We are thrilled to announce that many current and former Fellows and friends of IASH will grace the stages of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Edinburgh Art Festival and International Book Festival in 2024. With a diverse array of offerings, including theatre, music, poetry, storytelling, readings and talks, there's an abundance of experiences awaiting festivalgoers. Don’t miss out!
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
My English Persian Kitchen by Hannah Khalil at the Traverse Theatre
What would you take if you were forced to leave home with no hope of returning? How would you make a fresh start somewhere completely new? This is the true story of one woman who loses everything. Remembering the tastes and aromas of her mother’s kitchen with live cooking on stage, she recreates the dishes of her childhood and homeland, building a new life and community around food. Written by award-winning Hannah Khalil, directed by Chris White and starring Isabella Nefar (Salome, National Theatre), this life-affirming new play chronicles the journey of one woman’s quest to start again.
Supported by IASH.
1-4, 6-11, 13-18, 20-25 August at the Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2).
Get your tickets here.
A History of Paper by Oliver Emanuel at the Traverse Theatre
It starts when she puts a note through his letterbox.
‘Hello Number 4, this is Number 6. Please could you SHUT THE **** UP? Ta.'
Not a promising beginning, but... they meet, they fall in love, they get married. Then one day a letter arrives that will change them, and the world, forever… A musical love story about a man and a woman and the little bits of paper that make up a life.
The show is a creative collaboration between Gareth Williams and former IASH Fellow, Oliver Emanuel. It is directed by Andrew Panton and is part of the Made in Scotland Showcase 2024.
1-4, 6-11, 13-18, 20-25 August at the Traverse Theatre (Traverse 2)
Get your tickets here.
So Young by Douglas Maxwell at the Traverse Theatre
Thumbing through a record collection, having a glass of wine, remembering the old times. There’s nothing better than catching up with pals. When Milo invites his two best friends Davie and Liane around for a takeaway to meet his new girlfriend, it promises to be a great night reconnecting. They delve into the past and swap the same old stories they’ve been through a thousand times before; the night becomes more about those absent than present. Remembering who they have lost and who they were, or thought they were.
IASH alumnus Douglas Maxwell’s So Young sees an innocuous evening slide into ruin as old friends face the challenges of middle age, growing apart and losing those close to them, whether that’s to the grave, or to London. Both touching and funny, So Young is a story about coming back together after time apart.
25-26 July and 2-4, 6-11, 13-18, 20-25 August at the Traverse Theatre (Traverse 1)
Get your tickets here.
Black Is The Color Of My Voice by Apphia Campbell at Pleasance at EICC
Former IASH Fellow and playwright Apphia Campbell’s acclaimed play follows a successful jazz singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father. She reflects on the journey that took her from a young piano prodigy destined for a life in the service of the church, to a renowned jazz vocalist at the forefront of the Civil Rights Movement.
20-25 August at Pleasance at EICC
Get your tickets here.
Through The Mud by Apphia Campbell at Summerhall
The story of two generations of women activists in the struggle for black liberation in America. One, notorious Black Panther Assata Shakur, the other a college student at the beginning of the Black Lives Matter movement in Ferguson in 2014. Against a stunning soundtrack of gospel and blues sung live, the show explores what it takes to become a revolutionary. Originally performed as Woke, written by Apphia Campbell, IASH alumna, Fringe First winner, and creator of the hit show Black is the Colour of My Voice. The show is part of the Made in Scotland Showcase.
1-6, 8-11, 13-18, 20-25 August at Summerhall’s Main Hall, produced by Stellar Quines and Royal Lyceum Theatre
Get your tickets here.
The Other at Scottish Storytelling Centre
Join The Other for an extraordinary hour of music and images from a pool of eight musicians and a visual artist, some with experience of forced displacement and migration, from Scotland, Chile, Iran, Brazil, Syria and Yemen. They share the music, life stories and experiences of their different cultures that reflect the diversity of the communities now living in Scotland. The Other is a vibrant and moving multimedia experience of music and visual art featuring Shatha Altowai and Saber Bamatraf, both former IASH Fellows.
14-16 August at the Scottish Storytelling Centre
Get your tickets here.
Rehearsed Reading: a new play by Isla Cowan
Come along to playwright, performer, director, and IASH/Traverse Creative Fellow, Isla Cowan’s reading of her new play about insects, apocalypse, and two women on the run. Whilst in residence at IASH and the Traverse Theatre, Isla has been conducting research within the contexts of the environmental humanities, entomology, anthropology, and agriculture. Exploring contemporary ecological issues surrounding farming and pollination practices, Isla’s play asks important questions about interspecies relationships, about famine and fertility, science and survival, set against a dramatic backdrop of capitalist ruins.
Isla was winner of the 2022 Assembly ART Award and the 2021 Alpine Fellowship Theatre Prize for her acclaimed monologue play She Wolf, and nominated for the 2022 Filipa Bragança Award for best female solo performance. Isla’s plays have also been recently shortlisted for the St Andrews Playwriting Award and the Phil Fox Award.
Monday 12 August, 16:30-17:45 at the Traverse Theatre (Traverse 1)
Get tickets here.
No One is Coming to Save Us by Lewis Hetherington and Pepperdine Scotland
Maddy is worried that no one is having fun at her party. Her sister Lily is worried that the world is falling apart. As this group of friends gather on a mountaintop, watching the sunset, a wildfire sparks in the forest below. They drink beer and talk nonsense while the flames race toward them. From award winners Pepperdine Scotland and playwright and former IASH-Traverse Fellow Lewis Hetherington, this world premiere is about young people finding fragile hope in the face of an overwhelming environmental threat, carrying the flickering flame of belief that things might yet be alright.
31 July – 13 August at Pleasance Courtyard Beside
Get your tickets here.
Edinburgh Book Festival
Jill Burke, Emma Dabiri & Moshtari Hilal: Beautiful Rebellion
Who gets to decide what is considered beautiful? As beauty and conformity morph into one, it can be tempting to try to force our bodies into shapes they were never designed to fit. Authors Jill Burke (How to Be a Renaissance Woman), Emma Dabiri (Disobedient Bodies), and Moshtari Hilal (Ugliness) deconstruct harmful beauty standards and explore how we can reclaim and celebrate our gloriously rebellious forms.
Supported by GENDER.ED.
Saturday 17 August, 13:30-14:30 at the EFI Spiegeltent
Get tickets here.
Lorrie Moore: Danse Macabre
Featuring an undead lover, a dying brother, and a ghost: Lorrie Moore’s I Am Homeless If This is Not My Home is a novel that bristles with life while waltzing with death. Celebrated widely for her dazzling short stories, no one writes quite like Moore; she has a knack of folding you in laughter one moment, then cutting straight to the heart the next. What a delight to welcome the acclaimed American author in conversation with Chris Power.
Supported by IASH.
Wednesday 21 August, 18:45-19:45 at Venue T in EFI
Reserve your tickets here.
Mona Chalabi: Humanizing Data
Numbers tell stories, and Pulitzer-Prize winning data journalist Mona Chalabi’s skill lies in telling them in ways that get people talking. Through illustration, words, and sound, Chalabi makes the intangible tangible – like in March 2024’s Guardian piece, ‘The Story of Gaza’s Destruction in 100 Lives’. With Heather Parry, Chalabi talks about how, lately, she’s turned her grief for Palestine into work that aims to spread awareness, and the tensions that comes with responsibility.
Supported by the Centre for Data, Culture & Society.
Friday 23 August, 17:00-18:00 at Venue T in EFI
Get your tickets here.
Justified Sinner 200: Extraordinary Trash: A Theatre Essay
An archivist is tasked with cataloguing what remains of the National Theatre of Scotland’s “dazzlingly faithful adaptation” (Guardian, 2013) of James Hogg’s Confessions of A Justified Sinner. Sorting through artefacts and video, they consider what stays and what gets thrown away. Part lecture, part theatre, this is a meditation on cultural value, the future of past glories, and the importance of gossip in any history of theatre. Presented by Stewart Laing and former IASH Fellow Pamela Carter.
Sunday 18 August, 12:15-13:15 at EFI Venue NW
Get your tickets here.
Close Read: Irenosen Okojie on Octavia E Butler
In the Book Festival’s Close Reads series, join an enlivening discussion as an author leads you through their insightful analysis of a classic text or genre that’s inspired them. Here, Irenosen Okojie (author of Curandera) talks about Octavia E. Butler’s Parable of the Sower: a far-sighted post-apocalyptic novel first published in 1993, imagining supernatural levels of empathy as the antidote to climate change, wealth inequality, and corporate greed. Irenosen was a contributor to IASH’s Dangerous Women Project.
Sunday 11 August, 10:15-11:15 at EFI Venue B
Get your tickets here.
Colin Bramwell & Gerda Stevenson: Celebrating Aonghas Dubh
Aonghas MacNeacail (1942-2022) was a giant of Scottish letters and long-time friend of IASH, best known for his Gaelic poetry and passionate championing of that language. Lesser known are his English-language poems. Poets Colin Bramwell and Gerda Stevenson – leading writer, musician, and Aonghas’s widow, as well as contributor to our Dangerous Women Project – join us to talk about editing the posthumous collection, Beyond, and the luminous life of Aonghas Dubh (which translates as ‘Black Angus’).
Thursday 15 August, 10:45-11:45 at the EFI Courtyard Theatre
Get tickets here.
Generations: Allan Little & Jen Stout
Veteran BBC correspondent Allan Little (on the IASH Advisory Board) has reported from Moscow, Johannesburg, Baghdad during the first Gulf War, and Yugoslavia as the country disintegrated in the early 1990s. He is joined by Jen Stout, a journalist, radio producer, and author of the forthcoming Night Train to Odesa: Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War. Together they compare notes of their experience of journalism across the generations.
Tuesday 13 August, 14:00-15:00 at EFI Venue T
Get your tickets here.
Alexander McCall Smith: A Passion for Fiction
Sir Alexander McCall Smith returns to unveil a new series and offer a welcome update on our favourite agency in Botswana. Meet Katie Donald, who finds herself running a dating company for Edinburgh’s lonely hearts. Told with wit and warmth, The Perfect Passion Company promises to delight while our reunion with Precious Ramotswe in The Great Hippopotamus Hotel is a much-anticipated treat. Alexander McCall Smith is a long-standing friend of IASH who even uses the Institute as a setting for some of his Isabel Dalhousie series, and is sponsor of the Isabel Dalhousie Fellowship.
Monday 19 Aug, 17:00-18:00 at EFI Venue T
Get tickets here.
Remnants: How to Re-assemble a City
From creating or reinstating design aesthetics in post-colonial countries to thinking about how built environments impact how we live, feminist architecture collective Voices of Experience discuss how we might imagine city spaces that encourage a culture of belonging for all.
To coincide with the new publication created by Voices of Experience, EAF, and curatorial practice Panel, Voices of Experience founders Suzanne Ewing (current IASH Fellow), Jude Barber, and Nicola McLachlan in conversation with Nana Biamah-Ofosu to imagine how we can create cities that are more responsive to the people that inhabit them.
The event is a partnership between the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Edinburgh Art Festival.
Tuesday 13 August, 14:15-15:15 at the EFI Courtyard Theatre
Get tickets here.
Suzanne will also be performing in Edinburgh’s first presentation of Pina Bausch’s inconic participatory dance piece The Nelken Line. The performance is on Calton Hill, and is a durational performance, taking place at approximately 15-minute intervals between 16.30-18.30. Free to attend - just turn up!
She Played and Sang: Jane Austen and Music with Gillian Dooley
Music historian and IASH Nominated Fellow, Gillian Dooley, talks about one of our greatest literary heroines, Jane Austen, and the role music played in her life and work.
Our knowledge of Austen's musical inclinations was limited until the recent emergence of a treasure trove of new evidence. Delving into these books, letters and other familial records, She Played and Sang unveils a previously unknown facet of Austen's world. With these revelations, Austen's musical legacy comes to life, granting us a deeper understanding of the influences that shaped her literary masterpieces.
Thursday 15 August, 19.00-20:30 at the Christ Church Centre
Get your tickets here.
The following events are in conversation with Allan Little, special correspondent for BBC News and Chair of the Edinburgh Book Festival, who sits on the IASH Advisory Board:
Chigozie Obioma: Brothers in Arms
Twice Booker-shortlisted author Chigozie Obioma’s new novel, The Road to the Country, is the story of two brothers divided during the devastating Nigerian Civil War. As they seek to reunite, their journeys become odysseys in a war-torn land. Obioma – called ‘truly the heir to Chinua Achebe’ by the New York Times – discusses his new powerful work in conversation with Allan Little.
Saturday 17 August, 12:15-13:15 at EFI Venue T
Get tickets here.
On Reflection: Richard Holloway
Elif Shafak once noted that, after reading Richard Holloway – broadcaster, writer, professor, and former head of the Scottish Episcopal Church – ‘you understand the world better, you feel less lonely’. Come and hear Holloway talk with Allan Little about his profound new essay collection, On Reflection, and meditate on questions around faith, forgiveness, art, and home that have long occupied his work.
Saturday 17 August, 17:30-18:30 at EFI Venue T
Get tickets here.
Nick Bryant: America's Self-Evident Truths
During almost 30 years of journalism, Nick Bryant became widely acknowledged as one of the BBC’s finest foreign correspondents. His new book, The Forever War, reveals how today’s America has become captive to its troubled and unresolved past with both insight and narrative flair. Bryant is joined by Allan Little to discuss how the American experiment is failing, and what it means for us all.
Wednesday 21 August, 17:00-18:00 at EFI Venue T
Get tickets here.
Caroline Lucas: Reimagining England
Twice leader of the Green Party in England and Wales, and the Member of Parliament for Brighton Pavilion from 2010 until she steps down at the next general election, Caroline Lucas this year launches her second book Another England, which fights back against the hijacking of Englishness by the political right in its exploration of all that’s great in the country’s radical and cultural history. In conversation with Allan Little.
Saturday 24 August, 11:45-12:45 at EFI Venue T
Get tickets here.