Lissa is defensive, deaf and failing university – the last thing she needs right now is to fall in love. Siôn is a wide-eyed Pontardawe boy with rock-star dreams, desperately in love and about to have his heart broken. And Josh… Josh just wants to beat the end of level Boss. With humour, honesty and a lot of breakdowns in communication, Fow asks us how we fall in love when we don’t hear each other and finds there is always a way if you just look hard enough. A heart-warming love story told in different languages.
A 1970’s caravan is the stage for outdoor performances, letting the audience escape into a wildly different world where no experience is ever the same. Visual Theatre incorporating puppetry, object, and physical theatre with live soundscapes to get lost in, no dialogue. ‘Swallow the Sea’s shows take delicate steps into the imagination’ (Guardian). ‘Perfectly pitched’ **** (Scotsman). ‘Swallow the Sea Caravan Theatre offer a real Fringe experience – amusing, slightly bizarre and definitely memorable’ **** (BroadwayWorld.com). MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Catch the Bird Who Won’t Fly is a digital dance-theatre piece made during the Covid lockdowns by working remotely with artists to bring attention to the devastating reality of a crime, which increased during lockdown and is often shrouded in secrecy – domestic violence against women. Using animation and green screen technology, four individual stories are told through Kathak dance from real-life experiences that were researched with the company’s network of women’s group users.
Drawing on a deep lifelong immersion in diverse cultures and an array of pioneering experiences, Scotland’s ‘musical alchemist’ (World Music Report) offers a revelatory new vision for the art of solo guitar. In Pashyanti [Sanskrit: the junction point between the ordinary waking state and pure consciousness] Simon explores every facet of the instrument, from ‘shimmering, fluttering delicacy’ (List) and ‘shifting rhythmic complexity’ (Songlines), to ‘primal, multi-layered sounds’ (Caleidoscope). ‘Punjabi folk song, flamenco and Sephardic music, Sanskrit alchemy and Gaelic folklore… they all seem grist to the mill for Simon Thacker’ (Scotsman). MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
Does instant connectivity help our attempts to make meaningful relationships with our surroundings and our fellow humans? Or does it reinforce feelings of isolation and inadequacy as we reflect upon and react to connections made and lost? A dynamic exploration of the ways in which modern methods of communications affect us all, using dance, physicality, aerial acrobatics, tight-wire walking and original music. A modern love story set in our digitally connected world. Distanced by a world of wires, two lost individuals work on finding each other, but in doing so must first find themselves.
The international live yet remote online sensation, ZOO MOTEL, comes to Summerhall’s 2021 digital fringe programme. Limited to only 25 audience participants nightly, who check into virtual “rooms”, ZOO MOTEL is a wild exploration of live theatre and the magic of cinema. ZOO MOTEL opened up in September of 2020 and has since become the longest running live theatre work on earth. The live transmission comes directly from the studio of theatre director, designer and performer Thaddeus Phillips, who performs this work as a live interactive movie.
Knot is a trilogy, a three-part immersive audio experience unfolding in three different locations – for the first episode audiences will situate themselves on a park bench, for the second in a car, and for the third in a room of their home. Three intersecting, interwoven episodes revolve around a traumatic event and question how inevitable anything is. You will need to experience all three for the story to be complete. To access the experience you will need a phone, the Darkfield Radio app, tickets and headphones.
City Breakz is an outdoor pop-up hip-hop performance trail taking over unexpected places in city and town landscapes, where anything can become a dancefloor. Four dancers – each armed with a patch of linoleum and sound system – journey through urban environments, throwing shapes as they navigate the uneven surfaces and gradients of the city. Will they find each other in time for the final showdown? It’s hip-hop… but not as you know it. Funded by Creative Scotland Touring Fund for Theatre and Dance. Supported by: The Workroom, Merchant City Festival, The Brunton, Summerhall and Tramway Residency Programme.
Queen Jesus Productions presents A Space to Bless, live from St Mary’s Cathedral – a radical queer space for contemplation, connection and meditation. Each daily chapter will be streamed at noon, offering a gathering, a text, space for meditation and a blessing for a short time each day – filmed at the stunning St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, in Edinburgh. The blessings incorporate elements of Jo Clifford’s groundbreaking play, The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, reimagined in this unique setting – inspired by the building’s use, stunning features and fascinating history.
Queen Jesus Productions presents A Space to Bless, live from St Mary’s Cathedral – a radical queer space for contemplation, connection and meditation. Each daily chapter will be streamed at noon, offering a gathering, a text, space for meditation and a blessing for a short time each day – filmed at the stunning St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, in Edinburgh. The blessings incorporate elements of Jo Clifford’s groundbreaking play, The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, reimagined in this unique setting – inspired by the building’s use, stunning features and fascinating history.
My Car Plays Tapes is the new storytelling show by John Osborne, about getting older, jobs, cars that don’t really work and how to make big decisions with your life. From the creator of John Peel’s Shed ***** (Scotsman).
Drawing on a deep lifelong immersion in diverse cultures and an array of pioneering experiences, Scotland’s ‘musical alchemist’ (World Music Report) offers a revelatory new vision for the art of solo guitar. In Pashyanti [Sanskrit: the junction point between the ordinary waking state and pure consciousness] Simon explores every facet of the instrument, from ‘shimmering, fluttering delicacy’ (List) and ‘shifting rhythmic complexity’ (Songlines), to ‘primal, multi-layered sounds’ (Caleidoscope). ‘Punjabi folk song, flamenco and Sephardic music, Sanskrit alchemy and Gaelic folklore… they all seem grist to the mill for Simon Thacker’ (Scotsman). MadeInScotlandShowcase.com
The stars are empty, the moon has fallen from the sky and the mountains are full of monsters. Barri collects newspaper clippings and listens to vinyl in her grandmother’s attic. Sam is trying to outrun a community support officer investigating the murder of several domestic badgers. Weaved from folklore and fable Every Wild Beast is about fear, fate and running away from really big scary things. Sell-out show, Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2016.
Sacred Paws don’t take things too seriously. You can hear it all the way through a conversation with its two members, guitarist Rachel Aggs and drummer Eilidh Rodgers, punctuated by rolls of giggles and thoughtful pauses, and you can hear it in the light touch they bring to their music. The Glasgow-based band bring that fun and light touch to Summerhall, performing songs from SAY Award-winning album Strike a Match and acclaimed follow-up Run Around The Sun, which showcase their unique blend of shimmering guitar riffs, snappy beats and swooning melodies.
Queen Jesus Productions presents A Space to Bless, live from St Mary’s Cathedral – a radical queer space for contemplation, connection and meditation. Each daily chapter will be streamed at noon, offering a gathering, a text, space for meditation and a blessing for a short time each day – filmed at the stunning St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, in Edinburgh. The blessings incorporate elements of Jo Clifford’s groundbreaking play, The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, reimagined in this unique setting – inspired by the building’s use, stunning features and fascinating history.
Triple Fringe First and Olivier-winning Fishamble, in association with Fringe First-winning Sunday’s Child, return to Summerhall with the 2019 hit show Mustard by Eva O’Connor. A darkly comic play about heartbreak, madness, and how condiments are the ultimate coping mechanism. When the man of her dreams, a professional cyclist, leaves E, she plummets into a black hole of heartbreak at the speed of a doped-up team on the Tour de France. Winner of Scotsman Fringe First, 2019. **** (Scotsman). ***** (EdFestMag.com). **** (TheWeeReview.com). **** (BroadwayBaby.com).
James Yorkston is a singer-songwriter and author from the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Since signing to Domino Records in 2001, James has released a steady flow of highly acclaimed albums and toured his music worldwide. James’ 2021 album The Wide, Wide River was called ‘another fascinating, curious contribution to the Scottish musician’s constantly eddying catalogue’ by The Guardian, ‘a beautiful experience’ by Clash and ‘another career highlight’ by The Scotsman.
James Yorkston is a singer-songwriter and author from the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland. Since signing to Domino Records in 2001, James has released a steady flow of highly acclaimed albums and toured his music worldwide. James’ 2021 album The Wide, Wide River was called ‘another fascinating, curious contribution to the Scottish musician’s constantly eddying catalogue’ by The Guardian, ‘a beautiful experience’ by Clash and ‘another career highlight’ by The Scotsman.
Admiral Fallow bring an intimate acoustic show to Summerhall’s Secret Courtyard this festival. Admiral Fallow (Louis Abbott, Kevin Brolly, Phil Hague, Sarah Hayes and Joe Rattray) released their much-beloved debut album, Boots Met My Face, in 2011 and its widely acclaimed successor, Tree Bursts In Snow, the following year. Their extraordinary third record, Tiny Rewards,
Something special happens when you play piano for yourself at home. No particular piece in mind, no need to start at the beginning or get to the finish, no rules. I want to play for you like I do at home, with all the distractions, all the indulgence, all the fun. Join me in the moment for an intimate piano concert of improvisations and conversations at Summerhall’s bespoke outdoor concert hall.
Martin Creed Turner Prize-winning artist-performer-composer and ‘punk poet’ (Guardian). Warm-hearted, heart-warming, head-scratching, hair-combing talk-songs. ‘Catchy punk-folk-minimalist tunes’ (New York Times). Cabaret. Feelings. Spoken word. Love. Jokes. Tricks. Friendly. ‘Creed is a social artist’ (Observer). Loneliness. Experimental. Piano juggling. Clothes, including socks. Ideas. Thoughts. Bums. How to live. Spelling mistakes. Hard-hitting. Easy-going.
Set in a landscape of social distancing, social media, WhatsApp and Zoom calls, iMelania is an audio-visual experience that takes place on your phone and desktop. Varjack-Lowry use Melania Trump as an avatar of an “acceptably” foreign woman, obscuring and questioning experiences of being foreign in post-Brexit Britain. With the overwhelming nature of the global digital landscape, how do we use social media to engage with current affairs and connect ? How do we use it to escape? A playful, dizzying, online exploration between a duo of dual heritage women investigating borders and belonging.
Are you feeling uncomfortable with the fast return of live events? Do you feel your voice is often sidelined within the structures of the arts industry? Then this informal online session, hosted live from Summerhall by poet and performer Ellen Renton, is for you. Touching on her own experiences of working as a disabled artist and creating the one woman show Within Sight, Ellen will facilitate discussions and lead exercises designed to help you make space for yourself and create on your own terms. Come and have a chat, play with language, and liberate your imagination.
