Edinburgh Fringe 2026
A Wolf Shall Devour the Sun
Dougie Mackay / Jemima Thewes
Genre: Storytelling, Theatre
Venue: The Scottish Storytelling Centre
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
From the moment you enter, there is a sense of stepping into a special environment. The venue’s ethos is captured by the Scottish Traveller proverb, “The story is told eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart” — a welcoming invitation to share creativity and humanity. Handmade instruments and props await, evoking the warmth of a communal gathering around a hearth. Dougie arrives, and unbeknownst to us, so does Jemima, ready to unfold their magical blanket of stories.
Review
Even before the show starts, there is a sense of being in a special environment. This can perhaps in part be attributed to the venue itself, which sums up its ethos with the Scottish Traveller proverb, “The story is told eye to eye, mind to mind and heart to heart”, which suggests a welcoming spirit, inclusive nature and a place where anybody can share their creativity and humanity. Yet, without the storytellers who regale and enchant us with their art, it would be but a building. A chair awaits our tale-tellers, and we see traditional and handmade instruments and props waiting to be brought to life. It is easy to picture being invited into a communal gathering place. Maybe we are being included around the warmth of a hearth fire, or inside an ancient Mongolian yurt, or a Native American wigwam.
Dougie arrives and reminds us of the negative press wolves have garnered over the centuries, before taking us to Odin and the Norse Gods who precede the origin of the wolves.
Comedic and ironic moments are woven throughout the stories with subtle language choices such as Loki’s faux pas when he “snuggled up with a giantess”, the result of which was “two grizzly children”.
Dougie is enigmatic and engaging both in his physical presence and his delivery. The choice and treatment of the language chosen for the telling of these tales adds to the warm invitation.
Live sound effects accompany the story, appearing mystically from we know not where. They are perfectly timed as to seem both natural and ethereal, as chains clank and our senses are masterfully heightened in a way no screen ever could.
As a seamless bridge to our next story, we are told of “friends who tracked wolves” in Norway, almost as though we all have such friends.
A Siberian tale of Old Kidna calling her renegade daughter home with Relinavit (interestingly also a Latin verb form meaning “he/she unswathed, unsealed, or opened up”), in which the telling is accompanied by intricate shadow puppetry. We are introduced to a tree-climbing, careful young girl, until a reality links her to the 21st century when she hits puberty, stops answering her Mum, and stays out late.
The accompaniments are provided by Jemima Thewes, meaning crafted, presented, controlled, played and sung. Each element is an art within itself. An apparently handmade skin drum serves as an ingenious teleportation device, carrying Old Kidna from stage right to stage left, whereupon it becomes a gentle reverb source in front of an amp. At the same time, Jemima plays an accordion, a guitar, a kalimba and sings haunting folk melodies – no mean feat! All the while Dougie is storytelling or playing the djembe, making a harmonious, seamless and complementary pairing.
There is a little nod to undercover feminism when “the wife” has to go chasing after the teenage renegade daughter, to chuckles of acknowledgement from an appreciative audience.
We are treated to stunningly illustrated, mesmerising, stop-motion projection and invited to howl at the moon with the two she-wolves. This is such a refreshing, immersive moment when we hear almost all of the audience joining in a (perhaps mild) Shakiraesque, uninhibited and still fixated, despite our all-too-familiar quick-fixes of short-form screen entertainment. Mother and daughter reconnect as a bonded pair, much as a pubescent and menopausal pair may well do, once the majority of the hormones are out of the way.
We are brought back to research and statistics between tales, with some thought-provoking biblical links between the purging of evil and the purging of wolves in centuries past – “ The Lord is our Shepherd…” Whereas in reality, “In Europe and North America we only found evidence for 12 attacks (with 14 victims) of which two (both in North America) were fatal, across a period of 18 years. Considering that there are close to 60,000 wolves in North America and 15,000 in Europe, all sharing space with hundreds of millions of people, it is apparent that the risks associated with a wolf attack are above zero, but far too low to calculate.” and more sheep are lost to dogs than to wolves each year. (verified International Wolf Centre)
Any ecosystem reflections are subtle and never preachy, but simply gentle reflections we are invited to consider. For example: If wolves return to Scotland, could they potentially bring back balance by reducing the exponential increase in the number of deer in the region?
These troubadours provide a very warm connection and a comforting experience.
