Day: February 24, 2025

Cast and musicians announced for new show “KELI” about Brass Bands

  • New cast, musicians, and creatives announced for KELI, the debut play from Ivor Novello Award-winning composer Martin Green (Lau).
  • Based on personal stories from the critically acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series ‘Love, Spit and Valve Oil’

WORLD PREMIERE 

National Theatre of Scotland and Lepus Productions present 

KELI 

A play by Martin Green

Written and music composed by Martin Green

Directed by Bryony Shanahan 

Cast: Liberty Black (Keli), Karen Fishwick (Jayne), Olivia Hemmati (Amy/Saskia), Billy Mack (Willie Knox)and Phil McKee (Brian). 

Performing Musical Director – Louis Abbott and small brass ensemble – 

Stacey Ghent, Flugelhorn; Hanna Mbuya, Tuba and Karen Fishwick, Euphonium 

Set and Costume Designer – Alisa Kalyanova, Sound Designer – George Dennis, Lighting Designer – Robbie Butler, Casting Director – Anna Dawson 

Touring Scotland from Saturday 10 May to Saturday 14 June 2025. 

Previews at Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling before opening at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh and touring to Dundee Rep Theatre; Perth Theatre and Tramway, Glasgow from May to June 2025.  

Opening performance at the Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh on Thursday 15 May 2025. 

Best known as the virtuoso accordionist in the visionary folk trio Lau, Martin Green has spent the past two years on an odyssey deep into the world of brass bands, culminating in this staging of KELI, marking its world premiere as a stage play. Making his professional debut as a playwright, Green was inspired by conversations he had for the BBC Radio 4 series ‘Love, Spit and Valve Oil’.  

KELI will feature brass band music from Green’s acclaimed album SPLIT THE AIR. Each performance will feature a live brass band performance from a leading Scottish brass band or ensemble of leading brass band players.

National Theatre of Scotland and Lepus Productions are delighted that Whitburn band and Kingdom Brass will be part of this Scottish tour, sustaining ongoing relationships with Scottish brass bands and the communities they represent. 

Whitburn Band, one of Scotland’s leading brass bands, was formed in the heart of the coal mining area of West Lothian in 1870 originally serving as an outlet for members of the mining community to perform at local parades and gala days. The Band has been Scottish Champion 22 times, competes throughout the UK and Europe, and performs regularly at major Scottish events. Recent performances include Celtic Connections and the Edinburgh International Festival.  

Kingdom Brass was formed in 1999, after the amalgamation of the Cowdenbeath and the Kelty & Blairadam Bands. In the same year, the band competed for the first time at the Fife Championships and swept the boards. Since then, the band has competed locally and nationally winning numerous trophies and is established as one of Scotland’s top bands. The band performs at concerts, bandstand events, and local Gala days. 

Liberty Black will play the titular role of Keli in her professional theatre debut and Karen Fishwick plays her mother Jayne. They are joined by Phil McKee as band leader Brian, Billy Mack who plays 135-year-old ex-miner and town hero Willie Knox and Olivia Hemmati playing multiple roles. 

Liberty Black is in her final year at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. She performs and writes music and toured the UK with a band. Royal Conservatoire of Scotland credits include: The Cosmonauts Last Message…, Uncle Vanya and Romeo and Juliet.  

Karen Fishwick previously appeared in Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour, National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre’s smash hit musical production which toured internationally and had a run in London’s West End. Theatre credits include Romeo and Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor (Royal Shakespeare Company) and 101 Dalmations (Regents Park Open Air Theatre). Karen’s screen appearances include Outlander (Sony/Starz) and Call the Midwife (BBC).  

Billy Mack is an award-winning actor, previously appearing in The Cheviot, The Stag and The Black, Black Oil and The Enemy (National Theatre of Scotland). Recent theatre and TV/film credits include Men Don’t Talk (Genesis Theatre Company), Only Child (Happy Tramp/BBC) and On Falling (Sixteen Films).  

Phil McKee has worked extensively across theatre, film and TV. Previous work with National Theatre on Scotland includes Mary Stuart and Dunsinane (National Theatre of Scotland/RSC/Royal Lyceum Theatre). Screen credits include Clash of the Titans (Gorgon Films), The Rig (Amazon) and Deadwater Fell (Channel 4).  

Olivia Hemmati trained at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School where she was a finalist for the Carleton and Hobbs Award 2024. Olivia is making her professional stage debut in KELI. 

The production features a brass ensemble of musicians led by Stacey Ghent on flugelhorn with Hanna Mbuya on tuba alongside Karen Fishwick on the euphonium. 

Stacey Ghent is a hard of hearing actress and musician raised in South Shields. Stacey’s TV/screen and theatre credits include a role as a teacher of the deaf in Coronation Street (ITV); A Thousand Blows (Disney+); Brassed Off and Blonde Bombshells of 1943 (Octagon Bolton/Theatre by the Lake, Keswick/Stephen Joseph, Scarborough).  

Tuba player Hanna Mbuya is a member of Mercury-nominated 10-piece seed, Chineke! Orchestra and Nu Civilisation. Other collaborations have included those with artists  

Anna Meredith, Jon Batiste and Soweto Kinch, in addition to appearances with horn sections alongside artists including Solange, Joy Anonymous and Arlo Parks. Recent work in theatre includes Richard III (2024) & Hansel and Gretel (2024) at Shakespeare’s Globe.   

Performing Musical Director for KELI, Louis Abbott, is a multi-instrumentalist and singer and the songwriter for the chamber-pop band Admiral Fallow. Recent theatre work includes his role as co-musical director on the award-winning A Giant on the Bridge (Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2024). As a musician, drummer, engineer and producer Louis has collaborated with some of Scotland’s finest musicians including King Creosote, Camera Obscura and Eddi Reader. 

“The skill, the craft, is in controlling the pressure.” 

KELI tells the story of a fiery, sharp-witted teenager in a former mining town. Coal means little to Keli, but the mines left music in the blood of this place.  

As the best player her brass band has ever had, music is easy. Everything else is a fight. Feeling trapped in small-town life, pressure mounts.  

When the chance to change everything arises, can Keli keep a lid on it all?  

Marking 40 years since the miners’ strikes and featuring a sharp, hilarious script and live brass score by Ivor Novello winner Martin Green, KELI is a gripping show about community, creativity, and the power of music.  

Touring Scotland in 2025, the show will reach audiences across the country who belong to communities that were hugely affected by the miners’ strike of 1984-85. 

Green’s journey began by chance near his home in Midlothian. Following a poster advertising ‘BRASS IN THE PARK’, he discovered a self-sustaining world of music-making that – like the folk tradition – had retained its social function and was part of the warp and weft of the communities that performed it.  

The fictional play has evolved from the critically acclaimed BBC Radio 4 series Love, Spit and Valve Oil which explored the phenomenon of modern brass banding and featured interviews with members of brass bands. These interviews have inspired aspects of the characters in the play. In 2022 KELI was commissioned by The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh as a three-part audio drama. 

“KELI is a hard story about the limitations placed on working-class lives, capturing teenage desperation, depression and fulfilment through music…forces of dialogue, music and folklore harmonise to a riveting final episode.”  The Guardian (on the audio drama, KELI) 

Martin Green is a multi-award-winning musician and Ivor Novello winning composer. As a member of Lau, he has won four BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards for Best Group an unprecedented four times. In 2014 he received a Paul Hamlyn Foundation Award for Artists in recognition of his talent as a composer. In 2019 he won the Ivor Novello award for his large-scale installation Aeons that was part of The Great Exhibition of the North. 

Most recently Martin has gone on to create critically acclaimed work for BBC Radio 4 exploring different communities all over the UK and their relationship with music. These have reached millions of listeners and been highly commended by Association of International Broadcasters. 

Martin shared the stage with Whitburn Band as part of Celtic Connections at Tramway in early 2024 – “a profoundly moving affair” ***** The Scotsman. 

Martin is the Artistic Director of Lepus Productions, who are co-producing KELI with National Theatre of Scotland, marking the first time the companies have collaborated.  

Bryony Shanahan directs, marking her NTS debut. Previously Bryony was Joint Artistic Director of the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, and most recently directed the acclaimed, Same Team – A Street Soccer Story for the Traverse Theatre. Other notable productions include Bloody Elle (Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Soho Theatre and West End) and also for the Royal Exchange Theatre, No Pay? No Way! Beginning, Let The Right One In, Nora: A Doll’s House, Wuthering Heights, Queens of the Coal Age, Weald, and Nothing.   

Martin Green, writer and composer, said: “To be making KELI with National Theatre of Scotland and Bryony Shanahan forty years on from the Miners’ Strike, feels absolutely right; an incredible team of visionary people. Perfect.” 

Bryony Shanahan, director, said: “My introduction to this project was that it was about a 17-year-old called Keli – foul-mouthed, hilarious and a virtuoso flugelhorn player – who finds herself in a disused coal mine with a 150-year-old Marxist miner after the strangest night of her life.

“Oh, and that it features a live brass band. I was in! I am so thrilled to be working with National Theatre of Scotland, Lepus and Martin Green to bring KELI to life.

“It’s a story about community, legacy and above all, music and I can’t wait to invite audiences into Keli’s remarkable world and heart.” 

KELI was developed with National Theatre of Scotland and The National Theatre, London’s Generate programme and was originally commissioned as an audio drama by The Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh. Both KELI and SPLIT THE AIRwere developed with the support of Creative Scotland and The Space.Development of KELI was also supported by Freedom Festival, Hull. The music for KELI, Split the Air, was originally commissioned by PRS Foundation for the New Music Biennial at The Southbank Centre, and UK City of Culture. 

Macrobert Arts Centre, Stirling (preview Sat 10 May); Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh (previews Tues 13 to Wed 14 May) Thurs 15 to Sat 17 May; Dundee Rep Thurs 22 to Sat 24 May; Perth Theatre Wed 4 to Sat 7 June; Tramway, Glasgow Wed 11 to Sat 14 June 2025. 

On social: #KELI 

Access info: There will be audio described, captioned performances and touch tours in Edinburgh, Dundee, Perth and Glasgow. There will also be integrated BSL interpreted and chilled performances on offer. All performances will be autism-friendly.  

Theatre for a Fiver tickets are also available for 14-to-26 years and those on low-income benefits at the venues above. 

Full access info here. 

Full performance information and creative biogs here. 

Letter: Green Freeports are a threat to Scotland’s sovereignty and workers’ rights

Dear Editor,

I, Dhruva Kumar, former MP Candidate for the ALBA Party, write with grave concerns to your readers regarding the profound risks posed by Green Freeports to Scotland’s economy, society, workers’ rights, and national sovereignty.

As Scotland stands at a crossroads between Westminster’s economic impositions and the promise of independence, the establishment of so-called “Green Freeports” demands urgent scrutiny.

The ALBA Party, alongside trade unions and communities, raises profound concerns about this deeply flawed policy that risks entrenching corporate exploitation, undermining devolved powers, and jeopardising Scotland’s future within the European Union.

The Scottish Government initially rejected the UK’s Freeport model, rightly wary of its historical links to tax avoidance and weakened labour protections. Yet under pressure from Westminster, Holyrood capitulated, rebranding these zones as “Green Freeports” with aspirational net-zero and fair work pledges.

The reality, however, is stark: these “green” labels are little more than cosmetic. As SPICe researchers note, the Scottish Government’s requirements for living wages and decarbonisation lack enforceability, leaving compliance to the “whim of corporations”.

Freeports create a two-tier workforce. While the Scottish Government “hopes” employers will adhere to fair work principles, the UK retains control over reserved employment laws. Trade unions warn of a “dangerous unregulated backdoor” diluting protections, with no guarantees on union recognition or health and safety standards. The Teesport Freeport scandal-a litany of environmental and labour abuses- offers a grim precedent.

Promises of 75,000 jobs and £10 billion in investment are illusory. As Peter Henderson, a customs expert, highlights, Freeports globally displace jobs rather than create them, siphoning economic activity from surrounding areas. Local authorities, already stripped of business rates revenue, face infrastructure strain without recourse.

The £52 million seed funding pales against the long-term fiscal cost. Tax exemptions-including employer NICs and stamp duty-deprive public coffers while enabling profit-hoarding by multinationals. This is not “levelling up”; it is a race to the bottom.

The European Parliament has condemned Freeports as hubs for illicit trade and tax evasion. For an independent Scotland seeking EU membership, these zones could prove a fatal liability.

Despite claims of “net-zero hubs,” the Forth and Cromarty Firth bids prioritise industries like fossil fuel logistics and hydrogen-a fig leaf for continued carbon dependency. The lack of binding environmental safeguards, coupled with Westminster’s control over regulations, renders “green” branding a cynical farce.

The ALBA Party condemns this collaboration between Holyrood and Westminster as a betrayal of Scotland’s economic sovereignty. The SNP’s acceptance of Freeports, a policy omitted from the Bute House Agreement, highlights a lack of coherent industrial strategy for coastal communities.

We urge the Scottish Government to: Halt all Freeport development pending independent impact assessments, Reject UK-imposed tax havens that undermine devolved powers, and Champion an industrial strategy rooted in fair work, local democracy, and renewable energy—not corporate handouts.

Independence requires foresight. By entangling Scotland with Westminster’s Freeport agenda, we shackle our nation to a legacy of exploitation. The time to resist is now.

Yours sincerely,

Dhruva Kumar

Former Glasgow South MP Candidate

Media Co-Ordinator, Alba Party Glasgow

Humza Yousaf visits the Tape Letters exhibition at Museum of Edinburgh

Former First Minister and current MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Humza Yousaf met with members of the Tape Letters Scotland team to look round the Tape Letters exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh on Wednesday.

Created by Modus Arts, Tape Letters Scotland is a social history project which shines a light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as an unorthodox method of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in Scotland between 1960-1980.

Running until Feb 23rd, the exhibition platformed the experiences of members of Edinburgh’s Pakistani community, drawing directly from both first-hand interviews gathered as part of the project, and from the informal and intimate conversations on the cassette tapes themselves.

Tape Letters Scotland was made possible by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.

Artistic Director of Modus Arts and Tape Letters Scotland Project Director Wajid Yaseen said: “Since launching the project in Scotland in 2022 it has been our immense privilege to work with Scottish-Pakistani families across the central belt who have taken the time to share their personal stories and cassette tapes with us.

“In collaboration with our partner organisations and venues, we have launched a series of creative outputs including three exhibitions, a digital exhibition, educational resources, a podcast series, and a physical cassette tape archive at the National Library of Scotland which not only helps to raise awareness but also cements a lasting legacy.

“As the project draws to a close, we were delighted to welcome Humza Yousaf to the exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh, to share these insightful, personal accounts from this important period of Scottish-Pakistani social history.” 

Former First Minister and current MSP for Glasgow Pollok, Humza Yousaf said: “Can I thank the brilliant team involved in putting together the Tape Letters Scotland project. As someone whose parents came to this country in the 1960s from Pakistan, I found this exhibition to be deeply moving.

!For those of us who are second, third or fourth generation immigrants, we often forget the sacrifices of the first generation who arrived here, and how hard it must have been for them to leave behind family, friends and a whole community.

“The tape letters were a wonderful insight into how the first generation of immigrants from Pakistan used their ingenuity to keep a close bond with those they had left behind, as they started a new life here in Scotland.

“I want to thank all those who worked hard to ensure these tapes could be exhibited at the Museum of Edinburgh.”

https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/whats-on/tape-letters

Children in Scottish hospitals deprived of mental health support

Charity Starlight highlights the need for play to reduce healthcare-induced trauma

Only one in four (25%) health boards in Scotland report having budgets for essential mental health play services for seriously ill children, according to a freedom of information request carried out by Starlight, the national charity for children’s play in healthcare. 

Areas with the most children living in areas of highest deprivation tended to have less or no resourcing. As noted in Starlight’s recent report2, these children are most at risk of trauma.     

Cathy Gilman, chief executive of Starlight said: “Play services, which include evidence-based activities, games and toys, are one of the most effective ways to reduce trauma in children undergoing healthcare treatment.

“It can explain complex procedures in child-friendly ways, distract children from pain and help professionals do their jobs by reducing children’s stress. 

“The lack of budget for this vital support in Scotland is as shocking as it is sad, with so many children facing incredibly harrowing circumstances without support.” 

Starlight’s research also revealed that even those trusts with budget for play services did not extend support to evenings and weekends – quiet periods that can be hardest of all for children to face. 

Claire’s daughter Lucy, 12, has had a rare condition affecting her oesophagus and trachea since birth. Claire said: “We live two hours away from Aberdeen and Lucy’s dad is in the RAF, so it’s hard for him and Lucy’s two siblings to visit when we are staying there, and other family are five hours away.

“This means it’s usually just me there, so having the play workers in hospital organising fun things to do, for example face painting and having visits from exotic animals, means that Lucy can have some fun, and I can do things such as have a shower, and not have to worry about her being alone in hospital, as I know she is with the play workers and having fun.” 

Heather Beattie, play service manager at Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital, said: “I genuinely believe that a paediatric hospital couldn’t function properly without a solid, well-trained play team.

“Play is such a vital component of creating a positive experience for both the child and their family and is an inseparable part of their treatment journey. 

“You can’t separate children from play, it’s inherent to who they are. But it’s crucial that this play is appropriate and provided by trained professionals who understand the unique needs of these young patients.” 

In October 2024, Heather’s team won Play Team of the Year award at Starlight’s annual Play in Healthcare Awards.