There is no need for a moral panic about the UK's welfare system.
Far from perfect but recent discourse is nuts
Spending is controlled, not spiralling
Worklessness is near record lows
My column www.ft.com/content/ee67...
Be quick if you want to see the 'delicious visual and audible feast' that is #Óran from Wonder Fools
Here for TODAY ONLY Tue 14 Oct with performances at 2PM & 7.30PM. Don't miss this thrilling story!
Book at www.live.org.uk/whats-on/oran
JUST IN!! ⭐⭐⭐⭐ from @fergusmorgan.bsky.social at @thestage.co.uk!!
"richly, writhingly poetic"
"a stylish, ritualistic retelling"
www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/the-...
Great writing, great performance
✨ The winners of Scotland’s annual theatre awards are in. Shows recognised include Hedda Gabler, So Young, Wild Rose, A History of Paper, Confessions of a Shinagawa Monkey, Yellow Canary & Ayr Gaiety’s Mother Goose, the first panto to be honoured. ✨ www.heraldscotland.com/news/2522306...
Didn't cry. Went dead well. Rewarded self with 6 pack of welsh cakes on train home. Now might cry due to sugar crash.
A photo of Church Hill Theatre's stage, taken from the back of the auditorium. The stage is black and empty, except for a lowered lighting rig and a blank projection screen. The seats are red velvet.
Last day of 10 Times Beautiful rehearsals before the show goes up tomorrow. In just two weeks, this company has brought to life a whole play feat. dance, music, and singing (much of which is in a language new to them) with creativity, talent, and love. They are amazing. I'm proud of them.
The River Tweed is surrounded by stories. Lyne Fort weaves a fascinating tapestry of Roman history. The Romans were not fond of the British weather (or prepared for it 🥶) yet, with a dusting of snow and frost, their legacy in the landscape comes alive! #archaeology #rivertweed
📸 Airborne Lens.
Gathering Light, a new exhibition by artist Sam Laughlin, will debut at Dawyck Botanic Garden this February.
Images taken during Sam's time in the Wild Heart offer a unique perspective of the landscape inspired by ecological restoration. 📸🌿
🗓️1 Feb – 4 May
www.tweedriverculture.org/events/gathe...
1/2 On the final night of an unsettling Scottish tour with queer music collective The Scottish Queer Animals, Bunny Baxter discovers the importance of finding your tribe. 🏳️🌈 🏳️⚧️
The new play by @jley.bsky.social also features recorded songs participants can use as part of their projects.
At a time in which young people are disconnected, lonely, unhappy and disempowered, we need spaces for them to feel like they belong. To spend time together socially. To feel happier. And to build connections with people who aren't like them.
Spot on as usual
If you're in Ayrshire this February, come & see five new plays about love, loss, witches, ghosties & Rabbie Burns.
Wow…we are beyond delighted to announce we have been shortlisted for @thestage.bsky.social’s Community Award for Positive Stories for Negative Times. ☺️
Thank you and congrats to everyone who has been shortlisted ❤️
#TheStageAwards #YouthTheatre #Theatre
Great to see A Play, A Pie and A Pint and @wonderfoolsonline.bsky.social both get nominations in The Stage Awards 2025.
www.thestage.co.uk/news/the-sta...
For sure it’s not. But to be fair, that does mean it has a certain mystery and magic. So IF it is accessible to and used by its wider community then maybe that’s ok. The issue it seems to me, is when it is in reality never more than an exclusive space for the few.
Scotsman reviews of The Brunton's hugely enjoyable family version of A Christmas Carol - co produced with Wonder Fools, and now moving on to Musselburgh - and a thoroughly naughty Beauty And The Beast from Bard in the Botanics at the Byre Theatre, St. Andrews. www.scotsman.com/arts-and-cul...
Theatre has a vision problem.
When I say vision, I mean an articulation of why a building or organisation exists. A purpose. A statement of how you want to change the world.
A coherent, inspiring vision was essential to everything we did at Company Three.
But so many theatres don’t have one.
Hope you like it, man.
If you do, tell everybody. If you don’t, take it to the grave.
Just getting used to this. We had a pretty sound day today (I'm from the 80s, right?) Never one to blindly look on the bright side but FST's new team and our members are definitely keeping me optimistic ❤️
Episode six of my podcast, A History Of Scottish Drama In Six Plays, is out now!
It focuses on the 2000s, the birth of @ntsonline.bsky.social (and Creative Scotland...) and Gregory Burke's Black Watch.
You can listen wherever you get your podcasts!
open.spotify.com/episode/6Hak...
🎄 We sat down with co-writer Robbie Gordon who is also performing in the upcoming A Christmas Carol as Tiny Tim.
✨ We open this Friday at the Corn Exchange in Haddington.
🎥: Ruari Barber-Fleming
The Brunton in association with Wonder Fools
#Edinburgh #Panto
youtu.be/kD_uDEQuN_E
Pleased to have played a part in kicking off a process 7 years ago at @thegaiety.bsky.social - now delivering the first panto in Scotland featuring deaf actors. “Extraordinary 5⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️” says @thestage.bsky.social and worth sharing @fedscottheatre.bsky.social
‘I grew up with a lot of difficulties. If I’d seen something like this as a child, I would have known that anything is possible.’
In today’s @heraldscotland.bsky.social
I’m speaking to the stars of the country’s first panto featuring deaf actors.
www.heraldscotland.com/news/2476622...
Investment in the arts is always a good move, and if someone is trying to tell you the arts isn't for you, that person is trying to pull a fast-one on you.
www.scotsman.com/arts-and-cul...
Now we're all absolutely sure that this Blue Sky is in no way affiliated with the dodgy Blue Skies lark that pure mental bam Diavola's running around our corner of the pantosphere with...aren't we? 👀
Andy - sorry to hear this, but it’s inevitable that the next show doesn’t get funded at some point under the current funding regime. It’s the funding regime that’s at fault. Of course it’s great that others get a chance, but that’s not enough justification.
Very happy with the responses so far to our newly opened production of Mother Goose at the Gaiety Theatre in Ayr - especially from @thomdibdin.bsky.social Here’s a quote from the lovely review!
An excellent episode, but also a tough listen, remembering not the quality of individual pieces - because there are great shows every year - but the sheer quantity of great writing and productions compared to where we are now.
