Untold Stories

Untold Stories is a showcase and exhibition of multimedia performances rooted in the traditional arts, celebrating the voices of women, non-binary, and other minority gendered creatives. Over two nights, Untold Stories weaves together powerful stories, songs, mythology and music. Each evening features a unique lineup of performances, from reimagined folk tales to contemporary devised pieces. The accompanying art exhibition complements these narratives, presenting a diverse range of work exploring themes of identity and our place in the world.

Purchase of a ticket is required for entry to the showcase, which will start at 8:00pm. The exhibition is free entry and will be open from 7:00pm-8:00pm, (one hour before the showcase starts) during the interval of the showcase, and for half an hour after the showcase ends (approx 10:00pm-10:30pm).

9th April Showcase Pieces:

Tatterhood Growing up I always felt that I’d not had access to the secret “how to be a girl” classes that everyone else had been to. None of the females in folk and fairy tales I came across had any personal resonance for me. I found Tatterhood in a Norwegian volume of stories via Project Guttenberg and fell in love (so much that my online presence is https://marytatterhoodtales.wordpress.com/). I’ve given the story a few tweaks here and there rather than fit in to heteronormativity – I believe stories should flex and shift over time to maintain relevance. #IAmTatterhood – neurodivergent, different and proud!

Breathless (from ‘The Art of Joy’) ​​A table. Two chairs. The sea. The silence of being unheard and unseen. A girl uncovers herself and the world around her through words, through the truths and the lies they conceal. Freely adapted from Goliarda Sapienza’s ‘The Art of Joy’ —Italian novel completed in 1976 but published posthumously only in 1994— this non-monologue explores the power of language, love, and female freedom. The elusiveness of the sea, vast and untamed, becomes the ultimate symbol of her longed-for liberation.

Blodeuwedd, the adulterous wife made of flowers, is one of Welsh mythology’s most iconic characters. For centuries bards and scholars have speculated about her morals and her motives, but this piece, which blends spoken word with traditional cerdd dant singing, questions why Blodeuwedd needs to explain herself at all.

Elucidation – an act of explanation that casts light upon the truth. This word is the title for an anonymous 13th century Old French poem that tells the story of how the mythical kingdom of the Fisher King fell to ruin and loss. What was once a bountiful land became instead a wasteland through a corrupt king’s act of betrayal and violence against the women who guarded the earth. Through storytelling and ritual performance, truth will be honoured and visions of healing enacted with water, words and action.

cosas que no me dejan comer As artists and creatives, particularly as women, I think we are often unnecessarily critical and unkind to our art, I know at least I am. When thinking about the idea of my untold stories, I went back to songs and themes I had written a long time ago and found myself relating to them in new ways. Like my feelings of uncertainty about these songs, many of the relationships I wrote about and the way I wrote about them told stories of ambiguity, uncertainty and chaos. In an attempt to be kinder to my art, and to the idea that uncertainty is welcomed and perfection is overrated, I created this piece.

Cassandra (Excerpts) An excerpt from Ailsa Dixon’s new storytelling Fringe show Cassandra. What does it mean to be believed? Cassandra sits in Apollo’s temple, tears drying on her cheeks, blood caked beneath her fingernails, the ghosts of Apollo’s hands heavy on her hips. By a Scottish mountainside, a speawife is thrust under the waves of a loch. A girl in an Edinburgh flat scrubs her skin raw, paint drying on the cardboard placard at her feet. Blending personal, ancient and folkloric narrative, Ailsa Dixon follows the threads of witches and prophetesses blown on the wind, exploring intimate themes of activism and autonomy.

10th April Showcase Pieces:

Lady M Sees Red When faced with a damned bloody spot, Lady M can’t help but wonder about the consequences it will bring for her future.

The Fairie Wife of The Cowgate This is a short drama piece based on actual historic events that took place in post Reformation Edinburgh, where a healer is being tried for sorcery. She and her teacher symbolise folk belief and its practice before the Reformation and The Scribe who takes the principle character’s confession symbolises the attitudes of those aligning to The Kirk which is becoming narrow and deeply oppressive of folk belief.

Bacchanalia Raised by their mother, Semele, Dionysus arrives in Thebes to meet the estranged side of their family. They hold out hope that familial love and affection will override difference, but they soon realise that that is not always the case. After an ill-fated family dinner, troubling hallucinations harass Dionysus. And with their safety threatened, Dionysus reaches their breaking point: their desire for acceptance quickly turning to rage and vengeance. Their world and the world of Euripides’ Bacchae merge together, becoming an indistinguishable march towards destruction.

Epithumia The Ancient Greek word Epithumia (ἐπιθυμία) means ‘a strong desire’ or ‘longing’ for something or someone’. The feeling has also been described as a ‘craving’ and ‘a desire for what is forbidden’. This, in conjunction with an exploration of ‘cannibalism as a metaphor for love’, becomes the core of Eden and Florence’s relationship within the narrative.

Burn the Muse is a devised performance art piece that explores the concept of a Muse and the journey of disillusionment with the idea that many Muse’s experience. It asks the question: what does it actually feel like to be a muse?

God’s Sip Did you know that the word ‘gossip’ etymologically stems from an old English word that reflects the powerful bond between close female friends? | A collection of monologues reflecting on all things gossip, talking shit (for better or for worse), and having a good old fashioned ‘bitch session’… whatever it is that ‘bitching’ actually means.