WINDBLOWN Comes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe

Scottish theatre producing duo, Raw Material, Gillian Garrity and Margaret-Anne O'Donnell, have announced their upcoming productions and commissions including the world premiere of theatre show Windblown by three-time Radio 2 Folk Award winner Karine Polwart (with music co-created with award-winning composer Pippa Murphy) at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe. 

Further productions include the Autumn 2025 re-mount of Douglas Maxwell's Fringe First winning and Popcorn Award shortlisted play So Young at the Traverse Theatre and Citizens Theatre. The play has been nominated as Best Ensemble and Best New Play at the forthcoming CATS Awards 2025. 

Looking ahead, Raw Material's new projects for 2026 include an upscaled re-staging of much loved musical Scots, the world premiere of Saint Joan directed by Stewart Laing and the final instalment of the James Plays, James V1: First and Last (following the critically acclaimed James IV Queen of the Fight and James V Katherine, which Raw Material also produced). 

The announcement follows the success of the UK large scale venue tour of Death of a Salesman in March - April 2025 starring stage and screen actor David Hayman and an impressive ensemble of 12 other actors and actor musicians (produced  in partnership with Trafalgar Theatre Productions) which sold more than 35,500 tickets across the UK and Ireland and resulted in a just announced CATS Award nomination for Beth Marshall as Linda Loman. 

Raw Material, who are expanding their work internationally, presented the award-winning Love Beyond by Ramesh Meyyappan at Hong Kong's International Festival in March 2025 and Ramesh will return to Singapore with the world premiere of Lear this month, again produced by Raw Material. 

The world premiere of Lear by Ramesh Meyyappan will tour to Singapore International Festival of the Arts with further dates in Scotland from 23 May - 7 June, A Raw Material production in association with the National Theatre of Scotland. Commissioned by Singapore International Festival of Arts.

Award-winner Orla O'Loughlin directs this contemporary re-imagining of Shakespeare's King Lear which brings together a cast of four including Ramesh Meyyappan as Lear. Showcased within Ramesh Meyyappan's trademark bold visual story-telling, Lear explores universal themes of escalating madness, loss of power, betrayal and trust with empathy and a deep understanding of the human condition. The Lear press release is available from the link at the top left of the release. 

Windblown by Karine Polwart will have its world premiere at the Queens Hall, Edinburgh running  9 - 13 August 2025 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A Raw Material production. Part of the Made in Scotland showcase. 

Inspired by a joint Artist-in-Residency at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh (with Windblown's co-composer Pippa Murphy), multi-award winner Karine Polwart performs in this Moving Theatre show about the lofty 200-year-old Sabal palm.

The longest-lived and most beloved plant in the Tropical Palm House collection, Karine reflects on more than two hundred years of containment, dislocation and human care, as the palm approaches its chainsaw demise.

Windblown combines social history, scientific curiosity and memoir with the imagined poetic and musical voice of the old Sabal itself in an exploration of complex historical legacies and ecological loss, collective ritual and the multi-generational promise of gardens. 

The 2024 Scotsman Fringe First winning So Young by Douglas Maxwell returns to Scottish stages. A Raw Material & Traverse Theatre Co-Production in association with the Citizens Theatre So Young is at the Traverse Theatre and the Citizen's Theatre from 23 October - 8 November 2025.

From the celebrated writer of The Sheriff of Kalamaki, winner of Best Play at the CATS Awards 2024, and previous Citz show, Fever Dream: Southside, Douglas Maxwell's So Young sees an innocuous evening slide into ruin as old friends face the challenges of middle age, growing apart and losing those close to them – whether that's to the grave, or to London.

An upscaled version of new musical Scots by Scott Gilmour and Claire McKenzie will tour Scotland from 4 March - 4 April 2026. A Raw Material production in association with the Beacon Arts Centre. 

Scots is the story of Scotland. Its past, present and future. Its people and places, triumphs and failures. All told by a figure who has seen it all… Someone who witnessed the Picts and the Celts unite; who survived the battles of Stirling and Bannockburn; who heard the declaration of Arbroath; who witnessed Scottish Enlightenment, the Industrial Revolution, the charge for women's rights, the battle for gay rights, the call for Independence – basically someone who's seen some amount of s**t – Scotland's greatest invention …The Toilet!

A multi-skilled ensemble retells some of our nation's most iconic (and some forgotten) stories, all to answer the fundamental question: What makes a country?

Future productions which Raw Material will share further news of in due course include Bard in the Botanics in association with Raw Material will present Medea by Euriphides in a version by Kathy McKean, directed by Gordon Barr which will tour Scotland in 2026. The world premiere of Saint Joan by George Bernard Shaw. Directed by Stewart Laing.  A Raw Material, Perth Theatre and Aberdeen Performing Arts co-production, touring in Spring 2026. Moving ahead, the world premiere of JAMES V1: FIRST AND LAST by Rona Munro will tour in 2027. Commissioned by Raw Material, supported by Creative Scotland Touring Fund. 

Margaret Anne O'Donnell and Gillian Garrity said of the Autumn 2025 - Spring 2026 season:  “Our mission is to support and amplify the voices of independent Scottish theatre artists from writers, directors, designers, production teams and performers to ensure the work we produce is as accessible to as many audiences as possible.

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