Long Water Soft Shadows
Long Water Soft Shadows
Long Water Soft Shadows is a powerful, immersive theatre performance showing Scotland’s rising stars in poetry and exploring humanity’s fragile relationship with its most precious resource: water.
Produced by renowned poet Jim Mackintosh with sound design by Dave MacFarlane, the work weaves spoken word - written especially for the piece by three emerging poets Taylor Dyson, Donna Matthew and Jennie Turnbull - with music, songs and images.
Creative visuals by Elizabeth Ogilvie & Robert Page draw the audience in, echoing currents and shadows, while the gentle power of Craigie Choir, led by vocalist and composer Debra Salem, rises and recedes like breath. Poet Stephen Watt's wise, resonant narration gives voice to The Water itself, grounded by live music threaded through by Sean Bissett on guitar.
Together, these elements reflect on industrial use and misuse, community access, and the urgent reality of global water poverty. We didn’t know we were ready. We must be ready.
Jim Mackintosh
Jim Mackintosh’s seven collections incl: Flipstones (Tippermuir Books) We are Migrant (Seahorse Publishing) Multimedia collaborations incl: Beyond the Swelkie with Duncan Chisholm & Hamish Napier, The Banes o the Turas with Ali Hutton. Editorials/Co-Eds incl:The Darg (Drunk Muse Press) Beyond theSwelkie (Tippermuir Books) Ayont the Thistle (Tippermuir Books) Productions incl: The Elegies, The Banes o the Turas, Paper Bones, In Search of the Lost Pines. Residences incl: St Johnstone FC, Hampden Collection, Cateran EcoMuseum, Makar of Federation of Writers, Scotland & currently Bioregion Tayside. Awards: Shortlisted Scots Book of the Year 2023 – The Banes o the Turas, Scots Writer of the Year 2024, Shortlisted Celtic Media Award 2026.
Taylor Dyson
Taylor Dyson is the current Scots Scriever with the National Library of Scotland. She is a multi-award winning playwright, spoken word poet and actor from Dundee. She is one half of Dundee theatre duo, Elfie Picket Theatre and runs the monthly Scots Language night, BLETHER. She is passionate about working class representation, women’s stories and Scots language.
Donna Matthew
Donna Matthew started writing poetry to make sense of the grief that comes from the loss of those we love, through death or from the ending of relationships. She is fascinated by human nature and habit and while her writing is often confessional it is never subjective and always has an eye on the aesthetic. Her debut Pamphlet, Remembering Myself, was published by Seahorse in 2024. She lives in Paisley with her son, Rory.
Jennie Turnbull
Perthshire based poet and musician Jennie Turnbull writes about family, language, music and politics (though not necessarily in that order). Her work has appeared in Poetry Scotland, Skylight 42 and various anthologies, and she was recently commissioned to contribute to Bioregioning Tayside’s Imaginarium. She is Poet in Residence at the Library of Innerperffray, and her debut collection, inspired by grandmother’s move from Italy to Scotland in 1947, will be available from Seahorse Publications next year.
Stephen Watt
Stephen Watt is Poetry Editor for Nutmeg Football Magazine and the author of six poetry collections. Stephen has been the recipient of the Stanza International Digital Poetry Prize and the Liverpool Poetry Prize and served as Makar for the Federation of Writers (Scotland) and Poet in Residence at Dumbarton Football Club.
Stephen has also edited two punk poetry collections: Ashes To Activists for the Joe Strummer Foundation and Pogo Serotonin for Buzzcocks, and co-edited one reggae poetry collection with Andy Jackson called One Drop Poetry.
Sean Bissett
Sean Bissett has spent the last 10 years working as a session guitarist in Scotland. An early found interest in improvised music has led Sean on a near 20 year journey studying the great musicians Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Pat Metheny, and John Scofield to name a few. The last few years Sean has been working alongside ‘Rising Star’ award winning artist Kimberley Tessa and released an album with acclaimed guitarist Nicolas Gaul.