The Gateway Writing Festival @ Studio Theatre, Edinburgh

Capital Theatres continue to reach out hands to grassroots theatre with this year’s Gateway Writing Festival, presented at the Studio Theatre for the first time. Three consecutive nights of three full-length (45-50 minute) plays, with space to mingle in between. Each of the nine plays is fully cast, designed and directed for a paying audience – although it must be said that this is was an unpaid opportunity for the talent involved. 

The Gateway Writing Festival is run by new writing company Dracume Theatre, whose previous Festivals have taken place at the Scottish Storytelling Centre. Dracume is committed to being open to new work but commercially-minded, so even though Artistic Director James Wood made it explicitly clear that these plays are all at the start of their development journeys, the people involved are all determined upon artistic quality.

As a showcase for new talent, Gateway doesn’t disappoint. It platformed a surprisingly large range of topics, messages and play forms which show how engaged the up-and-comers are with making theatre that matters. There were some astonishingly awful moments in a few plays, but it goes against the vibe of Gateway to dwell on those, so let’s talk highlights.

Probably the most unusual play of the festival was A Stack of Chairs by Jamie Watson, a mixture of absurdist scenes which explore the uncanniness of a world designed by humanity. Unlike in the Pixar classic WALL-E, where the interminable gratification of human whim is parodied for comedy, in Chairs it is presented as a terror which puts you in mind of the tyranny of AI. The main scene of the play concerns a man (Jordan Monks) being coerced into a trial stimulation chair, which induces inescapable hallucinatory visions. Annabella Burgess takes on the smiling analyst overseeing the trial, electrocuting Monks into obedience and pressing his brain into black gunge. 

These two actors’ ranges, as they portray the consumerist torturers of each other and the audience, are mightily impressive – although there is certainly more juice in the script which director Ben Kay could have squeezed out, given a longer rehearsal process.

For formal excellence, Alistair Maxwell’s script for Kaye’s Millions was especially impressive. A mix-up with Daphne’s (Lorna McFarlane) credit card results in cash-strapped pals Kaye and Janet (Ola Olsinova and Danielle Farrow) becoming the dubious thieves of a winning lottery ticket. The comedy’s structure and characterisation is superb (a typical gem of a line: “That’s not a spending spree. It’s barely a spending manslaughter”) and the actors inhabit the roles naturally in the heightened sitcom style. At times it seems that the performers relax a bit too much into the piece, but the stakes remain clear and the tension is high enough to keep you focussed – but not so high you can’t laugh. Aligning themes of wealth with a plot fuelled by flukes is surely no accident; when Kaye makes her final stand against selfishness, there is an audible cheer from the audience.

Aside from Kaye’s Millions, the audience’s most rapturous applause went to Before the Cock Crows. This is a climate crisis-inflected domestic drama about a detached father, an unravelling nanny, a frantic child and a resigned housekeeper, none of whom quite have the ability to listen to each other as their home is slowly ingested by termites, woodworm, bedbugs and goodness knows what else. The show's multilingual characters add an extra level of intensity, and the switching between monologue, duologue and ensemble scenes make it perfect for the largest Gateway cast and completely ready for the Fringe. Like the other three plays on Tuesday's lineup, Before the Cock Crows’ title has barely anything to do with the play itself, but its exploration of climate culpability and the responsibility we have to others in society hits the zeitgeist in a way no other play at the Festival quite managed. 

Special shoutouts too to other plays whose artists’ talents shone through: Power Pop Divas was a whimsical fantasy exploring queer history with a stonking cast; Becca Donley and Philomene Cheynet’s direction elevated their plays (Echoes from the Tenement and Lone Wolf respectively) beyond what was on the page; and the lighting, sound and costume in particular from Ella Catherall, Jack Read, Jack Bain and Zara Bathurst added dimensions which would have been missed.

As Gateway continues, it could work towards incorporating a wider variety of events to complement the shows themselves, but in the meantime, they should continue what they’re doing – removing barriers for creatives and programming great nights out for reasonable prices.

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The Gateway Writing Festival 2025 took place 3-5 Nov at Studio Theatre, Edinburgh
capitaltheatres.com/festivals/the-gateway-writing-festival