Edinburgh Fringe gets down with the referendum

All Back To Bowies is one production that will take inspiration from the independence referendum

COMEDIANS, musicians, actors, authors and playwrights have revealed they will be taking part in Edinburgh Festival Fringe shows inspired by the debate over Scotland’s future.

The Scotsman can reveal at least 12 different productions will be staged across the city based on the first batch of shows to start selling tickets on the Fringe website.

Hardman actor David Hayman, Rab C Nesbitt star Elaine C Smith, singer-songwriter Karine Polwart, playwright David Greig and comics Fred MacAulay and Vladimir McTavish will be among those involved in referendum-themed shows.

The line-up includes shows entitled A Split Decision, Now’s The Hour, MacBraveheart, Aye Right? How No? and All Back To Bowie’s.

And although some shows appear to be taking a relatively neutral stance, just one of the shows confirmed so far - The British Referendum - will be arguing in favour of the Union. It is being staged by an American comedian, with Scottish roots, Erich McElroy, who has lived in England for the last 14 years.

The majority of the shows inspired by the debate have been programmed by promoter Tommy Sheppard - a high-profile supporter of independence from the cultural sector - at the Assembly Rooms, the new Fringe arena in St Andrew Square and at the Stand Comedy Club venues.

They include The Pitiless Storm, which will see Hayman playing a left-wing trade union figure forced to question his beliefs in the face of pre-referendum political upheaval, and All Back to Bowie’s, a lunchtime variety show featuring a mix of “politics, poetry, polemic and pop”.

In Now’s The Hour, the Scottish Youth Theatre will use sketches, monologues and music to explore what the referendum could mean for the younger generation of voters, A Split Decision will see comedian Keir McAllister examine whether the “dysfunctional relationship” at the heart of the debate can be resolved, while Only An Excuse’s creator Phil Differ’s satirical play MacBraveheart is said to be “rooted in the past of a dystopian pre-independence future”

The bumper line-up of Fringe shows have emerged in the wake of the controversy over the Edinburgh International Festival’s refusal to tackle the debate directly in its programme this summer.

Director Sir Jonathan Mills sparked anger last year when he revealed that his swansong festival would instead be inspired by the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War and Glasgow’s hosting of the Commonwealth Games. It later emerged he had commissioned The James Plays, a historical trilogy by playwright Rona Munro, although they are set entirely in the 15th century.

Sheppard, who has also programmed a show by South African comic Andy Zaltzman, Scottishreferendogeddon, said: “A cultural festival that does not to reflect the very envir