News

Artists, performers, creatives and their communities from across Scotland will have their work presented as part of this year’s Made in Scotland Showcase at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The 2024 programme will welcome 14 shows from all over the country across a range of dance, music, theatre and interdisciplinary work. With international audiences, industry and media visiting, the artists and performers will enjoy a unique opportunity to present their work with the potential of taking it to audiences across the world. 

Established in 2009, Made in Scotland has supported 273 shows to date, has nurtured and encouraged international creative dialogue, and has been the catalyst for many exciting international collaborations. 

This year’s showcase reflects the changing landscape of expression across the nation with traditional forms like theatre, which Scotland is known for, to new multidisciplinary works where voices in new forms are finding emerging audiences. Themes explored include international music collaboration, a musical love story, a Wild West dance spectacular, intergenerational ideas of masculinity, deforestation tackled in a miniature opera and life in the community after incarceration.

The selected works will be performed across ten venues throughout Edinburgh, including the Traverse Theatre, Summerhall, Assembly@ Dance Base, the Scottish Storytelling Centre and Assembly Roxy; other spaces include live music venue The Queens Hall and club La Belle Angele. Fringe-specific venues also include ZOO Southside, Assembly George Square and New Town Church.

Made in Scotland's Onward Touring fund has supported over 100 productions in visiting more than 40 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 Creative Scotland. 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.

Angus Robertson, Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, said: “Scotland has a rich, internationally-renowned cultural heritage, and in bringing some of our best new talent to audiences around the world, the Made in Scotland Showcase highlights how that legacy continues to evolve in new and inspiring ways.

“The Scottish Government is committed to enhancing the international presence of our culture sector and we’re therefore proud to have supported this year’s showcase with £550,000 funding through our Expo fund, which is designed to help festivals innovate and maximise national and international opportunities for the artists who contribute to them.”
 
Shona McCarthy, Chief Executive, Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, said: “The Made in Scotland showcase is a chance for our finest performing talent to be seen internationally and is an incredibly important platform for Scottish artists to have their work performed and promoted. All the works are chosen for the showcase by an international panel of experts and then presented at the Fringe to arts industry professionals from across the globe with a view to future touring and a life beyond the Fringe. Every year I’m amazed by the talent and creativity that make up the Made in Scotland showcase and I am proud that it has become a model of showcasing talent that other countries have recreated.”

Laura Mackenzie-Stuart, Head of Theatre at Creative Scotland, said: “This year’s Showcase features exceptional Scottish talent, compelling writing and breathtaking staging, ready to captivate audiences at home and abroad. The Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund is at the core of the incredibly valuable Made in Scotland initiative enabling the development and international reach of Scottish dance, theatre and music through unique networking opportunities with promoters, increasing the diversity of international promoters at the festivals, fostering creative dialogue, and supporting international collaborations. As a proud partner with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Federation of Scottish Theatre and Scottish Music Centre, we’re confident that this year’s broad spectrum of productions, representing a variety of age and audience, will broadcast the high-quality work from Scotland far and wide on the global stage.”

Fiona Sturgeon Shea, CEO of Federation of Scottish Theatre, said: “International collaboration and the vibrant exchange of ideas have always been cornerstones of the performing arts in Scotland. At FST, we’re delighted to continue our partnership in Made in Scotland, which shines a light on just some of the innovative, entertaining and meaningful live performance created and produced by artists living and working here. The valuable work of these artists enriches the global conversation at a time when this is more essential than ever.”

Gill Maxwell, Executive Director, Scottish Music Centre, said: “We are proud to partner in the Made in Scotland Showcase again, presenting an array of music shows and styles that highlight the talent and aspirations of composers, songwriters, musicians and artists working in Scotland today on the world stage. There is an incredible selection of work on offer this year from across Scotland, from a collaborative project between international musicians based in Scotland who have experienced displacement and migration, music that explores the challenge of returning home from prison and re-integration to uplifting and inspirational Orcadian music."

2024 Made in Scotland programme 

The Other

Recommended age guideline: all ages
Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre, Venue 30
Dates: 14 – 16 August
Times: 15:15, 18:45
60 mins
Category: Music

This is a collaborative project between musicians from Scotland, those who have experienced displacement and migration, to explore the music of different cultures through developing compositions based on the diversity of the many ethnic origins of people who now live in Scotland. With support from Creative Scotland’s Creative Development fund, and the EPAD Practice Support Fund, The Others brought together eight incredible musicians to work on five compositions as a means to launching this project in 2021. Those involved come from Scotland, Iran, Chile and Brazil.

Stumped 

By Lewis Coenen-Rowe
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: Scottish Storytelling Centre, Venue 30
Dates: 02, 04, 06, 08, 11, 13 August 
Time: 18:45
40 / 60 mins 
Category: Interdisciplinary

STUMPED is a miniature-scale contemporary opera designed to be performed in intimate spaces with a small number of performers. STUMPED explores the issue of deforestation through scenes from five very ancient stories from various times and places that all centre on what happens when you mess with trees. These old stories alternate with conversations between two users of an internet forum on an overnight work binge. Gradually, the two worlds begin to merge. 

The Show for Young Men

By Eoin McKenzie in Association with Imaginate
Recommended age guideline: 8+
Venue: Dance Base, Venue 22
Dates: 02, 03, 07 – 10, 14 – 17, 21 – 24 August
Time: 17:30
60 mins
Category: Interdisciplinary

The Show For Young Men (TSFYM) is a brilliant new co-created performance for young audiences by Eoin McKenzie (Associate Artist, Platform; Accelerator Artist, Imaginate 22/23), presented in association with prestigious Scottish theatre and dance organisation, Imaginate, and devised in collaboration with critically-acclaimed dancemaker Robbie Synge (Ensemble, Made in Scotland Showcase, 2019; Men & Girls Dance, Fevered Sleep, 2016) and young performer Alfie (The Show for Young Men, 23/24). Created with and for young men, TSFYM is both an astounding piece of contemporary performance for young audiences and an urgent political interrogation that proudly presents new possibilities for men of all ages. 

A History of Paper (world premiere)

Dundee Rep Theatre and Traverse Theatre
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: Traverse Theatre, Venue 15
Dates: 01 (preview), 02 – 04, 06 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 25 August 
Time: 20:30
80 mins
Category: Theatre

A HISTORY OF PAPER is a new piece of musical theatre produced by Dundee Rep Theatre. Written by Oliver Emanuel (book and lyrics) and Gareth Williams (music), A History of Paper is a musical love story based on paper and people who love paper. Under the co-direction of Andrew Panton, Artistic Director of Dundee Rep Theatre, and a guest co-director, the intimate work is a small-scale chamber musical featuring two performers and a pianist – ‘comic feelgood tearjerker about a man and a woman and the bits of paper that can mean so much’. 

Love Beyond (Act of Remembrance)

Raw Material Arts Ltd and Vanishing Point
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: Assembly George Square, Venue 8
Dates: 12 (preview), 13, 15 – 18, 20 – 25 August 
Time: 12:15
75 mins
Category: Theatre

Love Beyond (Act of Remembrance) is a theatre production written and performed by acclaimed deaf theatre maker Ramesh Meyyappan along with three other cast members and directed by Matthew Lenton (Vanishing Point). Harry has dementia. He also uses sign language. As he moves into a new care home, he is accompanied by memories that dance like ghosts around him. Events from the past seem newly present; a visit from his wife rekindles their love – he imagines they are young and together again. Harry’s carer provides him with some solace, but just as the determined nurse begins to learn Harry’s sign language, he begins to forget it, leaving him in a unique world where he must confront the only thing that remains – himself. 

June Carter Cash: The Woman, Her Music and Me

National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron Theatre Company
Recommended age guideline: 16+
Venue: Summerhall, Venue 26 
Dates: 02 – 04 (previews), 06 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 24 August 
Time: 16:20
80 mins
Category: Theatre

June is a new autobiographical play with songs by Charlene Boyd. June is a character study of how women, ground down by life, endure, exploring working-class stereotypes, motherhood, ambition and failure, through the paralleling of Charlene’s experiences as a divorced mother and artist, with the life of legendary country music star June Carter Cash. Directed by Cora Bissett, this co-production between the National Theatre of Scotland and Grid Iron Theatre Company will welcome audiences to an intimate, transformed space, designed by Shona Reppe. Cabaret-style seating and table settings will recreate the feeling of attending a gig in Nashville's legendary Bluebird Cafe, the hatchery for superstar country musicians.

Through the Mud

Steller Quines and Royal Lyceum Theatre
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Summerhall, Venue 26
Dates: 01 (preview), 02 – 06, 08 – 11, 13 – 18, 20 – 25 
Time: 17:55
70 mins
Category: Theatre

Through the Mud is written by American-born, Edinburgh-based writer and performer Apphia Campbell, directed by Stellar Quines artistic director Caitlin Skinner, and produced by Stellar Quines and the Lyceum Theatre. The play follows young college student Ambrosia Rollins, played by Tinashe Warikandwa, who is starting college near Ferguson in 2014, just a few weeks after Michael Brown is killed by a police officer. Ambrosia, unaware of the significance of the political events she finds herself in, is confronted by present and past struggles for black liberation as she becomes involved in the beginnings of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. 

Puddles and Amazons

By Guy Woods
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Summerhall, Venue 26
Dates: 01 (preview), 02 – 26 August 
Time: 16.40
50 mins
Category: Theatre

Puddles and Amazons is a one-person piece of experimental storytelling theatre. Originally produced at the Tron Theatre, this 50-minute production is a fast-paced comedy / drama using live sound creation, and is designed for young people. One in two LGBTQI+ people experience depression (source: mentalhealth.org) and suicide is the largest killer of men under 45 in the UK (source: ONS). As queer artists, we want to move away from often severe depictions of queerness, and bring an unconventional, absurd perspective to stories of grief and boyhood. 

Common is as Common Does: A Memoir

21 Common
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Zoo Southside, Venue 82
Dates: 02 – 10, 13 – 17 August
Time: 12:30
60 mins
Category: Dance

This dance spectacular mashes feats of physical endurance with the end of the night at the Grand Ole Oprey. Using tropes of a Western movie, it explores how experience of poverty and violence can shape a man. Both challenging and wildly entertaining, this will make an excellent addition to the showcase and demonstrate the ground-breaking calibre of contemporary Scottish artists.

Futuristic Folktales

By Charlotte Mclean
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: Assembly @ Dance Base Venue 22
Dates: 13 – 18 August 
Time: 15:50
60 mins
Category: Dance

Futuristic Folktales is a new dance-theatre production from Charlotte Mclean and Collaborators telling the tentative tale of the first womb, humbly attempting to unify humanity through the universal narrative of birth. The work questions the preservation of tradition and myth using contemporary, breaking and Scottish Highland dance, as well as storytelling and song. Through these performative mediums, the work politicises and critiques borders, body politics and reproductive justice. Futuristic Folktales is a trio-work performed by actor (Chanai Bradley Fofanah), dancer (Orrow Bell) and break-dancer (Astro Raiz Jorge Scheidegger).

The Flock & Moving Cloud

Scottish Dance Theatre
Recommended age guideline: 12+
Venue: Zoo Southside Venue 82
Dates: 13 (preview), 14 – 18, 20 – 25 August 
Time: 18:20
70 mins
Category: Dance

Scottish Dance Theatre returns to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2024 with a thrilling double-bill programme, celebrating Scotland’s rich cultural heritage and outward-looking spirit. After five years of absence, the full company returns to the festival to present a joyous and virtuosic evening of live music and dance, conceived for the Fringe and engaging for both the contemporary dance connoisseur and the complete dance novice.

The Last Forecast

By Bridie Gane
Recommended age guideline: 6+
Venue: Dance Base, Venue 22
Dates: 03, 04, 06 – 11,  13 – 18  
Time: 13:15
40 mins
Category: Dance

The Last Forecast tells the story of Gail, a gecko-like creature who happily lives alone on an island, in harmony with the surroundings. Everything matches, everything is perfect. Unfortunately, Gail is not alone for long. A stranger arrives, laden with earthly belongings and starts setting up home, disturbing this island sanctuary. However, the forecast is for rising water levels and soon there won’t be space for either of them…

Hert (world premiere)

By Catriona Price 
Recommended age guideline: 
Venue: La Belle Angele, Venue 301; The Queen’s Hall, Venue 72; New Town Church, Venue 111
Dates: 12, 14, 16 August 
Times: 20:00, 20:30, 14:30
120 mins
Category: Music

Hert (Orcadian Scots for ‘heart’) is an original 45-minute suite of music in nine movements for nine musicians by Orcadian violinist and composer Catriona Price. Through the piece Catriona explores the changing meaning of ‘home’ – delving into what her motherland of Orkney means to her now that she is looking upon it with adult eyes. The parts of it she loves and celebrates, is proud of, is disillusioned by, things she didn’t notice when she was a child growing up in the island bubble, and the things that she misses. Initially inspired by George Mackay Brown’s iconic Orcadian writing, she dug deeper and chose seven more Orcadian writers as inspiration for the music.

A Giant on the Bridge 

Co-created and performed by Louis Abbott,
Kim Grant, Jo Mango and Solareye with Phil Crockett Thomas, Rachel Sermanni and members of the Distant Voices Community
Recommended age guideline: 14+
Venue: Assembly Roxy Central, Venue 139
Dates: 02 – 18 August 
Time: 10:40
80 mins
Category: Music

AGOTB is a bold performance of heart-wrought songs and urgent stories, animating five perspectives on prison homecoming. Critically acclaimed singer-songwriters Louis Abbott (Admiral Fallow), Rachel Sermanni / Raveloe (in February performances), Jo Mango, Jill O'Sullivan with rapper Solareye give horizon-expanding performances in this unique narrative gig. AGOTB developed from a five-year research project to explore the challenge of returning home from prison and re-integration (Distant Voices: Coming Home).

Thumbnail photo credit: Photographer Colin Hattersley. The Official Made Showcase 2024 Launch featuring performers Robbie Synge and Alfie (age 10) from The Show for Young Men.