Bette Davis the drag queen to Roadkill – Fringe acts proudly backed by Scotland

FOURTEEN Scottish productions that won Scottish Government backing for their bid to make a splash in this year's Fringe were unveiled yesterday.

• Culture minister Fiona Hyslop meets Grant Smeaton, who plays Bette Davis, and other actors at the Royal Lyceum. Picture: Jane Barlow

They ranged from Roadkill, a show about the dark side of migrants' dreams that begins with the audience boarding a bus, to Bette/Cavett, a re-enacted 1970s interview with Bette Davies, played by an actor in drag.

"It's a massive boost because taking a show to the festival is so unbelievably expensive," said Cora Bissett, directing Roadkill on the heels of her award-winning performance acting in Midsummer last August.

Roadkill and 13 other shows are being funded under the Made in Scotland programme, launched in 2009 with 1.2 million over three years from the government's Expo Fund.

The initiative aims to showcase Scottish work at the Fringe, win praise, and hopefully pave the way to UK and international exposure. Six shows won top Festival awards last year and another nine went on to tour internationally, it is claimed, with dates from Poland to the Sydney Opera House in Australia.

"It fits with what we are trying to do in showcasing the best of Scotland internationally," said culture minister Fiona Hyslop, who praised the "success and standard achieved last year".

Fringe chief executive Kath Mainland said: "With Made in Scotland, we are making sure that Scottish companies who take part in the Fringe get the most out of that and can then go on around the world."

Roadkill follows the journey of a young African girl who has been trafficked to Scotland, and who believes she will work as an au pair but finds the reality horribly different.

The audience of 12 follow the character on to a bus and go to the flat where she has been trapped, in a "very immersive experience", said Ms Bissett.

She added that productions often need close to 10,000 to bring a show to the Fringe, to cover costs "before you are even putting your performance on".

"Most actors don't have ten grand kicking around; this is like an absolute gift from heaven, it makes your entire job possible."

The Grid Iron theatre company, which produced the pub-based Barflies at last year's Fringe, is restaging Decky Does a Bronco. Set around a giant playground and staged outside in an Edinburgh garden, it has a cast of eight in a story of Scottish boys coming of age in the Ayrshire coastal town of Girvan.

It is a return visit for the work that helped make Grid Iron's name at the festival ten years ago, winning a Scotsman Fringe First award. "For years, people have been asking when are you going to do that show again?" said Grid Iron artistic director Judith Doherty. "It captured a Scottish sensibility that audiences really liked seeing."

Actor Grant Smeaton plays Bette Davies, in jewellery, heavy make-up and bright red lipstick, in Bette/Cavett, the account of a famously frank 1971 interview the film star gave to American television host Dick Cavett.

The show won acclaim when it played briefly at the Tron theatre as part of the Glasgay! festival in Glasgow.

14 productions embracing dance drama, music and a TV interview

A Wee Home From Home

With live music by Michael Marra, it explores the emotions and memories of one man's homecoming.

Bette/Cavett

The 63-year-old femme fatale in her famously candid 1971 interview with a US TV host.

Cargo

Three cargo containers are used in this Edinburgh Mela show on the lives of migrants in quest of a new home.

Decky Does a Bronco

Five lads from Girvan, Ayrshire, act out their dreams and fears in a playground.

Markus Makavellian's International Order

Drew Taylor appears in the alter-ego of gender-bending New York performance poet Markus Makavellian

Musical

Scottish choreographer Colette Sadler produces dance based on the music and movements of variety and musical hall.

Private Dancer

The penthouse of Edinburgh's Point Hotel is transformed into a life-size house, where the best disabled dancers in Scotland perform for an audience moving between rooms.

Roadkill

A young girl from Benin follows her dreams to Scotland but is drawn into a nightmare of people trafficking. Based on a true story.

Scottish Dance Theatre

Three contrasting works by the acclaimed company.

Sub Rosa

A Victorian Gothic story in a "promenade" show for small audiences on the move, staged in the back rooms of a Masonic Hall.

The Not-So-Fatal Death of Grandpa Fredo

Based on the darkly comic true story of a dead man kept on ice in a Colorado town.

The Songbird : A Tone Poem

Using a poem of sounds, the story of a forest bird captured by a logger.

While You Lie

An unnerving exploration of relationships.

White

A bright and new show for children aged two to four.