Scottish Storytelling Centre
LIFE
★★★☆☆ Drawn out
LIFE from Maria McDonell at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a production that does not always quite live up to its startlingly clever premise.
Mairi Campbell: Living Stone
★★★☆☆ Gentle
Mairi Campbell: Living Stone at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a gently musical journey through history and the present day. It has much to recommend it, but cannot help seem slightly disappointing in the light of what has gone before.
Sing Along With the Fairy Song
★★★★☆ Ethereal
Children’s author Janis Mackay presents just under an hour of fairy-themed songs and story telling in Sing Along With the Fairy Song at the Scottish Storytelling Centre for three to eight year-olds.
Elegies
★★★★☆ Evocative and relevant
The Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland’s dance adaptation of Hamish Henderson’s Elegies for the Dead in Cyrenaica is an evocative piece of theatre that is particularly relevant to our troubled world, despite being published in 1948.
Traditional Tales of Scotland
★★★★☆ Magical
With a basic set consisting of a table and chair and no special effects or lights, Traditional Tales of Scotland at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, is a simple and relaxed hour of storytelling.
Land Under Wave
★★★★☆ Inclusive
Land Under Wave, presented by the Young Edinburgh Storytellers, is a beautifully inclusive combination of traditional music and storytelling, brought up to date for the 21st Century.
I Hope Your Flowers Bloom
★★★★☆ Lyrical
I Hope your Flowers Bloom is a beautifully lyrical monologue in which writer and performer Raymond Wilson, presented by All the Figs at the Storytelling Centre, shows his obsession for trees and other plants, even quoting the Latin name of every tree he mentions.
The Hearth
★★★★☆ Moving reflections
In The Hearth from Brite Theater, multi-instrumentalist and storyteller Tom Oakes uses the hearth; that place in the centre of a home where a fire is traditionally lit, to spark a series of moving reflections on life and memory.
Wee Seals and Selkies
★★★★☆ Gentle storytelling
Based on two of her popular books, Janis Mackay’s Wee Seals and Selkies at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a sweet 50-minute show that includes magical Scottish tales of nature and friendship.
Animate Lands: Mythic Celtic Tales
★★★★☆ Accomplished storytelling
Animate Lands: Mythic Celtic Tales at the Scottish Storytelling Centre is a fascinating hour of stories from Scotland’s Celtic heritage presented by Dougie Mackay and Freya Rae.