The Made in Scotland Showcase returns for the 2021 Edinburgh Festival Fringe presenting the best of theatre, dance and music from Scotland live in-person and online.
The curated showcase features a range of work, including six world premieres, showcasing the quality and resilience of Scotland’s amazing artists producing work in these challenging times: from site specific work on Silverknowes Beach to a digital world premiere from Scotland’s leading cellist collaborating with a world-renowned Indian violinist.
Made in Scotland 2021 is a celebration of creativity and our desire to re-engage with one another and share stories once again – whether in person or in the digital space.
The ten artists, companies and ensembles who will present their work this year were awarded funding in 2020 and chose to rollover to 2021. An additional eight companies originally awarded in 2020 have chosen to rollover once again and will now present their work in the 2022 Fringe.
Applications will open as normal in Autumn 2021 for the 2022 showcase, so 2022 will therefore see an extended Made in Scotland showcase to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the Fringe.
In light of the ongoing restrictions and to take advantage of the opportunities for digital engagement this year, 2021’s funding was adapted to create a Digital Assets Pot. All 18 original companies, those presenting this year and those rolling into 2022, were invited to apply for up to £3000 towards the creation of digital assets such as video, photography, audio, or graphic design to amplify the ongoing promotion of their shows and enable engagement with industry professionals during the Fringe.
The Made in Scotland showcase is made possible through funding from the Scottish Government’s Expo Fund and is a partnership between the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society, Creative Scotland, Federation of Scottish Theatre and the Scottish Music Centre.
2021 Made in Scotland programme
THEATRE AND DANCE
GRIN
Mele Broomes
In association with Tramway
Supported by Project X and Creative Scotland
Venue: Summerhall
Performance Type: Online, on-demand
Dates: 13 – 29 August
Grin, a digital fruition of performance, sound, visuals and choreography which subverts hyper sexualised notions of African and Caribbean dance. Grin is a masquerade of dance sculptures where body and costume are accompanied by a pulsating sound score.
ICONNOTATIONS
Matthew Hawkins and Red Note Ensemble
Venue: Dancebase @ Greyfriars Kirk
Performance Type: Online, live-stream & on-demand
Dates: Final dates and times to be confirmed
A new production and choreography of the iconic Peter Maxwell Davies work Vesalii Icones. Written in 1969 this is one of Peter Maxwell Davies’s classic works of concert-hall music theatre. An extraordinarily dramatic, multi-layered fusion of dance and music, its shape superimposes the 14 stations of the Cross on a series of 16th-century anatomical drawings by Vesalius, with a dancer and a solo cellist as the protagonists.
MOVE (World Premiere)
Julia Taudevin
Presented by Disaster Plan
in association with Slung Low and the Traverse Theatre
Venue: Traverse Theatre @ Silverknowes Beach
Performance Type: In Person, outdoors | Online, on-demand
Dates:
In Person performances 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 August | (Previews 3, 4 Aug)
Online, on-demand 23 – 31 August
Inspired by ancient keening rituals, MOVE is about migration, loss and communal healing. Weaving storytelling, choral soundscape and Gaelic song, five women portray the ebb and flow of people across the globe throughout the ages.
SAVED (World Premiere)
Graeme Leak
Produced by Scissor Kick
Venue: ZOO TV
Performance Type: Online, on-demand
Dates: 8 – 28 August
Category: Music
Saved is a multi-layered, retro-mechanical music show built around rescued 70s home organs. Turned inside out, their internal spinning speakers are exposed for us to see as well as hear as Leak weaves musical joy into the surprisingly beautiful mundanity of daily life.
SEX EDUCATION XPLORERS (S.E.X.) (World Premiere)
Mamoru Iriguchi
Independent Arts Projects
Venue: Summerhall, Secret Courtyard
Performance Type: In Person
Dates: 6, 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 22, 27, 28, 29, August
A time-travel ride through evolution of sexes, celebrating our diverse gender identities and sexualities. Packed with humour and DIY tech, Sex Education Xplorers (S.E.X.) is a playful new take on sex education from the award-winning team behind Eaten. An eye-opening experience for teenagers, and everyone who missed the sex education they deserved at school!
SWALLOW THE SEA CARAVAN THEATRE
Present: THREADS and TRIPTYCH
Emma Brierley, Jess Raine, Jemima Thewes
Venue: Summerhall
Performance Type: In Person and Online, on-demand
Dates: 6 – 28 August 6th-12 and 20-28 Aug ‘Threads’ and 13-19 Aug ‘Triptych’
Category: Theatre
Swallow The Sea’s extraordinary Caravan Theatre presents two incredible productions at the Fringe.
Threads is a world premiere that celebrates symbiotic relationships, the patterns of togetherness, our need for social connections and the map of mycelium as a web of hidden communication. Presented with an evocative soundscape and no dialogue our caravan transforms into a large moving panorama. Supported by Creative Scotland.
MUSIC
DESTROYING DEMONS: SONGS FOR CELLO AND CARNATIC VIOLIN (World Premiere)
Justyna Jablonska
Venue: TheSpaceUK
Performance Type: Online, on-demand
Dates: 6 – 31 August
Category: Music
In this world premiere, the shimmering beauty of South Indian melodies blends with electronic sound effects and virtuosic improvisation. Justyna Jablonska is Scotland’s leading cellist in the contemporary classical and experimental scene. Jyotsna Srikanth is the world’s most acclaimed violinist in the South Indian (Carnatic) tradition.
SYSTEMS_THEORY
Ensemble Thing
Venue: Summerhall
Performance Type: Online, on-demand
Dates: 15 – 21 August
Category: Music
Performed by cellist-composer Emily De Simone, systems_theory is a curated set of multimedia works reflecting human impact on the world – from Thomas Butler’s
Coordinates for Cello, where lines between performer and technology become blurred, to Emily and John De Simone’s Flow, where we break into imagined landscapes in response to Hannah Imlach’s film Fieldwork.
PASHYANTI (World Premiere)
Simon Thacker
Venue: Summerhall
Performance Type: In Person, outdoors | Online, scheduled
Dates: 11, 15, 20, 22, 25, 29 August
Category: Music
Pashyanti [Sanskrit]: the junction point between the ordinary waking state and pure consciousness. 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. Simon Thacker explores the instrument with passion and startling originality.
SHAMANIC Live (World Premiere)
Maria Rud, Fay Fife, Martin Metcalfe
Venue: The Pleasance Courtyard
Performance Type: Online, on-demand
Dates: 16 – 30 August
Category: Theatre/ Music
A unique, dramatic, visceral collision of live music, painting and architecture, created by acclaimed Russian artist Maria Rud with punk rock legend Fay Fife (Rezillos) and Martin Metcalfe (Goodbye Mr Mackenzie).
The music is a soundclash of 60s influenced garage, alternative rock and contemporary electronica, laced with a punk spirit, perfectly complementing Maria’s ever-changing imagery and perspectives, and swathes of colourful, swirling paint. A transformative, immersive experience which cuts to the heart of the creative process.