Storytelling PR

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Fringe 2025: Storytelling PR round up, a huge thank you, Fringe show awards, and what’s up next this year

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As ever, we were delighted to work with a roster of brilliant artists and shows this August for yet another non-stop Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Coming to us from all over the globe, our 2025 artists included expert comedians, international acrobats, experimental dancers, rising theatre makers, innovative new writers, skilled clowns, passionate musicians, world-class martial artists, cabaret stars, technological creatives, immersive storytellers – and everything wonderful and imaginative in between.

‘Score’ by Isaiah Wilson
(Kultur|lx Luxembourg selection 2025)
| Image credit – Léa Junet

Their shows took us to the heart of Palestine and its people; through the space-race and intimate stories of pregnancy loss; into the last launderette on the Isle of Wight; around the edge of a lonely swimming pool in Saudi Arabia; through surrealist imaginings of ‘Edutainment’ and a fisherman’s curious one-night tale of rare true love; towards living on Mars and futuristic immigration exam requirements; in amongst the seams of beautiful sung and spoken life stories; under the skin of electro-muscle stimulation and dystopian bodies moving in sync as one; and to sit down at a very special Burns Supper table with the historic Bard himself.

‘Is There Work On Mars?’ by Faye Yan | Image credit – Amy Lauffer Neff
‘The Genesis’ by Copenhagen Collective | Image credit – David Poznic
‘Stepping in…Spilling out’ by Mark Bleakley | Image credit – Tiu Makkonen
‘Cheese and Guava’ by Cênica, part of São Paulo Showcase | Image credit – Guilherme Di Curzio
‘Scott Turnbull presents… Surreally Good’ by Scott Turnbull | Image credit – Mel Butler
‘These Mechanisms’ by Christine Thynne and Robbie Synge | Image credit – Brian Hartley

2025 was a very busy year for our team – and we couldn’t be prouder to play a role in bringing so many wonderful stories to life on stage. Whether reuniting with old friends and returning artists, or building beautiful new multidisciplinary global connections, it is always a joy to see our offices brimming with life every summer for the world’s biggest gathering of performance, artistic companionship, and never-ending creative collaboration.

AWARDS 2025 – Edinburgh Festival Fringe

In Fringe-specific awards, we were delighted to see many of our artists smash it out the park across various accolades – including the Edinburgh Comedy Awards, The Scotsman Fringe Firsts, The Besties, and the Brighton Fringe Awards, and lots more.

‘Creepy Boys: SLUGS’ by Sam Kruger & S.E. Grummett
| Image credit – Mat Simpson

‘FLOAT’ by Indra Wilson and F-Bomb Theatre
| Image credit – Mihaela Bodlovic
‘PALESTINE: Peace de Resistance‘ by Sami Abu Wardeh, Counterpoints and Palestine Comedy Club | Image Credit – Zoë Birkbeck

September onwards…

‘Time Keeps The Drummer’ by
Fevered Sleep |
Image credit – Winnie Yeung

As we go into the final third of 2025, we’re excited to be working with some wonderful artists and performers. In addition to continuing our year-round projects and collaborations with friends, we’ll be working with Colette Sadler and FERAL Arts on Present Futures Festival Dundee (10 – 11 September), Shotput’s touring production of Enda Walsh’s Arlington (17 October – 8 November), Hercules the Bear by Tenterhooks (29 September – 29 October), bold new British musical Gwenda’s Garage by Out of the Archive Theatre in association with Sheffield Theatre (15 – 25 October), Harry Clayton-Wright’s Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular (6 and 8 November), Rhianna Ilube and Coney‘s touring game-theatre show 1884 (9 – 25 October), Kerry Wright’s tour and debut play Kailey (11 – 25 September), Fevered Sleep’s radical multi-genre durational performance Time Keeps The Drummer (touring 12 September – 12 April), and more.

That’s us for now…! If you’d like to work with our lovely team in the future (whether on year-round work or Fringe-specific shows) please do get in touch with Managing Director Miriam, Executive Director Emma, or Senior Publicists Ambrose and Polly.

Storytelling PR x

Puppet Animation Scotland announce line up for
MANIPULATE Festival 2023

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MANIPULATE Festival 2023 returns to the capital with one of its most ambitious programmes to date – with shows at the Traverse Theatre, Summerhall, The Studio at Festival Theatre, Fruitmarket, online and outside across the city.

Image: Un-retained (composite image). Courtesy of Sandman.

Edinburgh’s international festival of visual theatre and animated film, MANIPULATE, is a celebration of visually stunning work, with a focus on artworks which breathe life into the inanimate or tell stories primarily through imagery. 

The 16th edition of the festival will offer audiences a rich palette of events across a range of visual artforms, including large-scale illuminated hands which will roam across the city; intricate live micro-cinema featuring over 2000 miniature animals; an aerial work inspired by lobster fishing; and theatre simultaneously performed and livestreamed between Scotland and Argentina.

There are an array of themes and ideas to uncover, with much of this year’s programme speaking to the stories that we tell ourselves, and one another, about who we are. Further themes of the programme include migration, the resilience of the human spirit, memory, celebrations of life and of death, and our relationship with a changing climate.

MANIPULATE Festival 2023 will run from Thursday 2  – Sunday 12 February, presenting a dynamic programme of live performances, installations, workshops, and film screenings – taking place in person and online, with shows at Summerhall, The Studio @ Festival Theatre, Traverse Theatre and, for the first time, Fruitmarket. The Festival will also see outdoor installations take to the streets of Edinburgh. Acclaimed international artists will share work alongside Scotland’s own leading artists, including the return of MANIPULATE favourites and brand-new companies. 

Alongside a diverse programme of brand-new work for MANIPULATE Festival 2023, some elements of the programme are finally coming to the stage after being rescheduled from 2021 and 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dawn Taylor, Artistic Director and CEO of Puppet Animation Scotland, says: 

“We are thrilled that 2023 will see the return of a full MANIPULATE Festival programme for the first time in three years. By expanding across Edinburgh into new venues, the city streets and online, we can reach and connect with new audiences and spark new conversations. We are looking forward to celebrating the sheer magic that puppetry, visual theatre and animation can offer during these challenging times; a spark of hope and light that MANIPULATE has come to represent in the dark of the Scottish winter. 

With a more varied palette of artforms than ever, and featuring work which is playful, bold, interrogative and joyful from a dynamic group of visually-driven artists, 2023 promises to be one of our most ambitious programmes to date. We can’t wait to share it with you!” 

Jaine Lumsden, Creative Scotland’s Theatre Officer, says: 

“MANIPULATE is all about bringing together Scottish and international visual theatre and animation of the highest quality and artistic ambition. The Festival plays a central role in the physical performance sector and we’re so glad to be behind its return to full programming next year.” 

The 2023 Programme includes: 

MANIPULATE Festival 2023 will open with a roaming performance on the streets of Edinburgh, created by Fergus Dunnet and Ronan McMahom. The Dab Hands are large-scale illuminated puppets specially commissioned by MANIPULATE Festival to usher in the 2023 Festival and welcome all those they come to pass. Following this will be an exuberant Opening Night Party in celebration of their first full festival in three years, offering exclusive pop-up performances, music and sneak peeks into highlights across the festival, and a visit from specially commissioned giant illuminated puppets for all to enjoy. 

Raw Material & Vanishing Point present the World Premiere of Love Beyond (Act of Remembrance), by renowned theatre artist Ramesh Meyyappan. This tender and visually creative new show is a love story that follows Harry, who has dementia and uses sign language. Events from the past and present intertwine as Harry moves into a new home. Just as his nurse begins to learn his language, Harry begins to forget, leaving him in a unique world alone with only himself. 

Also exploring distorted memory are Vision Mechanics, who will present The Fantastic Life of Minnie Rubinski. Part installation and part filmed puppetry show, this intimate experience is a funny, moving and sometimes nonsensical journey through the title character’s life, synapses and fragmented memories.

Relationships and their complex dynamics are the forefront for Scottish aerial theatre company Paper Doll Militia, who return to MANIPULATE with the World Premiere of Arthropoda – gripping aerial circus theatre that unpacks the unravelling of a relationship through aerial performance. The piece is told through the visual analogy of lobster fishing, and a lobster stuck in a creel who can leave but chooses not to.

Scotland-based Shotput question Hollywood norms in Ferguson and Barton, as they awake in a filmic dream world exploring the power dynamics of their own relationship. Inspired by Hitchcock’s Vertigo, the show explores communication and miscommunication, voyeurism, gender roles, and sensuality. 

Also inspired by Hitchcock are festival returnees Agrupación Señor Serrano’s with their show Birdie. The Spanish masters of micro-cinema explore migration through multimedia performance – thousands of migrating birds draw impossible shapes in the sky in between two mirages; one with wars, droughts and deforestation, the other with safe streets, stability and renewable energies. 

Continuing the theme of refuge and migration, performance maker Tashi Gore, visual theatre expert Ross Mackay, and playwright Will Gore create a hybrid live performance and digital animation with The Yellow Canary an epic true story and leap into the imagination of a young child exploring love, loss and what it means to flee your home. 

In a further exploration of migrant identity, Katherina Radeva of award-winning, bold performance art duo, Two Destination Language, presents 40/40 – fresh from its World Premiere at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2022. Katherina is a woman, a migrant and now, a dancer. 40/40 is an unapologetic celebration of 40 years of joy and hardship. 

In an exciting development for 2023, MANIPULATE will take to the streets of Edinburgh, with the Scottish Premiere of Sandman’s Un-retained. A collaboration between choreographer Sabine Molenaar, multimedia artist Gertjan Jiasion and composer Jochem Baelus, it combines dance, audiovisual production and projection mapping to tell the timeless, weightless story of being human. Un-retained will be projected onto the architecture of Edinburgh (with an exact location to be announced at a later date) for the duration of MANIPULATE 2023. 

Free public installation work at the Festival also includes A Rock and a Hard Place, from puppetry and micro cinema theatre expert Gavin Glover. This kinetic sculpture work initially premiered as part of Restless Worlds at MANIPULATE in 2021. A collection of mini dioramas made up of the Earth, Sky, Sea and the Mind, this installation imagines a parallel world, with accompanying audio to be enjoyed by headphones. 

Into the Long Green Jaws is another World Premiere presented by Long Green Jaws – artist/musicians Sarah McWhinney and Fergus Hall. Combining experimental, ambient improvised music with installation, puppetry and performance art, Into the Long Green Jaws is a piece of visual gig-theatre which explores the intricacy and balance of coastal environments as multi-layered meso-ecosystems. A free drop-in installation will accompany the piece. 

Continuing MANIPULATE’s tradition of presenting high-quality puppetry for adults, festival favourites Ljubljana Puppet Theatre return to MANIPULATE with Moč (The Power), which uses intimate puppet-object theatre to question different motives of power and weakness, the public vs the private.

International puppetry work is also the focus of VOX Muziektheater, who present the UK Premiere of Poor Thing, a soul-stirring performance that combines opera and object theatre as three musical funeral directors try to reconstruct the forgotten life of an anonymous woman through her belongings. It is an ode to melancholy and an embracing of life. 

Scotland-based live performance artist Suzi Cunningham performs a double bill of Rules to Live By and Eidos. The first is a celebration of transformation, a requiem for one of Suzi’s teenage idols, Mark E. Smith; a rebellious aspiration to a hero’s punk anarchy. The second, Eidos, is a tribute to Suzi’s punk-in-her-own-right Grandmother. 

Pioneer of self-suspension rope performance Kasia Zawadzka explores the idea of the obsessive inner voice that keeps you from being at peace in aerial performance Ill Lit. Returning after a digital work-in-progress as part of MANIPULATE 2021, this full production using the Japanese art of Shibari explores mental health, repetition and the struggle to break out. 

Anna Nekrassova presents Before Thumbelina, an everyday fairytale for adults which beautifully unfolds into a touching story about a person’s struggles with infertility. Carried by song and rhythm as well as puppet and object theatre, the solo performance by Nekrassova focuses on the moment before H. C. Andersen’s renowned story of Thumbelina.

Clown Cabaret with Plutot La Vie invites audiences to share a drink as part of an evening of cabaret. Across an hour and a half, four clown performances will lead audiences through the weird, wild and sublime stupidity, with a drink included in your ticket. 

In animation, MANIPULATE 2023 will see the return of Animated Womxn: International Shorts, screening the work of extraordinary, award-winning female and non-binary animators from across the globe. Animated Highlights will pack in a dizzying array of animation styles and untold stories, featuring new work from established and emerging talent from around the world, in partnership with Edinburgh Short Film Festival. For the first time, these screenings will take place in-person at Edinburgh’s Fruitmarket, as well as being available digitally. 

Works in Progress will also continue with SNAPSHOTS, a first look at exciting new visual theatre workshops from six Scottish artists. Sand, from director Daniel Livingston and performer Petre Dobre – is a highly visual performance that uses movement, object manipulation and shadow puppetry to explore our dreams and face our nightmares; also supported by the Surge Bursary Programme, Noah Tomson’s Between Earth and Moon will be performed simultaneously in Argentina and Scotland, taking inspiration from Italo Calvo’s surrealist short story, Distance of the Moon.  

Workshops throughout the Festival will give an insight into creating your own work with Conceiving Visual Theatre with Al Seed; Micro Cinema Theatre with Gavin Glover; and developing your own multi-operator puppetry skill with Mervyn Millar in Working as One.

Tickets for the 2023 Festival will be on sale from 5pm, Thursday 10 November: manipulatefestival.org.

ENDS.

Positive Stories for Negative Times – the national participatory project gifting free plays and resources to young people across the world returns for a second season

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Open to schools, colleges, youth theatres or anyone working with young people.
Sign ups open now at positivestories.scot

Positive Stories for Negative Times created by Wonder Fools in association with Traverse Theatre is back with an incredible lineup of the UK’s most exciting voices. Seven brand new plays, written specifically for the times we are living in, will be made free and available to young people from September 6 through to March 2022, with groups from anywhere in the world being encouraged to join in. 

Working with those from isolated areas, marginalised groups and vulnerable young people, Positive Stories for Negative Times is providing a new outlet to nurture creativity, encourage the exchange of new skills and ideas and provide a safe space online that could have a genuine impact on young people’s experience of the world as they recover from the effects a global pandemic has had on their education, their connections and the world around them as a whole. 

The first season – launched in August 2020 as part of the digital Traverse Festival Programme – was created as a direct response to the lack of physical spaces for young people to participate in performance, and the detrimental impact this is having on their mental health and wellbeing. A staggering 2,607 young people and 282 groups spanning from the Outer Hebrides to Madrid, and York to Quebec performed the first season’s plays, which ended last month – making way for a new raft of artists and groups to get involved from this summer onwards. 

Season Two, aimed at engaging an even broader network of people aged between 6 and 25 has been created with a focus on coming together, embarking on new processes and changing the way we think about theatre for young people. Wonder Fools and the Traverse Theatre have again co-commissioned a new group of the UK’s most prominent artists to create new work relevant to the here and now, which will act as stimulus for creative projects for young people around the world. 

As students in Scotland and across the UK return to schools, colleges and universities, 948 young people have already registered since the initial announcement was made back in June. 

On the projects return, Wonder Fools said: “Being able to engage so many young people around the world through Season 1 was an utter joy, but the project has been designed with the aim of responding to the current times we are living in no matter whether young people are in or out of the classroom. Theatre provides huge benefits to children in all creative environments. Season 2 has been designed to help bring young people back into that physical space to explore their creativity, as well as adapting to the ways education has been changed throughout the pandemic and how young people are recovering from that, reembracing their creativity, communication and connection with others. 

“This season we have opened up the project to invite submissions from all kinds of groups across different art forms allowing young people to flex their creative muscles and celebrate the process of what they make. That may be performance, film, creative writing, blogs – you name it. We have also responded to the needs of youth group leaders and incorporated a programme of free professional development into the programme for them to engage with remotely throughout the project, learn new skills and share best practice. We can’t wait to meet groups from around the world and to see what they come up with.”

All participating groups will be sent their chosen script to perform rights free and a handbook of exercises to help their group explore the play. No set outcome or end result has been defined, it’s all about celebrating creativity inspired by the plays and sharing what is made. Groups have the freedom to create anything they want: a piece of music, a film, creative writing, poetry, outdoor work – there are no limitations. For those brand new to performance, the handbook provides a step-by-step guide through the process. The plays are a starting point created to inspire different kinds of work. These can live either live in the space, through blended learning or completely online.

Works include: 

Spyrates (Spies vs Pirates) 2: Journey to the Forbidden Island by Robbie Gordon and Jack Nurse (6+) – From the Co-Founders of Wonder Fools, comes Spyrates, a play for up to 100 6+ year olds.  Featuring spies, pirates, robots, talking animals and everything in between, in an interactive, playful and imaginative adventure story. 

At First I Was Afraid (I Was Petrified!) by Douglas Maxwell (11+) – When things feel too tough moving up into a new school, to manage her anxiety, Cleo starts to get creative in an old Descendants’ diary – her worry book – but everything she writes starts to come true, so she tries writing down positive ideas…. A fast-paced comedy drama with loads of bright characters, big set pieces, twists and turns and a huge sing-a-long happy ending… oh, and a mad bit with a Fairy Godperson.

The Raven by Hannah Lavery (11+) – Lament to Sheku Bayoh writer and director Hannah Lavery’s The Raven is both an adventure and an exploration of what shapes and what divides us, exploring issues of blended families, bullying, depression and isolation.

Thanks for Nothing by The PappyShow (11+) – Celebrating life’s quiet moments of gratitude and joy, Thanks for Nothing will be a blueprint for a show encouraging loads of devising and playing with narrative and form from the playful, physical and visual ensemble that is The PappyShow, created in collaboration with award-winning playwright Lewis Hetherington. 

Revolting by Bryony Kimmings (13+) – Multi-Award winning playwright, performer, documentary maker and screenwriter Bryony Kimmings’ Climate Crisis play Revolting asks, if we’re agents of the revolution – how do we revolt? This ‘paint-by-numbers’ play will put the control firmly in the hands of the creators – let’s imagine a new system (there may be flying cars and free money and loads of dancing and pizza parties) but also positive solutions to climate change. 

The Skirt by Ellen Bannerman (15+) – Traverse Young Writer Ellen Bannerman’s The Skirt is an absurdist parable for the next generation of feminists, based on Gogol’s short story: ‘The Nose’. Wearing a short skirt to school on the day of the Head Girl election should be an irrelevant outfit choice – but when Kay is sexually harassed on her way to school, she pulls out of the race, but her short skirt has other ideas and much like Gogol’s The Nose, enters the race for Head Girl in its own right. 

Write to Rave: Step Pon by Debris Stevenson (18+) – Grime poet, dyslexic writer and working-class academic Debris Stevenson presents Write to Rave: Step Pon – a play about the political power of rave. Who has the right to rave, to dance and move freely? What is it to feel truly free in their own skin? It tells the story a queer group of humans trying their best to rave whilst the world tries its best to stop them.

Each writer has been working with the newly established Positive Stories Youth Board to ensure that the plays are not only made for young people, but with them too, the aim to create something for everyone no matter their size, age or experience of making theatre. 

As part of the project, participating group leaders will have access to regular online workshops with the seven artists and the Wonder Fools team to build on ideas, provide some pointers on best practice and allow for sharing and discussion between groups and their projects.

Wonder Fools are inviting any teachers, groups or organisations working with young people to get involved and utilise the free resources. Participating groups  will be given a pin on a virtual map and page on the project’s bespoke website where their work will be celebrated with other participants around the UK and beyond. 

To sign up or to find out more visit positivestories.scot.

Positive Stories for Negative Times Season 2 is produced by Wonder Fools in association with the Traverse Theatre and is supported by Creative Scotland, Chance to Succeed, Foundation Scotland Response Recovery & Resilience Fund, William Syson Foundation, Gannoch Trust, Christina Mary Hendrie Trust, Hugh Fraser Foundation, Gordon Fraser Charitable Trust and the Inchyre Trust. 

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Apply to be Storytelling PR’s Press Assistant with the Kickstart Scheme

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Storytelling PR Office

Storytelling PR is part of the UK Government’s Kickstart scheme, which is designed for young people aged 16-24 who claim Universal Credit and are at risk of unemployment.

The scheme has helped us create a new entry-level vacancy for someone to join the team for six months as Press Assistant.

About the Role

This job will involve everything from writing press releases, speaking directly with creatives, logging coverage and planning in endless spreadsheets and generating great ideas. You will be expected to listen, learn and engage with the arts.

You will be supported to train and look for your own opportunities to grow – which storytelling will support with time or finance. We are looking for someone who engages with culture, loves to hear, and tell stories and is ready to take this opportunity and run with it. Storytelling is a small company meaning the opportunity for growth is very real and could happen really quickly with the right person and commitment!

The press assistant will work across all projects in the entire team, copywriting, fact-checking, researching and prepping press releases and supporting the team with admin tasks.

The role will last six months and will be 30 hours each week, over four days, and it can be flexible.

The successful applicant will be paid the Living Wage.

Skills and Experience

Desirable

· A Higher / A Level equivalent in Drama, English, History, Politics, Culture

· Experience working in a fast paced environment

· An active interest in pop culture

· Comfortable with social media, be that one favourite platform or an awareness of many

· An active interest in the news, how the news is made and what’s happening in the world

· Experience making videos, editing and playing around with tech

· Fun loving and curious

Essential

· An interest in culture, be that books, live music,

· An awareness of what press relations and publicity are

· Excellent writing skills

· Experience using Excel, Word, Google drive and Google docs,

· A willingness to learn, think quickly

· Good communication skills

· Open-minded, caring and thoughtful

About Storytelling PR

Storytelling PR Ltd works with theatre makers, musicians, artists and change-makers to get their stories told to the world via press, media and digital marketing. We are one of the leading small publicity companies in Scotland and are very well known, within industry, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

We pride ourselves on working opening within an equalist, feminist, anti-racist code of conduct and we appreciate as a small company we have perhaps more capability to support change makers, and make change ourselves, than some big industry powers.

How to Apply

To apply, contact your local job centre and ask to be referred to us.

A Space to Bless, live from St Mary’s Cathedral to lead a month of queer connectivity from Queen Jesus Productions

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One year on since the pandemic took hold, Queen Jesus Productions have continued their pioneering support of trans and LGBTQI+ theatre by sustaining two interlinked, evolving strands of work; the development of Scotland’s first all trans, non-binary and gender non-conforming performance ensemble and a programme of interactive digital art works inspired by Jo Clifford’s revolutionary play, ​The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven.

Looking to the future this April, audiences are invited to immerse themselves in the stunning surrounds of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh for a series of blessings. A Space to Bless is the centrepiece in a programme of events and gatherings next month – a space within Clifford’s queer utopia to gather and commune online for up to 15 minutes every day Monday 12 – Monday 26 April.

A follow on from a series of Sunday blessings released online in 2020, these brand new works will be livestreamed at noon from the Cathedral, with each daily chapter offering a gathering, a text, space for meditation and a blessing.

The five chapters will incorporate elements of The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, reimagined in this unique setting – inspired by and respecting the building’s use, stunning physical features and fascinating history. There will be live BSL interpretation by Yvonne Waddell each day and all five chapters will be available with Closed Captions at the end of performance week.

The week will close with a screening of The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven, recorded as live and streamed from Augustine United Church in Edinburgh on Saturday 19 December and Sunday 20 December 2020.

The livestream performances will coincide with “Gender & Liturgy in conversation” – an online conference taking place over six days to discuss various themes and issues around gender and liturgy in the Scottish Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican tradition.

Revd Canon Marion Chatterley, Vice Provost, St Mary’s Cathedral, said: “We’re delighted to welcome Queen Jesus Productions into St Mary’s Cathedral for their week of live-streamed ’A Space to Bless’ events. Our Cathedral seeks to celebrate diversity, to welcome everyone into our prayerful space and to be a place where we are reminded that we are all loved equally and completely by the God who knows us and made us.”

Jo Clifford, writer and performer and founding director of Queen Jesus Productions said: “It is a real joy to be able to create something for Queen Jesus to livestream from the very beautiful St Mary’s Cathedral. It’s a great privilege and a great responsibility.

I was brought up in the Anglican tradition and it still remains very precious to me. I’ve been very moved to rediscover its beauty as I’ve been attending Evening Prayer every day there as part of my preparation for this event; and a real honour to be asked to contribute some thoughts to the “Gender and Liturgy in Conversation” event that the Catedral is hosting in the same week.

The Episcopalian church in Brazil has been incredibly courageous in its support for Queen Jesus during her persecution there, and it makes me really happy to be working their sister church here in Scotland on a programme of liberation for everyone.”

Meanwhile behind the scenes at Queen Jesus Productions, the ensemble; Sadie Godiva, Bibi June, Adam Kashmiry, Goose Masondo, Saerlaith Robyn McQuaid O’Dwyer, Kirsty Biff Nicolson, Bel Pye  and EM Williams, with Stage Manager Fin Dickins and Director David Wood continue a bespoke programme of development and training. Members were first brought together as part of Queen Jesus’ 10th anniversary festival in 2019 – responding to an open call to take part in a new verbatim theatre piece called Untitled 2009, written by trans non-binary writer Nelly Kelly.

External expert sessions led by inspiring trans creatives at the top of their fields, including SHaySHay, Rebecca Root and Malik Nashad Sharpe aka Marikiscrycrycry will take place in tandem with writer Nelly Kelly’s further development of the ideas underpinning ‘Untitled 2009’ into a new play, written for the ensemble, which is supported by Playwright’s Studio Scotland’s New Playwright’s Award. The programme is being delivered online while restrictions are in place with an invited public reading of the work in progress play planned for spring.

Over the last 11 years The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven​ has had a profound impact on trans representation in theatre and on the thousands of people all over the world who have interacted with it. Queen Jesus will continue to grow its international reputation as the play makes its Australasian debut next month with Kristen Smyth in the iconic role, to be performed live as part of a new production for Melbourne’s Theatre Works and Midsumma Festival.

With the theatre industry under enormous pressures Queen Jesus Productions believes it is vitally important, now more than ever, to continue to represent, support and lift trans and LGBTQI+ voices onto our stages as we look forward to the theatrical gatherings that so many cannot wait to return to, when the time is safe and right.

The world is living through a continued time of widespread social distance, isolation, turbulent physical and mental health – but with some hope on the horizon. Queen Jesus Productions will continue to gather a community no matter where they are in the world,  with April’s programme of events just the beginning for them in 2021.  

For more information visit queenjesusproductions.com.

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Listings

A Space to Bless, live from St Mary’s Cathedral – 12:00 BST daily on Monday 12 – Monday 26 April

The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven – 18:00 (BST) on Friday 16 April

One ticket grants access to all five chapters and the screening of The Gospel.

Tickets are on a sliding scale of free, £2, £4, £6, £8 or £10.

Booking: https://www.queenjesusproductions.com/a-space-to-bless-st-marys

Media Contacts

For further information, images and interview requests please contact Storytelling PR:

Miriam Attwood: miriam@storytellingpr.com

Emma Costello: emma@storytellingpr.com

Notes to Editors

About Queen Jesus Productions

Queen Jesus Productions is an award-winning theatre company based in Scotland on a mission to end trans and LGBTQIA+ discrimination, created originally to support Jo Clifford’s ground-breaking play ‘The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven’.

Formed in 2015 by founding directors Jo Clifford (writer and performer), Susan Worsfold (director and designer) and Annabel Cooper (producer), the company has toured internationally to a broad and diverse range of venues, from Belo Horizonte in Brazil to Belfast in Northern Ireland.

Our sister company, Queen Jesus Plays BR, has overcome censorship and violence to perform the play over 200 times in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Capo Verde, inspiring thousands and changing the face of Brazilian theatre for ever.

The company has continued to work throughout the pandemic, collaborating with Nelly Kelly, NTS and the BBC on 68 Months in Waiting,  creating lockdown-responsive digital artworks under the banner of A Space to Bless, presenting a live-streamed performance for Christmas and supporting the evolution of Scotland’s first all trans, gender non-conforming and non-binary performance ensemble.