Short Attention Span Theatre Returns To Edinburgh With Six New Short Plays

Short Attention Span Theatre will return to Edinburgh this week with a programme of six brand-new short plays highlighting emerging theatrical talent from across Scotland. The showcase will take place on Wednesday, February 4, 2026, at The Gilded Saloon, located at 47 Lothian Road.

The evening will feature specially commissioned works spanning comedy, drama, and supernatural storytelling. Across the six plays, themes range from post-apocalyptic survival and Victorian literary history to grief, family secrets, and contemporary obsessions with viral fame. The programme offers audiences a compact introduction to new writing and performance in a single evening.

According to co-founder Tom Brogan, the return to Edinburgh provides an opportunity for audiences to experience new work at an accessible price point while supporting grassroots theatre. Brogan noted that the programme brings together a wide range of tones and styles within a single showcase.

The programme includes My Little Island by Mark Daniels, directed by Emily Mahi’ai, a two-hander about two incompatible survivors stranded on an island as the world quietly unravels. Elaine Malcolmson’s King Size Mars Bar, also directed by Mahi’ai, follows a young woman navigating grief and unexpected revelations while arranging her father’s funeral. Bog Witch LLC by Katherine Lyle, directed by Kay Marquis, combines ancient folklore with modern working-from-home anxieties in a darkly comic exploration of creativity and self-doubt.

Also featured is The Foreseeable by Alasdair Shaw, directed by David Hewitson, which pairs an attempted robbery with an unlikely moral intervention rooted in Highland tradition. Jolyn Lynn Crawford’s Hyde Within, directed by Hewitson, imagines an encounter between Robert Louis Stevenson and the embodiment of Hyde in 19th-century Edinburgh. The programme concludes with The Bloody Attic by Kay Marquis, a satire directed by Marquis that examines fame, belief, and the performance of authenticity through an investigation into a grisly farmhouse discovery.

The ensemble cast includes Gregory Bonnar, Rebekah Copeland, James Keenan, Frazer Kirkland, and Sarah Pieraccini. Direction across the programme is shared by Emily Mahi’ai, David Hewitson, and Kay Marquis, with production by Tom Brogan.

Ticketing Information

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