A real treat to kick off our coverage of the season, as former Festival Director Donald Smith talks us through the two Storytelling events
Would you mind giving us insight into your art/event/performance?
The Ossian and the Columba story cycles are two performances at SISF arisng from ‘Rewilding Scotland’s Epics’ , a contemporary take on Scotland’s oldest stories.
Tell us about the creative team and the process involved in producing your performance?
Rewilding Scotland’s Epics’ started as a quest by former Festival Director Donald Smith to recover the Ossian and Columba stories as true epics, rooted in Scotland’s natural evironment, as well as its lore and mythology. Quickly other storytellers joined the journey, and the Festival performances are a collaboration involving seven storytellers, several of whom are also musicians. We also have a young illustrator, hester Aspland, whose immagery is inspired by the Rewilding theme and will feature in the performances.
With the launch of this year’s programme, Birds and Beasts, how does it feel to be involved in the Festival?
We are excited by the theme, which is a perfect gift to the Ossian and Columba stories, which feature deer, dogs, horses, and birds as active players in the epic cycles. Audiences will love this intimate take on the life of animals and their connections with people. At the Festival we will also launch the project book ‘Rewilding Scotland’s Epics’, written by Donald Smith and illustrated by Hester Aspland. Being part of SISF 2026 ‘Birds and Beasts’ is very big for us, creatively and for reaching a widwer public.
With shows from all over the world, is there anything in the production/team’s backgrounds and identity that influences the show?
Both the Ossian and Columba stories exist in complementary ways in Scotland and Ireland. So the storytelling team has two Irish storytellers in it – Grainne Holland and Sinead O’Brien, three Scottish storytellers – Martin MacIntyre, Heather Yule and David Hughes– and two with mixed Scottish and Irish heritage – Marion Kenny and Donald Smith. So disussions and rehearsals have happened online as well as live.
Storytelling in Scotland is a treasured, if often unsung, craft within the media. For those who may be unfamiliar with a live performance, what can audiences expect?
Audiences will experience big evolving dramas with many characters and events, and emotion building through the pieces. They will be there in the action as these tales unfold over more than one session. Its like the Odyssey though with as many female as male heroes, gods of both genders, and animals that sometimes shape change into humans – or the other way round! From the start the story twists and turns, suprising listeners, yet also perhaps confirming their deepest hopes, loves and fears.
With one foot in tradition and another in the present, what do you hope for Storytelling’s future, either as a performance or as a community?
Stories exist in that moment of their telling for the audience alone in live close ups, all in the spectacular atmosphere here of the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Its an artform with thousands of years behind it, but completely alive for the present, and needed more than ever before in human history. Here is one area where AI cannot hack it. The community which storytelling creates is grounded in people and in the natural world to which we belong – Bird, Beast and Human you might say! Also these myths and dramas belong to our landscape and environment. A precious thread of culture is being restored to the contemporary weave at a time of eco crisis. I know that everywhere I go in future months to share these stories and celebrate Rewilding, I will encounter friends old and new, and hear their connected experiences of the natural world.
Sun 25 Oct, 12.30pm and 2pm
Rewilding Scotland’s Epics: The Columba Cycle with Marion Kenny, Donald Smith and Heather Yule
£14 or both sessions £20 plus booking fee
Age 12 + (1hr 15min each session)
Wed 28 Oct, 5pm, 6.45pm & 8.30pm
Rewilding Scotland’s Epics: The Ossian Cycle with Gráinne Holland, David Hughes, Martin MacIntyre, Sinéad O’Brien and Donald Smith
£14 or three sessions for £30 plus booking fee
Age 12+ (1hr 15mins each session)
Illustration by Hester Aspland
Interested in being featured on our Have a Gander page? With many previews and Q&As lined up, we’re always happy to chat about including your show in future articles. Please do get in touch through the contact page to feature in an upcoming ‘Have A Gander’