Two dramatically different takes on the independence referendum by big names of Scottish theatre were centre stage at Edinburgh’s Assembly Rooms yesterday at the start of the Fringe, the world’s largest arts festival.

MacBraveheart is a black comedy set in a post-indy Scotland of bleakness and infighting featuring national heroes such as William Wallace, Robert the Bruce and Rabbie Burns.

Writer and director Philip Differ said: “I have long wondered who we would fight with if all other targets of our wrath were removed.

“So I tried to take iconic Scottish figures and set them in an extreme post-indy landscape to answer that question.”

In David Hayman’s pro-indy The Pitiless Storm the renowned actor and director plays a left-wing trade unionist facing a crisis of conscience on the eve of next month’s referendum.

Both shows are produced by political promotions company Fair Pley, which runs events for the labour and trade-union movement including the Scottish TUC.

They are just two of 3,193 shows in this year’s biggest-ever Festival Fringe which runs till August 25.