A festival within a festival (within THE festival, aka almost everything happening in Edinburgh in August), Made in Scotland is a showcase of the best new Scottish theatre work showing at the festival. This year’s programme will see 21 works of theatre, dance and music performed across the city, many of them for the first time. Here are five highlights.
A Gambler’s Guide to Dying
Photo: Jassy Earl
Gary McNair, creator of last year’s Traverse hit 'Donald Robertson is Not a Stand-Up Comedian', returns to Edinburgh with a story that’s effortlessly compelling just on it simple premise; that of a man who wins a fortune betting on the 1966 World Cup, is diagnosed with cancer, and bets it all on living until the year 2000.
Traverse Theatre, 6-30 Aug (not Mondays)
A Requiem For Edward Snowden
Produced by Magnetic North and Edinburgh sound artist Matthew Collings, this live audio-visual piece for electronic music with clarinet and a string section is based on themes conjured by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden’s story, including loss of privacy, personal sacrifice and loss of faith and security.
Stockbridge Parish Church, 20-22 Aug
Silver Darlings
Edinburgh novelist and recent Wodehouse Prize winner Alexander McCall Smith’s presence as one of the creative forces behind this musical piece should make it a hit. A collaboration with composer James Ross, it’s a folk-tinged reflection on Scotland and her relationship with the sea.
Famous Spiegeltent, 20, 23 and 24 Aug
The Jennifer Tremblay Trilogy
Maureen Beatty in The Carousel
The first two of these plays by Quebecoise writer Jennifer Tremblay have been seen in recent times at the Edinburgh Festival, and here Scotland’s highly-regarded Stellar Quines company produces this journey into womanhood – made up of 'The List', 'The Carousel' and the previously unseen in 'Scotland The Deliverance' – as a trilogy for the first time. Maureen Beattie stars.
Assembly Roxy, 6-31 Aug
Tomorrow
Photo: Humberto Araujo
A meditation on the nature of care in contemporary life, this major new production from Scottish company Vanishing Point can perhaps be best advertised by the list of collaborators and co-producers. It’s been created by Vanishing Point, Brighton Festival, Glasgow’s Tramway and Brazil’s Cena Contemporanea, in association with Moscow’s Stanislavsky Season Festival, Sao Paulo’s SESC and Platform in Easterhouse, Glasgow, developed with the support of the National Theatre Studio in London.
Traverse Theatre, 11-30 Aug