This show finished on Thursday 10 April 2025, and this page is being kept for archival purposes only.
Wednesday 09 April - Thursday 10 April 2025
£4/5/6 + £1 booking fee on the door
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.
Co-Creative Director Freya McCall
Co-Creative Director Ruth Maley
Co-Producer Rae Webb
Co-Producer Abby Brooks
Lighting Designer Fiona Connor
Stage Manager Azalea Drace
Tech Assistant Dia Hunter
Technical Coordinator Freya Game
Thursday 08 May - By Juliette Pepin for The Student
The first night of Untold Stories, held at Bedlam Theatre on the 9th of April, brought to life stories overlooked by history and mythology books. The intimate storytelling scene was crafted by Azalea Drace’s stage decorations of old book pages. From acoustic guitar sessions to short film screenings, held alongside an art exhibition, creative directors Ruth Maley and Freya McCall designed a showcase uplifting the voices of female, minority gendered and non-binary artists.
Mary Baxter established a cosy, intimate tone and a safe shared space, as if the audience were being told a bedtime story. Her deep passion for storytelling reverberated through how vividly she brought the unique Norwegian folk tale “Tatterhood” to life. Baxter, from a neurodivergent perspective, expressed finding belonging in a non-conforming heroine, celebrating the beauty of being different.
“Breathless”, one of the standout performances adapted from Goliarda Sapienza’s “The Art of Joy”, conveyed a woman’s desperation to make her voice heard. Innovative humour, such as an interruption of hoovering during the performance, defied stage boundaries in denying the protagonist, played by Letizia Desimone, a voice. Using piercing blue lighting and sound effects of the sea, her escape remained out of reach, and speech lost to the murmur of the waves.
Rhodd Friswell’s storytelling of “Blodeuwedd”, a Welsh mythological figure, was bewitching and hypnotising. Integrating cerdd dant and harp, played by Ailsa Dixon, into her story, she vocalised Blodeuwedd’s truth separate from male determination.
The screening of Wren Fry’s short film Epithumia explored the magnetic connection between two queer women and how writing is a sacred space to express concealed desire and queerness. The use of the blood-like pomegranate juices were visual symbols of all-consuming desire. By putting words on the page, the protagonists’ emotions became captured, heard and documented.
Nina Willms’ immersive performance retold the buried truth behind the corruption of the Fisher King’s kingdom, and decay caused by sexual violence towards women. She invited the audience to take the story outside of Bedlam through placing their hands in a bowl of water, allowing them to be part of revealing the concealed reality to the world.
Charming the audience with humour, Claudia Moya Gil’s musical showcase allowed her personality and emotions to shine through with honest songwriting and a silky voice. Alongside a beautiful cover of Lizzy McAlpine’s “Ceilings”, she debuted songs previously shielded from the public. Baring her heart and soul for all to see, she voiced her untold stories.
In what was a powerful conclusion and a showcase highlight, excerpts from Ailsa Dixon’s upcoming fringe show Cassandra were interwoven with stories of women across time. Alongside unexpected humour, her entrancing storytelling traced centuries of stories buried, bringing them to life. Dixon played the harp alongside storytelling, immersing the audience, as they lived the experiences as well as simply listening to the story.
Untold Stories transformed Bedlam Theatre into a space for community between the audience and performers, uniting them under shared goals to amplify previously silenced voices.
Thursday 08 May - By Salvador Kent for The Student
The second (and final) showcase night of Untold Stories, a performance and exhibition space for women, non-binary people and minority gendered artists, was a success, showing a variety of propositions ranging from theatre, to film, poetry and performance art. Bedlam Theatre also exhibited some great artwork which ranged from textiles to paintings and sculpture. Poets read their pieces during showcase intervals, and there was some live music in the preshow too. There was a lovely vibe in Bedlam Theatre, no doubt due to Freya McCall and Ruth Maley’s fantastic Creative Direction, which gave platform to really interesting works, including these five “performances” on 10 April.
Lady M Sees Red was a short monologue in which Lady Macbeth was reimagined as a child who has just got her first period, and questions the roles and expectations of women. Isabella Dellazari Velarde interpreted the material with great character and feeling, and there was subtle and intelligent directing by Zuza Soltykowska, with real symbolic power being communicated through action and object.
The Fairie Wife of The Cowgate was a fascinating insight into local history. It concerned itself with the plight of a healer tried for sorcery. The text was very interesting, although it might have been better interpreted with a closer eye on oral tradition. Reinterpreted for only a performer or two, might have minimised the transition times and improved the dramatic unity of the piece. Still, the four performers on the night did the material plenty justice, and Faracy Grouse’s presence (and wonderful singing!) at the end of the piece was a sublime coup de théâtre.
Bacchanalia was a time bending play where Dionysus and his family were reimagined in a contemporary setting, complete with Gen-Zisms, before being thrust into the violent world of the Bacchae. The end section of the work was certainly the highlight, which had some immersive technical direction, complete with the sound of heavy drums, stark red lighting, and a great interpretation of dismemberment!
Epithumia was a short film written by Erin Clark and directed by Wren Fry. It was an exploration of love, specifically through the lens of consumption. The story concerns a writer and a stranger she has just met after giving an interview. The film cut between a narrative and more surreal fragments, with the latter parts being my favourite, providing some interesting imagery and commentary on the relationship between eros, word and fantasy. The film also explored themes of being a writer as a woman, and queer womanhood too, and had some great insights here.
Burn the Muse was a piece somewhere in-between theatre and performance art, and my favourite piece of the night. Mia Dean’s devised work was about the relationship between muse and artist, drawing on examples from history; but quickly turned into a meditation on artistic production itself. The direction was blazingly intelligent, with a seemingly never-ending string of brilliant images conjured by objects that ranged from paint, to clingfilm, to books being torn, a bit with an umbrella – I could go on. The piece was greatly supported by a live drummer that gave the actions a real intensity. It had three performances that were comfortable to really go “out there” and it made the work poignant, harrowing and genuinely theatrical.
God’s Sip was a lovely way to end the night. A series of monologues about gossip, which according to the show copy, etymologically stems from an Old English word that reflects the powerful bond between close female friends. The seven strong cast filled the Bedlam stage, delivering monologues (or gossiping!) on a variety of different topics around womanhood. It was a sometimes funny, sometimes poignant script with real tenderness. With the final monologue being delivered, the other six performers moved into the auditorium to interact with the audience, sharing the final moment of Untold Stories with us before filtering out into the exits…
This was a great night with a huge variety of pieces, and a real celebration of women, non-binary and minority gendered artists. Hopefully there’s more of the same very soon!