May Day Mayday
NTS stage one-off “response to the times we are living through”
The National Theatre of Scotland to stage Mayday, a one-night only, multi-performer “response to the times we are living through” at the Central Hall in Tollcross on May the first.
A constellation of Scottish artists will be drawn together for a flare of short, urgent performances and interventions; a rapid-response theatre project created in direct response to the turbulent social and political climate.
Cora Bissett and Hannah Lavery, co-directors and co-curators of the National Theatre of Scotland’s Mayday event. Pic: Peter Dibdin
Mayday is being co-curated and co-directed by the theatre maker, writer and performer Cora Bissett and poet and playwright Hannah Lavery. Tickets are “pay what you can” and available from the NTS website.
The evening will feature a quartet of short plays. Apphia Campbell’s The Official Version, Hannah Lavery’s Patriotic Renewal, Uma Nada-Rajah’s The Proposal and Sara Shaarawi’s Pandora’s Box.
Sanjeev Kohli is to deliver a short sketch on the cultural impact of his character Navid from Still Game. There will be live music from Declan Welsh, Soapbox and Djana Gabrielle, who honours Beldina Odenyo’s (Heir of the Cursed) Dala with a powerful, intimate performance that moves between vulnerability and defiance.
Bissett and Lavery say: “Given the times we are living in—where division is being fuelled by dangerous and deliberately misinformed rhetoric— we feel deeply and personally connected to this Rapid Response Project.
an urgent celebration
“We are living through an age of fear: extreme racism and anti-migrant sentiment are being normalised, human rights attacked at every level, climate injustice is accelerating, and ordinary people are struggling to meet even basic needs.
“We’re thrilled to curate an event that will bring together bold, fierce, insightful and creatively galvanising voices from across Scotland – an urgent celebration of our shared humanity that challenges the rising tide of hate, calls upon solidarity, inspires change and imagines a more compassionate future.”
Mayday Artists. Composite pic of Headshots.
Cross-artform collaborations including Scottish Album of the Year (SAY) Award winner Kathryn Joseph’s powerful new collaboration with dancer Kassichana Okene-Jameson, created in collaboration with Scottish Dance Theatre.
Joseph’s haunting, fragile songs intertwine with movement in a visceral fusion of music and dance, choreography by Joan Clevillé, and direction by Cora Bissett.
Choreographer and dance maker Janice Parker is leading a community group artistic response to Talat Yaqoob’s International Women’s Day Speech, Edinburgh, March 2026.
Loud and Proud Choir will perform; Dawn Sievewright will perform No a Weans Choice, the defiant rallying cry from the Glasgow Girls stage show and Reuben Joseph (Orphans – NTS, Hamilton the Musical) will perform a new version of Robert Burns’ A Man’s a Man.
Short plays:
The Proposal by Uma Nada Rajah
An unexpected proposal. The world is burning. But surely now is the time for love sweet love? Timing has never been his strong point, and she is notoriously hard to read. This could either go really well or horrendously wrong.
Pandora’s Box by Sara Shaarawi
Pandora is disillusioned. Hope is panicking. All her siblings out into the world. Again. And they’re wreaking havoc on Earth. Now it’s up to her and Pandora to find a way to lure the world’s Evils back into the box. The question is, where do they start?
The Official Version by Apphia Campbell
A short three-hander set inside a museum tour of “American History” in a near-future world where the past has been carefully rewritten. A confident tour guide leads visitors through a series of exhibits celebrating the nation’s development. Slavery becomes an “Early Labour Exchange Programme”, segregation a “voluntary cultural separation initiative” and democracy itself is reframed as a widely admired but largely theoretical idea.
Patriotic Renewal by Hannah Lavery
A sharp two-hander exploring how far right rhetoric seeps into everyday political language. Through the shifting dynamic between a young political staffer and her mentor, the play examines the pull rightward and the erosion of our collective memory.
Listing
Mayday
Central Halls, 2 West Tollcross, Edinburgh, EH3 9BP
Friday 1 May 2026,
Evening: 7pm (doors from 6.30pm)
Expected running time: Two hours and 50 minutes (including interval)
Tickets and details: book here (Pay What You Can).
ENDS
