Open Floor

Open Floor is The Studio’s brand-new scratch night, where theatremakers and theatre companies from Edinburgh and beyond can test brand-new ideas in front of a live audience for the first time.

From comedy to politics, movement to musicals, we’re opening the floor to work at the earliest stage of development so you, the audience, can help the artists explore what works onstage. We’ll be sharing work from:

Elisabeth Flett: The Selkie’s Wife

Everyone knows the story of the Selkie and her human husband. The stolen skin; the locked chest; that final, bittersweet escape back to the sea in the dead of night. It’s a good tale, sure, but it’s not the whole story. Didn’t you ever wonder what the Selkie left behind, down there in the depths? What life did she lead before finding herself shackled to shoreline and servitude? The Selkie’s wife is here to tell you all about it - if you dare listen…   From the maker of ROOTS and Christina comes a new folk gig theatre performance: The Selkie’s Wife. A meld of storytelling, live music, archive material, and foley art, this exciting new performance re-imagines this old tale from a fresh, queer perspective. An enthralling mix of the traditional and the new, this a show about dark waters, misguided people, and misunderstood monsters.”  Elisabeth Flett is an award-winning multi-instrumentalist, theatre-maker, writer, and general feminist troublemaker. She is passionate about LGBTQ+ rights, gender equality, and mental health issues, themes that often feature in all forms of her work as a creative practitioner.

Marion Geoffray: “Between Here and There”

“Between here and there” questions identity, family, and cultural heritage, their tensions, and shared experiences through the lens of different voices and migrations through time. How does one belong to someone else’s land and where is their sense of self between here and there? Performed by Marion Geoffray with dramaturgy by Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir. Marion Geoffray is a performer and theatre-maker from France who is passionate about creating multilingual and multicultural work on the topics of home, identity, relationships, and language(s) in a collaborative environment. Kolbrún Björt Sigfúsdóttir is a director, dramaturg, and playwright from Iceland with a keen interest in developing and championing new writing.

Jordan and Skinner: Ms Monopoly

We love Lizzie Magie! The real-life story of a feminist economist who was ahead of her time, invented a game about the evils of capitalism, only for it to be stolen and turned into one of the most iconic pro-capitalist symbols in our culture. Jordan & Skinner are a feminist theatre company who make joyful performance about the things that make us angry. The company is led by performer Melanie Jordan and director Caitlin Skinner. Our work includes The Time Machine: A Radical Feminist Retelling from the End of the World, A Brief History of the Fragile Male Ego, At A Stretch, and Sanitise. 

Liam Rees: The Land That Never Was (working title)

Gregor MacGregor, an 18th-century con man, exploited Scotland's colonial desires by making up and selling a country that literally did not exist. This solo show looks at the story and its resonances with the confidence men of Silicon Valley today. Liam makes theatre that puts the audience center-stage to look at where we come from, where we are now, and where we’re going. He’s worked with Vanishing Point, BRONKS, and Traverse Theatre, and was recently commissioned by HOME. The Land That Never Was is his second show as a lead creative and continues his interest in collective storytelling between actors and audiences.