Interview: Hannah Lavery and Cora Bissett on ‘Mayday’, Fighting Back, and the Power of Art

A National Theatre of Scotland production, Mayday is for one night only, a curated and directed response to the political emergency which shall happen on the 1st of May at Edinburgh Central Hall from 7pm.

It includes an impressive range of Scottish artistry including: Sanjeev Kohli (Still Game); Tia Rey; Kathryn Joseph; Joan Clevillé and Kassichana Okene-Jameson of Scottish Dance Theatre; the Loud and Proud Choir; Shasta Hanif Ali; William Letford; Michael Mullen; an artistic response to Talat Yaqoob’s International Women’s Day Speech (2026) led by Janice Parker; Uma Nada-Rajah; and Dawn Sievewright performing It’s No a Wean’s Choice with a live band under MJ McCarthy’s musical direction.

We got the chance to speak to the curators, and two of Scotland’s leading artists and theatre-makers, Hannah Lavery and Cora Bissett about the evening.

Mayday has lots of different meanings, an emergency, a call for help. Where did the idea come from and why was it thought to be so immediate?

Hannah Lavery: It came out of an approach from Jackie (Wylie, Artistic Director of the National Theatre of Scotland). Her instinct was we’re living in a moment where we all feel we need to find a way of talking about this moment we’re living in, the permacrisis.

When me and Cora started talking about it, this idea, that it needs to be lots of voices, like multi-art form, not about offering answers or coming up with some sort of manifesto for the times – isn’t that what art does?

It’s about what are the best questions and how do we bring people together in a room, looking at the communities and artists from those communities that feel the most under threat with the kind of rhetoric that we’re politically and culturally living through.

We talk about community (and) often we’re talking about followers and online communities. Community is about being neighbours. Learning how to live together – that’s driving this night. We have to find ways of living with each other and respecting each other, because not everyone on that stage will agree with every other person on that stage, not everyone in the audience will.

So much of what happens is reducing people into other people’s arguments rather than letting people be who they are. There’s so much rhetoric that just wants us to shut each other down or reduce each other and dehumanize people. Art is the counter to that. Or it can be. Not always, but it can be. We can’t wait, we want to say something now.

“We are fighting for the rights of the people to be expressive and artistic”

Cora Bissett

Cora Bissett: Right now, there’s a lot of division, hate, very loud voices in the mainstream press telling us that all the other people in our communities are the problem.

I think just standing in a room with a huge diversity of people and going, we are not the problem in each other’s lives, there’s power in having a night together where we’re not feeling alone. Voices right now are shutting that down and trying to talk about being Scottish as one identity: it’s taken us backwards.

This night celebrates we are all Scotland. Scotland is beautiful, diverse and was becoming a very progressive place. There’s a big wave pushing back on that right now. This night is coming right back and saying, no, a small group of people do not get to decide that Scotland is.

The artists we chose have been, for a long time, talking and speaking about community, being better neighbours and it felt right to bring everyone together. We are fighting for the rights of the people to be expressive and artistic.

The focus is a fightback for those being marginalised, by including their art?

Lavery: Yeah. Who are the people that are most under threat? It’s about bringing those artists together, bringing work together, that speaks really powerfully to the kind of times we’re living in. We feel as artists that this is the moment we need to speak and create spaces for as many people to respond.

For me it’s the way in which they all speak to each other. I’m really excited about seeing all of these people together.

Bissett: I think the diversity of those voices was key. It’s a really broad spectrum of genre, style and taste. It goes from really punky music that’s going to kick off the evening to considered, delicate pieces. There’s power in holding space to stand together.

We’re also trying to celebrate the people that are on the ground. We filmed some of these women that are doing incredible things from their kitchen, having an effect out in the world, in the toughest of war zones. No one’s paying them or funding them, they’re just doing it.

The night is about taking inspiration from these small acts that are impactful.

What can people look forward to?

Lavery: A real celebration of Scottish culture. We’ve tried to be very broad, not dictating a very particular style of the night. There is something for everybody. 

Bissett: We’ve got incredible, leading light poets, Michael Mullen, Billy Letford, Shasta Hanif Ali, alongside playwrights, and punk bands.

There’s a beautiful thing Hannah’s working on, which is a woman, an activist speech and a dancer’s response to that using other women from the community. Kathryn Joseph, wonderful singer, songwriter, a great, iconic Scottish talent, does work a lot with dancers on her videos and they’re always absolutely exquisite.

I know she’s never worked with a live dancer, so we’re going to be working with Kassichana Okene-Jameson up at Scottish Dance Theatre, who’s going to be responding to Kathryn’s music.

I feel Kathryn’s lyrics, they’re always fighting against a sort of oppressive power. We’re going to get in the room and play with this wonderful dancer from Scottish Dance Theatre live with beautiful visuals from Lucas Chi-Peng Kao. Lucas will be creating visuals for a lot of the pieces throughout the night. I think they really encapsulate that sense that Scottishness is so varied, broad and beautifully diverse. 

Did you find artists open to collaborations?

Bissett: People have been so open. It’s been lovely to approach artists and go how do you feel about working with this person and it’s really nice to say let’s run with it. I’ve paired up Tia Rey the trans Arab Glaswegian comic, with the legendary Johnny McKnight who’s going to help them work on the structure of their piece.

That’s been beautiful seeing them banter together and someone at a much earlier stage in their career getting the experience of someone like Johnny – that’s been fun.

What gets left after the lights dim on the 1st? 

Lavery: The legacy of a piece of art is what people take away and what they do with it next – that’s yet to be seen. If the audience leaves feeling connected to some of the work that begins conversations, I hope it shows the power of bringing people together and bringing artists in a room: a spark for something rather than a complete answer.

Bissett: That goes for the people gathered there, but also for the artists.

Often within our art sector, there can be divisions because everyone’s fighting for funding, space, coverage, and to bring all of these different forms together, working with each other, sharing stages together, that is a microcosm of what we want in our society. We’ve got to make space for each other. A micro of the macro that we want to see in our country at large: room for us all. 

It’s in the Central Halls in Edinburgh and Pay What You Can? 

Bissett: Yeah, Central Halls in Tollcross. The doors open at half six, starts at seven a little break halfway through, finished well before the last bus. We’ve got the wonderful Lighthouse Books, a pop-up bar. It’s really diverse, fast pace, lot of stuff to enjoy – sit down, take time to see how all these pieces talk to each other and flow and you’ll maybe be surprised.

Bring some pennies to the bookshop and enjoy yourself. Where else would you want to be?

Mayday takes place on Friday 1st of May, at Tollcross Central Hall, Edinburgh

Photo credit: Peter Dibdin