immersive showcase of gaelic and scots signed songs

Dancer and musician Evie Waddell. Photo by Elly Lucas.

Next month Stirling’s Tolbooth will host Fàilte Gu BSL/Welcome to BSL. An original show by Gaelic speaker and musician Evie Waddell, using traditional songs and stories, BSL and traditional and contemporary dance. Here’s Evie to explain more:

I’m a Gaelic speaker from Stirling, a dancer and musician and I happen to be deaf in one ear. I started learning traditional music at the Riverside Music Project with the fantastic Jo Miller, as well as trad classes at the Tolbooth. Feis Fhoirt also gave me lots of opportunities including, teaching and touring with Ceilidh Trails.

I came up through Gaelic Medium Education which has led me to Gaelic Song. I went deaf age 11 and it took a while to accept but I now see it as ‘deaf gain’ instead of ‘hearing loss’ and have been learning BSL for the past 6 years. I loved training in Contemporary Dance at the Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and then studying Traditional Music at the RCS in clarsach and Gaelic Song.

In performances I like to combine singing and signing (BSL). Being a deaf musician has barriers, but it also has positives and new possibilities and perspectives to bring. I hope there becomes more awareness of the many hard of hearing and deaf musicians out there and I look forward to meeting, chatting and playing together with more of them.

My current show ‘Failte Gu BSL’ was largely inspired by working with Theatre Gu Leor the Gaelic theatre company on the production of ‘MAIM’ back in 2019/20.

They helped with my confidence in BSL as well as Gaelic and this project was my first time connecting both languages together and feeling proud of these identities. It also led me to becoming part of this deaf community meeting other deaf artists and audience members.

I remember I was emotional as I hadn’t met many deaf people before then. Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference.

Failte Gu BSL I hope, portrays quite a personal experience. As someone who is part of both worlds it was important to me for the show to be for d/Deaf and hearing audiences and for Gaelic speaking or non-Gaelic speaking audiences. I have done my best to be inclusive of people with these specific minority languages (BSL signing throughout).

The show explores experiences of creative and political connection across isolation – as communities, as individuals and as diverse cultural Scots. It’s like a visual music gig integrated with cultural heritage, traditional percussive and contemporary dance. The songs included share a good range of Gaelic stories both old and new as well as some personal pieces.

Failte Gu BSL invites you to not fear language barriers, to try join in in any way you can or want. It’s a Ceilidh! I’m really glad that The Tolbooth is the first venue of our tour and I’m really grateful for all the support it gave me growing up here in Stirling.

Tickets for Fàilte Gu BSL are on sale now from Stirling Events.