Tales of Home

Pop-up theatre, fire sculptures, music, poetry, song and dance, and the best of Scotland’s food and drink will be on offer during November and December as part of  finale events celebrating the Year of Homecoming.

‘Tales of Home’ will bring to life the Homecoming themes of creativity, ancestry, nature, food and drink and the outdoors through a number of brand new events taking place in a variety of exciting and unusual locations across Scotland during November and December 2014.

Homecoming: Station Stories by Sven Werner
Commuters and festive shoppers will be the first to grab a chance to escape everyday reality with ‘Homecoming Station Stories’ - a magical and exciting pop-up theatre experience at Aberdeen Train Station (Wednesday 3 – 6 December), Edinburgh Waverley Station (Wednesday 10 – 13 December) and also in Glasgow.

Created by Glasgow based artist and filmmaker Sven Werner, ‘Station Stories’ will build on Werner’s successful ‘Tales of Magic Realism’ which premiered at Sonica 2012 and the 2013 Edinburgh International Festival.  Leaving the hectic modern concourse behind them, 21st century travellers in Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh will find themselves transported to a series of cinematic worlds in miniature.  By donning headphones and peering into striking Victorian inspired peepshow viewers, individual audience members will embark on a journey in a gramophone-powered train carriage whizzing through the countryside and huddle in an atmospheric waiting-room looking out onto a snowy winter. Artist Sven,  who will painstakingly handcraft each work, will also be on-site at each location, dressed in vintage costume and supported by a team of Victoriana assistants who could be characters from the miniature worlds themselves.

Ae Spark o’ Nature’s Fire
Ae Spark o’ Nature’s Fire in Ayrshire is set to transform a winter’s night into a magical evening of poetry and song in celebration of Scotland’s poet Robert Burns and the Year of Homecoming.

Taking place on the evening of Monday 29 December, audiences will enter Burns Museum and Monument Gardens in Alloway, Ayrshire to a world of beautiful fiery installations that form a glowing garden landscape. Flame lined paths, copper breathing flowers and scorching sculptural trees will combine to create an unforgettable trail of light devised by outdoor art experts, Walk the Plank. 

Visitors and locals attending the event will also be treated to a number of site specific performances from both local and nationally recognised artists including Ayrshire Opera and imaginative performers Mischief La Bas celebrating the words and music of The Bard.

The Home Strait
Eleven, the company best known for the award-winning programme of work at Edinburgh’s Summerhall, will present a series of theatre, music and poetry performances across Scotland. These will include Return to the Voice, the new piece commissioned from the internationally acclaimed, multi-award winning Polish theatre company, Song of the Goat, by Eleven and Summerhall. 
Inspired by ancient Gaelic and Scottish musical traditions including laments for death and love, working songs, story-telling songs, psalms, wedding songs, and songs of exile, Return to the Voice was a sell-out success at its première at this year’s Edinburgh festival. 
The Home Strait also includes a further series of music and poetry performances in locations across Scotland, presented by Eleven in conjunction with Rally & Broad. The programme features such leading poets as Carol Ann Duffy and Don Paterson as well as ‘pop-up’ performances in surprise locations, including borders, crossing places, or other significant points on a journey ‘home’.

Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop, said:
“Homecoming Scotland 2014 has been a great success to date, with its funded events attracting over 1 million visitors from near and far and many more enjoying the hundreds of partner events taking place, in a celebration of Scotland’s unique culture, heritage and other world renowned attractions.

“I am delighted that the momentum of this special year shows no signs of slowing down, with the announcement of these fantastic ‘Tales of Home’ finale events which I believe will really fire the imagination of locals and visitors alike.

“Homecoming is the opportunity for Scotland’s communities  to celebrate all that’s great about our country and place the spotlight on our greatest assets and icons. With over 60 events in the Homecoming programme still to take place in November and December, I encourage people to explore the programme and to get involved.”

Mike Cantlay, Chairman of VisitScotland, said,
“Homecoming Scotland 2014 has been an outstanding success. A broad range of fantastic events have been taking place the length and breadth of the country, with many of them enjoying record-breaking attendances. This exciting finale programme is the perfect way to bring down the curtain on a truly unforgettable year in which Scotland has also welcomed the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, The Ryder Cup and the MTV Europe Music Awards, and sets us up nicely for 2015 – the Year of Food and Drink.”

David Taylor, Portfolio Manager Special Projects, Creative Scotland, said,
“This month-long programme of Homecoming finale events across the country will draw to a close what has been a remarkable year. From pop-up theatre, fire sculptures, music, poetry, song and dance audiences will be able to engage in unusual places with reflections on what it means to be Scottish, and human.”

In addition to the ‘Tales of Home’ events, December will also see a number of events in the Homecoming programme including the Kingussie Christmas Festival (7 Dec), Medieval Merriment at Stirling Castle (7 Dec) and the world famous Land’s End to John O'Groats classic car Reliability Trial and Tour (7 – 10 Dec). Throughout December, Jelly and Gin will also offer the opportunity to experience a selection of films in a completely different way with their new multi-sensory cinema experience, Watch and Wolf.

The Year of Homecoming will draw to a close on 31 December with Hogmanay celebrations including The Red Hot Highland Fling in Inverness, Hogmanay celebrations in Stirling, Aberdeen, Oban, Hogmanay Celebrations in the Honest Toun and a Ceilidh Festival at An Lanntair in Stornoway.