We are excited to announce the first show of our 2025 season. Award-winning theatre-maker, performer and poet Martin O’Connor will write and perform in Through the Shortbread Tin, telling the story of the greatest literary hoax of all time and revisiting James Macpherson’s tales of the third-century bard, Ossian.

Directed by Lu Kemp, Through the Shortbread Tin is a new show, performed in Scots, with Gaelic songs, which explores Scottish culture, myths, history and identity. Martin will be joined on stage by three female Gaelic choral singers, singing original songs composed by Oliver Searle.

This new production premieres at the Corn Exchange, Melrose in April 2024 before touring to Glasgow, Edinburgh, Ullapool, Stornoway, Portree, Dornie, Cumbernauld, Oban, Helensburgh, Lerwick and Inverness.

Martin O’Connor, writer and performer said

“I’m looking forward to staging this work after many years of research and development, and I can’t wait to begin working with Lu and the rest of the creative team to tell this story. I have been fascinated with the history of Ossian and Macpherson since I started learning Gaelic and since I have rediscovered my Scots voice, and it gave me a jumping off point to explore all things linguistic, cultural and historical about Scotland, and my own upbringing. It seems that not many people know about Ossian and Macpherson, the hoax that he created, and the impact that it had on him and wider Scottish culture, so I am very excited to be staging this work and telling this tale at a time when we are still asking big questions about our country and identity.”

Full info here.