News

This summer the 2023 Made in Scotland Showcase will feature 18 shows across a range of venues throughout Edinburgh. Audiences can experience a full spectrum of performance styles from an excellent selection of world-class Scottish work across artforms and genres, all ready to benefit from the Fringe as a springboard to reach new international audiences. Established in 2009, this essential programme of work has supported 259 shows, and has nurtured and encouraged international creative dialogue and been the catalyst for many exciting international collaborations.

The onward touring fund component has supported over 100 productions in visiting over forty countries, providing an unparalleled opportunity to showcase Scottish work around the world. This level of engagement would not have been possible without ongoing support from the Scottish Government’s Festivals EXPO Fund. Through this support, the vibrancy and vitality of Scotland’s cultural landscape will be proudly on display during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe this August. From established, and award-winning companies, to new work from world class performers, audiences will be captivated by this year’s Made in Scotland programme.

The selected works will be performed across nine venues, including the Traverse Theatre, Summerhall, Dance Base and the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Other spaces include Edinburgh’s Central Library, the National Museum of Scotland, St Vincent’s and the Gillie Dhu bar. Fringe-specific venues also include Greenside, ZOO and theSpace.

The programme will see a variety of new work take flight on home ground, but ready to travel as Made in Scotland helps steer international audiences and programmers towards world-class Scottish work. Audiences will be encouraged to explore the different genres and performance styles, with themes exploring serious topics such as life and death, loss, violence and addiction; as well as everyday life through emerging parenthood and family. Other performances will explore how Scottish traditions embody our culture, whilst also questioning, what makes a country?

The Made in Scotland showcase is made possible through funding from the Scottish Government’s Festivals Expo Fund and is a partnership between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Creative Scotland, the Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Scottish Music Centre.

Christina McKelvie, Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, said: 'This incredible programme – supported by the Scottish Government’s Festivals Expo Fund – celebrates the excellence of homegrown theatre, dance and music, giving Scottish talent a well-earned opportunity to perform on the international stage. On top of being a world-class celebration of arts and culture, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe is one of the most important arts marketplaces on the planet, with industry members attending from around the globe; as such, performing at the Edinburgh Fringe can result in further opportunities for our artists and their work, including onward touring overseas. And of course, that spreads awareness of Scotland’s vibrant cultural heritage even wider. Together, the Fringe and Made in Scotland help nurture and encourage the exceptional creative talent that flourishes in Scotland, showcasing the creativity and innovation that’s right on our doorstep.'

Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: 'The Expo-funded Made in Scotland showcase is the main mechanism through which Scottish government supports local artists at the Edinburgh Fringe. It has been a vital platform for artists from Scotland to have their work seen, promoted and presented alongside their international peers. The works are chosen for the showcase by an international panel of experts, and then presented at the Fringe to international arts industry with a view to onward touring and a lifespan way beyond the Fringe. Every year I’m blown away by the passion, ingenuity and creativity that make up the Made in Scotland showcase; it has become a model of national showcasing that other countries have replicated. Above all it is a chance for the rest of the world to see our finest performing talent, and Scotland continually punches well above its weight artistically.’ 

Laura Mackenzie-Stuart, Head of Theatre, Creative Scotland, said: 'The 2023 Made in Scotland Showcase is a fabulous celebration of imagination and creative ambition drawn from a pool of incredible theatre, dance and music talent. We are rightly proud of the work currently being produced in Scotland and this Showcase offers a tasting menu of some of our best works which, collectively, have been selected for their readiness to head out across the world. Over the month of August we hope this eclectic mix of productions, with something for every age range, will continue a fine tradition of high quality work from Scotland catching the eye of national and international programmers.'

Fiona Sturgeon Shea, CEO of Federation of Scottish Theatre, said: 'Here at FST, we hope that our partnership within Made in Scotland continues to enable the work of Scotland's dance, theatre and opera companies and artists to be showcased to international colleagues and to audiences from all over the world visiting Edinburgh in August, and also through new and renewed international partnerships. Openness to international collaboration and exchange has always characterised the performing arts in Scotland. Made in Scotland is important in ensuring that this continues, particularly during these challenging times.'

Gill Maxwell, Executive Director, Scottish Music Centre, said: 'Made in Scotland presents a series of music shows highlighting the quality, ambition and diversity of Scotland’s composers, songwriters, musicians and artists.

'This year’s world class music programme showcases new Scottish music from across all genres, from  a truly unique collection of songs inspired by Scottish novels to an electro-acoustic debut album performance, from a vibrant music and dance fusion with Scottish / Indian influences to a haunting, atmospheric soundscape, via uplifiting Scottish traditional sounds and the thundering sound of Scotland’s most exciting informal youth orchestra.'

2023 Made in Scotland programme

Theatre and dance

AFTER ALL (world premiere)
Solène Weinachter 
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Assembly @ Dance Base Venue 22
Dates: 15 – 27 August
Category: Dance

AFTER ALL is a celebration of our vulnerable and courageous existence, Solène melds dance, comedy, storytelling, and theatre to ask – what happens in the end? 
Through a series of impassioned re-enactments of the funerals of those she’s loved – as well as imagining her own – Solène attempts to conjure a better space to be with death, dying and loss. 

Concerned Others
Tortoise in a Nutshell
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Summerhall Venue 26
Dates: 02 – 27 August
Category: Theatre

Scotland has the highest rate of drug-related deaths in Europe. One of the highest rates per head of population in the world. In communities across the country, families, loved ones, and clinicians support people experiencing substance dependency. 

Multi-award-winners Tortoise in a Nutshell present Concerned Others, an intimate tabletop performance that shares the stories of critically underheard voices. Accounts that paint us as a nation struggling to fully recognise a culture of judgement, ignorance and misunderstanding surrounding addiction and substance-related death. 

Immersive soundscapes, shoebox installations, turntables, micro- projection and 32mm figures combine to create a multi-textured piece exploring a defining crisis.

Experts Radio Lab
Alice Mary Cooper & Company
Recommended age guideline: 5+
Venue: National Museum of Scotland Venue 179
Dates: 08 – 24 August
Category: Theatre

Kids are experts. Some are experts on jumping, some on dinosaur fossils, some on making mud pies. Whatever it is, our mics are on, the interview chair is ready and we’re about to go live.

Experts Radio Lab and the accompanying Listening Station is a free, drop-in experience, set within our pop-up radio studio at the National Museum of Scotland. Interviews are shared live to an audience of fellow interviewees, their families and anyone who’s curious.

Share your expertise with us or come along and learn from the masters! You never know what you’ll learn.

Family Portrait
Barrowland Ballet
Recommended age guideline: all ages
Venue: Zoo Dovecot Venue 616
Dates: 04 – 20 August
Category: Dance

Award-winning interactive video installation full of humour, candour, joy and love. 

Join a family on a geographical and emotional journey across stunning Scottish landscapes as stories unfold. The striking choreography shares an intimate portrayal of family life. With space to roam, the children encounter rabbit skulls, converse with spiders, face-paint with berries and discover the fun of burying their mother in bark.

A celebration of getting out into nature, Family Portrait is an honest depiction of family – relentless and glorious chaos, intimacy and, most of all, love.

I Hope Your Flowers Bloom (world premiere)
Raymond Wilson presented by All the Figs
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: The Scottish Storytelling Centre Venue 30
Dates: 02 – 27 August
Category: Theatre

Flitting between romantic obsession and botanical description, this semi-autobiographical piece by Raymond Wilson offers a raw, moving and genuinely humorous exploration of healthy masculinity, self-worth and working-class access to nature. Through his friendship with Flo and her modern nomadic lifestyle, Raymond attempts to escape the greyness of the Glasgow scheme into Scotland’s natural world, with some unflinching self-reflection along the way. Developed through the Village Storytelling Festival 2022.

No Love Songs (world premiere)
Dundee Rep in association with Traverse Theatre
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Traverse Theatre Venue 15
Dates: 03 – 27 August
Category: Theatre

A new gig theatre show featuring songs by Kyle Falconer of The View. 

Inspired by the real-life experiences of Laura and Kyle, the story follows two new parents grappling with the challenges of parenthood and the weight of postnatal depression. Through a powerful blend of music, tears, and laughter, the audience is taken on a heartfelt journey as they navigate the ups and downs of their new life together. 

Songs taken from Kyle’s hit second solo album are reimagined live on stage in this new and urgent musical, capturing the essence of love, parenthood and the struggles that come with it.

Scots
A Play, A Pie, And A Pint 
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Ghillie Dhu Venue 410 
Dates: 14 – 27 August
Category: Theatre

The musical history lesson that no one asked for but everyone needs! A Play, A Pie and A Pint shares the true(ish) story of Scotland, told by a figure who’s seen it all, our greatest invention and storyteller – The Toilet! 

From award-winning duo Noisemaker, SCOTS is an irreverent and rousing musical journey through the history of Scotland, that replays some of our nation’s most iconic (and forgotten) stories to answer the fundamental question: What makes a country?

SKETCHES and GLISK
Katie Armstrong
Recommended age guideline: 8+
Venue: Assembly @ Dance Base Venue 22
Dates: 15 – 20 August
Category: Dance

In her Fringe debut, outstanding choreographer Katie Armstrong presents SKETCHES / GLISK as part of the Made in Scotland Showcase. This impressive double bill created in collaboration with multi award winning composer and DJ Mariam Rezaei, features a string quintet, a DJ and four dancers. Described as a 'beautiful whirlwind' (The Skinny) SKETCHES is a quirky reimagining of Bach’s famous Violin Concerto in A Minor. Encompassing experimental turntablism, acoustic piano, dance and visual art, GLISK is a work inspired by the dramatic landscapes around Aberdeen and the North East. This show has been programmed by Dance Base in collaboration with Assembly.

Stuntman
SUPERFAN
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Summerhall Venue 26
Dates: 02 – 25 August
Category: Theatre

An intensely physical, funny and tender duet by two men wrestling with their relationship to violence – both onscreen and off. Fusing the Pow! Biff! and Wallop! of over-the-top stunt fights with personal stories of real encounters with violence from the performers’ lives, Stuntman explores the relationship between violence and masculinity and the impact this has on our perceptions of men. A show for anyone who has ever enjoyed a violent action movie (but felt a bit weird about it).

Tales of Transatlantic Freedom
Presented by Yard Heads International and Sing Sistah Sing!
Recommended age guideline: 8+
Venue: Greenside @ Nicolson Square Venue 209
Dates: 15 – 19 August
Category: Theatre

Tales of Transatlantic Freedom is a glorious exploration of our global musical heritage. Out of the pain of the diaspora narrative comes the richness of spirituals, jazz, blues, gospel, opera and the songs of Robert Burns. From across oceans and centuries, this moving and awe-inspiring musical journey reminds audiences of our shared humanity, our cultural interconnectedness, and our potential for healing and true reconciliation.

The Grand Old Opera House Hotel (world premiere)
A Traverse Theatre Company production with Dundee Rep Theatre
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Traverse Theatre Venue 15
Dates: 04 – 27 August
Category: Theatre

When shy Aaron joins the hotel’s ramshackle team, he encounters volatile guests, inept management and even rumours of singing ghosts haunting the corridors... Amongst the madness, Aaron overhears a mysterious singer, who captures both his ears and heart, and sets about battling with the hotel’s magical chaos to find the woman who owns it, knowing they are fated to be together.

This heart-filling ensemble comedy from Olivier Award-winner Isobel McArthur (Pride and Prejudice* (*Sort Of)), directed by Gareth Nicholls (Ulster American), explores how art can bring us together in hopeless circumstances.

Music

Breabach
Nothing Ever Happens Here
Recommended age guideline: 16+
Venue: Summerhall Venue 26
Dates: 22 – 23 August
Category: Music

Current MG Alba Folk Band of the Year, Breabach are securely ranked among Scotland’s most skilled and imaginative contemporary folk acts, uniting deep Highland and Island tradition with innovative musical arrangements, songs and step dance. Their 17-year adventure includes live performances from Sydney Opera House to Central Park NY. 

Chrysanths (world premiere)
Emily Scott
Recommended age guideline: All Welcome
Venue: St Vincent’s Venue 197
Dates: 14 – 15 August
Category: Music

Modern Studies front woman Emily Scott performs new melancholy folk-tinged solo record Leave No Shadow with lush string chamber orchestra and band. 'Emily Scott’s voice is a beautiful thing. It flies like Sandy Denny, but has the wounded intimacy of Beth Gibbons and the precision of Christine McVie' (MOJO). With some of Scotland’s finest musicians united in a soaring chapel acoustic, each performance begins with a short contemporary composition and features a different spellbinding solo support by internationally-renowned Scotland-based artists LT Leif (Lost Map), Faith Eliot (OK Pal) and C Duncan (Bella Union).

Songs From The Last Page
Gareth Williams 
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre Venue 30
Dates: 14 – 18 August
Category: Music

A performance from acclaimed composer / songwriter Gareth Williams that lyrically transform iconic final pages from Scottish fiction into brand-new ‘literary chamber pop’ songs. From the melancholy mastermind of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes, to Kirsty Campbell’s joyful farewell in Ely Percy’s Duck Feet, the performance celebrates a diverse range of storytellers from across Scotland. This spellbinding collection for voice, piano and strings captures the moment a reader finishes the last lines of a book and holds it for just a few... more... minutes.

Tandava (world premiere)
Simon Thacker and Piah Dance Company
Recommended age guideline: 3+
Venue: theSpace @ Niddry St Venue 9
Dates: 18 – 26 August
Category: Music, Interdisciplinary Performance

Primal rhythmic energy and the impossible union of opposites: Tandava sees the coalescence of Scottish guitarist Simon Thacker’s startlingly passionate sound-worlds with the infinitely expressive physicality of three gifted dancers from India’s Piah Dance Company. Tandava finds exhilaration in uniting polarities: explosive guitar wizardry and stunningly intricate footwork with hauntingly beautiful melodies and delicately fluttering fingers; multi-layered choreography and ecstatic rhythms of unstoppable momentum with sounds of timeless fluidity and movements of sublime serenity. A revelatory exploration of the expressive power of the visible and invisible, dance and music.

Terre
Aurora Engine
Recommended age guideline: 8+
Venue: Summerhall Venue 26
Dates: 16 – 19 August
Category: Music

Blending collected sounds of nature with harp, voice, piano and French horn, Aurora Engine presents a series of environmentally inspired electroacoustic compositions: expect pitch-shifting blackbirds, rhythmic honey bees, ‘sonic trees’ and ocean soundscapes amongst beautiful, beguiling songs. 

Commissioned by Sound Festival (2022), this sonic exploration of Scottish landscape and wildlife invites audiences to submit voice and nature recordings in advance which will be then weaved into the performance. Fusing real instruments, voice and progressive electronica, Aurora Engine’s work encapsulates a singular and striking auditory world.

Tinderbox Orchestra
Tinderbox Collective
Recommended age guideline: 3+
Venue: Edinburgh Central Library Venue 462
Dates: 03 – 19 August
Category: Music

Bringing together rappers and singers with soaring strings, heavy brass, woodwind and a thundering back-line, Tinderbox transform preconceptions of what an orchestra can be. Packed with original music, movement and unexpected collaborations, their new show will transform Edinburgh’s iconic Central Library into a brand new music venue.
The show builds on a sold out run at the Edinburgh Fringe 2022 and a string of headline shows in London and across Scotland.

Interdisciplinary

Weathervanes
Produced by Journey to the East Productions in association with Summerhall / Eclipse and Tramway
(contains nudity)
Venue: Summerhall Venue 26
Dates: 03 – 27 August
Category: Interdisciplinary Performance

Weathervanes is an immersive-multimedia exhibit and ritual dance theatre experience – a rethinking of the beautiful and what is holy...

This mesmerising performance-installation by Jian Yi tunes into the collective psyche with audiences to create a dreaming state of mind; an architecture of queer futurity. Produced by Journey to the East Productions in association with Summerhall / Eclipse and Tramway – it features an ensemble of dancers with a live musician, and multimedia / FX created by Cryptic artist Heather Lander.

Thumbnail photo credit: Tinderbox Orchestra, Edinburgh Central Library, Made in Scotland Showcase 2023. Photographer: Colin Hattersley.