Mainlanders:

Summerhall Surgeries 2026

A young couple move from the city to a remote Scottish island and slowly try to find their place in a rooted community with a rich storytelling culture. Mainlanders explores the fantasy of starting a new life on a far-off island, looking at the rise of the work-from-home trend and how it changes our relationship to our environment.

Bringing the coastal space into the performance space, Mainlanders connects the industrialised time of ecological destruction to modern work routines and is woven together by a storytelling podcast that ebbs and flows throughout, filtering Scottish folklore through its para-social dynamics. Mainlanders is a quiet, meditative piece that draws together movement, sound and devised theatre to reflect on the nature of belonging and the possibility for transformation amidst the loneliness of physical and social isolation.

Mainlanders

11 March 2026

Summerhall, Edinburgh - part of Summerhall Surgeries - Work in Progress Sharing

Directed by Josh Dodds & Lucy Stewart

Text by Lucy Stewart & Josh Dodds

Performers

Josh Dodds & Lucy Stewart

Special Thanks to Sam Bancroft, Jonny MacDonald, Imogen Stirling and Atholl Wallace.

“…the love of rurality within the complexities of adjustment and belonging. Romanticism, folklore and modern life complementing and colliding…”

— Audience Member

“I was drawn into their life and vibe and the gentle acceptance of time passing in a place that was strange to them but they were willing to evolve in.”

— Audience Member

“I felt it respected me as an audience. I found the characters and their relationship very sad. It reminded me of a past relationship of mine where by the end we were always walking round the flat listening to podcasts so that we wouldn’t have to speak to each other.”

— Audience Member

“The world felt very isolated but quite magical in a way, with the natural elements coming into their space.”

— Audience Member

“Fantastic new work bringing storytelling to new audiences.”

— Audience Member

“The minimalist quality of the performance made us focus and be thoughtful and in touch with our own feelings. It’s a treasure in this mad rush world, overloaded with events.

Their world is peaceful, at the same time, a lonely one.”