The Scottish Storytelling Centre is the world's first purpose-built centre for the live art of storytelling, situated in the heart of Edinburgh's High Street. Three event spaces (Netherbow Theatre, Storytelling Court and George Mackay Brown Library) hosting live storytelling, music, theatre, dance, family events and exhibitions, alongside the thriving Haggis Box Café, John Knox House museum and a beautiful collection in the storytelling bookshop. A warm welcome for all!

'Allow me to give you some advice, Billy...' Alan Bissett, award-winning creator of Fringe hit The Moira Monologues, takes on the dual roles of two Scottish cultural giants, speculating what (might’ve!) happened when Billy Connolly attended the launch for Alasdair Gray’s 1981 masterpiece, Lanark. Bissett unearths the origin stories of these Glasgow geniuses, exploring their struggles and their art in an ultimately uplifting tale of triumph against the odds. 'An absolute classic of Scottish working-class comedy' (Scotsman, on the Moira Trilogy). Longlisted for the Sir Billy Connolly Spirit of Glasgow Award 2025. Directed by Kirstin McLean.

When Billy Met Alasdair

Estelle models for The Artist. Despite decades of experience, she has never sat for a session like this, with such an outcome – both unexpected and inevitable. LIFE is set in a drawing class. The audience is gently invited to draw or doodle during the show, or simply watch the story emerge. Drawing materials are provided with some onstage seats available at easels. LIFE is an exciting work from Maria MacDonell (Miss Lindsay’s Secret) performed with Leo MacNeill (Them is Brothers). Directed by Ben Harrison (Grid Iron). 'Beautifully written and invites curiosity’ ***** (NorthWestEnd.com). 'Innovative, unique, inspiring’ **** (CorrBlimey.uk).

LIFE

Award-winning musician’s five-star show returns. A homecoming in viola, voice, movement and storytelling. Mairi Campbell’s journey of musical discovery, from stifling classical music education, to love and danger in Mexico and discovering her roots in Cape Breton, Canada. Co-created with director Kath Burlinson and co-composer Dave Gray. ‘Consummate, visionary musicianship’ (Herald). ‘Bare, unabashed honesty… you'll feel transformed’ (ThreeWeeks). First in Mairi's Pendulum Trilogy, preceding Auld Lang Syne and Living Stone.

Mairi Campbell: Pulse (Pendulum Trilogy)

The journey begins with the discovery of an ancient mill stone on the isle of Lismore. Mairi explores the stone’s stories and mysteries, the images within it and some of the 100 drawings she made of it. A distinctive blend of live music and song with visual art, creates a rich, multi-sensory experience highlighting the mystery and beauty of everyday life. Co-created with director Kath Burlinson and co-composer Dave Gray. Fringe First winner 2024. 'Exquisite' **** (Scotsman). Third in the Pendulum Trilogy, following Pulse and Auld Lang Syne.

Mairi Campbell: Living Stone (Pendulum Trilogy)

Mairi's adventures with Scotland's most famous song. Delivered with her trademark wit and unparalleled musical ability, this funny and heartfelt show resonates with universal truths. As we learn about the song and its history, we journey with Mairi as she negotiates the politics of childhood friendships, the challenges of romantic relationships and the highs and lows of success and failure. Co-created with director Kath Burlinson and co-composer Dave Gray. ‘Voice is like no other…’ ***** (EdinburghGuide.com). Second in the Pendulum Trilogy between Pulse and Living Stone.

Mairi Campbell: Auld Lang Syne (Pendulum Trilogy)

Rajiv has feelings for everything. He can feel confident, happy and silly. But today, he feels angry, and he doesn’t know why. With the help of his father, Rajiv sets out on a journey to make sense of his feelings. A sparkly storytelling show for children ages 2+ and their grown-ups. Based on the picture book by Niall Moorjani, award winning creator of Fringe sell-out show Grow, and illustrated by Nanette Regan. Co-produced and created by Astraea Theatre and Discover Children’s Story Centre. Performed by Maryam Noorhimli.

Rajiv's Starry Feelings

Storyteller Clare Murphy leads a romp through the untold myths of the Celts, exhuming the Celtic canon to bring the wild women who never made the cut, back into the light. A shapeshifter spanks her opponents, a queen balances on the point of a spear, heroes are defeated by mother-daughter warriors, and we witness the first divorce... and the woman won. These aren't your regular myths, but wicked tales of badass deities, feral fighters, unorthodox sex, hairy bodies and goddess-on-goddess battles – not for the faint-hearted and definitely for grown-ups. 'Masterly storytelling!' (CultureWhisper.com).

The Spanking Goddess and Other Discarded Tales

A solo spoken word drag performance by Jo Morrigan Black celebrating queer resistance. The contemporary folklore of the Mothman is brought to life, using vibrant surrealist costuming to explore themes of queer alienation, metamorphosis, cross-border solidarity and homoerotic hot-hub encounters. This show invites you to face the pest in your closet. Is it hungry for light? More creature than human? Join this intimate, frenzied call to celebrate the unknowable within us all, in an unforgettable revelry of cloth. 'Beautiful, heart-wrenchingly relatable and hilariously funny' ***** (TheReviewsHub.com). Part of the 2025 Culture Ireland Edinburgh Showcase.

Carpet Muncher

Beneath the Scotland you think you know lies a deeper story waiting to be told. Meet Scotia – a character travelling through time, place, class and gender, inspired by Virginia Woolf's Orlando. Join them to experience different moments in Scotland's past and challenge the dominant narrative with tales of queer desire, women's rebellion and interrogation of supernatural myths. Far from a nostalgia trip, this is a reclamation: folk traditions telling difficult truths, creating safe spaces, and exploring radical ideas, resilience and transformation. An antithesis to tartan tat performed in the heart of the Royal Mile.

Scotland Unsung

Come Fortune! Let’s play a game. It’s only money... Inspired by Timon of Athens, one of Shakespeare’s least known works, Timonopoly is a unique experience, a game, a show, an event. Come take your chance with Fortune. Let’s see how easily any of us can fall through the cracks of society... whoops! Brite Theater (Deliverance) continue to push the immersive envelope, creating ever more daring audience-specific work and bold adaptations of classical material. The long-anticipated final instalment of the Coward Conscience trilogy, following Richard III (a one-person show) and Hamlet (an experience).

Timonopoly

What does it mean to be believed? Traditional storyteller and musician Ailsa Dixon blends Greek myth, Scottish folklore and personal narrative into an exploration of prophecy, protest and survival. Cassandra sits in Apollo’s temple, mind shattering under the weight of predictions never believed. A spaewife is thrust under the waves of a loch. An island witch is put to the pyre. Their voices ring in the ears of their murderers. In an Edinburgh tenement, a girl daubs slogans on cardboard placards, ignoring the prophecies whistling on the winds of Auld Reekie. Stories are stirring. The north wind rises.

Cassandra

A fantastically funny retelling of medieval classic The Green Knight with the subtext made text! (Spoiler alert: it’s gay). Sir Gawain’s been peer-pressured into chopping off the Green Knight's head. Now he has to let the miraculously still-alive Green Knight return the favour. Disaster! King Arthur reckons Gawain needs to be more masculine and there's nothing manlier than a good head chopping off... so there's really no way out. Created by critically acclaimed storyteller Niall Moorjani and produced by award-winning theatre-makers Some Kind of Theatre, this adaptation fabulously queers and modernises an Arthurian classic.

The Green Knight (But It's Gay)

Her world split in two. Not half. Whole. Both. A selkie, creature of legend, is stranded on land. But when she collides with a stranger completely out of his depth, together they weave through a chaotic Saturday night in Glasgow to help get her back into the water. Folklore gets f*cked up and mythology spills from every stale pint in this pioneering new show, blending narrative theatre with visual storytelling. Performed in BSL and spoken English simultaneously, Dregs challenges how we connect across languages and cultures, seeking understanding beyond translation. Originally commissioned for the Village Storytelling Festival 2024.

Dregs

Watch out, they’re back! Edinburgh’s gruesome past is brought to life by two performers (as seen on CBBC’s Saturday Mash Up) in this hilarious and outrageously horrible family show, full of catchy original songs and really bad jokes. A crime has been committed and we need you to decide if the culprit is guilty... or very guilty. Warning: children must keep control of their adults at all times! ‘Heaps of fun!’ **** (AllEdinburghTheatre.com). ‘Epic!’ ****½ (EdinburghReviews.co.uk). 'This was cracking! Hidden gem' (FringeReview.co.uk).

Plague, Poo n' Punishment

Internationally acclaimed Scottish artist Moy Mackay invites storytellers, songwriters and poets from her local community in the Scottish Borders to respond to new felt paintings of extraordinary colour and texture. The personal and emotive responses to visual artworks creates a symbiotic relationship between artist and writer. Moy Mackay is an award-winning Scottish artist, gallery-owner, author and educator. Born in Edinburgh, she lives and works in Traquair in the Tweed Valley where her work is often influenced and inspired by the natural beauty and seasonal colour of the surrounding landscape.

Exhibition: Every Picture Tells a Story

Respected by ancient cultures but the archetypal villain in European fairy tales, wolves were hunted to extinction in Scotland by the 18th century. Ancient myth, mesmeric imagery and dreamlike soundscapes open a liminal space where Norse gods, Irish shapeshifters and Siberian wolf-children traverse Scottish moors and Transylvanian mountains. Live music stirs the soul. Shadow puppetry and animation portray terror and playfulness. Stories about our oldest ally ask: in the absence of the wolf, what is lost? Performed by Dougie Mackay and Jemima Thewes. Originally commissioned by the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2024.

A Wolf Shall Devour the Sun

'Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face...' Where better to hear Robert Burns' famous poem Address to a Haggis than at the Haggis Box Café in the Scottish Storytelling Centre! Drop-in to hear a different surprise performer each day deliver a rousing rendition of Burns' ode to the Great Chieftain o’ the Puddin-race. Traditional, vegan and vegetarian haggis, neeps and tatties will be available to purchase all day with gluten-free options available. Haggis for all!

Address to a Haggis

Benjamin Franklin loved Edinburgh. He visited during the Scottish Enlightenment and enjoyed lively late-night debates at the famous Oyster Club, making pals with all the luminaries including David Hume, Adam Smith and James Hutton. In this funny and informative show, Rick Conte (The Man Who Planted Trees) tells the tale of his countryman’s Scottish enlightenment, echoing his own experiences of the city that took him in 36 years ago and has yet to spit him out. Directed by Andy Cannon. 'Delightful' ***** (NorthWestEnd.com). 'A beguiling show' **** (Scotsman). 'Storytelling at its best!' **** (ScotsGayArts.com).

An American Love Letter to Edinburgh

Flora Macdonald: Jacobite heroine, saviour of an exiled prince, face of many shortbread tins – and ferocious zombie hunter. Join Flora for a rollicking and completely untrue adventure into Scotland’s past, featuring war, romance, a rogue royal, the undead, a cat assassin and a Scottish schoolgirl on the best history trip ever. A new fantasy-comedy solo-show written and performed by Debbie Cannon and directed by Flavia D’Avila (Green Knight, The Remarkable Deliverances of Alice Thornton). Contains swearing, sexual references and scenes of messy zombie evisceration.

Flora Macdonald and Zombies

Palestinian poet/dancer Nada Shawa and Scottish storyteller/dancer Janis Mackay build a bridge of friendship through an evocative fusion of dance, poetry and storytelling. Mending Nets puts forward the simple and radical belief that the act of sharing stories and poetry from our lands can help people retrieve an unravelled sense of identity. The performers first met on the dancefloor. Together they have nourished a symbiotic relationship where Nada's wheelchair is integral to her dance, woven so that the chair becomes invisible and her movement complements Janis's words and stories. Originally commissioned for the Scottish International Storytelling Festival 2024.

Mending Nets

Edinburgh’s a village, eh. Villages dinny normally huv castles, palaces and parliaments. But we do. And in villages, everybody kens everybody. Whether ye like it or no. An interwoven, episodic monologue and love letter to Edinburgh’s past, present and future. Against the backdrop of an eroding city, characters weave in and out of each other’s lives in a stream of consciousness set over a single day. Written and performed by Mark Hannah, this compelling and poignant story explores what home means to us. 'Wholly outstanding' ***** (CorrBlimey.uk). 'Riveting from the first sentence' ***** (NorthWestEnd.co.uk).

Athens of the North

A reimagining of the story behind the famous bothy ballad Bogie’s Bonnie Belle, which deals with farm life, class and love, but never from the perspective of the titular Belle. Told entirely in Doric, the traditional dialect spoken in the north-east of Scotland, this spoken word performance by Lucy Beth unveils Isabelle's story. A young woman impregnated against her will, ostracised as an unmarried mother and separated from her son, Isabelle's journey is marked by her resilience, strength and triumph over adversity.

Ma Name is Isabelle

Duncan Macrae, Scotland’s greatest actor, star of the Citizens Theatre, a champion of the early Edinburgh Fringe and theatre for all – especially in the Scots tongue. This new play explores Macrae's life through some of his greatest roles, from Macbeth and Jamie the Saxt to his signature tune, the Wee Cock Sparra. A performance full of passion and respect for his public achievement and his private depth. A life cruelly cut short as international fame beckoned... 'There’s something remarkably special here' ***** (CorrBlimey.uk). 'First rate' ***** (AllEdinburghTheatre.com). 'Beautifully mercurial performance' ***** (MustSeeTheatre.com). Directed by Michael Nardone.

A Noble Clown

Join some of Scotland's best storytellers as they share their favourite traditional tales from near and far. From fairies and selkies to castles and kelpies, these stories have inspired writers, storytellers and artists throughout the centuries. A relaxed session with a different storyteller each day, sharing wonderful, wise and occasionally wild stories!

Traditional Tales from Scotland

The 5-star hit LGBTQ+ storytelling show returns for its third Fringe; hilarious, moving, outrageously queer stories galore! Host Turan Ali takes time out from his BBC shows to scour the Fringe for the best queer talent, creating a diverse line-up of artists to share hilarious, surprising, sobering tales, songs and epic poems. Expect jaw-dropping insights into LGBTQ+ lives past, present and future. 'Edinburgh's most vibrant, authentic and exciting storytelling event' ***** (TheWeeReview.com). 'Utterly fabulous' ***** (TheQR.co.uk). ***** (BroadwayBaby.com). 'Full of humanity, pathos, humour [and] wit' Highly Recommended Fringe 2024 (FringeReview.co.uk).

Queer Folks' Tales

Atop a far-off mountain, birds gather to perch on the fate-shaping hands of an old mountain man – stories stirring in the murmuration, waiting to glide into the human world. In this new Harebell Tellers production, traditional storytellers Ailsa Dixon and Ffion Phillips follow the flight paths of bird mythology across ancient Britain; oceans, forests, in and out of this world and that. Weaving together Welsh and Scots language, music and story into a meditative hour of storytelling magic, Ffion and Ailsa breathe new life into ancient myths and re-enchant old folktales.

Aderyn/Bird

Loud Poets have been bringing the very best of spoken word poetry to the Fringe for over a decade. Their fist-thumping, pint-drinking, side-tickling, heart-wrenching fusion of spoken word and live music will thrill poetry lovers and turn sceptics into fans. This year the Loud Poets themselves take the stage with a special show featuring the team’s core poets Katie Ailes, Mark Gallie and Kevin Mclean, with musical accompaniment from Jack Hinks and a different guest poet each night. Don’t miss ‘the most reliably entertaining spoken word show at the Fringe’ (TheWeeReview.com). 'A kaleidoscope of spoken word' ***** (EdFringeReview.com)

Loud Poets

England, 1945. The lives of two strangers are changed forever by a chance meeting at a railway station. But this isn't Brief Encounter... We're all extras in the lives of others, but the stars of our own. What happens when you pan the camera away from the leading players? Mark Kydd’s new solo show turns the spotlight onto a supporting artist with his own surprising tale of first, forbidden love. In the year of Brief Encounter's 80th anniversary, Our Martin in the Background is the queer love story Noël Coward didn't write.

Our Martin in the Background

Personal. Political. Poetry for our times. The birth of a child, artificial intelligence, death by government edict and the lure of bacon rolls. A gentle, fierce and honest hour punctuated with true-life stories and songs. Packed with humanity, compassion and pithy observations on life. From the creator of Gie's Peace (sell-out show Fringe 2023 and 2024). 'Moving. Powerful' ***** (NorthWestEnd.com for Gie's Peace). 'Charismatic' **** (BroadwayBaby.com for Bonnie Fechters). ‘A sweeping spoken word set rich with natural metaphors and dynamic waves of energy’ (FringeBiscuit for Fire is Not the Only Element).

The Sound of My Own Voice

'I saw a banshee once... just outside of Galway...' When Charlotte Mooney was a child her granddad told her a fragment of a story she could not forget. Decades later a chance discovery set her off on a quest to find the rest of the tale. Comb is a tangled ride into Celtic, Slavic and Siberian mythology and the perils of obsessive research. Featuring sentient puddles, bishops with holy combs, magical flies and a healthy respect for nits, it is a playful, heart-rending and furious lament for the stories and people we have lost.

Comb

A whimsical adaptation of the Bard for bairns aged 0-4 years. Little Supernovas stories include music and props that stimulate the senses to create a magical experience, especially for your baby and toddler. Join award-winning storyteller Brooke Dunbar for a comical, musical, sensory version of Macbeth complete with bubbles. Bring your brollies! Sell-out show 2024.

Macbeth for Bairns

Snow White and Rose Red have lived in the forest since they were Babes in the Wood. Brought up by their Mother to be kind and caring... if sometimes a little over-enthusiastic! When their quiet life is interrupted by a friendly bear a new chapter begins. But why has the bear chosen them as playfellows? Why is he so sad? And who on earth is that rude little man who keeps appearing? All questions will be untangled in this puppet show from the Woods of Widdershins, using storytelling, puppets and a fantastical fairy-tale forest.

Scottish Storytelling Centre

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