GICF Comedic Commissions
The news is out! Alan Bissett, Ashley Storrie and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, will create and stage work creatively responding to our collection as part of GICF, with scratch performances also taking place on ‘Gray Day’.
The news is out!
We are thrilled to be partnering with the good folks at Glasgow International Comedy Festival (GICF) on THREE NEW COMEDIC COMMISSIONS supported by Glasgow 850 Festival Fund for 2025.
The three comedians, Alan Bissett, Ashley Storrie and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd, will create and stage work creatively responding to our collection as part of GICF, with scratch performances also taking place on ‘Gray Day’.
Alan Bissett will create a scripted response, delving into the story of when Alasdair Gray met another Glasgow icon, Billy Connolly, at the launch for Gray’s debut novel,’Lanark’, inspired by a photo of the meeting in the Archive. Christopher Macarthur-Boyd will create a stand-up commission, focussing on stories around the characters in Alasdair’s life and work, whilst Ashley Storrie’s digital response will centre around a response to his striking murals dotted throughout the city.
The commission invites the comedians to produce new work that is meaningfully connected to The Alasdair Gray Archive, rooted in the fact that Alasdair Gray himself celebrated and paid tribute to his own influences throughout his career.
Our Custodian, Sorcha Dallas said: “We are thrilled to be working with Glasgow International Comedy Festival on three new comedic responses to our collection in a seminal year with Glasgow 850, Alasdair Gray’s 90th and our own 5th birthday. We can’t think of a better way to celebrate than commissioning Alan Bissett, Ashley Storrie and Christopher Macarthur-Boyd to respond to our collection and create new work that will bring Alasdair’s work to wider attention. Alasdair had a socially-focused practice and we champion this through working with others, most notably here with GICF and our joint ongoing commitment to diversifying the arts in Scotland.”
GICF Director Krista MacDonald said: “It’s hugely exciting for GICF to be able to offer comedic artists this unique comedy commission with The Alasdair Gray Archive supported by Glasgow 850 Festival Fund. To support comedic artists’ creations is our North Star so to offer this special opportunity means a lot. Alasdair Gray is so important to the city of Glasgow and its cultural scene – having influenced everything from literature, film, murals and art, and so we’re thrilled to present this new work to celebrate the Archive within the comedy world. It feels like a fitting way to mark Glasgow’s 850th birthday.”
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