Showcase for home-grown talent not to be missed
COME August, this year’s Made in Scotland showcase on the Edinburgh Fringe will be playing a different tune. Several of them, actually, because for the first time since its inception in 2009, Made in Scotland (MiS) has a music programme to sit alongside the theatre and dance that is supported by money from the Scottish Government’s Edinburgh Festivals Expo Fund.
A separate panel of experts took on the task of selecting the artists who will benefit from the £100,000 share of the £550,000 funding, producing what is a very broadbased and inclusive mix – everything from jazz to folk, classical to electronic, with a dash of the experimental. In all there are 20 shows and concerts now able to fly the Made in Scotland flag that has, in the past, provided a certain cachet – you could call it a stamp of approval – in the lists of the Fringe. Promoters and producers who descend on the Fringe in search of world-class work really do respond to the Made in Scotland branding, with many of them using the MiS brochure like a “10 top tips” framework for what to see when time is short and the options are dauntingly numerous.
Those scouting for theatre works are in for a number of treats, with a package of 14 shows that includes dance pieces from Scottish Dance Theatre and two solo performances for children, one by Wee Stories and the other, Titus, staged by Stirling’s MacRobert Centre. If, however, these talent-spotting folk had time to scour past issues of The Herald, they’d find that almost all of the artists – and many of the productions on offer – come with the added recommendation of highly-starred reviews and our own August award: a Bank of Scotland Herald Angel where the qualifying criterion is excellence, in any genre or form.
Junction 25, the youth collective based at Glasgow’s Tramway, won their Angel in 2011 with a bitter-sweet look at love called I Hope My Heart Goes First. They’re back in MiS again with Anoesis, a brilliant and unsettling evocation of schooldays that skewers any nostalgia that these are the “best days of your life”. Claire Cunningham’s Angel was awarded in 2009 for her double-bill of dance-theatre solos, ME. She returns with Menage a Trois, a hauntingly powerful dream-play about the man she makes from her crutches.
David Leddy has garnered Angels in 2009 and 2010 (for White Tea and Sub Rosa respectively). His latest ploy, an absurd caper about forgery called Long Live The Little Knife, is definitely one to watch.
Kieran Hurley has a new play premiering in the MiS showcase. Chalk Farm – reflecting Hurley’s incisive interest in aspects of protest, politics and youth culture – explores issues around the London riots of 2011. By including new (and so far unseen)
Producers who descend on the Fringe in search of world-class work respond to the Made in Scotland brandings
work, the MiS “brand” nails some pleasingly bold colours to the mast. As I know from my own experiences on the 2012 selection panel, there is a keen awareness of how the image of Scotland is presented to a far-reaching public through the quality, and futureforward energies of the showcase programme.
This brings me back to the music choices. There’s no denying the quality of the artists, who include Karine Polwart, the Astrid String Quartet, the Scottish National Jazz Orchestra and Noise (New Opera in Scotland Events), who will reprise their excellent Sloans Project in the Scottish Arts Club. Check out the full list on the MiS website, and you’ll get the picture of a country with ears open to all kinds of music-making. But, unlike the theatre and dance works, many of the music events are one-off performances. This calls into question that valuable MiS mission to promote home-grown talents on a world-stage through touring opportunities. Giving international promoters a single opportunity to catch a performance is a narrow precedent that – unlike the music itself – would not be welcome in MiS showcases of the future.