An American Love Letter to Edinburgh
★★★★☆ Instructive
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Venue 30): Mon 18 – Mon 25 Aug 2025
Review by Orna Clarke
An American Love Letter to Edinburgh is a touching and instructive hour of storytelling by Rick Conte at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, blending the personal and historical to celebrate the storied relationship between the two countries.
Part history lesson, part autobiography, Conte tells the story of the American founding father Benjamin Franklin’s 18th century visit to Scotland, interwoven with tales of Conte’s own journey to Edinburgh from his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia in the late 1980s.
Rick Conte in a previous performance of An American Love Letter to Edinburgh. Pic: Sandy Butler
Conte’s delivery is clear and full of feeling. He builds a close rapport with his audience, with intermittent sips from a pint glass heightening that sense of intimacy: it feels like a friend telling you a story over a drink at the pub.
There are occasional moments of mime, like when Conte demonstrates how the Leyden Jar works, or mimics pouring glasses of shandy at his members’ club graduate job. But this is predominantly spoken word, and Conte is compelling enough to need no gimmicks.
The treatment of Native American peoples throughout history is a thread that runs through the show, from Franklin’s 1756 ‘rescue and reconnaissance’ mission which saw many slaughtered, to Conte’s recollection of a politically incorrect song he wrote in innocence as a child. He also confronts American slavery, and the UK’s relationship to these historical atrocities.
Conte’s intention is not to suggest that his and Franklin’s stories are the same. He draws parallels between their respective tales that highlight as much difference as similarity: he contrasts his eight-and-a-half-hour flight to Heathrow with Franklin’s six-to-eight week sea voyage in desperate conditions; and describes how, while residing in London, both men were told several times to visit Edinburgh, Franklin heading north partly to collect an honorary doctorate from the University of St Andrews.
a true love for Edinburgh
Though the two men share a true love for Edinburgh, the cities they knew couldn’t have been more different. Franklin arrived when Edinburgh was still walled, overcrowding and poor sanitation were rampant. Conte arrived centuries later in the midst of the Edinburgh Festival, to an explosion of performance and vibrancy (‘Now this is the European culture I’m looking for!’).
Conte name-drops, and impersonates, some of the notable figures Franklin encountered during his stay, who only heightened his sense of belonging to the city: John Knox, Adam Smith and Alexander Dick, to name a few. Franklin learned much from these men who he considered his fellow ‘luminaries,’ Conte explains, and he used this knowledge to make improvements to society once back in America.
Conte describes how Franklin left Scotland ‘with a heavy heart and a fuzzy head’, strong connections calling him home to the ‘New World.’ But the impact his visit had on him cannot be overstated, and was even felt in his input into the Declaration of Independence.
An American Love Letter to Edinburgh is just that: an affectionate meditation on the huge influence Franklin’s time in Scotland had on his life and politics, which in turn helped shape the foundation of the United States of America, interwoven with Conte’s personal reflections on what the city means to him.
It’s a thoroughly enjoyable and heartwarming piece. Conte doesn’t overindulge in nostalgia, nor does he touch on the current political climate, but settles somewhere in between: his musings on the relationship between the two countries, and between past and present, offer food for thought enough.
Running time: One hour (no interval).
Scottish Storytelling Centre (Netherbow Theatre), 45-45 High Street, EH1 1SR (Venue 30).
Monday 18 – Monday 25 August 2025.
Daily: 5pm.
Tickets and details: Book here on EdFringe.com.
Rick Conte website: rickcontecom.com/
Instagram: @rickcontewalks
Linktree: @rickconte
ENDS
