matched pair spending Midsummer night tonight in Edinburgh as she attempts to escape her unhappy life and he tries to escape his unhappy boss, who may or may not have murderous intentions.

With all the music - and all the characters - played by the two talented performers, the play avoids the obvious rom-com pitfalls and by the last moments the whole audiences was routing for his unlikely twosome and urging them to stay together. If there has to be a pick of the Fringe, this should surely be up there with the top contenders.

Nouvelles Folies: Fiat Lux. After some lukewarm reviews I wasn't looking forward to this production hugely, but as we all know you can never believe reviews and I was pleasantly surprised. Not that I should have been, Fiat Lux is one of France's best known companies and Nouvelles Folies has been around for some ten years so they've had time to perfect it.

The piece revolves around a young Parisian couple who arrive in a Breton seaside resort and despite their best efforts to fit in with the locals, show how far apart their lives really are. Packed with all those French cultural references we've come to love - Breton jerseys, spitting, smoking and dodgy hygiene - the show creates not so much belly laughs - although there are a few - but constant smiles and certainly provided me with a lighthearted end to my Edinburgh adventure.