Blood and Gold

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Theatre (storytelling)

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  • Accessibility:
    Audio enhancement system
    Wheelchair Accessible Toilets
    Signed Performance
    May not apply to all performances. You'll find more information about accessibile performances and how to book tickets in the accessibility tab below.
  • Babes in arms policy: Babies do not require a ticket
  • Policy applies to: Children under 18 months

Description

Ancient mythology and modern storytelling collide in a contemporary exploration of the legacy of colonialism and slavery by award-winning Scottish Kenyan storyteller Mara Menzies. A dying mother gives her daughter a box containing three clues to a priceless treasure. This sets in motion a journey filled with humour and tragedy that considers the importance of ritual, identity and belonging. ‘The word “storytelling” can’t quite portray the fullness of the experience that you have' ***** (MumbleTheatre.net). ‘Mesmerising performance storytelling’ ***** (TheEdinburghReporter.co.uk). www.madeinscotlandshowcase.com

Please note that while all media gallery content is provided by verified members of the event, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society does not review or approve this content before it is posted. Reports of inappropriate content or copyright infringement can be directed to [email protected].

General venue access

  • Audio enhancement system
    Wheelchair Accessible Toilets
    Signed Performance
  • Accessible entry: There is level access from the john Knox building, If entering using the main entrance there are 9 steps. Once inside a lift that can take customers down to the -2 floor which is the bottom of the raked seating. If not it is 16 steps to the top of the raked seating then 15 steps to the front row.

    • Wheelchair access type: Building Lift

  • Stairs: 20+
    Number of stairs is provided as guidance and is not in addition to any wheelchair access type (lift/ramp etc) stated above.

Each venue can contain several space with different accessibly information. Visit the venue page for full venue accessibility info

Signed performances

  • Dates: 13 August
  • Booking options: You can book independently online, or contact our access team to book your tickets and request any specific seating requests in relation to the location of the interpeter.

Watch the BSL video

How and when to make an access booking

Our access tickets service is available to anyone who:

  • Would like to book specific accessibility services, e.g. a hearing loop, audio description headsets, captioning units, seating in relation to the location of the BSL interpreter
  • Requires extra assistance when at a venue
  • Has specific seating requirements
  • Is a wheelchair user
  • Requires a complimentary personal assistant ticket to attend a performance

Jenn 52 days ago

Superb. Mara Menzies is so talented , she creates many characters & draws you into their story. Delightful but also unsettling, just what good drama should be!

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Alex Owen-Hill 63 days ago

Some of the best storytelling I've ever seen! An incredible performance. Mara keeps the audience completely engrossed throughout and skilfully switches up the energy regularly, making this show into a real journey and much more than just a collection of stories.

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Jeannette Longworth 64 days ago

This is a wonderful show that engages its audience in tales that draw you in and leave you thinking. Mara's performance storytelling is second to none and you should put Blood and Gold on your list of shows to see.

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Sheila Pankhurst 67 days ago

Wonderful. Storytelling at its very best, weaving together tales of love, family, migration and a Scottish Jamaican ancestry. One of the best things I have seen at this year’s Fringe.

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Alex 68 days ago

*****(*) A captivating, thought provoking entertaining performance. Mara draws on storytelling traditions from Scotland and Kenya but adds her own personality and energy to create one of my Fringe highlights. Storytelling at its best! Thank you!

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Allison 68 days ago

Gorgeous girl with good stage presence needed to carry a performance on her own but sorry not captivated by the stories was bored within first 10 minutes.

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Participants - for further details on our audience and published review policies, including how to add or opt out of reviews, please click here.

The Stage [paywall] (5/5 stars) 47 days ago

Scottish-Kenyan storyteller Mara Menzies has constructed a beautifully weighted set of nested stories for contemporary times, revealing them with a commanding sense of spontaneity. Menzies’ craft, as both an actor and a storyteller, shines through in a captivating performance for an adult audience, built around the tale of a dying...

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The Guardian (4/5 stars) 51 days ago

A recurring theme that has emerged at this year’s Edinburgh festival and fringe is colonialism. It has cropped up everywhere: in Kiinalik, about white encroachment on to Indigenous Canadian lands; in The Secret River, about settlers moving into Australian Aboriginal territory; and in Crocodile Fever, about the legacy of the...

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The Scotsman (4/5 stars) 54 days ago

If the legacy of colonialism is a huge theme in Edinburgh this year, then no show on the Fringe addresses that legacy, and Scotland’s involvement in it, more directly than Mara Menzies’s Blood And Gold, a glittering, beautiful and disturbing one-hour monologue by one of Scotland’s leading theatre artists of...

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Fest (4/5 stars) 56 days ago

Mara Menzies is an Edinburgh-based storyteller whose works take inspiration from her background in both Scotland and Kenya, and a personal heritage which sounds worthy of a show in its own right. Her Kenyan grandmother was forced to flee the country, arriving in Scotland, where she placed Menzies’ mother in an...

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British Theatre Guide (4/5 stars) 58 days ago

It's becoming almost expected now that every Fringe, Mara Menzies and her trusty cohorts will bring another richly told tale to the Edinburgh stage. With Blood and Gold, there is the usual blended mixture of African traditional music, dance and mythology, told with a dash of wry Scottish humour and...

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ThreeWeeks (4/5 stars) 58 days ago

“I come from two different worlds”, says Mara Menzies, laying down the groundwork for this immersive solo play on colonialism. Scottish Kenyan Menzies is a thrilling performer to watch and an even better writer. Here she uses stories from her family, as well as exploring themes of the transatlantic slave...

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The Skinny (4/5 stars) 60 days ago

Ancient mythology collides with contemporary narrative in an exploration of Scotland’s benefits from and records with colonialism and the slave trade. Scottish-Kenyan storyteller Mara Menzies guides us on a tale many would choose to ignore or fail to recognise the relevance in Blood and Gold.  A dying mother does what any...

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Everything Theatre (4/5 stars) 65 days ago

"Mara Menzies’s vivid narrative blends with the colourful cloth backdrop, on which tribal motives and more familiar shapes mingle to form small human figurines, heartbeat waves and other recognisable patterns. Her mesmerising voice and recurrent interactions with the audience have them hanging on her every word, whilst she takes her listeners on a fascinating journey across distant and mysterious lands, before returning, full circle, to where it all began."

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Deadline News (5/5 stars) 65 days ago

Award-winning author Mara Menzies highlights the links between Scotland and Africa in a powerful and important display of visual storytelling.

Scotland is a nation with a rich culture based on storytelling. Even stories based on objective fact, such as that of Mary Queen of Scots, have been told and retold with so many embellishments that it almost does not matter what actually happened.

Instead, what matters is how those stories make us feel and what they tell us about who we are as Scots. They inform our very identity.

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The Wee Review (3/5 stars) 68 days ago

In all of Edinburgh, there is not another venue as apt as the Scottish Storytelling Centre for Mara Menzies’ show Blood and Gold. As her audience files into the Netherbow Theatre, Menzies gazes out of her audience, an image of elegance and poise. There are sure to be high expectations...

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All Edinburgh Theatre (4/5 stars) 68 days ago

Blood and Gold, the latest one-woman performance by Scottish Kenyan storyteller Mara Menzies at the Storytelling Centre, mixes joy and tragedy in a gloriously fulfilling hour. Personal experiences, stories from the Yoruba people of west Africa and recent local reality are mixed together in a deftly constructed, interlocking series of...

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Participants - for further details on our audience and published review policies, including how to add or opt out of reviews, please click here.

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Participants - for further details on our audience and published review policies, including how to add or opt out of reviews, please click here.