Monday August 11th 2025
The Invisible Spirit by Spirited Productions
Written by Midlothian View Reporter, Liam Eunson
Award-winning journalist Kenneth Roy has brought his dramatisation of Scotland, its politics, places and people, to this year’s Fringe in the form of a three person theatre performance depicting dark chapters in Scotland’s history.
Starring Chris Alexander, Fegus John McCann and Elaine Stirrat, the story begins on VE night in Glasgow’s George Sqaure, celebrating the end of one of Britain’s darkest moments. The story then begins to skip through time, retelling pivotal moments in Scotland’s 30 year hangover since the end of WW2, years where the Scottish people fought off poverty and disease in run-down tenaments, dealt with political scandals, faced disaster and fear of serial killers.
The historical storytelling drama was executed creatively. Using a small never changing set that was the mix of an old mine and someone’s study, the three actors portrayed two journalists and a writer with Elaine playing the author explaining that women couldn’t be reporters in that time period.
Despite the lack of props and a set, the story was clear and easy to follow with the actors announcing a skip in time or a change of story through their acting, creatively switching the plot seamlessly.
Written by journalist Kenneth Roy before his passing in 2018, he followed in his parents footsteps who were involved in amateur theatre. It was clear in the show that Kenneth’s reporting background shined through, being the story from a journalists standpoint of historical moments in post-war Scotland with the actors portraying reporters and acting out these historical moments from a newspaper’s outlook.
With one of the actors mentioning that he had an insight of a big announcement in Edinburgh, he acted out when the first Glasgow newspapers caught wift of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The overall performance was very creative, covering important and interesting history through a unique and well-executed portrayal. A worry when the performance began was how will they smoothly transition through time and story’s without the use of props and a change of a set but this was re-instated with the incredible acting and storytelling abilities with many scenes featuring a projector showing background videos and news reports from the era.
Created by Spirited Productions and written by Kenneth Roy, The Invisible Spirit is a group of journalists recalling pivotal moments in history, allowing for a deep insight into the politics and scandals. Ending with moments in the historical time period that called for change, the show highlighted Scotland’s ‘invisible spirit’ at the time to keep going despite fear and controversy.
One of the best moments played out on stage was the Knockshinnoch mining disater, using excellant acting that made for moments of heartbreak and sadness when retelling the stories of the over 100 men trapped in the mine and the heroic Ayrshire people who helped with the rescue. This moment did use stage props, using old mining helmets on the stage that light up, giving the setting of a dark and dingy mine.
The Invisible Spirit is a perfect example of storytelling, using a great concept assisted by great acting to perfectly tell stories of Scotland’s people during dark eras following WW2. The acting made it clear what story was being told and dispate major time jumps, it made for a smooth and insightful look into Scotland’s dark yet fascinating history.
£15 full price, 12:05 at theSpace venue 45 (previosuly was at theSpace Theatre 1 but moved venue for remadner of the Fringe).
5/5, great story telling and creatively and touching storyline.
