Where can storytelling go when reality outpaces fantasy?
Storyteller Donald Smith rises to the bait with satiric glee with a special reading across three nights to launch Sham Stories as part of Book Week Scotland.
Five linked subversive comedies provide Scotland’s untold Brexit chronicles. Treacherous times produce fake news and fake history, but also farce.
Is Scotland a nation unfolding from its past, or one caught between identities and historical forces beyond its control?
From Galloway to Glencoe, Edinburgh to London, pomposity is punctured, and duplicity exposed in a catalogue of mishaps.
An unexpected archaeological discovery results in local mayhem in Galloway, and a latter-day heist. A Visit Scotland marketing guru falls into a deadly time trap in the Highlands. A new right-wing political movement is launched, calculated to sweep away the Scottish Conservatives.
This however proves to be a curtain-raiser for the shenanigans surrounding production of a Scottish theatrical Ossian.
‘Year of Sham’ goes backstage to reveal everything about Edinburgh’s cultural establishment that should remain hidden. Finally, the biggest fake of all comes suddenly good, as the real Stone of Destiny is discovered buried below the Palace of Westminster, with eye-watering consequences.
Throughout, there is a recurring gallery of comic characters, including Scotland’s beleaguered Culture Minister and her political foes.
Conflicts cluster amidst Scotland’s unresolved relationship with Ireland, like flies to a dung heap. Scenarios change but the underlying questions remain.
The Book is launched with live readings on Wed 21, Thu 22 and Fri 23 November at 7pm, as part of Book Week Scotland.
Publication: Storytelling Scotland ISBN 978-1-9164769-0-5 £8.95