Scottish Theatre Highlights: October 2025

This month, Fraser Scott's Common Tongue continues its Scottish tour to Edinburgh's Studio Theatre, then to Peebles, Greenock, Cumbernauld, St Andrews, Dumfries and Paisley. The one-person show follows Bonnie as she navigates speech and culture, exposing the rich and complex experience of speaking Scots (3-18 Oct).

The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival (20 Oct-9 Nov) offers workshops and performances as part of an expansive programme for all ages. As part of the festival, Live Borders Arts & Creativity and Audaciously Tenacious Theatre are staging Perfect Dead Girls (24 Oct), which tells the story of two young girls who suddenly find themselves in purgatory, surveilled and judged by a chilling, unknown entity. Leah Shelton also continues a tour of BATSHIT (17-25 Oct), which won an Edinburgh Fringe First Award for its run in 2024. Now touring across the UK, the show will come to Aberdeen and Edinburgh's Traverse. 

Artist and performance maker Eve Stainton returns to Edinburgh's Fruitmarket with their new work, Impact Driver (18 Oct). The ensemble performance (also featuring 2024 Besties winner Wet Mess) uses live welding, movement and sound to explore lesbian and trans masc temporalities. 

The month closes out with a few enticing festivals. Take Me Somewhere will stage its ambitious programme in Glasgow (15-26 Oct). Citing themes of 'labour, memory, ritual and desire,' the programme offers challenging and experimental performances by artists on the cutting edge, including Dan Daw, Ontroerend Goed and Jo Hague. 

The Scottish International Storytelling Festival's Go Local Programme is hosted by Pollok's Village Storytelling Centre this year (23-31 Oct). With events happening across Glasgow, the programme includes events for a wide range of audiences, with roots in working class and international solidarity. The festival culminates in a Halloween parade on the 31st, which will proceed from St James’ Parish Church to Crookston Castle, where there will be live installations and puppet shows. 

On the east coast, the Edinburgh Horror Festival (23-31 Oct) presents a wide range of spooky productions, including comedy, music, cabaret and storytelling. With over forty listed events and a selection of live streams, the EHF programme is expansive and diverse. Among the many offerings are Gorelesque, a cabaret in which "glamour meets the grotesque"; Red Rabbit, a folk horror play set in medieval Scotland; and Ghost Hunter Academy, a crash course in the paranormal followed by a live ghost hunt within The Banshee Labyrinth.