Edinburgh festival fringe
theSpace @ Surgeons Hall, Stephenson Theatre
August1-9 2025
The show
Grief rewinds like a rented tape. In SCAPE, a girl summons her father through an old VHS, only to find his ghost waiting on the other side – alive. As home videos distort and childhood memories warp into something sinister, she must confront not only the spirit of her father, but the child-self she buried with him. A haunted reckoning unfolds in the static, where the past won’t stay dead. Anchored by real home videos from the creator's childhood, SCAPE uses these ethereal, textured recordings not only as a narrative core and aesthetic touchstone, but as a scene partner resurrecting forgotten characters and blurring the line between the living and the lost.
The team
SCAPE is written and directed by artist and Playwrights Horizons alumni Kyndall Sillanpaa. Known for her psychologically probing work and ability to immerse audiences in the liminal spaces of her plays, Sillanpaa previously directed adaptations of Vinegar Tom and Constellations, and created several short-form visual and performance art pieces with the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. She was acclaimed in 2020 for forming the only “bubble” artist residency in America during which she wrote and directed the new work Ghost Tape Number 10.
SCAPE stars Sophie Vincent, a Stella Adler alumni who has appeared in works including the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe production If I Only Could, which was given a 5 star review by local independent theatre publication The Indie-pendent. She also starred in The Radish, an official selection at the 2022 Berlin Indie Film Festival. This is her third collaboration with Sillanpaa.
Poster + Supporting assets by Lara Turner
Photos by Alex Smith