Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries: 17th – 19th September 2026

One Hundred Voices is an interactive, audio-guided installation, bringing creative insight into living in the care system. It serves as an artistic act of recognition and celebration of the one hundred testimonies recorded through the Caring Scotland project.

Step into a guided immersive experience which walks you through an intimate landscape of memory, resilience and imagination, drawn from the lives of one hundred voices from Scotland’s Care Experienced community. Fragments of stories unfold across sound, light, and space, as the audience journeys through a series of spaces.

This interactive installation transforms oral history into artistic encounters, and asks usto imagine together a more compassionate Scotland where every child is cherished,every voice amplified, every future honoured.

One Hundred Voices is part of Caring Scotland, a three-year listening project led by acclaimed playwright Nicola McCartney documenting and recording the lives of Care Experienced people in Scotland.

The One Hundred Voices installation opens at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on 12 August 2026 as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and the Scottish Parliament’s Festival of Politics 2026, before touring to Glasgow, Dumfries, Stranraer, Forfar and Glenrothes.

Ten Portraits, one of the other strands of the Caring Scotland project, will be available to view at all venues for the One Hundred Voices tour. Learn more about Ten Portraits here.

Lead Artist and Script Nicola McCartney

National Theatre of Scotland in partnership with Who Cares? Scotland and the National Library of Scotland, funded with an award from The National Lottery Heritage Fund

Supported by The Weir Charitable Trust and The Rayne Foundation

Event Information

Audiences will move through the installation in groups of up to 4 people. Each audience member will receive a headset, which will deliver the audio guide instructing you to move through the installation. Audiences will stand or walk for the duration of the installation. If you use reading glasses please bring these with you.

Space is limited within the installation, please do not bring any bags larger than an A4 sheet of paper with you.

You will be briefed by the Front of House staff on what to expect, how to use the headsets, and given instructions should you wish to leave the experience.

Your Arrival

Please arrive at least 10 minutes before your time slot and make yourself known to our Box Office team, please have your e-tickets or printed tickets ready.

Latecomers

Latecomers will not be permitted during this event. If you miss your time slot we will attempt to accommodate you at the next available time slot, however this will be subject to availability and may result in a long wait. There will be no-readmittance for attendees who leave the installation during the experience.

Content Warning

Recommended for ages 14+. Some stories contain references to sexual, physical and emotional harm as well as mental health and suicidal ideation.

Caring Scotland also has two other strands:  

Ten Portraits – a photographic exhibition by photographer Chris Scott. Chris is a Scottish photographer with a care-experienced background, whose style is contemporary with a dramatic and atmospheric feel. He will take individual portraiture photographs of ten of the personal story contributors during the project.

The Sound Collection - all stories gathered from the listening project will be deposited in a new Caring Scotland oral history audio archive, housed in perpetuity at the National Library of Scotland for public access as well as excerpts being made available online via the NTS website.