Scottish Theatre Highlights: October 2024

October in Scotland boasts an ambitious offering of theatre and performance, with no fewer than three festivals happening amidst an array of individual productions.

Starting on 10 October, the Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (10-27 Oct) begins its eighteenth annual programme of shows and events across Scotland. Programme highlights include Jen McGregor's work-in-progress, Hallucinogen, Sanjay Lago's Floating Along Silently, and Men Don't Talk, a new collaboration between Clare Prenton and the Scottish Men's Shed Association and Luminate.

Palestinian dance artist and choreographer Farah Saleh and collaborators bring The World We Share (18 & 20 Oct), a new intergenerational dance piece running in Edinburgh and Glasgow this month. The work asks how we can come together to solve personal and collective problems. 

In collaboration with workers from Glasgow, Manchester-based Quarantine brings their durational performance, 12 Last Songs, to Glasgow's Tramway on 19 October. This will be the seventh of twelve completely different iterations of the show, shaped as it is by the people who work in each city the company visits. During the twelve-hour show, workers will do paid shifts to demonstrate what they do to make a living.

From 18-31 October, the Scottish International Storytelling Festival offers a huge programme of traditional storytelling events, including the Orkney Storytelling Festival. Among the festival's other exciting offerings are Niall Moorjani and Jonathan Oldfield's Kanpur: 1857, Claire McNicol and Linda Williamson's Raven Jack and Lady Unicorn and Macastory’s Rip-Roaring Renaissance.

Over Halloween weekend, Edinburgh Horror Festival haunts The Banshee Labyrinth (31 Oct-3 Nov). With 24 shows, events and workshops, the programme is as inventive as it is spooky. Highlights include Paul Case's Rogues So Banished, SMaK Productions' i am but a tiny little lady, The Sculptor, My Grandmother Taught Me to Knit and Frighthouse 2.