Scottish Theatre Highlights: May 2024
As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, audiences in Scotland have the chance to catch a wide variety of tours, premieres, and works-in-progress
May in Scotland brings entertainment for crowds of every age, with the Edinburgh International Children's Festival opening towards the end of the month (25 May-2 Jun). The Festival offers a diverse and ambitious programme of work for infants to teens. Oulouy's Black, an international dance piece for children 12 and older, interrogates structural violence against Black people in the western world. For younger theare-goers, Spain's Engruna Theatre brings Univers, an interactive object-theatre piece based on visual imagery and live music.
This month, National Theatre Scotland will begin its tour of Maggie & Me (7 May-15 Jun), a fresh adaptation of Damian Barr's iconic memoir. Maggie & Me tells a timeless and pertinent story of growing up and coming out in Scotland.
Penny Chivas will bring a sharing of her work-in-progress, STOP, to Dance Base (10 May). Based on interviews with people who have taken part in nonviolent direct action for climate justice, the piece uses movement and media to explore their tactics, motivations, and adaptiveness.
At the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Kate Bradley will showcase In an Upstairs Room (9 & 10 May) as part of RCS's Fields of Performance series. The performance piece is an autobiographical and site-specific work set in the historic Reid Hall, which was once a Methodist Church.
Glasgow's Tramway will host a double-bill of Korean contemporary dance. Kontemporary Korea (16 May) showcases the work of Cheol-in Jeong and Sung Im Her, who received rave reviews for her 2022 Edinburgh Festival Fringe piece, Nutcrusher. The 90-minute double-header kicks off A Festival of Korean Dance 2024, which runs until 4 June.
In association with Hull Truck Theatre, Silent Uproar presents the Scottish premiere of Dead Girls Rising at Glasgow's Tron Theatre (17 & 18 May). Written by Maureen Lennon, Dead Girls Rising is a punk cabaret about patriarchy, true crime, and justice.
Pitlochry Festival Theatre will stage the world premiere of Nan Shepherd: Naked and Unashamed in a co-production with Firebrand Theatre Company (24 May-6 Jul). The production explores Shepherd's impact on Scottish literature and culture and why her seminal work, The Living Mountain, went unpublished for 30 years.