🪩 Edinburgh Culture Minute: 19-25 March 2025
Jodie Comer at the Lyceum, RSA New Contemporaries this weekend, the Folk Film Gathering + a new exhibition at Stills
Welcome to the 82nd weekly edition of the Culture Minute: a round-up of Edinburgh’s local creative news, events, jobs and opportunities.
If I’ve missed anything please get in touch.
👀 The most-viewed links from the last Edinburgh Culture Minute:
- 🎭 First shows revealed for Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025.
- 📚 Below Stairs Books: a new bookshop in town.
- 🎻 Edinburgh Tradfest full line up revealed.
News:
🎭 Jodie Comer will perform at the Lyceum theatre next February. She’ll be performing as a barrister in Suzie Miller’s ‘Prima Facie’, for which she won the Olivier and Tony awards. - Thom Dibdin, All Edinburgh Theatre.
⮑ “It is a huge privilege to return to Prima Facie for one last time,” Comer told The Guardian. “I can’t think of a better finale to what has been such an incredible and deeply rewarding chapter in my life.”
🎉 There have been more festival programme announcements and some Summerhall news (Summerhall Arts has signed a 10-year lease at the site) this week too. - Fergus Morgan summarises it all neatly in The Crush Bar.
⮑ What about the book festival? Its programme is scheduled to be announced on Tuesday 10 June.
🎨 Opening on Saturday at the Royal Scottish Academy on The Mound: New Contemporaries showcases how emerging artists and architects are responding to generation-defining moments. - Tickets here. (It’s free on Mondays).
⮑ The show is previewed by Rachel Ashenden in The Skinny and there are some behind-the-scenes videos of the artists putting up their work here.
⮑ Also: Academy Late is back on Friday 11 April. - More details here.
🎬 Tickets went on sale this week for Edinburgh's annual Folk Film Gathering, running at Cameo and Scottish Storytelling Centre from 2 - 11 May. The festival opens with rarely seen films from BBC ALBA’s Geur Ghearr shorts and closes with a day-long celebration of the life and work of pioneering independent Scottish filmmaker Douglas Eadie. Other highlights include Fertile Memory, the first full-length film to be shot within the occupied Palestinian West Bank ‘Green Line’, introduced by Scottish-Palestinian poet Nada Shawa; The Enchanted Desna, a magical-realist exploration of the childhood of Ukraine’s ‘greatest filmmaker’, Alexander Dovzhenk with a special mini-concert by Edinburgh’s Ukrainian Choir + the Scottish premiere of a new restoration of cult Irish folk horror classic The Outcasts with Irish fiddle music from Benedict Morris. - See the full programme here.
🍿 This week’s Cinetopia list of film screenings around town includes: A special screening of Itandehui Jansen’s ‘Itu Ninu’ followed by a Q&A with the director and producer, the next Local Cinema Network screening at McDonald Road Library + a free street projection event at West Crosscauseway in Newington called Folktales for New Scots. - All the details are here.
📖 It’s World Storytelling Day on Thursday. To mark the occasion at the Scottish Storytelling Centre, Dougie Mackay hosts first Hearth Fire Session of 2025 ‘for an eclectic night of ancient myth, contemporary storytelling, post-folk music and physical artistry’. - Find out about this and more local events in Naomi Head’s wonderful Good Egg Project newsletter.
📸 Tracksuits, lonely washing lines and northern soul dancing… a new exhibition called ‘After the End of History’ shows how working-class photographers view modern Britain. It’s on at Stills Gallery on Cockburn Street from 21 March until 28 June. - Find out more about it here.
⮑ It’s also previewed in The Guardian.
⮑ Stills hosts a preview event on Thursday 20 March from 6-8pm.
⮑ Congratulations to local photographer Andrew Paterson who received the Magnum Photos Portfolio Award at Format Festival last weekend. - Check out Andrew’s work here.
📚 The largest book fair in Scotland is scheduled for the end of this month in the George Hotel. It will feature book dealers from all around the UK and Rebus author Ian Rankin is due to open the event. - More details.
🎨 Opening on Friday at Summerhall for a week: ‘Strange Times’, a Pandemic Art Exhibition by ECA fashion graduate Cairistiona Rose Fletcher, who says:
“We are holding an Exhibition in Edinburgh’s Summerhall to mark the 5-year anniversary of UK Lockdown beginning. The showcase will bring together 20 up-and-coming artists/creatives, sharing work from/reflecting their COVID-19 pandemic experiences. Our Lockdown times are often swept under the rug, so the aim of the exhibition is to open up a conversation about it, as well as celebrate how far we have come since those strange times. We will promote the brilliant work of Health In Mind and Change Mental Health charities through the event.” - More details here.
🎤 This month’s Creative Mornings guest is, um… me. Here’s the pitch:
Newspaper sales and voter turnout have fallen in parallel. Rethinking, redesigning and rejuvenating local media is critical in fostering a healthy democracy. We don’t have to be overwhelmed by social media and clickbait just to keep up with what’s happening. Learn about how The Edinburgh Minute has sparked dozens more new publications around the world to reclaim grassroots community news, boosting independent businesses, artists and campaigners while giving local readers a better deal.
⮑ Sounds good to me. If you want to come along, tickets will be available from 11am on Friday at this link. I really hope to meet some of you in real life in what’s a very special local building: Edinburgh Printmakers. More than a decade ago I worked on (admittedly campaign-y) journalism calling for the building to be saved from demolition. So it will be a joy to talk about the Minute inside those four walls and hear from you too.
🎭 What's on Edinburgh's stages this week?
Here’s All Edinburgh Theatre’s Thom Dibdin:
It's all about the Lyceum this week, where the first reviews are in for Wild Rose and the news is that the show is a five star corker which uses country music to its best advantage in what is essentially a high-grade juke-box musical (ends April 19: tickets).
Not only that, but the theatre has just announced that it has the only Scottish date on the 2026 tour of Prima Facie, (Feb 3-7 2026: tickets from March 25) with Jodie Comer reprising her award-winning role as lawyer Tessa. Full details in Æ's news story here.
Back on planet now, David Hayman stars in Andy Arnold's production of the great Death of a Salesman at the Festival Theatre (Wed - Sat: tickets). By all accounts this is a big, powerful performance in a similar play - and there are still tickets available.
Local amateurs EPT are at the Church Hill this week, with Simon Gray's delicate, moving and yet consistently funny play Quartermain's Terms (Wed - Sat: tickets), which won him the Cheltenham Prize in 1982.
Lunchtime theatre continues at the Traverse, where Lana Pheutan's Skye-set Eilidh Eilidh Eilidh (ends Sat: tickets) is "accomplished and engrossing to the end" according to our reviewer.
Elsewhere, the students of the Scottish Institute are at Assembly Roxy with A Monster Calls (Wed/Thurs: tickets); and Erin Boulter is giving a script-in-hand, read-through rehearsal of their new script Play On at the Nicholson Square Venues (Thurs/Fri: tickets) ahead of a Fringe run in August.
Junior dance fans can revel in Northern Ballet's take on Hansel & Gretel at the Festival Theatre (Sun: tickets); and older comedy fans can chortle at Frankie Boyle, Susie McCabe and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd at the Playhouse (Sat: tickets) with a live take of their podcast Here Comes the Guillotine.
For more detail, see Æ's various listings pages, all linked here.
📌 Edinburgh Culture Minute Community Noticeboard:
⮑ Get in touch using this form.
📌 THURSDAY: “Shoreline of Infinity's Event Horizon: 'SF Caledonia Anthology One' Book Launch. A collection of science fiction stories, poetry and articles by Scottish writers. The launch (on Thursday 20 March) is hosted by Edinburgh Bookshop in Bruntsfield, and will feature readings from the authors.” - Thanks to Noel Chidwick, Founder, Editor-in-Chief Shoreline of Infinity /SF Caledonia, for sharing this.
📌 FRIDAY: “Last call to join over 200 soulful music heads and dancers at the well established Leith Local Night, "The Get Down" which goes ahead at Artisan Roast & Leith Arches this Friday. Remember Local Businesses can save themselves £15 using the code ILUVLEITH on the eventbrite link only a few left so be quick... See you on the dancefloor.” - Thanks as always to Ricardo from Luvin’Leith Events for sharing this.
📌 FRIDAY: “Edinburgh is one of the world's capitals of traditional dance. As the only national cultural charity of its kind, proudly based in Edinburgh, we are pleased to spotlight and support all the Scottish and world traditional dance activities taking place throughout our festival city. Next up: Ceilidh Plus: dance to tunes from Scotland, Ireland + Bulgaria on 21 March at the King's Hall. Book now!” - Thanks to Iliyana Nedkova, Curator, Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, for sharing this.
📌 SATURDAY: “Join the Edinburgh Singers for O Radiant Dawn, a celebration of British composers and their finest choral music at 7.30pm on Saturday 22 March. From classical motets to traditional folk songs performed in the stunning setting of St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, this promises to be a very special evening! Find out more here.” - Thanks to the group for sharing this.
📌 “Vol.20 of The Book of the Old Edinburgh Club has been published and available now.” - Thanks to Dr Wilson Smith, Editor BOEC, for sharing this.
📌 “Do come and join us for our Spring Concert on Monday 31st March at 2.30 pm in the Southside Community Centre, 117 Nicolson Street, Edinburgh EH8 9ER. We’ll be playing Peter Warlock’s Capriol Suite, Schubert’s overture “Rosamunde” and Schubert’s third symphony – lovely music for a spring afternoon.” - Thanks to the organisers for sharing this.
📌 “Evie Jamieson and Lorna Balmer, Edinburgh artists, are showing their artwork at Thomson's Tower in the lovely Dr Neil's Garden from Saturday 22 -29 March, 11- 4 daily.” - Thanks to Evie Jamieson and Lorna Balmer for sharing this.