Scottish Storytelling Centre Archives

The Sound of My Own Voice – Scottish Storytelling Centre

21Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

The Sound of My Own Voice – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Morna Burdon is a performer and poet who writes in the Scots language. Here she shares some of her own poems, and a few others that take her fancy. Burdon creates a convivial atmosphere in the intimate George Mackay Brown Library at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. It feels as though she is welcoming us into her own home. She comments that the mention of “striking a match” on a bus shows her age, harking back to the days when passengers were “only” allowed to smoke on the top deck. A few young people in the audience gasp in horror at the degeneracy of their ancestors. At least our generation has changed some things for the better. The Living Dead conveys the widespread disgust at Sir Keir Starmer’s attempt, last year, to withdraw the winter fuel payment from millions of pensione...

When Billy Met Alasdair – Scottish Storytelling Centre

9Aug

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

When Billy Met Alasdair – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Enthralling. Feel free to locate your battered copy of ‘Lanark’ but under no circumstances attempt to speed-re-read two days before the show. Breathe… turns out it’s not necessary. Author & playwright Alan Bissett is the proud owner of a photo showing the two Scots cultural icons at the launch of said tome at Glasgow’s Third Eye Centre in 1981 and wondered how the conversation between the two might have gone. But there’s stuff before we get there… It's a simple set, just Bissett in front of us alternating between Connolly and (attaches glasses, cues the lighting) Gray, telling their own stories in lively monologues, insights into how and why they ended up doing what they do/did. There’s an armchair to Bissett’s left and a table on which sits a bottle of Glenfiddich (a rather spec...

Ensemble Teams – Scottish Storytelling Centre

28Mar

By Marcelina KruczyńskaNo Comments

Scotland

Ensemble Teams – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Throughout you could feel both Ensemble Teams slowly guide you into the unpredictable and often unhinged nature of improvisation. Coached by Deborah Tarica and Alison Thea-Skot the two teams after one day of preparation took to the stage. Both teams were comprised of eight people. Interestingly despite all eight people standing on stage throughout the performance, once the scene started, they faded into the background and only became noticeable again once they entered centre stage or wherever the main action took place. Tarica’s and Thea-Skot's influence was clear since there were similar methods employed by both groups. For example, both employed the same method to enter or finish a scene. Multiple times actors communicated through a tap on the shoulder or someone yelling “scene” which en...

Kolliflower & Stupid & Favourite Cousin – Scottish Storytelling Centre

28Mar

By Marcelina KruczyńskaNo Comments

Scotland

Kolliflower & Stupid & Favourite Cousin – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Irresistibly funny, completely bonkers and chaotically out of pocket is the best way in which Kolliflower & Stupid & Favourite Cousin can be described. The three acts playing sequentially one after the other managed to keep the audience entertained with their improvised madness. Thanks to the tiered seating the view of the stage was impeccably clear meaning the audience could dedicate more of their attention to the acts themselves rather than on trying to avoid heads that may have been obscuring the view. Kolliflower kicked off the performance in their 80s styled fits. The usual duo consists of Kimi and Holly however on this occasion Jiavani stepped in to cover for Holly. The duo interacted with the audience asking for a word and the ever so eager crowd provided them with on...

All-Star Armando – Scottish Storytelling Centre

24Mar

By Beth EltringhamNo Comments

Scotland

All-Star Armando – Scottish Storytelling Centre

After a weekend full of improv for the participants of The Edinburgh International Improv Festival, in came the All-Star Armando team to finish the festival off with a bang! Consisting of performers: Keiko Agena, Alex Berg, Lilan Bowden, Todd Fasen, Alex Fernie and Jiavani along with a couple of invited guests from other productions within the festival. As with any improv show there can be a fine line between creating a priceable show and producing something that can be compared to a bunch of performers playing warm up games. A structure is needed but not so much that the show is scripted, something to work from and ground the performers without losing the audience's trust. In this case the cast’s structure came in the form of a chosen word from the audience and a guest actor spouting a...

Raintown and Bumnotes – Scottish Storytelling Centre

23Mar

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

Raintown and Bumnotes – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Never in my life did I expect to see grown men pretending to be raccoons, or see the bible rewritten to be about jelly babies instead of Jesus, but I suppose that’s the fun of the Edinburgh International Improv Festival. In the penultimate double bill of Saturday night at the Scottish Storytelling Centre we saw the Irish musical improv group Bumnotes belt out show tunes completely off the cuff, with Glasgow-based group Raintown performing right afterwards. Musical improv is becoming increasingly popular and after watching Bumnotes’ performance I have no questions as to why. Funnily enough the suggested word was ‘garbageman’ which was a reference to an earlier performance done by The Imposters - clearly the audience are enjoying the improvisation as they are coming back f...

ImprompTwo & Nice Things & Hog – Scottish Storytelling Centre

23Mar

By Roger JacobsNo Comments

Scotland

ImprompTwo & Nice Things & Hog – Scottish Storytelling Centre

Three for the price of one. A busy hour flashed by, we’ll try to remember... First up were ImprompTwo (Kathy and Joe Rinaldi from across the pond) illustrating several comic aspects of a New York apartment block; the Deli on the ground floor where debates on sandwich fillings leads to a customer’s ejection, a couple’s upstairs apartment where debates concerning the title of a podcast (is it Love or Romance?) lead to some testy exchanges, and a further debate about what to do when an unwanted guest threatens a visit. Funny, entertaining, slick, with snappy dialogue, but was it improvised? Next up were Nice Things (Charles Dundas and Steven Millar) who took the audience input and ran with it, kicking off with bus drivers Terry and Terence and the surreal suggestion that a sma...

The Imposters and Funfdollar – Edinburgh International Improv Festival

23Mar

By Jessie MartinNo Comments

Scotland

The Imposters and Funfdollar – Edinburgh International Improv Festival

Hosted by the Scottish Storytelling centre, the Edinburgh International Improv Festival hit us with three full nights of improv by actors from all across the globe. In this double bill we saw The Imposters from Shetland tell a tale fit for a soap opera, followed by Funfdollar all the way from Berlin who left us in stitches with their dry, quick-witted humour. Kicking things off with The Imposters, this group took the word ‘dragon’ from the audience. How this improvisation transpired from the word dragon I am unsure as the only reference to the source word was a clever remark from one of the players, with him saying “this is dragging on.” Get it? To begin with it did seem that the team was struggling a little for inspiration but once they found the basis of their im...

An American Love Letter to Edinburgh – Scottish Storytelling Centre

20Aug

By Tom ScottNo Comments

Scotland

An American Love Letter to Edinburgh – Scottish Storytelling Centre

This is a delightful, often hilarious, show beautifully performed by Rick Conte. It will appeal not just to lovers of Edinburgh and history buffs but to anyone who loves a good yarn. Written by Conte and Matt Rudkin, and directed by Andy Cannon, this is the fascinating story of two visits made to Edinburgh in 1759 and 1771 by Benjamin Franklin. ‘Renaissance Man’ Franklin wrote a book on electricity, but is of course most famous as one of the Founding Fathers of the USA. He edited and was one of the signatories of the American Declaration of Independence in 1776. Franklin had initially been sent over from Philadelphia to London to try to persuade the sons of William Penn, founder of Pennsylvania, to pay tax. While in London he met several fellow intellectuals including Sir John Pringl...

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre

9Aug

By Wendy McEwanNo Comments

Scotland

LIFE: Maria MacDonell – Scottish Storytelling Centre

I am afraid of drawing. I don’t know why. This play is set in a drawing class, and the audience is invited to sketch and doodle throughout. Now is the time to embrace my phobia. I am welcomed by The Artist (Leo MacNeill), a reassuring presence. “We are all artists”, he says. I am given paper and pencils, but no eraser. Every mark we make remains on the page. Estelle (Maria MacDonell, who also wrote the piece) cuts through The Artist’s whimsy with a shard of cynicism, at least to begin with. She thinks he’s pretentious. The Artist helps Estelle open up, and she tells us about her life, her hopes and regrets, her love of graveyards and her career as an artist’s model. Estelle tells her story through the medium of folk tales. Afterwards, MacDonnell tells me that Estelle is so damage...