EDFRINGE REVIEW: Elsa McTaggart: Capturing the Light (sruth-mara in association with An Lannatair)

Elsa McTaggart: Capturing the Light – ★★★★☆ – Peaceful

sruth-mara in association with An Lanntair
7-28 Aug
Review by Rebecca Mahar
 
Blending music, visual art, and storytelling, Elsa McTaggart: Capturing the Light is a reflective time-out from the hustle and bustle of the Fringe, welcoming audiences into a space of history, family, and light.

Promotional image. Pic: Ralph Tonge.
 
McTaggart, a multi-instrumental Scottish singer-songwriter with crofting roots, weaves her music through the story of her great-grandfather, the painter William McTaggert, another crofters’ child drawn to the arts. Though William had a thriving trade in portraiture, it was his obsession with the sea that drove him, and drew such comparisons as “what Constable did for landscape and Millet for peasant peoples, McTaggart is doing for the sea.”
 
Despite the short running time, McTaggart tells her story with unhurried cadence, from 1847 in Campbelltown where William was born, to his studies and success in Edinburgh, to his final days in Lasswade, and weaves in connections to her own life along the way. As the story unfolds, images of William’s paintings are projected behind McTaggart, and closeups from them onto a canvas off to one side, illustrating her words with visuals from her subject’s career.

The Storm, by William McTaggart. In the public domain.

Periodically these paintings are brought to life with animation by production designer Robbie Thomson, one particularly poignant such moment turning the frozen snapshot of William’s roiling sea into whitecaps crashing onto his shore and bursting into clouds of white seabirds. These visuals, underscored by McTaggart’s music, bring a richness and depth to the storytelling experience that blends all its art forms into cohesive moments.
 
Capturing the Light is a peaceful reprieve from the chaos the Fringe can bring, and an intriguing look into both the history of one of Scotland’s greatest visual artists, and one of its most prominent traditional musicians.
 
Running time: 45 minutes
Venue: Big at theSpaceTriplex (Venue 38), The Prince Philip Building, 19 Hill Place EH8 9DP
7-28 August 2026 (odd days 7-19; even days 20-28)
Time: 11:40am
Tickets: https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/elsa-mctaggart-capturing-the-light

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