Edinburgh Fringe 2026
Come to Where I Am
Paines Plough
Genre: Autobiography, Biography, New Writing, Spoken Word
Venue: Shedinburgh
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
A masterful experience in storytelling, with a distinctly Scottish feel. If this is the future of Scottish writing, then the the future looks bright.
Review
Shedinburgh, it seems, is the hottest ticket in town. A brand new venue housed in the former Assembly Checkpoint, the clue is quite literally in the name – it’s a Fringe venue in a shed. Just when you thought you’d heard it all. The selling point for this one is star power, and star power it has in shedloads (see what I did there?). The venue itself is the brainchild of Fringe super-producer Francesca Moody, of Fleabag and Baby Reindeer fame, and she has the celebrity draw to match – the opening night had a DJ set by James Acaster and Nish Kumar, and the big names keep on coming. And that was certainly true for this offering, Come to Where I Am.
An intimate showcase of Scottish talent, theatre company Paines Plough presented four monologues as a compliment to Come to Where I’m From, their previous showcase about place and identity that surfaced in 2010. This time, the crux was concerning where we’re at, given that it was devised during the pandemic – mainly as a way of still commissioning artists during lockdown. With two monologues commissioned especially for this performance, and a further two from the Paines Plough archives, they explored everything from racism, xenophobia, disability, and chronic illness, and deftly interwove pure elation with utter heartbreak.
The Things I Do Not Say, written and performed by Hannah Lavery, spoke of a Scotland still wracked by racism and hate crimes. It seems implausible to look at the Edinburgh of August and connect it with the city of two months ago, where a man marauded down Leith Walk, trying to murder people based purely on the colour of their skin. A sobering thought, but one nonetheless that needs to be expressed in amongst all the festival bliss. Her account speaks to her experience as a person of colour living in Scotland – a country, she reminds us, that is so small.
Mary Gapinski followed, narrating Linda McLean’s account of chronic illness and disability with Where I’m From Is Invisible, a stark reminder that life can change in the blink of an eye. She recounted the story of her son, suffering with chronic headaches from an unfortunate meningitis infection, who had to learn how to find his place in a world not wired towards people like him. A touching tribute, and yet a reminder that disability really does render you as invisible in the modern world. Crowbar by Uma Nada-Rajah was performed passionately by Israela Efomi, a story about violence, xenophobia, and polarisation in the Glasgow of the 2030s. When is violence ever justified? she asked. Where do you finally draw the line?
Gary McNair’s Come to Where I’m From rounded out the quartet, brought to life by Martin Donaghy. A touching story of Glasgow back when REM’s future still looked bright, he talked of the city and what it meant to him – after, all, people make Glasgow and all, but then people have to make Glasgow. It’s our individual choices that make a difference, day after day. The entire hour was a masterful experience in storytelling, orchestrated by the direction of Becky Hope-Palmer. Four different voices with a distinctly Scottish feel, and it’s nice to hear a focus on Scotland in a festival where sometimes, it feels like the country itself is dwarfed by louder influences. If this is the future of Scottish writing, then the the future looks bright.
