From Seeds August – September 2025

Do faith and theatre not mix? Oliver Cromwell thought so. Theatre, he said, was a very bad thing. (Or are we doing him an injustice? Discuss!)

Whatever Oliver thought, this year’s Edinburgh International Festival invites audiences to reflect on the theme ‘The Truth We Seek’.

This somewhat echoes the New Testament Gospel of John: ‘And you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’ If nothing else, the theme is a striking lens through which both the Festival and the Fringe might explore faith, belief, and spiritual resilience.

If that’s your interest, and you’re in Edinburgh this August, here’s a few options. Others are available.

We’ve already mentioned the Festival of Sacred Art (see page 3 of Seeds August – September 2025), but opening the International Festival is Sir John Tavener’s monumental eight-hour choral masterpiece The Veil of the Temple, in only its second-ever UK performance. It draws on sacred texts from multiple world religions and is performed by over 250 singers in five languages. Those who know it say the result is more than a concert – it’s a shared act of contemplation, echoing the timelessness of spiritual ritual. (‘Complementary tea, coffee and biscuits will be available throughout the performance…’)

Meanwhile, at the Fringe (where the typical show time is just one hour) the search for deeper truths takes less demanding forms. Pilgrim of Hope is a one-man show from writer-performer Stephen Callaghan, who asks: Where does one find hope today? ‘A funny, poignant fable about life, death, air-fryers and one man’s search for hope.’

Very different will be A Period of Faith, Angela King’s onewoman play about how belief sustains through trauma. Framed by the experience of PMDD (premenstrual dysphoric disorder), it’s an account of finding strength in faith while navigating chronic illness and emotional hardship.

One of the strongest hubs for faith-related performance this year is Palmerston Place Church (Venue 254), where Searchlight Theatre Company is in residence. Their programme includes stories of faithful lives: Olympic champion Eric Liddell, wartime chaplain Woodbine Willie, and the Revd W. Awdry, the cleric/train enthusiast behind Thomas the Tank Engine. C.S. Lewis questions Aslan and there’s an adaptation of his The Screwtape Letters. Meanwhile, a church minister and a shipping executive meet in Titanic: The last hero and the last coward.

Also at Palmerston Place, The Passion retells Christ’s final days from the perspectives of Peter, Mary Magdalene and a Roman centurion named Marcus, while shanties feature in tales of the first disciples in Salt and Light.

Elsewhere Fischy Music are in concert with Christian music for children, The Lost Priest is (surprisingly) about growing up Jewish in America, and – because this is the Fringe, after all – Four Door Theatre presents Sex and God.

Across these works (and these are just the tip of the cultural iceberg), artists ask what it means to believe – whether in God, beauty, or one another – in an age of uncertainty. Their approaches vary, but all echo that central question: What is the truth we seek?